Stitches pg 205
Author: Gregory
Tracing Assignment Reflection
For me, the tracing process took longer than I expected, however, it was a really good exercise that allowed me to analyze these texts closer. I got to imagine the “authors hand” better when tracing the strokes, which helped me understand what their intentions might have been.
For this assignment I took the longest time developing the thesis. I spent a lot of time going back to my traced annotated pages to find connections between the 2 graphic novels. Aside from that, writing the inductive essay wasn’t that big of a change for me.
This assignment helped me a lot to better understand comics. Like art, every stroke or detail has a purpose which can be obvious or hidden. Doing this writing exercise expanded my view of comics and I now read them with a critical eye.
SK7- Halloween anyone?
This is my quadriptych sketch. The idea came randomly when I was sketching random drawing trying to come up with an idea. Since Halloween was near, I decided to do a funny comic where the reader is put in a tense situation at first. As you read on, you realize it’s just a trick or treater at the door.
What’s in your bag?
Contents:
Asus Q530 laptop: love this laptops- a recent purchase at Emory after my former Lenovo laptop has an obsession with bluescreening.
Airpods: best small device made in my opinion. NC is top notch and the adjustable ear tips are essential for me
Calculator: have used this calculator since middle school and has brought lots of 100s and good luck
Pencil Case: a nostalgic item- haven’t used or seen in since I was in grade 2. Carries pens and pencils although I really only use 1 pencil and once pen from it.
Notebooks: I’m a paper kind of person. Computer note taking was never my thing.
Wallet: present for my 18th birthday. Very sleek and slim
Water bottle: not much to it; a classic design and dispenses water out at a high rate
Hand Cream: Emory soap is very drying for my hands…
Keys + lanyard: love swinging this apparatus around and don’t really like carrying it in my pockets because I’m afraid of scratching my wallet or phone case
Hat: still has yet to be used.
This exercise was very enjoyable for me. I believe I have less items in my bag than most people, but each item I am very connected with. Writing this blog made me realize I could write like a whole paragraph on each item. Each one has a lot of meaning to me, since I was the one who usually picked it out after careful decision. I was raised to not want to new things and even though I love new things, the things I have still have a lot of meaning to me.
Perils of Climbing
The idea for this comic came from my own fears about rock climbing. This 3 panel comic depicts a person staring up at a climbing wall, struggling while climbing, and finally falling off the wall. It was pretty hard drawing this, especially the angles and the shadows which I don’t think I captured correctly. If I refined this drawing, the first thing I would fix is the background. A good setting sets the tone for the rest of the comic which is why I would fix that first. Another thing I would spend more time on is to think what ways would best convey my message. For example, if I wanted to convey fear on his face, what other ways could I do that if my fear emotion didn’t get through to the audience. However, I enjoyed this quick sketch and it felt good to exercise some creativity.
Staple Swing |___|
For this Sunday sketch, I create a staple swing. Again, this project started off with me rummaging through my pencil case for an item to start off with. What I found was a mini stapler, and from there I took out a single staple. To me, a swing instantly came to mind. However, searching for a single staple photo was impossible to find so I took my own. The swing was easier to find on internet and I chose the first one that was suitable.
The actual photoshopping process took much longer. For one, this program was new to me, and even though I am familiar with photoshop, the cropping functions had different properties that stumped me. I ended up taking a different approach to deleting the swing from the original picture and I believe it turned out well. I could have spent more time to make it look more cohesive but with the tools at hand I don’t think the time investment would be worth it.
Photo from :TreeSwing7.jpg (777×945) (themerrythought.com)
Visual Notes
This is a photo of my visual notes for psychology class. It goes through the process of research where each step is important for accurately determining a opinion. For example, if someone thinks “When do babies start to see in color?”, one would follow these steps to design an appropriate research method to figure the question out.
Drawing these visual notes helped engrave them better in my memory. When recalling the steps, I now associate them to each photos I drew, and from there I can figure out the next step. However, thinking of diagrams to draw for each step took quite a while and the process to design them also took a good amount of time since I am not the best at drawing. Although it was a fun exercise, I don’t see myself taking visual notes for future studying.
Literacy Narrative Refection
My narrative is about my journey through the years with reading and writing, expressing my feelings, thoughts, and personal anecdotes.
My process for this writing exercise was pretty much like how I approached all writing projects: write things down even if they don’t make sense. After my jumbled thoughts were on the page, I went back and combed through the ideas. Keep the ideas I liked and move ideas that didn’t really fit the story that I was going for to the bottom of the page. I wanted to create a montage type of story, highlighting important parts in my journey.
I enjoy freewriting as opposed to more research orientated types since I can have more freedom with sentence structure and word choice. For this project especially, I did some deep reflecting on past memories, and tried to convey them in the most authentic way. I realized that writing comes easier when you have lots of information on the subject, and since I lived through these experiences, it made writing much smoother and interesting.
When proof reading my narrative, I could identify my own stylistic choices: sentence structure, use of punctuation, and commonly used words. I find this interesting since much like handwriting, its hard to change the way you write since you have been doing it the same way for so long.
