The Secret Language of Comics

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.

Sketch #4

Why is the desert white though?

The first thing that I related to this assignment was clouds, since their various and unpredictable shapes provide a vast space for imagination. As I searched up pictures of clouds on the internet, I came across this one in which the lower layer of the clouds seems almost to be a perfect plain. I thought that it would be adequate to add some animals there. During the process I had some trouble editing the size of the camels and cropping them out of the original picture. 

We Have Liftoff

This was a surprisingly difficult Sunday sketch to think of for me. My humor and creativity usually revolve around puns and simple comparisons, but the images by Mcmennamy did not seem to have any rhyme or reason. He simply replaced a certain object with another that had a similar form, and my mind had trouble deciding on anything specific to edit. The fascinating similarity between an actual airplane and a paper plane is how they fly using the same physics. The lift that keeps a few-ounce piece of paper in the air also keeps a hundred-ton hunk of metal in the air. I loved building these as a kid and throwing them off balconies, and a fascination with gaining this type of liftoff has been common throughout mankind’s history.

runway photo- by Just Planes via Flickr https://flic.kr/p/wJ5kYj

paper airplane photo- by Wadleigh Memorial Library, “Airplanes 44” via Flickr https://flic.kr/p/6M2UMi

“Spill the tea… I’m all ears”

Initially, coming up with an idea was very hard for me. However, after looking through Stephen Mcmennamy’s Instagram, I realized that all I needed to do was to think of a realistic image in my head, and simply replace one of it’s features with another unlikely, yet similar structure. I looked around my dorm and saw my mug I just washed, which prompted the idea to use a mug as my realistic object. The mug handle is the most “swappable” feature on the mug, so I decided to choose something that I felt resembled the shape the most… an ear. After brainstorming and planning out my photo, it was then time to manipulate it in Procreate. I think my image conveys something “fantastical”, I can picture this mug on the set of Harry Potter.

“Mug 16”, @unforgiventak, Attribution (CC BY 2.0), edited

“Ear”, @eltpics, Attribution (CC BY 2.0), edited

Neckzilla

This sketch definitely took the longest amount of time to think of a unique idea that fits the criteria. After exploring Stephen Mcmennamy’s Tumblr and the examples on the class website, I noticed a pattern involving animals so I decided to try to focus on that rather than trying to think of a random idea. I came up with the idea of a morphed giraffe. I originally was going to use an empty paper towel picture role to represent the long neck of the giraffe but I decided to take the photo one step further and use a bamboo stick. The final picture represents a Giraffe and its unique characteristics: a very long neck and eating habits. The bamboo even though it is not the tree that giraffes typically pick leaves from represents the giraffe’s eating habits. Even though I had a long brainstorming process, I enjoyed creating the sketch as the photo editing process was very smooth because I used Google Drawings which I am very familiar with. Overall, I really enjoyed this Sketch as it was very interesting to make a clever piece of art using two things that are unrelated.

Reading Gives Wings

I scrolled through Flickr’s explore page to find inspiration, and I landed upon a photo of a butterfly with marble patterned wings. I thought of different things that could replace the wings, and the first thing I thought of was an open book. I scrolled through various photos of open books on Flickr, until I came across one that matched the shape of the butterfly’s wings the best. I used Pixlr to edit the two photos together, the most challenging part being erasing the background of the photo of the book. I feel as though my photo implies that reading gives you wings: diving into a text is similar to a butterfly fluttering its wings and flying to whatever world the book takes it.

“Marbled White” by Sebastian Morweiser

iStock Dmitrii Maslov

Combophotos

Recently, I’ve felt a need to use my pepper spray for amusement but I remember that it’s actually for safety. Then I started to think of things that made me feel at ease, and a flower, to me, means safety and peace, similar to how I feel and when I walk around campus or anywhere I travel with my pepper spray. Thinking about the combo photo wasn’t that difficult however combing the image was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Despite my best efforts, I was still unable to complete it perfectly. I couldn’t combine the photos together so i just put it on top of each other using google docs.

Is It A Bird? Is It A Plane?

I combined pictures of birds with a picture of two planes. The idea of combining something living with something mechanical seemed really fun to me, so I kept that in mind while scrolling on Flickr. When I saw the planes, the natural next step was to find bird wings to replace the wings of the plane. The biggest challenge was the editing. Attaching the wings to the plane was a bit of a challenge and required some cropping, blending, and transforming. My final image conveys a plane with bird wings.

“Bird”
samuelrodgers752
Attribution (CC BY 2.0)
Edited

“Bird in blue sky”
Yuri Levchenko
Attribution (CC BY 2.0)
Edited

“bob hoover collection image”
SDASM Archives
No Known Collection Images
Edited

To Infinity and Beyond

When I was brainstorming for the pictures I wanted to use, I immediately thought of my home. At around six years old, I saw Taipei 101, the building in this combophoto, for the first time. The moment I lifted my head, I thought the building was endless and extended to the sky. With this memory, I combined the building with a picture of a rocket launching. During the process, it took me more time to find a suitable photo for the rocket launch. Most of the rocket pictures online did not fit with the building’s shape, making the aligning difficult. Luckily, I was able to find a suitable photo. My final image intends to convey the importance of reaching for the limit and exploring the unknown.

Photo Credits:

David. “Launch.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 15 Jun. 2006, http://www.flickr.com/photos/davids_digipix/167832681/in/photolist-fQbNV-dMu3AF-7cotgs-71BtcB-2dPQdQM-cELoYQ-29np7QJ-2p3aSAz-qyHAD3-7pehGt-acUP14-4Yun77-26ZwnZ7-duD8zu-omVxrc-2okuuVU-2g3uBor-2o64iCQ-974EiT-zpFaWy-eFWKT6-ob1xfA-2kpgJD6-dnSz3f-KXiMS-23v3EWd-2p3557w-5zTuQA-S5AXjR-2okpm2R-6aPKdL-2kE56Yj-nT499o-2jPaWt9-S5B68M-5SLLS9-2iByMCW-2mvgCc1-HT8Cpk-VAu8dt-2n8jvxP-2ip8pTT-Qqy2-2n4WtAZ-QN8dvS-L8Tdp6-71hENj-crJRF1-CLJC3-2hWjw2N.

My.travels. “[2818] Taipei 101, Taiwan.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 4 May 2022, http://www.flickr.com/photos/129345858@N02/52048064452/in/photolist-2niiWeA-KYckjH-JepDHX-252gNVX-9wVjq-BxCzFu-JWs7DL-UXTzzd-D9ZzQ4-iFmeV1-7rYAQy-2jW6o9p-cDsSQq-2m4xAkF-2hV5xLt-CcK8bf-2jsScZK-3Dw2V-8ovvhn-6L1rRw-UKCtGm-zbg5KD-28BEPW6-vCjCKk-PEVuy3-22MiLAb-2nYuMNR-DyiXxv-ETqC9g-9YWZ4f-m4swE1-2bK4HN5-b1tMsk-pUN9gL-HrcfYH-5m8RZ1-PPnRyV-2m2QzNw-J6157X-XM5k7R-2gWGt6r-PTGBc2-92KMw8-QNE9RL-25jFHFM-2mXNyT3-2hAVcAr-unhseR-Q85Fx4-rzM8X4.

Link to Prompt

Combophoto: Broccoli Tree

As someone who doesn’t particularly love vegetables, my favorite vegetable is broccoli. The inspiration for my combophoto popped up when I was out hang out on Saturday and I saw a large tree. On a whim, I visualized his canopy as a broccoli plant. Merging two items naturally is the toughest problem in combophoto. I tried to adjust the brightness and transparency of the broccoli in order to make it look less jarring. My final image aims to illustrate how we may use our imagination to connect seemingly unconnected elements of nature.

photo from: https://www.amazon.com/Broccoli-Seeds-Heirloom-Brassica-oleracea/dp/B096TBHWZD/ref=asc_df_B096TBHWZD/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=532859556718&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16870780359666689283&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9010926&hvtargid=pla-1508021944277&psc=1

https://images.app.goo.gl/J6hJjwrd3xzqxd3BA

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