The concept of a triptych seemed pretty familiar to me as I used to make similar small sketches back in middle school. At first, I decided on drawing my triptych, but apparently, I found out that my drawing skills had deteriorated significantly so I settled on a photo. The photo consists of me and my friends walking up a hill in the Khunjerab park in northern Pakistan. Taking into consideration that of how much we were out of shape and how much of a grueling hike it was, reaching the top of the hill was seen as a noteworthy achievement. Crafting a triptych was different for me in a way that this time out sketch had to have some form of a story. This assignment, to me, felt more like constructing a “comic strip” than what the other assignments did. The basic composition process was fairly simple, I divided the photo into three separate parts and used Snapchat to add text to it.
At the start of this weeks Sunday Sketch had me thinking for a long time. I really did not have a clue what I would use as a photo or what message I would convey. But I just took a second and scrolled through my camera roll and really looked to see what I could make out of some of them. Then I found this picture and it is both me in my element and me surrounded by those I love. To give more context to the photo itself, it was taken inside the dressing room for my high schools dance team which we were all a part of. The people in the photo are the other girls on the team who were in my particular grade. The night this was taken was Grammys night, a night where seniors perform as some celebrity and their background dancers can either be other seniors or underclassmen (which is where we stepped in). Since graduating I see that I really took moments like this for granted and pictures like this hit very close now.
The word choice I decided to use for this describes Renaissance High Schools Dance Workshop for the years I was on it. We all came from different backgrounds, different schools, different places within the state, but our bond was so close that none of that mattered and when we were together it was home. Before coming to the school and joining the team I would have never met any of these young women. Now it feels like I have known them my entire life. They bring nothing but joy into my life which is also represented in the image. We all came together with one purpose, dance. We developed one additional family for all of us and those to come.
Long list of spooky sources for this comedic comic collage at the bottom of the post.
This triptych comic took quite a lengthy amount of time for me to create. I was able to formulate the base idea rather early on after only an hour or so of pondering as I went about my day, but finding the right images to modify and cropping each picture as needed took the bulk of my efforts. I was able to use the PicsArt app for the mot of my editing needs, but for some reason the cat image would not work with the cutting tool, so I fell back onto the always-reliable-but-rather-quite-tedious eraser. Having to meticulously drag my finger across my little iPhone screen with attempted precision produced many mishaps and “undo” taps, but I finally succeeded in erasing the previous framing on my feline friend.
My goal was to create a comic which told a three-part story in one continuous space. The panels exist both simultaneously and episodically: an all-at-once perspective would show the three skeleton-animal interactions to be occurring concurrently in the same bar, yet each panel progresses from one to the next, giving a distinct 1-2-3 rhythm.
Reflecting on this comic, I rather like how the collage-combination turned out, and it brings me hope that I was able to create a comic whilst not being able to draw anything intelligible besides a stick figure!
A final look at this Frankenstein creation, accompanied by a that previously promised list:
This assignment inspired me to create something relatable as well as motivational. The idea of bars or being trapped came from the lines on the page and my inability to access the blank white paper. I didn’t want the lines to distract the audience from the message of the Triptych, so I found a way to incorporate them into the sketch. I also wanted to focus my drawing on the emotion in the face of the character. I felt as though I’d get more out of the project if I were able to highlight one attribute of the character instead of drawing an entire action scene with the whole body. Crafting this comic was different from the other writing I’ve done this semester because I didn’t have to think about the entire plot before beginning the process. I knew my constraints and the overall concept I wanted to convey, and I used those to shape the story as I drew each panel.
Lately, I’ve felt the pressure of Emory Univerisity and the impact it’s having on my peers is evident. I thought that this piece would be relatable because it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the immense amount of work that comes with an education from Emory. This three-panel comic encourages the audience to try to look at the pressure and responsibility from a different perspective and outlook.
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.
At the start of this weeks Sunday Sketch had me thinking for a long time. I really did not have a clue what I would use as a photo or what message I would convey. But I just took a second and scrolled through my camera roll and really looked to see what I could make out of some of them. Then I found this picture and it is both me in my element and me surrounded by those I love. To give more context to the photo itself, it was taken inside the dressing room for my high schools dance team which we were all a part of. The people in the photo are the other girls on the team who were in my particular grade. The night this was taken was Grammys night, a night where seniors perform as some celebrity and their background dancers can either be other seniors or underclassmen (which is where we stepped in). Since graduating I see that I really took moments like this for granted and pictures like this hit very close now.
The word choice I decided to use for this describes Renaissance High Schools Dance Workshop for the years I was on it. We all came from different backgrounds, different schools, different places within the state, but our bond was so close that none of that mattered and when we were together it was home. Before coming to the school and joining the team I would have never met any of these young women. Now it feels like I have known them my entire life. They bring nothing but joy into my life which is also represented in the image. We all came together with one purpose, dance. We developed one additional family for all of us and those to come.
This week’s sketch assignment is by far the hardest for me. I have never read any triptych comic before so it is a completely foreign term that I need to experiment on. After skimming through the examples on the A Softer World website, I was still a little confused about how to create a triptych because sometimes it seems like the narratives in two successive panels are completely unrelated. However, it is clear that each tells a story with a beginning, middle, and end, and pictures help push the narration forward. With this in mind, I started to scroll through my photo album trying to find a picture that could be used to develop a narrative. Then, I found a monopoly meme my friend used to send me and it made me laugh (shown below). Since the image was zoomed in from an original larger picture, I thought of gradually enlarging one single photo to create a sequence. So I searched up a picture of monopoly with a slightly retro tone on Google (Photo source: Classical Board Games we love, https://www.cnn.com/2015/02/03/living/feat-monopoly-real-money-facts/index.html) and edited words on it.
The Monopoly Meme
The story here is not really my personal story but I feel like it can speak of many children’s experiences. I’ve met many parents who lash out at their children because of their deteriorated relationship with their partner. Even though it seems to be a normal thing people do when having a bad time, it definitely hurts their children’s feeling with a ruthless rejection. Therefore, I want to send the message of caring about others’ feelings even if we are not in the best mood through this triptych. Looking back at the composition process, I find it interesting that the final panel is itself hilarious yet within the whole context it becomes sad and ironic. It is definitely not easy to tell a story in three panels and at the same time add some deep meaning to it. On the other hand, it is exactly the simplification of narrative that allows the readers to interpret the meaning themselves, which is completely different from the writing we have done which explains everything to the readers as clearly as possible.
My triptych comic is pretty uncomplicated and straightforward. I wanted to include an aspect of humor in this assignment hence the art style, short sentences, and the plot. Creating the idea and planning it out didn’t take too long, but rather it was drawing each image then editing them to a point where I was satisfied that took up most of my time. Particularly, I wanted to make sure that what was happening in the comic was as clear as possible. To do so, I used reference material such as another image of someone picking up an item and throwing it to make sure the actions appeared as intended. Crafting this sort of comic strip was quite different than previous writing I’ve done this semester as I attempted to make this simple and laid-back whereas in other writing assignments, I’ve included more complex content.
The unfamiliar term “triptych” in the title of the prompt made me expect a difficult Sunday sketch. The concept itself is familiar, but formalizing it turned everything on its head, so I relied heavily on A Softer World for reference. My first step was to choose a photo, and I had this one in mind from the start. I have always recognized it in three parts, the vast mountain range, my body, and our shelter for the night. This photo is very meaningful to me because it was taken during a life-changing immersive trip to Spain, and the photographer is now my closest friend. After 13 hours of hiking, I stood outside my group’s lodge for the night and couldn’t help but cry at the beautiful scenery. It was heartbreaking to me that the human population has and continues to threaten such beauty. I felt the power of Mother Nature as she welcomed me into her home. The lodge required everyone to wear pink crocs to keep the dirt outside and served the most satisfying salty soup I have ever consumed. Creating my triptych was an easy experience because I have so much I can tell about the original photo. I wanted the language to be emotional and confusing because that was my experience that night. I used Snapchat to create the text and Vsco to edit borders so the physical creation process was easy. Crafting this comic strip felt more personal than some of the writing I have done this year because the reader is allowed to take what I have written and shown to synthesize the meaning for themselves rather than having me guide them the whole way through with just my writing.
I wanted my comic to be a message to someone close to me who is going through some really hard times. A family member of mine has a lot going on in her life, and she uses me as an outlet: someone to talk to when she needs to vent. I think about her a lot, and wanted this comic to emphasize the message that I have repeatedly tried to drill in her head. As far as the actual composition process, I tried to make the scene as simple as possible so people focused more on the message than the art. I honestly have never really tried art before, so drawing stick figures was even hard for me. It felt really rewarding once I finally drew the figure in a position that I wanted them to be in. It was also challenging creating a ‘middle of the story’. The context and finale were simple and planned out, but I had zero clue how I was going to create a ‘middle’. I think I did a pretty solid job binding the first panel with the last panel through my second panel. This assignment was actually my favorite of the semester. I feel as if it gave us the most freedom; it has also been the first assignment where we got to make our first multi panel comic!
