As a part of this project, student artists investigated drawing as means to create a GIF, or graphics interchange format, animation. In support of their exploration, the students were shown the work of William Kentridge and BLU in understanding artistic practices that speak to transformation, movement, and aftermath through

animated drawing.

​

The animated GIFs were constructed by photographing a single drawing, making erasures and changes, and then photographing it again, giving each change to the drawing a new photograph.The final animations will exist as GIF image files, or a compilation of all the photographs throughout the drawing process composed into one cohesive file that will play continuously.

​

To begin the project, the students were provided with a photograph of themselves taken on the first day of class. In creating the base, or starting, image for their animated GIF, the students used the technique of image transfer to trace a contour self-portrait from the photograph. From the self-portraits, the students were invited to transform their drawings by incorporating various aspects of self, speaking to traces of other people or things evident within themselves. The students deconstructed their own image in considering visual aspects of transformation, hybridity, and morphing.

​

​