I thought the most challenging part of this sketch was planning the plot since I had little inspiration. Compared to the triptych, the quadriptych provided me with more freedom and space to explain a story. I could include more details and add an extra panel to explain the process, which in my opinion makes the story more complete. My idea came up when I watched one of my friends practice skateboarding. He was trying to flip the skateboard, and in one of the tries, his skateboard flew out while his body remained at the same spot. The sight made all of us laugh, so I thought drawing out this scenario would be interesting.
My friend group and I have been debating whether Burger King is good or not. Personally, I don’t think Burger King is good at all, but some of my friends disagree. This sketch is meant to depict how people should be “embarrassed” of eating Burger King( joking of course).Instead of utilizing a photo like i did for my triptych, I decided to sketch because I’ve gotten used to it since my first storyboard and it feels more comfortable. Thinking about how to stretch the middle section wasn’t too tough because my approach was basic enough, and it created a dramatic waiting effect.
In the beginning, I thought that this version of making a comic would be easier than the triptych, but in reality, it was more difficult. Because in the triptych, you knew that each comic frame represented something, the beginning, middle, and end, but there was just an extra frame for the quadriptych. For me, it was quite difficult to find a use for this frame, as it was difficult to find a use for the extra frame because I did not want to be repetitive and I also wanted to avoid starting another plot, knowing that there was no way I could fit another story in just four frames. I decided to do my comic about camping because this fall break, I am going camping for the second time ever in the Great Smoky Mountains, but the first time I went camping, it was not the greatest experience. We took a 3-day trip, and the first day went great because the sun was out all day and the weather was beautiful. But the next day was terrible, as there were thunderstorms all day, dramatically worsening the whole experience. The rain sucked all the fun out of the experience, and the first thought that entered my mind was that I wished we had just booked a hotel.
Personally, I enjoyed creating the Quadriptych more than I did the Triptych. I think the biggest reason for this was because I had more space, therefore providing me with more freedom to craft a full story.
I found my inspiration for this comic while I was eating lunch in the DCT. I noticed that the majority of students were eating one of two things: salad and pizza. I love both of these foods for different reasons, and I thought it would be funny to showcase a “pick me” war between a salad and a pizza (my guess is the pizza would win, as I feel like it is generally a more popular food option).
Because the Quadriptych was a panel longer, I had the opportunity to use a technique I’ve seen throughout Stitches: reader expectation. Of course, this comic doesn’t have a page turn, but the audience is still forced to wait with the salad for the end result of the comic, which unfortunately doesn’t turn out in the salad’s favor. I think it’s amusing for the reader to be in suspense alongside a literal bowl of salad over a situation that is quite silly when you think about the story as a whole. I guess you could call this comic a “food fight”? (I’m sorry, I had to put another pun in there!)
This assignment allowed me to show more creative freedom in both my drawing/artistic skills and my methods of storytelling/creative writing.
You’ve made a one-panel image with your avatar, combined two images with your combophotos, and made a traditional three-panel comic like those that used to dominate the Sunday funnies sections of newspapers. This week, I’d like you to make a 4-panel comic like the ones that are currently dominating web comics.
As Peter Rubin argues in Wired, “Four-panel strips have been a fixture since early 20th-century newspaper comics like Mutt and Jeff and the concomitant appearance of yonkoma (“four-cell”) manga in Japan. It’s the perfect three-act-structure: You start at one end, develop conflict in the middle two panels, and resolve with a punch line at the end. But thanks to a number of factors—not least of which is the rise of Instagram and Reddit—a gridded, two-by-two variant has come to dominate the internet.” Notice that the four-panel comic, Rubin claims, still has a three-act structure.
Then make your own four-panel square comic. Just like with your triptych, you should still focus on telling a story with a beginning, middle, and end and you are still free to use photographs or to draw in whatever style you’d like. Focus, again, on compact, playful storytelling.
You can combine the four images into a single one or you can publish them to your post as separate images. In order to create a square in the WordPress block structure, you’ll simply need to add 2 “columns” blocks to your post and then hover over the top of each column block to add an image.
Step one: Add a Columns layout block
Step two: Add an image to each block
Column blocks are found in the “Layouts” section of the block selector. They allow you to format your blog posts with columns, to which you can add images or paragraphs of text or embed other elements and so on.
Like with your triptych, add a paragraph of text reflecting on your quadriptych comic. Describe the composition process a little bit. What was challenging about this assignment? How is crafting this sort of comic strip different or similar to the triptych? How was it different to have the middle act stretch across two panels rather than one? Why did you tell the kind of story that you did?
