Learning to Make, Making to Learn Comics Creation: The Intrinsic Educational Qualities Contained within Comics and their formation

This thesis is a heuristic self-study investigating the educational qualities contained within comics and their formation, demonstrating how and what I learned by participating in their creation, the nature of my learning in these instances, and the implications of this for me as an art educator. The research explores comics within the contexts of creation, learning, tacit knowledge, mental health and flow states. By creating comics during immersive periods of between 24 and 48 hours, (reflecting my own creative process,) I apply my experiences to further my learning. I then develop and modify my approach to improve my creative process, adding to the pedagogical experience of comics creation. This subsequently assists the development of a deeper understanding of the making and creative process. Examining my experiences throughout the learning process invariably related to the fact that I suffer from depression; Through the creation of comics and my thesis, my private struggle with depression becomes public. This realization in turn leads me to transformative theory, an approach which through critical reflection and self-examination transforms how one makes meaning. As a result of process and created circumstance I also experience flow states and review these as positive optimal experiences, resulting in high performance. Considering the pedagogical potential of my experience I explore the concept of art as a research tool, to the point of illustrating my thesis.