The Secret Language of Comics: Visual Thinking and Writing

I had a difficult time coming up with an original idea for my own combo photo. I thought that all of the examples given were very unique and noticed that many of my favorites had a picture of the sky as one of the two pictures utilized. I looked through the pictures on my phone for a while to determine if any two pictures would fit together. I considered searching for pictures on the internet, but ultimately decided to stick with my own photos since I didn’t have an idea about what I would be searching for. While looking through my pictures, I came across a picture of green hills taken in Monte Verde, Costa Rica. I settled on this image because most of the space was taken up by the hills but the very top captured some of the sky. I realized that I would be able to attach a photo of the sky to the top of this photo without it looking too unrealistic. I found a picture of a rainbow taken in Tallahassee, Florida. I recognize that my combo photo does not look as clever as do the professional examples that we were given to model off of, but I like that I could combine the atmospheres of two completely different parts of the world and visually display the idea that “the world is a small place.”

This Sunday sketch was definitly one of my favorite ones so far. Mainly becasue of the immediate excitement I had when it was first introduced. I had so many ideas and ways of completing this assignment. Unlike in past assignments, coming up with an idea was definitly not the challenge. In the end, I was deciding between three or four different ideas. The challenge, however, was trying to find the right pictures on the internet that would go well together when cropped. Although I loved my idea, in the end, I was a little annoyed becasue I did not think my editing job lived up to the idea I had in my head. However, the message I was trying to convey was still there. In my image, I tried to display the difficulties and struggles of living a healthy life style. The main reason I used a unicycle oppose to a normal bike, was because I wanted to show the importance of balance. Just becasue you are trying to be healthy doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a slice of pizza or some other reward. There are too many people that starve themselves and don’t understand the proper ways to diet.

(Sunday Sketch #4)

Creating this photo was a lot more straight forward than I had previously thought it would be. I expected it to be very hard to edit 2 different photos together, but the hardest part of the project was actually finding two things to combine in one photo. Originally, I wanted to take a picture of a building and have something lean up against it, such as a ladder or person. As I was walking around, however, I came across a clock tower and thought that it had a lot more potential to be used in my photo. I sat down for a while and brainstormed what I could use the clock tower for, when I realized it kind of looked like a faucet coming out of the ground. So, I edited the clock tower into a faucet.

I think that this image conveys creativity and demonstrates that everyday things that you see can be used to create something totally different.

When I saw the example photographs by Stephen Mcmennamy I knew that I wanted to choose pictures that could tell a story on their own. After thinking about two things that could work together, I stared out of the window of the Student Center while looking at my friend’s face and thought about the idea of their eyes telling a story. I chose the title Windows To The Soul because a person’s face, more importantly their eyes, are able to tell you so much about the struggles and life that they had to persevere through.

Some challenges that I faced while editing my photo were that PicMonkey kept crashing and freezing. I think my final image is able to convey that a person’s physical appearance can only tell you so much about their lifestyle, while their inner thoughts and emotions can only be tapped through looking someone in the eyes and having thought-provoking conversations.

I expected this week’s Sunday Sketch to be much harder than it was. Having this photo editing assignment hanging over my head all week as I stressed about midterms was nerve-wracking. I was worried about having enough time and energy at the end of the week to put in the necessary amount of effort. However, because I spent nearly every waking minute this weekend cramming for two back to back exams, this Sunday Sketch felt like a much-needed break as it turned out to be the least intense academic work I had to do this weekend.

The idea behind ‘Mary Poppins Parachute’ came to me at the end of a 30-minute-long brainstorming session in Woody’s dining hall at 9:30pm as I consumed my first proper meal of the day – chicken strip sandwich with a side of seasoned fries. When I proposed the idea to my friend and dedicated NBB 201 and Bio study partner, she exclaimed, “Oh! You ‘bout to make a whole new Mary Poppins,” hence the title. Altogether, I’m thoroughly pleased with how my photo came out. I was not sure I would be able to blend two pictures separated with a straight edge crop as well as I did. The blue sky backgrounds work well together giving the entire photo a cohesiveness that adds to the editing’s realism. Finding images that blended well together was undoubtedly the most challenging aspect of the editing.