Every Brushstroke Tells a Story: Illustration as Narrative

Year Levels Prep - Year 6

Serena Geddes is an illustrator whose work is instantly recognisable, warm, expressive, and full of the kind of small details that reward a second look. Her session gives students an inside view of the illustrator's process: from rough sketches and character studies to the decisions that shape a finished book. This session has a particular gift for younger students who aren't yet confident as writers but discover, sometimes for the first time, that visual storytelling is storytelling too.

If you or one of your students would like to ask Karen a questions please contact yabba.online@yabba.org.au. 

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Building the Vote, Classroom Connection

  • Create 'book portrait' displays, artistic student responses to each YABBA title, displayed around the classroom.
  • Students who've now read all or most of the shortlist write a ranked list with one-sentence justifications for each ranking.
  • Six weeks to ceremony, discuss: what would need to change your mind about your top choice?
  • Begin preparing for voting day, discuss how the official YABBA voting process works and when students will cast their votes.

Classroom Activities

Years Foundation–2

  • Watch Serena demonstrate a quick character sketch. Try drawing your own character in three different emotions.
  • Sketchbook challenge: Spend five minutes drawing what you can see right now. Then draw the same scene as if it were in a children's book; what changes?
  • Choose a YABBA book and 'become' the illustrator for one new scene that doesn't appear in the book.
  • Class gallery walk: display all character sketches and give each a sticky note compliment from a classmate.

Years 3–6

  • Illustration analysis: choose a double-page spread from a shortlisted book. Label the composition choices: foreground, background, focal point, and colour palette.
  • Create a character design sheet for a character from a YABBA title, front view, side view, in action, in a quiet moment.
  • Write the brief: imagine you're an author hiring an illustrator. Write a one-page brief describing exactly the visual style you want for your story.
  • Compare the illustration style of two shortlisted books. Which one better serves the story it's illustrating?

 

Victorian Curriculum Links
  • Reading and Viewing: Interpreting visual texts and their aesthetic choices (Levels 1–6)
  • Writing: Creating multimodal and visual texts for the audience (Levels 1–6)
  • Speaking and Listening: Describing, explaining, and responding to visual work (Levels 1–6
FISO 2.0 Alignment
  • Excellence in Teaching and Learning: Visual literacy as a form of critical and creative thinking
  • Community Engagement in Learning: Student work shared and celebrated in the classroom learning community