Author: Rebecca

Thursday 22nd March Sketch

March 22nd

The first thing that drew me to this image was just how funky it is. Flipping into a pool is definitely something that I would do, and I really liked how the image is mid-action. I initially just saw the boy flipping in the foreground, but as I spent time sketching it, I started to notice the finer details in the background, like the sun-loungers, and all of the bricks in the building. I think that it is extraordinary that this image was taken with cheap equipment on the fly. I have seen this type of shot attempted multiple times using proper equipment, and with it being staged, but it never came out as good as this.

What’s in my bag?

My Bag

  • Laptop – just pretty essential in most of my classes.
  • Planner – I rely on this a lot to plan out my semester. I like to have a calendar on my phone and a physical copy in case I lose either one.
  • Pencil Case – as you do.
  • Folder – just for my class handouts and/ or printed homework to hand in
  • A4 narrow lined paper – I can’t get used to writing on American sized paper, so I am still using English paper for now.
  • Umbrella – no one likes being soggy.
  • Coloured Fine liners – I like to add colour to my notes as I go along to make them slightly easier to work from later.
  • Extra Gum – for the off-chance that the DUC adds too much flavour.
  • Pencil Lead – resourceful.
  • Glue – to avoid sticky situations.
  • Calculator – I take a lot of number-orientated classes.
  • Wallet – I like to pretend that I have money to spend.
  • Pens – college essential.
  • Pencils – pretty standard.
  • Sharpie – just in case.
  • Scissors – they come in handy more than you think.
  • Glasses – Specy Becky has got to be able to see sometimes.
  • Sunglasses – its getting bright outside.
  • 2 broken protractors – just in case I ever want a disjointed curve, or two.
  • 3 rulers – together, they just about cover the entire length of a page.
  • Pastel highlighters – so so much nicer and easier to see than normal highlighters.
  • Rubber. Tipp-ex – for the many mistakes I make.
  • Sharpener – mostly for art.
  • Vaseline – dry lips are no fun.
  • Pads and tampons – because ya know – shit happens. Period.
  • B-School nametag – I need it most days for my classes so it just sort of chills in my bag now.

With most tasks I find the reflection the quick and easy part, and the actual creative process to be more time consuming and complicated, however, this was the reverse for this particular Sunday sketch. I found it very quick to just empty my bag and arrange my gear on the table, however, actually thinking about how these items could represent me, and the possible reasons for me carrying them around, took much longer.

In terms of how representative this is of me as a person, I would say it is pretty limited. Although my particular arrangement of items might speak about my personality, or the items that I choose to carry around may represent me in some way, I feel like this isn’t a particularly holistic representation of me. For example, I really enjoy sports, but there is no allusion to this at all from the items that I have in my bag. Furthermore, I have realized that I carry around a couple of pointless items, however, in general, I would say that I am quite a practical and organized person.

I didn’t have a particular ending arrangement in mind when I began to lay my things on the table, but I think my finished visual snapshot looks okay. I was constrained by the shape and size of the table, but I would say that I use the space that I had well. I also chose to empty my pencil case and arrange all of my pens/ pencils nicely. I also chose to put my highlighters in colour order. I’m not entirely sure why I did this, but I think it make the whole snapshot more aesthetically pleasing.

I would say that representing myself in a catalog of stuff is a form of expression, however, I am not sure if I would define it as a type of writing. It is certainly not writing as we would traditionally perceive it, as there is no physical writing on paper, or digital text, however, this is still a method of communication and would complement speech or spoken language very well. For this reason, I think I would conclude that it is a type of writing.

Tag: sk6

Esca-pea

Esca-pea 1

Esca-pea 2When trying to come up with an idea for my triptych comic, it took me ages to think of something that I was happy with. I had lots of ideas for three-panel narratives, however, it took me a while before I was happy with the final pun. My mother is absolutely crazy with her sayings, and because she visited last weekend, some of her mad lines are still stuck in my head. I think that she probably influenced this triptych a lot. Esca-pea is definitely something that she would say at the dinner table!

Once I had decided on the narrative, I found it quite easy to draw the images. I did a couple of rough sketches before, just so I had an idea of the angles and how I would make it work, but the images are pretty simple. I almost didn’t add colour to my drawings, however, I am glad that I did because I think the second version of my triptych is much brighter and more fun than the second.

Crafting this sort of comic strip was different from other writing I’ve done this semester just because it was so short. For example, my literacy narrative draft was over 1000 words – this has 5 words in it. The triptych is also different because the words do not make sense without the accompanying images. If it was just the text alone, no one would understand the joke, however, if I hadn’t have included a picture of me falling asleep reading a comic in my literacy narrative, the words would still have made sense.

Overall, I enjoyed the limitations of only having three images because it really made me think about the value of everything that I included. I would find it hard to repeat this task again and again though as I think I would run out of ideas.

and I was not ashamed.

I couldn’t stop my fantasies,

I loved a terrible thing,

and I was not ashamed.

Sketch 4

As expected, I found this assignment very strange to begin with. The idea of taking words out of a cohesive sentence to create a completely new meaning was really hard for me. I also read the entire original page to begin with, and I think this made the task harder because it was more difficult to isolate the individual words once I had a story associated with them.

I finally decided on the words that I did because they form a twisted, but comprehensible sentence. Although there was a lot of space to be creative, I was also limited by the layout of the page. For example, some of my original plans did not work because the words jumped all over the page and it was impossible to follow. Although my poem is quite basic, I find it quite powerful, and logical to follow.

After deciding on my words, I also found it hard to come up with a picture that complemented the meaning of my new poem. In the end, I decided to focus my picture on the final line of the poem “I will not be ashamed.” and tried to capture someone standing tall and proud. I used watercolor paint to create the visual. I haven’t really worked with any paints before, so this was a new skill for me, but I really liked it.  I can’t explain why I chose the colors that I did, or why I chose to splatter the paint. it just looked bare until I added more color, and so I just kept experimenting until I was happy.

Overall, this was a challenging, but enjoyable task.

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