Narrative Art – A form of art that tells a story

To remember what narrative art is, recall the following mnemonic:

Her long, narrow installation told the story of native people through art (narrative art) that everyone could understand. It was such an interesting story.

Narrative art is a hugely broad subject, as long as the image tells a story, it is narrative art. The composition can either be a moment in an ongoing story or as a sequence of events unfolding over time. The medium and style of art can be anything, from realism to surrealism and everything in between.

The Bayeux Tapestry is one of the most famous examples of narrative art. It is a massive, 224.3 ft long and tells the story of the events leading up to William, Duke of Normandy's challenge to Harold II, King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (Doubting Thomas). According to the Bible, Thomas the Apostle said "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger into his side, I will not believe it". Here Caravaggio shows masterful technique in portraying this story. Using a real fisherman and a real 32 year old man to represent Jesus. 

Narrative Art Project

Your narrative art doesn't have to be an epic tale, it could show a simple scene of every day life. In fact, some of the best narrative art pieces show every day people in every day situations. Think about the story you want to tell. Maybe something as simple as your journey to school this morning, maybe you shared a joke with your friends. Or, you could create a character and a scenario for them, or maybe even redraw a scene from your favourite movie!

Draw some rough boxes on a piece of paper and sketch out some scenes of an event in your life.

Here we have experimented with a story of how our artist wants to tell her story of how she fell off her horse this morning:

Once you've chosen the best composition to display your story, sketch the scene in more detail onto a larger piece of plain paper.

Finish your picture in your chosen medium. 

Narrative art.