The Secret Language of Comics

On the day I drew this sketch, my roommate just lost his AirPods Pro. As a caring friend, my first reaction was to mock and laugh at him. With this incident, I thought of using my AirPods for the Sunday Sketch. I always thought the earbuds were shaped in a unique way, like a shower head. At the same time, I was planning to find a barber shop for a haircut. Thus, I made the case as the resting pillow that customers lie on while the barber washes the hair. For the rest of the sketch, I included some objects and details that a normal barber shop would have.

Link to Prompt

I came up with this sketch when I was trying to do work but people were trying to have a conversation with me. I noticed that I kept adjusting my airpods and the volume so I can hear them speak but also point out that I’m busy. I remember at one point just staring at my airpods and imagining the volume increasing than being muted repeatedly.

I took the hair clip out of my hair while trying to think of an idea for the English assignment. Maybe I could use pom-poms for stars or a chip bag as a dress? I mindlessly played with my hair clip, holding it open then letting it snap shut. It kind of looked like teeth.

Major is my best friend’s dog. And he is the only dog I have ever disliked.

Major is a Chihuahua mix, a fearless dog that ruined my favorite hoodie and two of my shirts with his tiny, sharp teeth. I drew him in all his vicious, trembling, cross-eyed glory and used my hair clip to represent his teeth and his nose.

Assignment Link: https://engrd101f23.davidmorgen.org/assignments/sketches/sketch-2-sunday-sketches/

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.

My “Sunday Sketch” consists of a college student during midterm season, and his stomach is filled with a bunch of pencil shavings, which convey two different meanings. One of the meanings is that during midterms, a lot of college kids are stressing out a lot, which causes them to study late hours for these tests, which also causes them to eat food that is unhealthy late at night, such as ramen, chips, and candy, which is displayed by the pencil stavings inside of the student’s stomach. The pencil shavings also illustrate the inner turmoil these students are going through because they know that these midterms have a considerable impact on their final grades, resulting in a lot of stress. In addition, these pencil shavings could demonstrate that the student is studying for a class they do not enjoy, which indicates that the student is overwhelmed and does not have a thorough understanding of the subject matter.  

P.S: I apologize if the drawing is a bit janky, but it conveys my point

Image credits: photo by Shaan Jani

To find inspiration for this week’s sketch, I looked around my dorm room for objects I could use. The long weekend was in the back of my mind, and I thought about taking my hammock out to the quad to sit in and take a break. My desk is next to the micro-fridge, which also inspired me. My roommate happened to have left a banana on top of the fridge from breakfast. It then clicked: Why not take the banana and make it into a hammock?
I set my sketch’s setting at the beach, as I always think of it as the perfect location to set up a hammock. I then marked the ends of the banana so it could be “attached” to the trees, just as my hammock needs to be before it can be sat in. I made sure to draw the person a little arched so it looked like it was lying on the banana. The banana worked really well as a hammock, and I’m curious to see how other foods can be transformed similarly.

Original Prompt link