ENGRD101.01. Fall 2023. Emory University
For my quadriptych comic, I started with the first panel being the opening image, then moved onto the next two panels being the conflict, and lastly, resolving the plot with the fourth panel. The construction of this plot felt a lot less restrictive than the triptych, as I had more space to communicate my story with more clear and detailed illustrations. Having the two middle panels to stretch my story allowed the storytelling to feel a lot less fast paced.
I made this comic about my fall break, and used photos to highlight some of the key moments of the weekend. One of the most challenging parts of the comic was finding the pictures I wanted to represent the weekend. I didn’t have many to choose from, as I didn’t take photos of everything I did that weekend. It was similar to the triptych, in the sense that it still had to be a short story. The extra panel in the quadriptych, however, helped to include more detail. Having an extra panel in the middle helped me include more details, and made the story feel more complete.
This sketch represents a hilarious reality that I have found myself in before. Though I am not ignorant enough to wonder why I am always tired while up at 3 AM, I have been up late on YouTube before and found myself watching a video about sleep or something similar. The expert in the video will mention the importance of quality sleep and how beneficial going to bed early is, and I often have an existential moment of irony where I realize I should not be watching this video at 3 AM. The funniest part is there are always people in the comment section of these videos who are also watching at ridiculous times. I believe this represents a deeper reality in which it is enjoyable for us as humans to see someone describing the life we want to be living, but do not truly care enough to make it happen.
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.
For this quadriptych, the process started with coming up with a story that I could tell in just 4 panels. I used a similar method to one I used in my triptych of hitting the reader with a surprise of sorts at the final panel after using the earlier panels to build into it and give the fourth panel more emphasis. I got the idea of ending with “Sir, this is Wendy’s” when I remembered seeing a comment under a social media post where this user had rambled on about something that I can’t remember now, to which someone replied, “Sir this a Wendy’s drive thru”. The whole concept of being hit with such a response after pouring your heart into communicating a message is something that I find humor in. I knew what I wanted the fourth panel to look like but I didn’t know what I wanted the preceding panels to illustrate. A challenge I faced in creating this quadriptych was figuring out how I could build into that final panel. It was kind of difficult stretching similar dialogue across the first three panels because I wanted to do so in a way that the audience doesn’t get bored of what they’re reading. I did so by trying to change the scene in which dialogue was taking place. This also helped to emphasize the duration of the character expressing his feelings just to realize that he was talking to a Wendy’s employee the whole time.
Just like the triptych comic, my idea came relatively quickly for this comic as it stemmed from traveling back home for fall break. However, the structure of forming the story took a lot longer than expected due to the extra panel. Unlike the triptych which has a panel per portion of the story- beginning, middle, and end, the extra panel within the quadriptych made the structure more confusing since it could be used within any portion of the story. I decided to use the extra panel between the middle and the end to give more emphasis on the change between the two characters to clearly convey the message of the story. The purpose of the story, which was to not take advantage of events within our lives, was to ensure that the simple idea of the story would not just be taken literally but used in all different aspects of life.
This assignment was inspired by my best friends, who has a strange compulsion: she likes to put things off until it is exactly at o’clock. This is actually a manifestation of procrastination. The biggest challenge of this assignment and the difference with triptych is that there is an extra panel, which I thought would make it easier to make the story clearer. But in fact, the four panels make us need to have abetter control of the structure of the story. I want to use this story to remind myself not to be a procrastinator all the time.
I struggled to think of ideas for this Sunday Sketch, but I knew I wanted to make it about a personal experience. Since I left campus for fall break, it seemed fitting to make it about home. The weather in Lexington has consisted rain and only rain which has made it difficult to do the things I wanted to do. This felt pretty similar to the triptych because it still has a clear beginning, middle and end. The only difference was being able to use two panels to focus on the conflict instead of one, which I preferred because it allowed for me to put more emphasis on the rain.
For me, making a quadriptych was more fun than the triptych. I got to plat around more with the story I wanted to tell, and I could have a mini “plot-twist” that built up to a resolution. Having two panels for the middle gave me more time to explain the “twist” rather than just having the reversal itself. I have been doodling a lot recently out of boredom from being sick, since looking at my laptop gave me a huge headache, so I drew some simple art with a pen for this piece.
