Author: Nate

What’s in my bag?

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  • 5 folders
  • Water bottle
  • Laptop
  • Spare headphones
  • Pen and pencil
  • 5 subject notebook
  • Tissues
  • Wallet
  • Portable charger
  • Basic med-kit
  • Gum

I’ve always preferred to carry less but I also like being prepared for most things. I feel like my backpack reflects this appropriately. I only carry around my laptop, some folders for my classes so things don’t get too messy, a notebook and a pen and a pencil. Those are what I would consider my school essentials. I also have my non-school essentials; although I usually walk around with headphones on, I always carry a spare in case somethings happens to mine. I prefer having gum, it helps me to focus, and a portable charger just in case I don’t have a chance to charge my phone. Trying to create a self-portrait through the items in my backpack wasn’t that hard, I think what I have in there is pretty representative of my school-self. I think it lacks the non-school part of me which is a little messier. The hard step was deciding how to lay it out which didn’t take that long either, I just wanted to find a pleasing way to arrange it all. I think that technically this sort of catalog representation isn’t writing but I think that it leads very naturally into writing, its the same sort of creative process: laying out the subject and arranging it in a way that flows and tells a story.

Triptych

When deciding on what to draw for my triptych comic I had to consider several different factors. Did I want it to be dark or light? Did I want the drawing style to be more cartoonish or a little more realistic? Should there be dialogue or not? In the end I decided to keep the first triptych I’ve drawn simple. I liked the clean yet effective style seen in the cartoon I drew. The idea wasn’t hard to think of, I used to see similar stories in other comics, I just had to make it my own. The experience was different from the writing I’ve done earlier this semester in that the decisions I had to make were artistic rather than editorial. Instead of considering what wording to put in, I had to decide what to what to put in or exclude from the frame. Overall I found the triptych a fun exercise that shook things up.

(For some reason the program won’t let me set the image as a featured image or an image in the text so the link to the image is attached below:)

triptych

2/22/18 In-class writing

Art Spiegelman was quoted as saying, “The comix I like, and try to do, can be read slowly and often…I try to make every panel count and sometimes work as long as a month on a page…I’m excited about the ‘secret language’ of comics- the underlying formal elements that create the illusions”

It is clear to see Mr.Spiegelman’s attention to detail in chapter 3 of Maus II. Every panel is important and carries huge significance, not only for the page but for the story. The way he illustrates makes each panel speak to the next. It’s clear to see that he spends immense amounts of time figuring out the ideal layout and design for each panel and how it fits into the greater narrative as well as how it fits in with its neighbors. By varying everything from line weight to speech bubbles he creates more than a pleasing panel, he makes a complete page.

The Latest in Military Technology: Fidget Spinners

As I was pondering what to use for my Sunday sketch I looked down at what was in my hand: a fidget spinner. The idea didn’t strike immediately but I knew I wanted to use the spinner in some way. It was then that my sub-conscience picked up the sound of a passing helicopter and I quickly converted that into a sketch. I’m not the greatest at drawing helicopters so I was a little hesitant to choose them as my subject but I decided to challenge myself. I used cartoon images of helicopters as a reference and worked from there. I chose to add people to the helicopters to make the picture a little more interesting than simply two helicopters flying around. One struggle I encountered was how to show the helicopters were flying. I was first going to show them flying over some town or land but couldn’t figure out the perspective and details to I chose to use clouds to indicate that they were flying. I really enjoyed this assignment and had a lot of fun thinking of ideas.

Link to the assignment here: Sunday Sketch Assignment

Visual notes

I’ve always been a more visual learner so this experiment was pretty fun and helpful for me. I chose to illustrate my Classical Mythology notes which was an amazing choice considering that there’s a lot to illustrate. I had a lot of fun trying to convert the bullet points into images, especially the mythical points because it allowed me to be more creative. I tried to emulate different cartoon/illustration styles and tried to get out of my comfort zone which I believe I did. I didn’t layout the page well and trying to find a flow in the images was harder than I thought it would be. It was challenging trying to push myself to be more creative and trying to get all of the notes on one page. The visual notes helped me internalize the names and stories I needed more than the short-hand notes I used as the basis of this assignment.

Literacy Narrative Reflection

It’s a hard thing going back in time to when you first read a book. In remembering my past I remembered how difficult it was for me to learn to like to read, how long and arduous the path was but also how amazing it felt. From struggling to read a single page to falling in love with comics or picking up my first non-fiction book the experience was not only hard but rewarding. To convert those emotions and memory onto paper, however, is always a challenge and my literacy narrative shows that; it was not easy capturing those moments with words. The more lax writing style was very helpful and allowed me to be more creative. I think, given more time, I will be able to better portray those feelings. Overall it was a very interesting and challenging experience that I’m excited to see develop further in the semester.

I think this is a good line: “I used to hate books.”

Avatar

Attached is my avatar. This picture is of Ben Franklin from the $100 bill listening to headphones with a background. To be totally honest, I’m not 100% sure why I chose this picture. I had no real ideas for a self portrait and didn’t want to draw a crappy picture of myself so I got creative. I chose Ben Franklin for no real reason, I guess I like the idea of modifying an icon and I like history. I feel that this properly represents my eclectic style; I will work with whatever whenever. It was important to me that he was listening to music because music plays a huge role in my life and is something I’m very passionate about. The two biggest challenges I faced when making this avatar were thinking of an idea and executing it. I’m not the greatest drawer so I had to think of something which represented me. This poorly edited picture is the what I ended up with. The other challenge was producing the image. I’ve never worked with photo editing software before and I think it shows. It took me well over an hour and a half to figure out how the program I used (Pxlr) worked and to assemble and edit the entire thing. The result is what you see here, a brief statement of me.

 

Ben Franklin picture:

Earbud picture:

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