Hiders and Seekers
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Do it for the Pic
Disclaimer: I would never just “do it for the pic”. My quadriptych process began with me thinking I would draw something, but when I sat down to draw, I had no idea what story to tell. Instead, I decided to once again refer to my camera roll to guide my storytelling. When I came across these photos of my best friend and me hiking during our Spring break lacrosse trip in Nevada, I knew I could make a joke out of the spooky hole in the ground. In the middle two panels, I wanted to do a spin-off of the motif in horror movies in which typically white people make the dumbest decisions and put themselves in imminent danger. In my last panel I changed the theme because even though I did hike underground in the volcanic tubes (which was an amazing experience), it would be too satisfying and underwhelming to show the reader what was inside the tube. The reader wants to know what is down there, lost cities, secret rivers, etc. when it is just tunnels and tunnels of rock formations to that are fun to wiggle through. I chose to go with the theme of my generation’s shallow social media lifestyle where we like to plan entire adventures just to post pictures and make it seem like our lives are cool. Normally, I forget to take pictures, but sometimes the lifestyle catches up to me and I just have to get that one perfect picture.
This is different than a triptych because I had to create a more concrete storyline which in general made the entire process more difficult. My greatest struggle was putting all of the pictures in a four-square formation because I couldn’t figure out the column format the was recommended in the assignment post.
Isaac's Thoughts 2019-10-20 13:43:20
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A Visual Representation Of What Not To Do
The plot of this comic was fairly easy to craft because the story it depicted was fresh on my mind. It just so happened that earlier this week I got into a boarding accident that shattered my phone screen. And with every passing day I’m reminded of my accident as I struggle to view any and all content through my phone.
Recreating the story in a four panel comic was slightly more difficult because I wasn’t sure what aspect of the story was worth a panel. With only four panels to capture the entire incident, each page had to be substantive. Therefore, I decided that setting the scene was very important so I took two panels to make sure the reader was aware of what conditions I was skating under in the story. It also required a bit of thought when figuring out how to illustrate the crash. A lot happened in a very short period of time so I felt the best way to capture the overall moment was to give an overarching perspective of how the crash ended. The final panel was used to portray the damage caused to my phone. One might think that the crash would be the grand finale and that might’ve been the case if I’d seriously gotten injured. However the price I’ll have to pay to get a new phone is what hurts the most.
To-Do or Not To-Do
By
Ja’Mya Yancey
This Sunday Sketch simply displays what runs through my mind as I slowly approach midterms. I hit the weekend with so much hope and so much relief and I know that I have so much to do still. Yet, somehow I end up on my beanbag chair with food in front of me watching some waste-of-time movie on Netflix instead of doing work or studying. The inner scholar in me is represented by the angel, and the inner scholar in me is often disappointed by my actions.
At first I had no idea what to create for this assignment because I hate having to draw something. But I honestly knew I had no other choice. Once I found out what I wanted to do, I couldn’t help but laugh because it was like drawing a comic about myself. The entire time I continuously giggled at the fact that this is exactly how it happens in my mind. I still have to study for midterms, and I have two in one day, but I could bet that after I finish this assignment the cycle is going to continue. I’m often extremely organized but following through with my lists and schedules is still something I have to work on.
Tracing Pages Reflection
A preview of my essay’s argument:
“Comics allow an author to control the visual information drawn by the cartoonist to better convey characters’ motivations and focus, while panel layout and framing captures characters’ strained and startled feelings. By formulating their memoirs as a graphic novel, rather than an alphabetic text, Small and Walden successfully immerse the reader in the emotions and experiences of the protagonists, granting her a more authentic experience of the trauma in the narrative.”
The process of tracing a page from each of the books was a unique experience that allowed me to meditate on the visual techniques employed by the cartoonists before delving into annotating and analyzing the pages. During the annotation step, I found that rather than trying to come up with things to say, I was just writing down all the things I had noticed when I was tracing the pages. Thus the process of tracing pages helped my analysis come to me more naturally.
Since this was my first time writing an inductive essay, I struggled a lot with keeping track of the overall direction of my essay. Without an outline, I couldn’t tell when I was straying too far from my argument, which led to much more time spent editing later on in the writing process. The hardest step for me was combining my two topic sentences into a thesis, since in a typical essay I’ve written I begin with a general thesis and merely have to tweak it after solidifying my topic sentences.
This assignment gave me greater insight into the “secret language of comics” because it granted me the opportunity to conduct in depth analysis of the visual techniques and patterns cartoonists use to tell their narratives. Moreover, I got to consider the unique properties of comics that allow authors to most effectively capture their experience with trauma. I now have a more developed idea of how I might utilize the artistic resources of comics when I produce my own comic from my literacy narrative. An specific insight I gained into Stitches was that while I had previously known there were images in the background from another part of the story, I had no idea it was an entire trace of another page.
Click here to see my essay
Click here to see the assignment prompt
Allstate, what’s in your wallet? Erm, I mean bag…
Sunday Sketch #6
Laptop: I carry this one around incase I get bored and want to watch youtube in my classes… In all seriousness, however, my laptop is probably my most important tool I keep in my bag. I use it everyday to do schoolwork, homework, etc. Without this, I would really struggle to get through my day.
Notebook: My notebook is full of messy notes and messier doodles. The contents of my notebook represent what I’ve learned so far at Emory. Without it, I would have a really hard time studying for my bio tests…
Pens/Pencils: For someone who has really messy handwriting, it seems like I have a lot of writing utensils. Although I don’t use my pen/pencil as much as I used to in high school, I still like to carry them around as it makes me feel prepared.
Cough Drops: You never know when you’re going to need a cough drop. That’s my whole reasoning.
Chapstick: Nobody likes chapped lips. Just take a tube of it wherever you go.
Water Bottle: “Hydrate or Die-drate”, that’s something my swim coach always used to tell me. I always make sure I carry around my water bottle now as drinking water is effective at washing out toxins and other bad things in your body. Plus, nothing tastes better than a cold, crisp sip of water!
Snacks: Keeping up those calories! I always try to make sure I carry around snacks because I know that I lose concentration when I’m hungry
Phone Charger: Probably my most important item… I always keep a spare phone charger in my bag because it seems that my phone always dies at the worst times, so, keeping a phone charger is a simple solution to combat that!
When looking at the contents of my bag, I really do think that it reflects who I am as a person. I try not to carry anything that’s unnecessary, mostly because it would just make my bag heavier. When creating the actual image, I decided to separate the picture of the bag from the contents because when I originally laid out the bag next to contents of the bag, the image became very messy. The most challenging part of this assignment was laying out my stuff in a way that looked aesthetically pleasing.
