Do you know what a wisdom tale is? It could be a Fable, Tall Tale, Legend, Myth, etc. but it has to have a moral. These morals relate to our everyday life and reflect on our day. During our Language Arts we took four months to discover the arts of wisdom tales and create a comic about one. We started out by learning about the history of stories and types of stories. Afterwards we read around twenty wisdom tales from around the globe and learned the summary and moral from each one.

Afterwards we met with visual storyteller and artist Brittain Peck came in and talked to us about strategies, tips and what he had done as an artist. We learned that simple shapes such as circles and squares tell a whole lot especially with color. We also learned that he liked using three boxes and three rows when he was making comics. I also learned that the awesome mural in Happy and Hale in Durham is done by him.

Credit: Brittain peck website

Afterwards we were told to pick a wisdom tale and make a comic about it. I chose The Red and Blue Coat, a tale from a tale from Africa. I chose this one because a lot in our daily life we only think about ourselves and do not realize that we may be hurting someone else. This tale really speaks out to me about this and I like how they used the example of the red and blue colored coat.

The Red and Blue Coat is a tale about best friends who live next to one another. One day a trickster from the town decided to test their friendship. He walked between their houses with a coat that had two sides, a red one and a blue one so each friend could only see one side. After the man left the friends started to bicker about what color the coat was. The man came back later and told them that the coat was two colors and they had not seen the other side. The moral of this story is that there are always two sides to one story and sometimes you do not see the other side.

During the process of making our comic I used Sketchbook and Comic Life 3 to create and design my comic.

Tips for Sketchbook

• Tracing pictures from the web makes your drawing less messy.

• Layers help you keep your old drawing and add your new drawing to it.

• Using a stylist or apple pencil helps when drawing on the screen.

Tips for Comic Life 3

• Using a blank canvas and then adding your own style makes it more you.

• If you are printing it out make sure to leave space between the boxes and edge of the paper.

• You are able to make the boxes bigger and smaller as long as there is no picture already in it.

I encourage you to read some wisdom tales and I propose you will find a moral that relates to your life. I also encourage you to try to make a comic using Sketchbook and Comic Life 3 because it may start out hard but in the end you will be really proud of yourself.