But, all things being equal, I’d rather be on winter break
Category: Student Posts
Feeding the Homeless
Reflection
This was an experience that I had less than a week before creating my comic. I had been very conflicted after this experience and wanted to reveal the story in a visual way. I had told this story to a few of my friends then realized that it would be a great idea to make my comic about this. Before drawing the comic, I made a rough draft. I drew out the panels for the first three pages. I had a lot of difficulty deciding what to do with the fourth page of this comic, so I started with the fifth page. For the fifth page, I wrote out a brief description of what I wanted to do with each panel. Then, after much deliberation, I decided to utilize the fourth page as a way to express my conflicted feelings rather than simply depicting the events exactly as they happened.
Thanksgiving Football: Sawyer Steinmiller
I am going to preface this by saying that I did this assignment late because I left extremely early for Thanksgiving break. I knew that I wanted my comic to be about something that happened on my trip back home. I knew that writing about my Thanksgiving football game would be the best idea because it was just about the only thing that I did besides taking care of family. Honestly, telling the story was not as hard as I thought it would be. This format of a comic was super easy and fun to use. I think the most important choice that I made when making this comic was how I revealed information through the size of the panel. The first couple panels set the scene, showing a football game. The next two panels reveal that its a high stakes play in a high stakes game with the scoreboard and crowd, and the fifth and final panel reveals that the whole scenario is in my mothers head, while she watches me face plant when trying to make a catch.
Welcome to the Sunken Place
This scene was taken from the movie Get Out and somewhat hard for me to recreate. The main difficulty came from trying to get the expression right and I still never actually did. My pictures always ended up in me either looking like I was yawning or I was very lost which in a way I was when doing this assignment. The only other struggle was the tears because the water dried up way too often so there was a lot of re-applying. Apart from this, I couldn’t find a good and similar background so just ended up using my dorm room and my head always seemed to be tilted a bit. Overall though, this was a pretty fun assignment not only to create but to also see other people’s outcomes as well.
“I Love You, Leon”
I watched Léon: The Professional a long time ago. Honestly, at first, I wasn’t thinking about recreating this scene at all since Mathilda (Natalie Portman) is a much younger girl with short hair. However, I ended up doing it because the scene was relatively easy to set up – all I need is a sad face, some tears, and a little bit of sunlight. That said, it took me such a long time to get it right. The idea of replacing the gun with a DCT banana was inspired by Banksy’s Pulp Fiction, which I think is pretty funny. With my ‘gun’ in hand and tears (eye drops) in eyes, I did my best to frown and cry but I could never make that complicated expression of hers. And when I finally got the tilt of my head and the position of my hand right, my artificial tears were drying up. Got nothing more to say but my respects to the 12-year-old Natalie Portman.
(Plus, I really enjoyed this assignment in the afternoon sun:))
Seeing and Being Seen ft. Queen and Slim
Over the break, I saw the movie “Queen and Slim” with my family. I watched it after an emotional experience, and then the movie only heightened my emotional fragility. I was moved. Even though I have my critiques, I must say that the visuals were stunning. I chose this iconic image for a few reasons: the movie was on my mind, my friend has a jacket that has the same neckline, and all you have to do to recreate the photo is look at another person. I know that I am white and do not have a car to sit on or a small animal print dress, but I feel the most important part of this image is what Queen glancing at Slim, and Slim’s cool glance at the camera tells about their complex and sudden relationship. It was a lot harder to recreate than I thought it would be because I couldn’t look at my friend without laughing. It felt uncomfortable to study someone’s face when they aren’t looking at you, but know that you are looking at them. Recreating this image helped to reinforce the emotions prevalent in this scene.
Sock Vader vs. Bread Kenobi
Yeah, I recreated what is one of my favorite scene in the Star Wars saga with a piece of bread and a sock. I know this duel gets knocked for its less than flashy action, but the quips and calm demeanor of Ben’s final moments are what sell it for me. And Luke’s ensuing “No!” and John Williams’ music are a cinematic embodiment of that Pacha meme.
Above is the image I used for reference. May the force be with you.
