Our Inner Superheros

This was an assignment designed as a submission for the newly minted Greater Vancouver Art Contest.  This contest was developed and initiated by a grade 11 student in North Vancouver - amazing. The original theme of the contest was "Find Your Inner Superhero".  As an unabashed comic nerd, and excited about the opportunity for my students, I jumped at the chance to participate.  They quickly changed the theme to something a lot more inclusive - basically "do whatever you want".  AWWW MAN!  I thought the first theme was far more interesting and we had already started the project so we stuck with it.  I also wanted this to be a very "loose" project, giving the kids a lot of creative freedom.  That and the tight deadline (which I usually abhor) contributed to a pretty big swing in the success and completed-ness of the projects:)

The other thing about this project that was interesting was that it demanded that students think in metaphor for their image development.  Basically students needed to choose a superpower and superhero identity that represented something intrinsic and important about their personality.  Most grade 9's aren't great at that type of critical thinking yet!  Like herding cats with most of them!

Anyway - pretty successful overall I think.  The first image is the first page of the assignment sheet I gave them.  The second sheet (not shown) is a bunch of brainstorming exercises to help them with idea development.  A selection of student work follows.

 Jessica Chan

"Sabiya, a resident of an Arabian slum is, like me, verry affected emotionlly by the weather.  From a young age she has had the gods of the eastern winds on her side.  One day the authoities capture her pickpocket father and her rage releases her full power.  This is her story.  This is Breeze."

Beautiful Job

Celia Coe

"My superhero has the power of charm singing.  When she sings everyone becomes happy and starts dancing.  She uses her power to settle big fights or a war.  Everyone forgets their anger and does what she is singing about.  I created this superhero because I like singing and listening to music and I wish people would be happy when they hear me sing"

I love the bulldog sidekick!

Qi-Feng Lin

"My superhero can be very quiet because some people say that I am quiet"

I'm dying to know what the "noisy problem" is! 

Marcus Cheng

This superhero has a pair of eyes that can see through people' minds.  He can predict all of the moves his enemies are going to use.  He is nearly invincible because he always knows his enemies plans.  This superpower is kind of related to me because I always want to read people's minds.  Everybody, including myself, always hide our real self deep inside.  We try to pretend to be another person in order to hide our real character.  I want to have this superpower so I can see what people are really like.

Great foreshortening

Gurneet Locham

"My inner supero's name is The Thrasher.  My comic cover is the first of a series where she discovers her powers.  When she runs fast she becomes a tornado.  Anger makes her into fire.  She has special high-tech gadgets and a dog-scientist who is her friend.  The story is about what she will do with her new powers which is why the series is called " the Sudden Eclipse".  Her Powers reflect my personality because when I do things fast I mess-up (tornado) and I have really bad temper tantrums (anger=fire)"

Whats up with the dog side-kicks?

Marina Luro

"My superhero is called "Arrow" because of the obvious reason that she uses a bow and arrow.  She also has the power to travel through time.  So she travels through time killing "terrors".  I chose this for my superhero because I do archery and I tend to zone-out and "go to other places".

I love the Dali clocks.  I love the octopus mouthed "terror".  I love how dizzy this drawing makes me.

Connor Miller

" The Spark shows my creative spark and flare which I bring to everything I do"

Check out the great title design - amazing!

Andy Lan

" My Superheros name is Honest Basketball Boy because I want to be an honest man"

  Oh - and he really likes basketball.  Notice his basketball shaped space ship in the bottom right-hand corner - awesome.

Samuel Lin

"Mr. Goodguy is my inner superhero.  He is kind and honest... That is the kind of man I want to grow up to be"

Awesome drawing.

Jacki Yu

uh-oh looks like Mr.  Goodguy is in serious trouble! 

 I asked Jackie how a guy names Dr. Evil represented the "inner you".  He just grinned.