How These Students of Sacred Hearts College Conveyed Beautiful Tales Through Their Comic Books
- 23 Jul 2016
- Fathima AbdulKader
- Features
Sacred Hearts College is one institution that has done this city proud again and again as it is a college that keeps changing with times and encourages students to be at the helm of their chosen field of study. The students of SH College of Communication doing their first and second years BA in Animation and Graphics set off on a wholly new journey after they took part in a month long workshop by Studio Kokaachi. The classes were conducted in a hands-on format and the students put in their heart and soul to bring out a collection of unique and striking comics and picture books. It wasn’t a regular class where the teachers stood in front of the students and took lectures.
Initially the students were asked to come up with stories that they would like to share with the world, and the folks at Studio Kokaachi helped them flesh out their stories further. The next step was to start with the character sketches, which were put up on pin up board inside the classes so that everyone could have a look at the character sketches. Soon they started doing scene breakdowns of the story and finally started doing the rough drawings of scenes and the final sketches and colouring. Although the process had many steps in between, the teachers were always amongst the students, getting their feedbacks and so on.
Most of the students didn’t have exposure to the medium of comics but once they saw their works taking shape the students grew more excited. When they did a test print of the comics done by one of the students themselves, everyone grew more eager about seeing their visions realized in the comic book form.
Sona Jayachandran, one of the students who took part in the workshop and created the comic titled Memonto Mori along with Chippi Devassy said, “Even though I was interested in Comics and read few earlier, I wasn't aware of the effort that people put into it. While doing this comic, I could understand the hard work behind doing such a book. The review I got from the people who went through my story was really enlightening. I got a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction for being able to participate in this workshop.”
The students were provided all the support they needed to express their own ideas and stories by Tina and Pratheek of Studio Kokachi. According to Muhammed Aflal, who created the picture book Milkweed An Adventurous Journey, “This is the first picture book I ever did. While all the others selected comics, I chose picture book. Pratheek and Tina helped me a lot in fleshing out the story. This is a story grandmothers used to tell in my village...the story of Appoppanthaadi. I haven't read many comics or picture books before this workshop. But this workshop has opened me up to reading more comics. “
The students were always provided with ample materials for research and inspiration. If you ask Jacob John, who created 13 along with Mohammed Farhan, he will say “From this workshop I learned the benefits of working as a team. We learned to cover our weaknesses by using our collaborative efforts. Primarily Japanese Manga (Kubo Tite's Bleach to name one) with a mix of DC comics inspired me in doing this comic.”
What initially started off as a class for credit to these students, grew to be something much more about passion and expression in a very short time. The workshop ended with a two day exhibition of the 21 comics created by the students during the period of the workshop at their college. Because of the great response to this workshop, the college is planning to conduct similar workshops to supplement their curriculum.
You can see some more images of the works of the students in the following gallery:
