Visual Verse Volley – Gets Moving (Via Animation)

For a few weeks now my Building Learning Communities Conference buddy (that’s Alan November’s cool conference in Boston in July) Erin Olson ( @eolsonteacher )and I have been doing a little virtual volley project we are calling “Visual Verse”. We both love to write poetry and to sketch, but I do gravitate to the latter of late and she to the former. Each Sunday she sends me – all the way from Iowa and by way of the magic that is Twitter- a piece of poetic verse. My challenge is to illustrate it in some way.

We post the results (usually late Sunday evening) on our respective Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN, and Instagram accounts, as well as this designated Tumblr:

http://visualversevolley.tumblr.com/

The key for me is to go with the gut…I tend to draw what I initially or instinctively feel upon the first read-through.

Some have been quite literal interpretations, and some more metaphorical. Some detailed sketches, others more abstract. I try to change it up.

Recently, I decided to animate the last two weeks’ poems.

I did this using Paper by 53 – my go-to drawing app on my iphone (I have a 5 btw so it is a very small canvas), and Apple Keynote. I build a sort of stopmotion in Keynote then export to Quicktime and add sound effects or music.

“Words” is pretty old school and simple- but it’s meant to be

“With You, We Are…” (Paris) was a lot more complex and more like what I’ve been doing with some other projects. But in the aftermath of the attacks, I think it was worth it.

#visualverse #sketching #erinolson #poetry #twitter #amyburvall