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Workshop notes thumbnails

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Workshop ideas notes

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Journal posting #10

I chose to try the hacks for background drawing and while I really enjoyed the simplicity of the options and how simple details can make a small dialogue scene more dynamic, I always stress over character details, even in a background focused challenge. I had to tell myself to stop. I really like these ideas for symplifying my backgrounds and parting them down.

#rhetoricofcomics #journalposting

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Journal Post #9 

Prompt: Stalk a Classmate

I love the simplicity of this comic and the focus on the characters as opposed to the background details. Going into the final comic I am preparing to draw my dog a lot, and seeing the way I can take a lot of extra details out to par down the clutter of the page. 

I also really love the structure of the panels and the lines used for the structures of the faces in the style.

This comic is reflective of my dog, Daisy, being left alone during the day while my family and I are out. Not using words is hard in a comic, but I think it allows the simplistic nature of the comic to work well. Like they say, a picture is worth 1000 words. Comics are fun and easy ways to tell a story, and I’m starting to enjoy it more and more.

#journalpost #rhetoricofcomics

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Workshop task 3

For this task I drew both human and dog expressions, and added in a Cat paw on the hands. Most of my characters are animals and I wanted to stick to the prompt with using them, but I felt like not drawing human hands was a cop out. So I added one in.

I feel like my expressions for my dog were easier to translate because of his ears. Plus I’ve taken the liberty of giving him eyebrows.

#rhetoricofcomics

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Workshop Task #2

After Thumbnailing out my concept my ideas have taken a completely different turn. And I’m so excited about it actually. I originally wanted my dog, who is named after Mr. Bingley from Pride and Prejudice, to be a part of a book club. But now I’m going more towards him escaping from his “reality” by ripping his way out of the comic and into his fantasy world where he runs a club as the boss called the library. He loves to eat paper, and has sadly gotten to a couple of my books this year.

I’m having a hard time condensing down all of my ideas into one solid intro to this story, but if this pans out well I am seriously considering actually making this into a much longer story later.

#rhetoricofcomics #workshoptask

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Journal posting #7

For this task I chose to duplicate Alex Norris’ extremeky popular comic “Oh No” in which each issue has three panels with the blob, that always end in oh no.

When I read the second part of the drawing task for this journal I misread it and thought I was supposed to draw the second panel in my art style to compare the two ways of drawing and the process, so when I reread the guideline before posting I had an “oh no” moment. The bottom half of the comic is my original comic in Alex Norris’ style depicting my instant reaction.

I found this task fun to do, especially because I instantly knew which comic I wanted to copy. It’s a fun, easy, and bold style that relies heavily on the readers ability to close the gaps in information. It also relies on color to differentiate characters, as they are all blobs. The main blob is always a bright pink. The backgrounds are almost always blue, and the text bubbles are always yellow or green. I also tried to replicate the text style.

I believe using color to define characters is a great thing to carry over, and creating my own text font may be a fun, if not tedious, endevour.

#rhetoricofcomics #journalposting

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Journal posting #6

In the comic “Life After the Second Set” by Darryl and Jams. It’s about a young man, Miles, who survived a shooting in Chicago and discusses the road he has to recovery over a year after coming out of a coma. Throughout the comic he seems very shut off, but what starts off as a complacent tone turns into a resolute determination in the last several panels. This boy who could tell these reporters a play by play of what happened to him just wants to put the event behind him and move forward with going back to his life.

He was shot while trying to shield his younger cousin, who ended up dying in the cross fire. Throughout the comic the colors of orange, white, and black are prominent and create striking imagery that also allow the narrative to take center stage. The word bubbles are used for the conversation recorded by the journalists and Miles’ responses feature throughout the peice. Anytime the authors/creators gave an opinion or added outside facts that did not come up in the interview they wrote it in blocks outside of the character panels and put strokes of orange on top of it. This helped to separate what information Miles was giving them and their own context while still maintaining a level of congruency by adding the same color to the different areas.

The minimal use of background imagery allows the reader to focus on the narrative and take in the full scope of emotions building within the peice.

#rhetoricofcomics #journalposting

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Journal posting #5

After finishing my adaption project I can say that with the higher stakes project I became much more aware of my planning and reasoning behind every single aspect of my comic. I wanted the colts, images, and text to flow seemlessly. My planning phase took infinitely more time. And then after planning each page I drew one at a time and shifted my plan as I saw what worked and what did not.

After reading “cartoonists on their brushes” I felt much better about some of the struggles I had with my brushwork. At one point I almost scrapped the whole thing before I talked myself off the cliff and just soildered on. I ended up finding a way to remedy the issue that I think actually added to my comic, but it wasn’t my original intention.

I do wish I had more money for better brushes, but my paints were very nice and I think that made up for it enough. When a girl already has 5 boxes of art supplies you’ve gotta say no more.

I’m not sure I could ever be truly effiecint when working in paint the way I’ve decided I like to do, but I’m not sure time matters as much as the end result. I like the way watercolor looks, now that I’ve used it, too much to go back.

#rhetoricofcomics #journalposting

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Here are my two sets of notes from the in class workshops for the adaption project. I really was able to hammer out some minute details in class that I wouldn’t have been able to do without it.

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Workshop: Adaption Project

For this project I’ve chosen to adapt “A Better Way To Talk About Love” because I want to display the metaphors she uses in comic format and mess with watercolors. 

I want the art style to be hard outlines with loose light color over them. I want to pull inspiration from the artists above who are, in order, Valerie LaPointe, Karyi, Frederick Opper, and Lynn Holbein. I want to use darker colors in the first page and slowly move towards lighter more kind feeling colors. 

I am nervous about working with watercolor, as it could all go wrong so quickly, but I am also very excited. I want to have a looser style with the color itself. Kind of like a bleeding heart feel, whimsical and dangerous. I hope it comes across. A lot of comics used to, and still do, use watercolor techniques. I hope to pay homage to them, while finding my own style within them. 

#adaptionproject #rhetoricofcomics

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Discovery Task 8:

I know I’ve fallen a bit off the wagon with discovery tasks, and getting back into it was hard. Especially with this one for me. As I’ve said before I am a perfectionist, but when it comes to collages being messy with purpose is embraced. So I tried to let myself go a little crazy with it.

I wanted the panels to be a road map, since that’s not quite traditional, and took the collage theme to heart and broke out the mod podge and magazines. Part of the story and collage is the canvas I chose to work with itself. The paper is my old server notebooks glued together to signify my past and how I have embraced change, as much as I fear it.

This task took me 3 hours to complete and I am not sure how I feel about the outcome. I like the idea of a collage better than I can execute it I think. I wished I could have visually represented more of what I wrote. I will use aspects of this method moving foward I think. I kinda like the freeness the different canvas gave me, but it also had its own challenges.

#discoverytask #rhetoricofcomics

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Journal Posting 4

Adaption Project Brainstorm

Mandy Len Catron, "A Better Way to Talk About Love," TED Talk

Maggie Smith's "Good Bones”

David Gallo, Underwater Astonishments TED Talk

Bob Ross tells us How to Get Started With Painting

These are the four ideas I have narrowed down to for the adaption project. I chose each of these ideas for the same reason. I believe these texts or videos have enough vivid imagery to be compatible with a comic. In particular a watercolor/painted comic.

For this project I really want to stretch myself and test out painting in a comic medium in prep for the final project. I think paint is one of the things in life I find peace in. I love painting, but I’ve never painted a comic. More like my fair share of coolers and tables and canvases and banners.

I think taking a piece of the love ted talk and turning it into a story would be really cute. In painting form I can see it with stark black and reds and transforming into something more colorful.

I think “Good Bones” is an opportunity to paint something pretty. This false world on top of this darker vision that is the truth.

I think underwater scenes in paint would be fun and an opportunity to mess with texture and highlight.

As for Bob Ross I just think it would be funny to illustrate how to paint like Bob Ross in paint that is nothing like Bob Ross.

#journalposting #rhetoricofcomics

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Journal Posting 3

Final Project Ideas

Art Style/ medium

- simplistic cartoon

- in depth story with scenic design

- in color

- watercolor

- b&w 

Ideas

- DnD character backstory

-DnD Dungeon Master struggles

-DnD Dungeon Master Guide

- Explanation behind a fandom

- Recipe Book using step by step pictures/drawings

- Something with my dog, Mr. Bingley, dressed up as the Mr. Bingley. Maybe he interacts with other dogs named after book characters. A dog support group. Call it “Mr. Bingley’s Ruff Life”

- The Evolution of Wonder

#journalposting #rhetoricofcomics

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Journal Posting 2

Things to Steal

When I read Mom’s Cancer, I kept expecting a sad ending. I also expected the whole journey to be sad. Of course it was a sad book and did have sad moments, but it also allowed humor and ended in a happy ending, much to everyone’s astonishment.

I think what I admire about the book is how absolutely honest it was. It didn’t embellish things to make them seem better of feel better. While some of the panels obviously aren’t true to life, like the superpowers bit, they did reveal the truth behind each characters feelings. Even tragic moments in time and life have some humor. Not everything is black and white.

The above panel, however, is black and white. This panel in particular jumped out at me because of how stricken it was. The use of white space to show the pain and struggle of his mom felt real. The fact that his mom has no outline for most of her body gives an added feeling of being consumed by darkness, and therefore, hopelessness. I feel like using negative space to create dark contrasts in feeling and emotion can be a tactic I employ in the future.

#journalposting #rhetoricofcomics

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Journal Posting 1

My Evolving Process

As I have gone through this class I have become more comfortable with my drawing skills. Where I previously thought I was inadequate at even attempting to draw, I have discovered I am in my own way quite good at it. I usually spend most of my time allowing myself to fully form an idea before I ever sketch out a draft. Once the idea comes, so does the draft, where I iron out kinks and shift things to allow better meaning.

Once the draft is done I shift to an outline in pencil and then move forward with pen. I debate if I want to add color or not and then I add text, if their is any. I am considering whether to add text  earlier on in the future so I can shift things to fit better. Sometimes the space I have left is not enough for my own words. 

I usually only spend 1-4 hours per task. The longer ones are usually that long do to my perfectionism and drafting process. The task without words took me a long time because of the meaning I put into it. The tasks where I choose important messages always seem to take me longer because I want them to come through in the way they have been drawn.

I am also considering doing some kind of watercolor work in future projects. I really love painting, and I have done enough coolers to know I can decently replicate icons through it. Finding my own style in paint would be fun.  

#journalposting rhetoricofcomics

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Discovery Task 4:

This task was both easy and hard. I love photography, but I also tend to be more critical of my photos than of my drawings. It was hard for me to decide on a theme and feeling without feeling the need to go all out for it, so I went with something funny to try and take the pressure off. This took me around 1 and 1/2 hours, just because I was fighting with myself over the topic I wanted to tackle.

So I decided to portray the feeling you get when you have to get up and go to work and you are feeling decent when you get out the door and then realize in your haste you forgot something.

#discoverytask #photocomics #thatfeelingyouget #discoverytask4