Visual Writing and Thinking

Bitmoji. Bitstrips, Inc., 2017. Vers. 10.23. Apple App Store, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bitmoji/id868077558?mt=9

Like many other 19 year olds today, I spend a lot of time using social media. During my free time, I scroll through Instagram and Facebook and send many Snapchats daily. Most of the time, pictures speak louder than words and I send many responses using the ever popular Bitmoji application. This app allows users to customize their own avatar and use them to convey hundreds of different messages in both the iMessage application and on Snapchat. I decided to compile 6 of my favorite Bitmojis as my avatar. Starting from the center going clockwise, I selected the avatar of me holding a matcha boba tea, by far my favorite drink! Next, I chose a picture of me holding and reading books, one of my favorite pastimes and a pretty obvious choice for this being for an English class. I then chose a picture of me jumping with a smiling heart because I strive to always be cheerful and full of love and following that, a picture of my avatar peaking up from below, showcasing my curiosity, especially towards learning. My last two images show my avatar excited with some stars and a “selfie” with some hearts to reemphasize my happiness and loving nature. I feel like all of these images represent me and help give a greater insight on who I am.

“President Theodore Roosevelt Sargent Reproduction | 1st Art Gallery.” Oil Painting Reproductions from 1st Art Gallery, http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/John-Singer-Sargent/President-Theodore-Roosevelt.html.

This is my virtually assembled avatar, an attempt to portray not only my physical, but an insight into my personality. Let’s start off by analyzing my expression: i’m not displaying joy nor sadness, just neutrality; this is my way of thinking. I try to be as neutral and objective in my thoughts, given that many times emotionally-dictated thoughts (which translate to actions) can be irrational, especially in the professional and educational ambient. The background, a vibrant red “zap effect” serves to represent anything that might be happening to or around me; although life’s occurrences might get overwhelming, I try my best to remain neutral, objected, and mindful of my response to the given occurrences. The black shirt is relatively self explanatory to anyone who knows me personally, because I always tend to wear black shirts.

There was one main difficulty while creating this avatar: besides my ability to play and create music, I have no artistic ability whatsoever, therefore making the creation of a personal avatar was extremely challenging. With that in mind, I had never explored photoshop or any designing tools that would allow me to create this avatar. I faced the situation upfront, and ultimately was able to design the avatar below with the assistance of a cloud-based website and Pixlr. When faced with a difficulty, I will not spend my time complaining; I’ll do my best to mitigate the difficulty and set myself on the path to success.

For my avatar, I wanted an image that would represent me, but wouldn’t simply be a picture of myself. I had experimented with cartoon versions of people in the past and I realized that it would be interesting to try a more minimalist approach to it. I decided to essentially recreate myself in Photoshop using the least amount of shapes that still would allow someone to recognize that it is me. Although I debated it, I felt that I had to be wearing glasses in my avatar because I feel it is something memorable that I always wear.

The main difficulty I faced in creating the badge was that I was a little rusty when it came to using a graphics tablet so I had to relearn how to draw using it. It simply was a matter of practice and patience.

When assigned to create a public avatar of myself I initially had no idea where to start. No, I’m not an artist and do not have photoshop on my computer to make a coded digitized avatar. But then, it hit me. The twenty first century is all about connecting through social media, which has become easier and more amusing with everybody’s use of the ever expanding library of emoticons. I scroll through the assortment of emojis on my phone almost every day to add a quick visual aid to my written text messages. Personalized bitmojis add uniqueness since you can make the characterized version of you do almost anything- the options are endless.

So, I decided to create a bitmoji of myself doing the work for this class. The background is a collage of comics between students and teachers in a school setting. Even though this is only serving as a comics backdrop, it adds a quirky touch knowing they are all related to classwork. The graphic novels we will be exploring in this class have visual illustrations to assist words while emojis are a modern way of using images to communicate and relay messages.

I have always loved drawing faces and studying people’s profiles. And I like the way a page clutters up so quickly when I do this as an exercise. For my avatar I chose to make something that seemed a little crowded and collaged-looking. I used the free trial of photo shop to add in text and a photo of myself, but my intention was to make it look like a physical scrapbook page or a piece of  a journal.

The drawings were done in my sketchbook with brush pens and watercolor and scanned and edited in Photoshop later.

My art style is usually a little messy or hectic looking and I wanted to make an avatar that reflected that, because the more I embrace that about my drawings, the more I like the end product.