Author: Bella

For this week’s final Sunday Sketch Assignment I chose to depict a diagram of a brain and the break down of components that I have obtained over these past few months. I represented each of the learning outcomes and my own personal growth to demonstrate all of what I have been able to learn. I have development as a writer in several ways through all of the assignments we’ve done and picked up new techniques for reading and writing that will help me for a long time to come. The work that I have completed this semester fits into all of these learning outcomes because they are truly what I have been able to gain from this experience and this diagram of the brain represents the assimilation of each of them to my own mind as well.

For this week’s recreation of a movie assignment I chose to depict a scene from the classic movie- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. When I saw the picture of this particular scene I knew it be great to try to recreate. I already had the red sweatshirt and I saw a weird sloth stuffed animal hanging from my roommate’s bed that would make the perfect E.T., so I grabbed that and a basket from my residence hall lounge and hopped on some random bike for the picture. Ultimately, I think it turned out really great and I had a lot of fun completing this assignment.

A few weeks ago I took a trip down to Florida to spend the day at Disney World with my sister, my mom, my mom’s friend, and her children. As someone who isn’t used to being around many children, it often got very tiresome listening to their arguing, complaining, and just overall incompetence. Throughout the day, one of the children continuously fell behind our group as we traveled through the busy park and eventually we could no longer find her. Her mother rightfully began freaking out and searching all over the surrounding area. Five or ten minutes later when we were about ready to send out a full search and rescue party she nonchalantly walked back up to us with a turkey leg in her hand and not a care in the world. When trying to decide on a story for my comic I thought back to this moment with the suspense and unexpected ending and knew it would be the perfect one to share. Having a very limited space to recreate this story I wanted to focus on the overall progression of the events. I centered in on the initial reactions, the development of the settings, and the unanticipated ending that arose. The Tell a True Story Assignment gave me the opportunity to look back at the past few weeks and find the event which would best be framed into a comedic short comic. I really enjoy this particular memory and thus this assignment as well.

The creation of this visual poem has been my favorite assignment to date. I’ve always loved blackout poems and the idea of recycling the innovation of others into new and unique pieces of work. I have no idea what the real page had said before, but it is completely irrelevant because this is now something original and different that the author assisted me in creating. I chose statements in the original text that interested me and connected to one another in a compelling way. I feel that the poem I was able to form from this is actually quite strong and works well in context. Even though none of the lines had any relation in the original text they now come together to provide a new story and a deeper meaning to the page.

Painting is a very cathartic outlet for me. I do not consider myself to be very good, but it is something that I could do for hours on end and take pride in the work I complete even though it is no Van Gogh. This week’s assignment may have taken a little longer than usually for me because once I start painting it is difficult for me to find the proper place to stop without wanting to add more and more. The toughest part for me was ensuring the background words were adequately covered and keeping the paint off the words of my poem. Unfortunately, some paint seeped onto parts of my poem which I think lessens the effect and neatness of the work. However, overall I am pleased with the outcome and had an extremely enjoyable time putting my time and effort into the assignment this week. This Sunday Sketch allowed me to think creatively, utilize a medium that we have not had the chance to work with yet, and have fun in doing so.

When I first started with my quadriptych, I did not know what kind of storyline it was going to turn into. I started with drawing my cartoon man and began wondering what antics he could possibly get into with just four panels. After much deliberation, I recognized the fact that boys are dumb and should often face consequences because of that. Thus, the story of a forgotten anniversary turned hospital trip was formed. This was much different than creating my triptych because I felt as if I was creating my own story rather than just turning an image into a punchline. This type of comic allows room for extra detail because of the fourth panel and that turns the story into more of a process. I enjoyed having the extra panel because I was able to take a closer look into the story and create a more detailed explanation of the plot. This week’s Sunday Sketch assignment, gave me the opportunity to tell a story of mistakes and unfortunate consequences that may follow. The man should’ve remembered his anniversary, but his unpreparedness led him to spending this special day in the bed of a hospital. He really should have just stuck with chocolate.

It all starts off with my adorable, efficient, and very reasonably priced pink book bag that I acquired from late night shopping on Instagram sale ads. The next most important feature is my handy MacBook, which I subtly coerced as a gift from my grandma and could definitely not live without here in college. Along with this, my book bag holds all the necessary requirements for my course load this semester. Things such as, my PACE workbook, the It’s Your Health booklet (a $25 scam more like it), and my trusty planisphere for all my astronomical desires. My bright yellow notebook and my very efficient accordion folder, that keeps my resume on deck for any opportunity, are also utilized for every single one of my classes. My bag contains my calculator, writing utensils, and colored pencils for any emergency or creative outburst that may arise. We also have my AirPods decorated with stickers to demonstrate the love and importance that they hold in my heart because I do not go anywhere without them, along with my Emory ID and wallet which is an essential item to have at all times on this campus. Finally, I carry in my bag the best present I have ever in my life received which is my reusable straw (we have to save the turtles people!).

I believe this image does a fairly good job at representing who I am. It shows the dedication I have to my education, the planet, and all the good deals on Instagram. All things which are obviously equally important. Crafting this self-portrait was not too difficult a task for me to complete. I did not remove or add anything from this image because I believe all these objects hold value and portray my day to day life in the most accurate way possible. I appreciate symmetry and did my best to arrange my self-portrait here in a way that was organized and pleasing to me. This kind of self-evaluation is definitely a type of writing in itself. These items represent who I am, what I believe, and what I value just like my writing does. I did not find this assignment challenging because like my writing, the most important aspect was the truth and the authenticity of me as a writer or creator in this world.

While trying to create my triptych comic I went through dozens of A Softer World webcomics for inspiration. I saw that the majority of the comics were often just normal images with unexpected jokes in the last panel. With that, I continued to search on Flickr for any images that I believe could tell a story or that could relate to a darker and humorous punchline. When I saw this image of the elderly citizens casually sipping coffee and chatting, it reminded me of my late grandfather who always had quite a dark sense of humor. He lived with me for almost a year before his passing because of the severe dementia he suffered from, but he always managed to brighten up our days with inappropriate jokes and antics. I made this comic with him in mind because it is the same kind of inappropriate statement that he would have said to someone if it hadn’t been him in the other chair.

Creating the composition of the comic was not too hard to do. I simply split the entire image into three separate panels and added gutter spaces in-between before adding the text. The most challenging part of the assignment was trying to come up with the joke itself. I wanted it to be a little dark, but still funny. However, I’m honestly not sure if I quite accomplished that. It’s funny to me, but that may be because dementia actually does run in my family and this situation is very ironic in the scheme of my life. This type of comic is very different from the others we’ve done in class. I felt as if I wasn’t necessarily creating my own story, but merely replacing one that the image provided to me. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to change the storyline of the picture into a more humorous situation and crafting this strip was pretty fun for me. Both the image I used and the assignment prompt that formed this comic strip can be found here.