Literacy Narrative Rough Draft
Author: Alex
What’s in Your Bag?
The contents of my bag: computer, pencil and pen, wallet, airpods, chapstick, calculator, water bottle, folder, books, notebooks, my lanyard, umbrella, and a daily planner. The majority of these items I carry around with me whenever I take my backpack; if it isn’t raining I won’t take an umbrella, and if I’m not going to our english class, I usually won’t bring the book we’re reading. I enjoyed this assignment because it was quite straight forward and was satisfying arranging my belongings to fit together. I think the image is an accurate representation of myself since I decided to include just the materials I genuinely carry around. I’ve used the same backpack since my sophomore year of high school and I’ve always made sure to bring my wallet, airpods, and chapstick no matter where I go. While I don’t think I’d go so far as to say this image is a form of writing, I certainly agree that it is a medium that’s an effective way to express myself.
Whisked Away – More Like Forked Away
I gained inspiration for this comic while I was scrolling on Fizz and kept seeing memes about the DCT. I’d imagine I’m not the only one who sometimes struggles to find a fork, and there’s nothing more humbling than eating chicken with a spoon (no hate to the kitchen staff, their hard work is much appreciated). These three panels took way more time to draw than I expected, but I’m thoroughly satisfied by the end results – especially the title. I had a clear vision of what I was going to draw, but I ran into some difficulty trying to draw the classic comic book cloud fight. I had to practice a few times on a piece of scratch paper, but I think it gets across the idea. One aspect I like about this narrative is how it tells a funny story without changing locations or angles, and only one person(me) is actually seen in frame throughout. I found this to be pretty different than most of the other assignments because it required a clear vision of what it would look like before even starting. When completing other assignments, I felt as though having a full understanding of what I was trying to accomplish wasn’t necessary at the beginning because part of the process was coming up with new ideas as I worked.
Diving into a Taste of Home
When I began thinking of ideas for this sketch, I knew I wanted to use a photo of my own. After scrolling through my camera roll for 30 minutes, I decided to use a photo of me diving into water. The background of the image wasn’t uniform, however, so after some trial and error, I realized I wouldn’t be able to find another image that aligns well with the background. Instead, I decided to crop everything but me out of the image. I struggled to think of ways I could creatively combine myself with another image. My mom used to cook dinner for us every night and recently I’ve been missing her meals, which gave me the idea for the background photo. I don’t have any images of meals she made, but my mom loved to make soup. If I was back at home right now, I know I’d “dive head first” into the food she makes.
Sketch 3: Visual Note Taking
September 8th, 2023
I’m in the habit of typing all my notes in a google doc so I was worried about trying to convert them into illustrations. Luckily, my biology class has been covering the process of cell division and how to identify the stage of the cell cycle just from a photo. Because of this, converting my notes from words to drawings helped me retain the information better because it forced me to visualize the process. When I was reviewing the blog post for this assignment, I saw a suggestion to use a flowchart which was a very effective layout for the notes I had. I enjoyed the process more than I expected because it was quite satisfying mapping out the structure for my drawing and seeing it all come together in the end.
Literacy Narrative Reflection
When writing my X-pages exercise, I struggled to remember specific details because it had be so long ago. I decided to not include any experiences from my free-write in my literacy narrative, but it helpful because it had me thinking about different times in my life when I had opposing views on reading and writing. I enjoyed the process of writing my narrative because it allowed me to reflect on the fond childhood memories I had of reading, and how those memories changed from positive to negative then back to positive. The essay also allowed me to reflect on my junior year english class and how it established a new way of thinking about reading and writing. While I wrote the narrative, I struggled to include moments of both reading and writing because I realized it was easier for me to recall important memories of reading rather than memories of writing.
Sunday Sketch
Clash of the Pill Bugs
I had several objects I wanted to try to incorporate in a drawing, but I struggled creatively when trying to add them into the sketch. I was sick earlier this past week, giving me the idea to use my Tylenol and Advil pills as objects. They are small enough objects that I had a couple ideas of how to draw around them, but after seeing the cockroaches at night here, I knew they’d work well as bugs. I ran into the issue of not having any colored pencils, however. I wanted to draw the environment but gave up on that, so instead I used a piece of ham from my fridge as the source of conflict between the orange and white bugs. The hardest part about this sketch was trying to keep the pills in the right space, because it was difficult to align them every time they shifted.
Avatar
I chose this image because I love the outdoors and it is a photo I took the evening before I left for college. To me, it reminds me of home and my friends. The brightness of the sun causes the trees to darken and fade to a silhouette, serving as a good metaphor for the type of person I am, as I tend to give my full attention to the thing that I am focused on.
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