Category: Student Posts

When approaching this assignment, I wanted to take on sketching without too much planning. Often I find that creativity is hindered by over-thinking and over-analyzing content, so I began drawing lines and creating the borders of my panels; using a pen so I couldn’t erase or backtrack. When sketching the images of individual moments from my narrative I tried to stray from using a single perspective, and attempted to compose creative renderings of my dialogue. I wanted to diversify the panels to make for a more interesting reading experience; alternating different shapes and sizes. I’m fairly happy with my rough sketch; the text has not yet been incorporated but the sketches I have currently will provide an outline for the text that will follow. Than I will be able to fine-tune the images, change the specs of certain panels, and incorporate shade and color.

Prior to starting this assignment, I didn’t expect to get anything out of tracing pages from Maus because I thought of the process as no different than photo-copying an image. However, while tracing I began to notice certain details within the comics that I had previously overlooked. I tend to be a fast reader, and I think its easy to miss things while glossing over a page. Annotating the pages would have taken much longer without the tracing process; as subtle themes and commonalities where popping into my head while tracing. I do believe that this practice helped me decipher a sort of “secret language” within the comics. I would also argue that during the writing process, ideas come to mind more readily when breaking the content down into chunks. It widens the scope when trying to identify substantive comparisons to make.

Drawing this imagine initially seemed like a fairly daunting task since I’m not good at recreating photo realistic images. However, I found it easier to just draw it in a style that I’m more adept at using. As I was drawing I began to find small details that I didn’t recognize from just glancing at the image. I can see the benefit of finding the important parts of an image by redrawing it by hand.

Drawing this imagine initially seemed like a fairly daunting task since I’m not good at recreating photo realistic images. However, I found it easier to just draw it in a style that I’m more adept at using. As I was drawing I began to find small details that I didn’t recognize from just glancing at the image. I can see the benefit of finding the important parts of an image by redrawing it by hand.

When I first had to draw this comic, I had trouble figuring out how to start. I don’t have much experience with this type of medium, so I felt like I had a million of choices when it came to designing the narrative. However, once I decided on a style, the rest fell into place easily. For me, drawing the comic was much easier than writing an essay; it was much more fun. I consider myself to be a visual person, so putting my thoughts into images was much more interested than trying to describe them with words.

When I first had to draw this comic, I had trouble figuring out how to start. I don’t have much experience with this type of medium, so I felt like I had a million of choices when it came to designing the narrative. However, once I decided on a style, the rest fell into place easily. For me, drawing the comic was much easier than writing an essay; it was much more fun. I consider myself to be a visual person, so putting my thoughts into images was much more interested than trying to describe them with words.

The general feedback that I received for my comic draft was that it was well on its way to being finished, with illustrations that made it easy to read. Fidan, Isaac and Filip also all agreed that my comic included lots of changes in angle, distance, and centering which made it interesting and appealing, however, I still feel like I would like to add a bit more variation in panel shape/ size if possible. Another suggestion that I received was to add a frame or say more about exactly where I am from. It would be possible to combine these two changes, and add a small circular frame within the third panel which adds more detail about where I am from, and also adds some more panel variation. Some other improvements that I would like to make to my literacy narrative comic are: to finish the illustrations, add colour, and integrate some of my narrative into the images. I would also like to come up with some better narrative in my final frame which brings my comic to a clean end.

After reading the article, the picture that  most captured my attention was the one of the girl in the car on the way to Chicago. The way the light hits her hand and the position of her fingers were all very intriguing. My initial thought for this photo was that it was going to be very difficult the recreate. I’m not very talented in the drawing department but I was going to try my hardest! After sketching, one can see that I was drawn to her hand placement. In the photo, she looks very relaxed and at ease, here it kind of looks like a claw. I think both representations make this photo “art”. Art is such a subjective topic and the most simple line drawings or photos can be the ones that create the most emotion.

Turning my Literacy Narrative into a comic was much more frustrating than expected.  I was not sure if each panel went with the flow of my written essay. Are they in the correct order? Do they actually illustrate what I am trying to get at?  The feedback I got on the draft of my graphic literacy narrative was very helpful. Firstly, I was pleasantly surprised that my peers were able to follow the shift between present and past that I worked to portray.  They understood what I was getting at, but recommended aligning the panels to make the constant shifts more visually appealing and easy for the eye. Since I was so unsure if the storyline was coming across in my visual panels, I added text boxes to some points to describe the situation.  My peers recommended cutting down some words and making these short sentences instead of the long blurbs I included. Understandably, seeing large chunks of words on a page initially intimidates the viewer. At other times, I used speech bubbles and thought bubbles to illustrate conversations and internal realization as this was a prose essay.  My peers thought I could make these neater so they will be read seamlessly within the story. Since these are used so often, this feedback definitely makes sense. I could also change up the frame from panel to panel. Too many might be straight scenes between stick figures instead of giving the eye a refreshing image that helps the reader dive into the story.  

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.