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How to Create & Submit Your Best (Engage) Art | eCourse • TOC • Page 2
Engage Art eCourse Module #1
On Your Mark 1.1. What is Engage Art?
1.2. What is a Plot? Topic? Theme?
1.3. Your Turn
Module #2 Topic/Theme/Plot
2.1. Engage Art’s Topic: The Spiritual Battle
2.2. Topic Exploration
2.3. Theme Exploration
2.4. Theme Mind Maps
2.5. Choosing & Refining Your Theme
2.6. From Theme to Plot
2.7. Setting/Exposition
2.8. Characters
Module #3 Understanding Art
3.1. Revisit the Basics
3.2. Art Thinking
3.3. Why Build Your Art Thinking Muscles?
Addenda
Module #4 Skills, Supports &
Surprises4.1. Build Your Art Skills
4.2. Practice Smart
4.3. Stand on the Shoulders of Greatness
4.4. Create a “Right Now” Art Space
4.5. Experiment
4.6. Collaborate
4.7. Feedback
Module #5 Reflect & Write
5.1. Who Are You Writing For?
5.2. Thinking About Your Art
5.3. Writing About Your Art
5.4. Writing About Yourself & Your Team
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How to Create & Submit Your Best (Engage) Art | eCourse • TOC • Page 3
A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1749-1832 Statesman and greatest German literary figure of the modern era. Poet, novelist, playwright, scientist, theatre director, critic, amateur visual artist. He also wrote, “The man who sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.”
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Table of ContentsModule #6
Submit!6.1. Before You Submit
6.2. Top 10 Tips for Engage Art Submissions
6.3. Submission Walk Through
Module #7 Marketing & Promotion
7.1. Art Business Skills
7.2. Keeping Track
7.3. Reclaim Your Time
7.4. Copyright—A Business Essential for Artists
7.5. Marketing & Promotion Strategies
7.6. Ways for Novice & Emerging to Engage with Audiences
7.7. Ways for Mid-Level & Established Artists to Expand Their Earning Power
7.8. Your Values and Goals Should Power Your Life
7.9. How Analog Artists Can Thrive in a Digital World
7.10. Pricing Your Artwork
7.11. Basic Multi-Purpose Marketing Materials
7.12. Style
7.13. It’s a Plan!
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How to Create & Submit Your Best (Engage) Art | eCourse • Intro • Page 4
Introduction
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Introduction
Life is an adventure, and your life
is your adventure.
This workbook is meant to help
you along your journey as a
creative being.
• You can use it to figure out how to begin to create things.
• You can use it to further your life and career as an artist.
• You can use it just for fun.• You can use it to help you
create a business from the things you make.
It is specifically designed to
help you create the best visual
artwork, music video, film, or
performing arts piece that you
can for the Engage Art Contest.
We hope it benefits you, and we
hope you win!
Tips: • Print out this workbook if you like to
jot in the margins, fill in the blanks, etc. When you’re in the thick of making your amazing art, it might help to be able to go back and review your thought process. When you are ready to submit to the Engage Art Contest, you will definitely want to refer to and pull from the things you have written for the exercises in this workbook.
• This workbook is not meant to be completed all at once. Work through it at your own pace and in your own time. Take weeks or months, if you’d like. Watch movies. Go to museums. Live a life worth making art about. Rinse and repeat as needed.
• Skim each section before you start following the links or doing the exercises. That way, you know where you’re heading.
• You can work on Module 3 at any time. Really. Any time. During this process, and during your entire life. Repeatedly.
• Seriously consider collaborating with others on this project. A dancer will probably need a videographer, for instance; a filmmaker may need actors and musicians, etc. Be open to the talents and ideas of others.
• Have fun! After all, this is your very own amazing, choose-your-own art-venture!
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How to Create & Submit Your Best (Engage) Art | eCourse • Module 1 • Page 6
On Your Mark
Go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable.
Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake.
Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem.
Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.~ Kurt Vonnegut Veteran, Prisoner of War, Bestselling Author
Module #1
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How to Create & Submit Your Best (Engage) Art | eCourse • Module 1 • Page 8
of anyone who is interested, into
ministries and classrooms, into
public and private spaces.
Engage Art is a lot of different things at once.
First of all, it’s FREE. Each Entrant
(that’s you!) can submit one artwork
in each category.
It’s also:
• An art competition for original
performing and visual arts with
more than $100,000 in prizes.
• Exposure opportunities, whether
you win or not.
• Encouragement and growth
opportunities for artists (hobbyist
to pro) in both their personal and
professional lives.
• A program to integrate visual
and performing arts into the lives
1.1. What is Engage Art?
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• A whisper in the ear to remind us
that we are all creative beings.
We are happier and more fulfilled
when we have creative outlets
in our lives. Engage Art is one of
those outlets.
• A program to promote creative
people to new audiences in a
variety of ways.
• A reintroduction of the church to
artists. Do you know how many
historically famous artists used
scripture to inspire their work?
Why wouldn’t you do the same?
• A reintroduction of artists to
the church. Do you know how
Visit EngageArt.org• for more information about the Engage Art Contest.
• to enter your submission to the contest.
• to sign up for updates on the contest.
• to sign up to get free “art infusions”—curated collections of the submissions.
valuable visual imagery can be
to hold people’s attention? To get
them to remember something?
To get them to listen to unfamiliar
ideas, or to familiar concepts in
a new way? If you don’t, try this:
Ask the next 10 people you see
between the ages of 8 and 28 this
question:
“Watched any great videos lately?”
Expect an immediate, long-winded
answer. Then ask,
“What was the sermon about this week?”
Expect a blank stare. Get the
“picture?”
Curious? Awesome!
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1.2. What is a Plot? Topic? Theme?
Understanding what a theme is and
how it is based on a broader topic
is key to your success in the Engage
Art Contest.
The concept and production of your
submission should stem from this
“theme work.” It doesn’t matter if
you are choreographing a dance,
sculpting, painting, creating a
concept film, or making music—for
this contest, the theme is where you
begin.
In the future, you may not start with
a theme when you begin a creative
project. Still, all your original work will
benefit from thinking deeply about
how the theme relates to other parts
of your art-making.
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Plot
At some point, you probably
watched or read a story and talked
about it. You probably talked about
what happens in the story. This is
the plot:
• A young boy is ripped from his family and trained in a brutal Battle School on the chance he will become the leader to save humanity from alien invaders. (Ender’s Game)
• An unlikely ground dweller discovers that only his ring can save Middle Earth from the Dark Lord. (The Lord of the Rings)
• A Russian submarine captain runs from the Soviet navy in a quest to deliver the latest Soviet sub to the Americans. (The Hunt for Red October)
• A hotshot banker is sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit and strikes up an unlikely friendship. (Shawshank Redemption)
A story is a way to say something that can’t be said any other way . . . You tell a story because a statement would be inadequate.~ Mary Flannery O’Connor
1925-1964, American Novelist & Short Story Writer, usually about the rural American South. Won the American Book Award for Fiction.
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Topic & Theme
Then the conversation may have
turned to the questions “What does
it mean?” and “Why does it matter?”
That’s when you were talking about
the theme. When you hear an
author, playwright, director, etc.,
talk about a specific work and they
say, “I had something I wanted to
say about [whatever the topic is],”
they’re talking about theme, too.
The theme is seldom stated outright,
and it is often an opinion or a way of
looking at the topic. As a consumer
of culture, you have to figure it out,
and not everyone will come to the
same conclusion.
• Judgment is not justice. The Scarlet Letter Cry Freedom To Kill a Mockingbird Hunchback of Notre Dame
Someone might have asked, “What
is this story really about?” This is the
topic or subject. The answers could
be almost anything:
• Impossible Choices Sophie’s Choice Old Yeller The Little Mermaid Matrix Reloaded
• Dysfunctional Families Matilda Hamlet Gone Girl Wuthering Heights
• Annihilation/The End of the World Legion Jumanji War of the Worlds Terminator
• Beating the Odds Bad News Bears I Am Malala I Know Why the Rudy Caged Bird Sings
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Want to go deeper?Spirituality and religion are a
prominent place where many
people explore deeper meaning.
Many stories in popular culture
are based on the same topics and
themes explored in church. Explore
this link to find popular movies
based on themes found in Christian
liturgy:
http://www.textweek.com
On the next four pages, we
outline the plot, topic, and themes
for various works of art. Feel free
to record your own thoughts in
the right-hand column. Then
there are pages for YOU to
analyze artworks of your choice.
• Love is an eternal truth . . . and also very complicated.
Twilight Angela’s Ashes Shrek Life is Beautiful
• Good and evil exist at the same time, in the same place, and sometimes in the same person.
Harry Potter A Few Good Men The Devil’s The Lion, The
Advocate Witch and the Wardrobe
• People reveal who they are through their deceptions.
Liar, Liar Jakob the Liar Huckleberry Heart of Finn Darkness
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Tortoise & the Hare | fableWhat is the PLOT of the story?
What is the TOPIC of the story?
What are the THEMES of the story?
EXAMPLE
Your Notes:
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Your Notes: Your Notes:
Romeo & Juliet | play/movieWhat is the PLOT of the story?
What is the TOPIC of the story?
What are the THEMES of the story?
EXAMPLE
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Your Notes:
Turn! Turn! Turn! | songWhat is the PLOT of the song?
What is the TOPIC of the song?
What are the THEMES of the song?
EXAMPLE
Your Notes:
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Your Notes:
Girl I Left Behind Me | painting
What is the PLOT of the artwork?
What is the SUBJECT of the artwork?
What are the THEMES of the artwork?
View a 3 minute talk about “The Girl I Left Behind Me” by Eastman Johnson.
EXAMPLE
Your Notes:
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1.3. Your Turn
Ready to try? Over the next several
pages, there are worksheets for you
to consider a story, a song, and a
visual artwork of your choosing and
to identify the:
• plot
• topic
• theme
Then you can think about whether
the title of the work gives you any
more insight into the theme. There
is space for you to consider why this
particular artwork is compelling for
you.
You can use these worksheets for
other sorts of artworks, and you can
fill them out for as many artworks as
you want. This work of understanding
more deeply how artworks impact
you, what they are saying, and how
they are saying it will help you as
you consider creating your own
entry for the contest.
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Plot/Topic/Theme—Story
What is the PLOT?
What is the TOPIC?
What are the THEMES? Are they stated outright or implied?
Think of a story that has really had an impact on you. It might be one you remember vividly, even though you read or saw or heard it many years ago. It might be a story where you identified with the main character or one that spoke to you profoundly because of when or where you experienced it. Explore the plot, topic, and theme of the story below. Reuse this page to explore as many stories as you would like.
What is the TITLE? Does the title illuminate the topic or theme further? If so, how? Why is this story so compelling?
YOUR TURN!
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Lyrics/Topic/Theme—Song
What is the PLOT — whether it is explored through music or lyrics?
What is the TOPIC?
What are the THEMES? Are they stated outright or implied?
Think of a song that has really had an impact on you. It might be one you remember vividly, even though you played or heard it many years ago. It might be a song where you identified with the singer or the lyrics or one that spoke to you profoundly because of when or where or with whom you experienced it. Explore the plot, topic, and theme of the song below. You can do this for as many songs as you would like.
What is the TITLE? Does the title illuminate the topic or theme further? If so, how? Why is this song so compelling?
YOUR TURN!
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Plot/Topic/Theme—Visual Art
What is the PLOT?
What is the TOPIC?
What are the THEMES? Are they stated outright or implied?
Think of a piece of visual art—painting, sculpture, mural, fiber art, etc.—that has really had an impact on you. It might be one you remember vividly, even though you saw it many years ago. It might be a piece where you were struck with the form or the color or the feeling you got when you looked at it. Maybe it spoke to you profoundly because of who you were with. Explore the plot, topic, and theme of the artwork below.
What is the TITLE? Does the title illuminate the topic or theme further? If so, how? Why is this artwork so compelling?
YOUR TURN!