Comic Creator's Journal

[kelseypluscomics-blog]

Discovery Task 10 These are my thumbnails so far. Very rough, but it helped to start putting the pieces together to know how I was going to develop my "don't shop, adopt" argument. I have to admit...I just presented on my capstone project for another class last night so these didn't get as much attention as I would have liked. However, that's over now and I can devote my time to this comic - yay!

[kelseypluscomics-blog]

In Class Worshops, Day 2

Reflection

Now that I had a basic idea, I was ready to discuss my project more seriously with my group this time. I was happy to switch groups to hear from a different group of students, especially since their advice was so different from my first group.

For instance, I relayed that I was struggling on how to begin the story - should I dive right into the “don’t shop, adopt” argument? Should I explain the narrator, my dog, immediately instead? Help! Thankfully, Stephan and Emily had some great suggestions. They said I should begin by introducing the narrator’s story and showing her perky, puppy personality. Then, lead into the argument by having her assert that she’s a great dog, AND a rescued pet. Then, I can let my argument develop from there and have a credible narrator (who knew my dog could be credible!).

Further, my group suggested that I weave the statistics I planned to include into a story. That way, it came off more friendly and less like an “Arms of an Angel” shelter commercial. 

As for my groupmates, I thought they were great! They each had interesting commentary topics, so I was grateful that they let me contribute to their ideas. I do hope I get to work with them again, because I found today’s workshop to be extremely helpful!

[kelseypluscomics-blog]

In-Class Workshops, Day 1

Reflection

This first workshop was a little bit rough. I was still unsure about my topic, but was positive I was going to use my dog as the narrator. I’m pretty lame and my dog is awesome - that’s all I have to say about that. Anyway, I have to give a big thanks to Jordan, Hayley and Rachel for guiding the discussion because I had no idea what I wanted to do! I had the narrator down, but wasn’t sure what the message was. Thanks to questions like “who do you want to read this?” and “how would this look in a panel layout?” I was able to narrow down my focus to a message: Don’t Shop, Adopt! My dog is a rescue, and thanks to my group’s prompting I was able to decide that this would become a commentary piece, narrated by Sadie, arguing for pet adoption. 

I can’t speak for my group members, but I do think the workshop was a success. I think I was also able to help them build more concrete ideas like they did for me!

[kelseypluscomics-blog]

Discovery Task 9

For my final project, I think I’m leaning toward an argument for rescuing dogs vs. adopting. Why? Because I am a crazy dog person, and of all the dogs I’ve had in my life so far (16 or so), the best ones have been rescues. Plus, there’s a dire need to rescue animals. They’re being put to sleep in the millions each year in shelters.

So, I figured I’d use my dog Sadie as the protagonist of this comic. She’s a rescue, obviously. She’s also a German Shepherd/Corgi mix, which is hilarious on its own because her body has no idea how to look. She has HUGE ears and tiny stub legs, but a really long body and tail - it’s great. Here’s my sketches!

[kelseypluscomics-blog]

Discovery Task #8

Maps & Diagrams

I’ve been thinking about this assignment all weekend and couldn’t figure out what kind of map/diagram to make. Then I had to make a trip on I-4. 

That was that.

[kelseypluscomics-blog]

Final Project: more brainstorming!

I’ve scrapped all my ideas ten times. Am I doing this right? I think it’s funny to look back on what I thought I wanted my final project to be. Now, I’m wrestling with too many other ideas and am having trouble narrowing it down.

First I should note that I don’t want to extend my adaptation project as my final. After much stress and work, I was not happy with how it came out, no matter how many times I drew it. I’d rather start fresh with a new idea and let my creativity spout from there – especially since adapting an article came with its own set of limitations.

Since my last post and since we’ve been given the final project handout, here’s some topics I’ve thought about tackling:

Why you should care what people think

Real Life vs. Life on Social Media

“So you just play on Facebook all day?” and other things you hear as digital marketing specialist

A history of the world through beer

Crying Wolf + Why it penalizes real victims

How to Add Humor to Anything

When It’s time to Grow Up

•How to Make College Mean Something

All working ideas with working titles, but it’s a start! I’m sure I’ll think of twenty more by the morning. Until then, I know one thing for sure: I want to incorporate photos with my drawings. I’ve been unhappy with my drawn-comics lately, but I’m something of a photo-artist (or so I’ve been told. I’ll let my camera take the credit for that). So, I want to put some photos in with my work to let my strengths balance my weaknesses. Then maybe I’ll be satisfied with my final project!

[kelseypluscomics-blog]

Things I’ve Learned/Things to Steal

After we discussed Hyperbole and a Half in class, I fell down the rabbit hole. I don’t think there’s a single comic left of hers that I haven’t read now. I love the idea of the “bad art” comic. This could be because I’m a not a great artist, but mostly, I like the idea behind it. Allie Brosh designed her character to look as she does because that’s how she said she felt during depression. It makes sense. I like that instead of just the character reflecting the mood and tension one feels, it’s the art itself that takes the form. She even took to this style and redrew her comics to look – as she put it – worse if the situation called for it. I want to develop my own art style that is distinctly my own. I wish it could be as recognizable and purposeful as some of our creators. I even envy my fellow classmates as I scroll through tumblr and see posts that are so recognizably their own. So, I suppose I’m not sure what I want to steal exactly, as having a style that is distinctly my own will have to be created. Until that happens, I suppose I’ll embrace the idea of bad art and then see how it goes from there!

[kelseypluscomics-blog]

My Evolving Process

My process continues to adapt and change, but it did so drastically once the adaptation project arrived. As I’ve stated before, I’m used to using my black pen and adding highlights with my colorful Sharpies, but never straying far from than that. However, the topic of my adaptation project was much more serious that anything else I’ve done. I tasked myself with covering an issue of domestic violence. For this reason, I found my signature pens just wouldn’t do. I instead turned to colored pencils to add onto what I could portray on the page. Speaking of which – I’m getting increasingly more frustrated with my work. It’s getting to the point where I put off my assignment/project/discovery task until I MUST finish it, because I don’t like how my ideas are forming on the page. I’ve never faced this before. I think it might be due to the fact that I have spent an increasing amount of time on the brainstorming stage and have higher hopes for my work as we progress through the semester. I used to just put the pen to the page with my idea after a moment of thinking, but now it takes me (what seems like) eons to mull over my subject and sketch my ideas before I decide on which one to commit to. I feel like I’m working in reverse, but I’m sure it has more to do with the pressure of the project than anything. I’m hoping it was just first-big-assignment-nerves, so that when the final project rolls around I can calm down, collect my thoughts, and let the creativity flow. Please process, go easy on me this time around!

[kelseypluscomics-blog]

Talking Heads In this comic, you can see a conversation my group and I creepily eavesdropped on. The best part was that the girl who was answering the questions was not interested in helping at all. That poor kid was freaked out. I thought it was interesting how our group interpreted this so many different ways. I focused on the people, where as another member focused on the background - and another thought the girl was actually a guy! Different perspectives really do lend a hand to interpretation.

[-hope-for-the-hopeless-]

[kelseypluscomics-blog]

Discovery Task #6

For this week’s task, we were asked to travel somewhere new. Well, my ambition said, “Hey Kelsey, let’s try to draw your experience at Halloween Horror Nights!” ....bear with me.

I hadn’t been to Halloween Horror Nights since high school, and all the haunted houses were new to me. I thought I’d try to tackle one of these, which turned out to be difficult and also EXTREMELY TERRIFYING. My method of approach was to take as many photos as possible and draw with great detail later. That is, of course, until I waded through the house wide-eyed and afraid to take my focus off of my surroundings. I needed to be prepared for anyone that might jump out at me and try to kill me, you know?

Anyway, I thought I’d have to try to do a different place since I didn’t take a single photo, but after “The Purge” house, I made a few notes in my phone of what I saw, and was actually able to recall quite a bit from my experience. I think that this is because the folks at Universal take great care to create every dark and dreary detail. You’re not just in the house, you’re a part of the horror of it all. There isn’t just fake blood-writing on the wall, there’s also water raining down on you to make it feel like the blood is coming at you (gross, but cool I guess). 

The hardest part of this comic was trying to display what it was like to experience the strobe light, as seen on the third row of panels. This part of the house blinded me and I could only make out a few shapes as they propelled toward me. As far as backgrounds and foregrounds go, this effect in itself was something crazy, because it added more tension to the set up of the house. Everything in the house was eerily familiar, yet they added the strobe to throw off your senses so you couldn’t get too comfortable. 

I also thought the serene fountain was fun to include, because it was like “Wow, how pretty! This isn’t so ba-AHHHHH THEY’RE KILLING THE PROM QUEEN! RUN AWAY!”

[dallasclayton]

Kindness in the longest lines

[kelseypluscomics-blog]

Discovery Task 5 - Imitation Comic

For the imitation comic, I chose Ziggy! I loved these comics as a kid, even if I didn’t understand them...mostly because I thought Ziggy was adorable. In fact, I think I have a stuffed Ziggy toy in a box in my parent’s attic. I digress.

I chose this comic because Ziggy seemed relatively easy to draw, and because I was fresh off viewing a political recap on the news when I came across this panel. I liked the message, so I went with it (because really...why spend all that cash?!). 

I think for Ziggy, the simple lines and easy-to-draw character are what make his messages matter. The function of a simple comic man seems more appropriate than a more ornate drawing because we relate to him and inject our own features into this character. The average person probably does question the excessive amounts of money spent by political candidates, as we’ll never see amounts that high in our whole life. By making simple Ziggy ask the question, it prompts the viewer to side with him and wonder why politicians do something so crazy.

As for taking the comic and making it my own, I found it fairly easy. However, the hand of my Kelsey-Ziggy is pretty shameful. Actually, just ignore it if you can. It’s hideous.

[kelseypluscomics-blog]

Final Project Ideas

Now that I’m in my final semester of college with graduation on the horizon, I’ve spent quite a bit of time reflecting on my college career. I keep coming to the same conclusion – my college experience was not what I expected, but instead it exceeded my expectations and led me to a path that I never would have thought possible. Therefore, one of my strongest ideas for my final project would be to put together a comic about the expectations versus realities of college life. I’d draw from my own experiences, stereotypes from the media, interviews with other students, etc.

Then begs the question – how would I do it? I love the idea of a wordless comic, but I don’t think this form would satisfy its function. However, I might pull from the photojournalism method of The Photographer and combine drawings with photos…depending on what messages I decide to focus on. I figured my audience for this project would be something along the lines of fellow college students and incoming freshmen.

Of course, I have another idea, and because I love my dogs…the idea is to make a comic about a day in the life of my dogs. I know this sounds pretty lame, but don’t tune out yet. For this type of comic, I’d aim for an audience of people who are looking to owning a pet. Why? Well, as I’ve grown older I’ve noticed a trend in people who buy pets and give them up shortly after. They treat their animals like disposable property – not living beings. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard about a family putting a dog in the pound to meet his demise, only because they no longer wanted him. I think humanizing pets and showing them as living, breathing beings with personalities could affect the audience I have in mind. Then, if I chose to do this, I have the idea on how to display it as a wordless comic.

We’ll see, though. There’s still time for me to change my mind completely.

[kelseypluscomics-blog]

Things I Like, Things to Steal

One of the comics I’ve found most powerful is the excerpt from Building Stories that we were assigned to read. As we discussed in class, and as McCloud has stated in his book, wordless comics can resonate with people the most at times. I’ve found this to be true myself, as the mother in Building Stories demonstrated this for me as best as any comic could. You see, that character reminds me of my own mom, and myself at time (I’m a part-time nanny). I can identify with her emotions of tiredness and frustration when you’re with a young child, as well as joy and happiness as they light up your life. I can’t lie though, I called my mom after reading this piece, because I recently moved out and I felt like I was reading the story of my mother. I imagined her as the character from the story; so happy around me and so sad when I’m gone.

I think the wordless comic is a method I’d like to steal. These are such powerful creations. After the discovery task where we created a worldess comic of our own, I realized this was the creation that I liked the most. My message wasn’t limited to what words I could fit into speech bubbles, but instead let me place as many images on the page as I wanted, and it left me with a great story. So, I’m going to steal the worldless comic again and try that again for future assignments. I’ve become a big fan.

[kelseypluscomics-blog]

My Evolving Process

With each assignment, I start with a few minutes of brainstorming. I use a pencil or my good ol’ Paper Mate FLAIR to sketch out some ideas. When I have a direction, I turn to a fresh page in my sketchbook and get to work. Originally, I was drawing with a pencil and tracing it with my pen, but that’s changed. I found I like my work more when I just tackle the page with my drawing pen.  Usually, the pictures come to mind first. If I want to add text to a frame, I leave some room when drawing. I never decide on the words I want to add until I commit them to paper. I think I like it better this way, as I’m matching the words to the scene, instead of the other way around.

Then, at the end, I like to add pops of color to different aspects of my comic with my Sharpe color pens. To me, these pops of color make the comic look more appealing. It saves it from being black, white and boring, and accentuates certain details that could be overlooked. For instance, in my wordless comic, I used blue and green highlights to show water and bubbles in a bathtub. These colors help draw a contrast between the toddler in the bathtub and the scene around him. Plus, these colors contribute to the mood of the scene. The whimsical bubbles of different colors in the wordless comic shows the happy scenes of a child at bath time.

I notice that my comic process differs from my writing process, because when I’m creating comics, I spend more time planning. When I write, the words just flow because I’m used to it and I love to do it. I’ve found that I enjoy creating comics too, but the ideas don’t flow like words do. I think that comes from the limitations I have when drawing and showing what I’d like the reader to see – it’s not like writing where you can just describe, you have to show too. Aside from the photo comic, which was an all-day activity for me (because of the subject I chose), each comic process takes about and hour from the start of the pen to paper, to the final product. Of course, I spend time brainstorming the ideas as I go about my day, but those are fluid.

My process is continuing to evolve as we progress through the semester!

[kelseypluscomics-blog]

Discovery Task #4 | Moving Day Photo Comic

In this photo comic, I decided to document our moving day. My brother and his girlfriend just bought a home, and our family was helping to move them into it. By “helping,” I mean my dad and my brother did 90% of the work while I took photos for this comic and my mom and almost-sister-in-law “directed.” I wanted to document the hard-working nature of my dad and my brother, as they did almost all of the moving themselves and it was quite the process. You can see my exhausted dad toward the end, enjoying his well deserved pizza.

I think the hardest part of this exercise was to collect enough images to display what I was trying to show the reader...then assemble them in an order that made a story. I think the contrasting photos in the middle that show the truck’s emptiness are a good indicator of the time frame. Then, the picture of my dad on the floor at the end is the one that ties it all together - showing how hard he worked and how exhausting moving can be. It was hard though! I find that drawing my comics makes it easier to get the point across because I can control the situation and have a narrator guide the reader’s thoughts. Still though, this was an interesting project. I enjoyed it!

Oh...and for fun, I added a comic book filter and the time titles. I thought it made the comic look cooler.