Category: Student Posts

Literacy Narrative Rough Draft

 

The main challenge I faced with this assignment was getting it scanned and uploaded. I didn’t want to commit to the layout fully, so I didn’t use pen, but this made the pages hard to scan. The end result still isn’t the highest quality, but I think it should be readable.

The scanning was the hardest part for me mostly because I think I tend to write with visuals in mind. When I was really young and learning how to write the advice that I always got from my grandmother was to try and “paint a picture with your words”. In my writing I always find that I leave a more lasting impression when I can show things with a specific image or anecdote, rather than just stating my point. The story about writing words off of coins, I think, conveys my message more effectively than simply saying “I wanted to learn to read from a young age”. That thought process in writing made this assignment easier in that I had a concrete story line to illustrate. It also made me notice certain weaknesses in my writing. The last page was the most difficult one to illustrate because my writing became more vague, which makes me think that I probably need to revisit my last paragraph to strengthen the ending.

The comments that I got in our peer review session were largely positive I felt. Someone pointed out that I should try to vary my “camera angles” in the last page, which I don’t disagree with. I think this points to the fact that the writing was more vague and shows that I had a hard time illustrating that in any way other than by drawing faces close up. I am excited to take this piece further and I cannot wait to see the final drafts of the other students in my group.

Sketch 7 Reflection

I decided to make less of a story and more of a statement that describes a story.  I did add multiple images, but there was a common them to the comic.  The story has a great deal of truth when reflecting upon the history of the United States.  My comic lies between both “truths” of Sacco’s book and Spiegelman’s comic, but it is skewed towards Sacco’s.  This is because Sacco uses his specific experiences and his reporting in order to show his version of “truth” to the story.  Similarly, I rely on my experiences to focus on delivering the theme of my story.  For this sketch assignment, I decided to go more bold and stray away from a traditional comic with one massive image, with smaller images, to portray a greater theme of the comic.

Peer Feedback and Rough Draft

The main point that all of my peers made is that there should be less panels of essays and more creative pictures. What they agreed upon is that they liked the idea of having my panels be metaphors. They also found the tone to be dark and satirical which I found hilarious because I had never considered my tone to be that but it is very accurate.

Collin Combs Sketch and Reflection

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I was drawn to this image because the man in the picture was throwing something.  I first noticed that he was not throwing something that was meant to traditionally be thrown.  Also, he is in a parking lot of some sort.  For me drawing, however, I decided to focus on just the motion of the guy and the object he was throwing.  While I was sketching the image, the mans taught shirt was what I began to notice the most.

Colin Combs sketch

As I spent time sketching for this assignment, I started noticing that it was much easier to sketch it than I thought before. The peacefulness and calmness that we can feel from looking at the picture are what made me pick this photo. At first, I thought that I will sketch everything that I see. However, as I was drawing I decided to sketch only what is in the focus, not blurry backgrounds due to the fact, that I wanted to make an even greater focus on simplicity of the moment and on the fact that if a person is asleep all she needs in this most unprotected moment is calmness.

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Photo: by me

Sketch 7: THAT Back Corner

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This comic was a funny moment in my spring break, hanging out with friends. But I realized it also could have a deeper meaning to it.

I decided I would grab dinner with a couple of my friends, as I’d missed them a lot and hadn’t seen them for a while. We arranged a time to meet up, and I showed up about 5-10 minutes late. I was worried they’d already started to eat, so I texted one of them and asked if they were inside. A quick reply told me they were here. I checked around initially, asked where specifically they were, and continued the search. After a bit, I came outside to call, and I discovered they were sitting right outside on the bench. Then, they joked with me that it was “outside back corner” that they meant. I wasn’t actually upset at them (I’m used to their shenanigans at this point), but I drew it that way in the comic because it felt more conclusive.

I knew this was the right story because it teaches a valuable lesson. It teaches the lesson of perspective and how it can affect things. While it was true that they were in the outside back corner, I had assumed they were inside of the restaurant in the back corner. But, of course, I had assumed the logical path and didn’t even consider the illogical path. But life isn’t logical. At least, not always. There have been many things that have happened in my life, and likely your life, that have made us think: “That doesn’t make sense.” Perspective and logic are two things that are, sometimes, taken for granted, and we don’t seem to account for the idea that things don’t always go one certain way.

It’s actually quite difficult to tell a true story in a short comic. Most “truths” or “events” go well beyond a simple single-digit panel event. So to find something to condense into a short and sweet comic is absolutely difficult. Especially when you are attempting to find some “truth” in it. With the two poles of a spectrum being Spiegelmann and Sacco, I imagine that this story falls more on the side of Spiegelmann. It tells the perspective of a decently truthful event without too much bias, similar to the style of Speigelmann’s Maus.

While creating this comic, I had to decide the style and panel formation that I wanted to go with. I decided on a big panel for the last punch line, as I feel that would amplify it that much more. I decided on a more stick-figure like format for the characters because I wanted it to be simple. But I also wanted to experiment with expression on stick figures and without faces. I’ve seen it quite a few times previously, and I really wanted to try it out. I think it turned out okay, but I might go back to drawing faces; it’s easier for me, even if my faces are terrible.

Class Cancellation Sketch: Colin Combs

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This image had a strange aura to it. It was blurry, it was rainy, and it was moody. But it just looked so peaceful at the same time. Rain is both so overpowering, yet so refreshing. It causes destruction, yet also can be peace. I’ve always loved and hated the rain, and it was the biggest element that drew me to this picture.

As I spent more and more time with the photo, I began to notice more of the subtle things. The facial expression of the person in front. The posture of the person behind. The slight angle of the photo. The condition and structure of the houses. All these things start to gain more and more clarity. I felt like I was really there, having to rain through the rain. The blurriness adds so much more.

The fact that these photographs are not created professionally doesn’t surprise me. There’s always been a certain charm to photos that are simply taken in the moment. They’re sloppy, and in the eye of a professional, I’m sure they aren’t very good. But knowing that someone simply wanted to capture the moment is so amazing. There is no other major reason behind it. No want of money, fame, or anything else that ruins art. It’s just art for the sake of art. Art for the love of art. Art for the beauty of art.

I hope these types of art forms continue on as time continues. This is what true art is. Passion.

Literacy Comic Narrative Feedback

Click to view slideshow.

Personally, I wasn’t a fan of the draft. It wasn’t the message I wanted, it connected things differently than how I feel, and it didn’t portray the right emotions.

This is evidenced by the feedback I got. Without words, a lot of the interpretation of this comic is so up in the air. For example, the tone is assumed to be friendly and comedic, but I had intended for it to be a darker story with hopefulness. While there is one scene of comedy and friendliness (hence the assumed tone is not out of nowhere), I don’t want for that to be the overbearing feeling from the story. In the same fashion, I wanted for the theme of the story to be that writing has saved me. However, because of the lack of words and the poor connection between a lack of reading turning into a plethora of writing, it is assumed that the theme of the story is about reading. This I also don’t want. One piece of evidence that worked against me was the poem I placed on the OPTIONAL first page. This was supposed to be a symbol of my writing career, however, because of lack of specification, it is now assumed to be a symbol of my reading career. While my variation in camera angles, frames, distance, and such are all decent, the overall message of the story is way off when comparing true meaning and interpretation. This is something that needs to be adjusted and fixed ASAP.

And, of course, hopefully words can fix that too.

Tell a True Story

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I knew I had the right story for my comic when I realized I had too much fun. I first read Tim O’brien’s The Things They Carried in my junior year of high school and initially hated it. I didn’t like his weak character and wasn’t fond of hearing anything from him. However, I did understand his points and perspectives on the different “truths” we have. So following the prompt, I followed his style of a story that has some truth but not necessarily the reality I faced. As such, I generalized the experience so that any reader could apply it to a night out they might have had.

On the spectrum of telling the truth, I think this comic is closest to Spiegelman’s work because it generalizes people with stick figures and communicates the general idea better than factual accuracy.

I think the most striking and important element is the black box. It tells the reader that there is a gap in the sequence of events and allows the reader to fill it in with their own imagination.

 

 

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