The Secret Language of Comics: Visual Thinking and Writing

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Sawyer Steinmiller: Literacy Narrative 1 Reflection

Student Posts

In my narrative, I talk about how I went from a unmotivated writer to someone who loves to write. This happened in my junior year of high school when my teacher gave us an open ended assignment which barely had a rubric.

During this process, I learned that it was much harder to setup a page than I thought. For my creative medium for the narrative, I recorded myself reading the story that I wrote in junior year. I spent about two hours figuring out how to add it properly because whenever I put the file in the page, it gave me the message of “audio file not supported for security reasons”. I ended up finding out that one has to pay in order to add audio files to a word press page, so I just made a cute little photo that goes along with my story.

Writing the narrative itself was relatively easy. The moment I describe in my story happened relatively recently, so I could recount some of the more intricate details more vividly. In relation to the free writing activity before hand, this was easier. During the activity, I spent more time stressing out about the five minute time limit than actually writing. When I was alone writing in my room, I was calm, collected, and had my creative juices flowing. The transition from free write to narrative was simple because in one of my free writes, I wrote about the same topic that I tackled in my narrative- I just expanded on that story.

I learned that it can be hard to tell your own story. Even though the details were there in my mind, putting words that I wanted to say on the page was pretty hard. I was suprised that it took me so long; the actual writing process took me about an hour and a half.

The most interesting sentence in my opinion would have to be “I would think to myself, ‘why work harder if you’re already meeting your expectations?’ ” This is because I think a lot of people have this outlook on life whereas many people totally disagree. Lots of my friends this year told me that they would be disappointed with anything below straight A’s which in my opinion is a recipe for sadness. I know my outlook as a junior inst the most motivational, but it definitely kept me grounded as a person.

Reflection: Literacy Narrative

Student Posts

This week I uploaded my Literacy Narrative Assignment. Writing this narrative was enjoyable because it allowed me to revisit some of my past memories related to reading and writing. Prior to writing this, I answered the free writing prompts. I found writing these prompts to be easier than writing the final essay because I simply had to write stories about experiences. I was surprised by how vividly I could remember some of these events, especially since some of them occurred more than a decade ago. When I put the narrative together, I had some difficulty deciding on which details to include. Additionally, some of the topics that I wrote about during the free writing were unrelated to each other, so it was difficult to decide where to write what. I think an outside reader would find this line from my post to be the most intriguing: “Without my immersion into reading and writing, I would have never considered alternatives to science.” This line reveals how reading and writing changed my perspective, interests, and future goals. https://9shivanik9.wordpress.com/literacy-narrative/

My Avatar

Student Posts

My avatar is a picture a decided to draw tonight. I’ve been playing a game called Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice for the past couple of months and decided to take some inspiration from it. One of the main characters uses a sword for a brief portion of the game, but unlike others, she uses the weapon only as a form of defense than to harm others. For me it sounds like a “do no harm, but take no s#%t” mentality and that’s how I like to live my life.

I kept most of the image in black and white because when I typically make art, a monochrome theme is easier for me to work with. I added in blue and red as they are my favorite colors and add almost a yin-yang effect to the image. The blue is centered in the image on the hand to make it look like I’m focusing my chi (Avatar reference) and the the red is centered on the design from Slipknot which is a band I just saw live. I’m also wearing a hoodie because I always have one on when the weather gets colder.

The tag on the sword reads “Big stick” in homage to the Teddy Roosevelt quote. I feel that there is a time and place to take action and a time to sit back and let the course fo action play out.

My Avatar

Student Posts

I chose this picture as my avatar simply because the man depicted looks intrigued and happy. I love getting perplexed over little things that make me happy, and this picture makes me wonder what’s bringing about his toothy smile. This image relates to the topic of the class because this image holds an immense amount of information that is unsaid, like the comics.
The caption for this image online is “poor man.” However, I think there’s more to this man than being sick. I related to this image because I believe there is little about me that people know and a lot about me that people assume. I also sometimes feel as though I’m an old man living life again in a younger body. I have an appreciation for the older things in life that last a while and grow in value. The font used in this image is “Herculaneum” it’s a strong yet ancient font, like the old man.
Another aspect of the picture that’s important is its black and white filter. Black and white are the two most classic colors and add texture to everything they accent. Black and white are also my two favorite colors.

https://www.freeimages.com/photo/poor-man-1440145

Trinity’s Avatar

Student Posts

About my Avatar:

That’s me in the corner.

A picture captured from the reflection of a darkened computer screen shows one of the few images of myself I keep on my phone. I like to think of the photo as a candid selfie: a still life taken without any intention besides capturing the moment – that moment involving me studying for junior year finals in a dragon pajama onesie at my dining room table, probably eating Twizzlers, bored out of my mind. By the end of my junior year, similar scenes had become so commonplace in my life that by the time finals rolled around, not commemorating that part of my life somehow felt like an injustice. I chose this particular picture of myself to add to my collage because it is an honest depiction of me.

The main picture in my collage is of a summertime dusk in my neighborhood with Venus and a yellow, waning moon that, from a favorable vantage point, looked to be hovering directly over my house. I love to watch the sky from my neighborhood. In the suburb of a suburb where my hometown nestled, the sky always seemed to answer our unspoiled stillness. Living 45 minutes away from the city among the locally owned coffee shops and the single acre family farms, phenomenon such as golden celestial bodies piercing through the deepened blue of an early evening sky are possible. Later that night, just enough starlight would seep through lightyears of space, blackness, and the light of streetlamps to keep me up for hours, dizzying myself with wonder and an uninterrupted upward gaze, bemused at my luck to witness something so clearly that was wholly hidden to so many other peoples and places in the world.

Of course, none of this magic is remotely perceptible through the lens of an iPhone camera, and I knew that when I reached for my phone. Taking this picture was less about my camera’s ability to represent the scene the way I saw it and more about securing a keepsake from time. If that photo had been taken in better quality, I’m sure I would be raptured by the beauty of the sky all over again with each viewing, but the photo would call for less mental work reliving the experience. Through time, the memory conveyed would become less and less concerned with recalling the night itself and more about the photo. That being said, this photo (and others like it) functions best on a personal level; its significance is not something readily accessible to an unfamiliar eye.

This is exactly why I chose it as my avatar.

My blog is intended to be a space not only where readers can hear my voice but can see through my eyes. In my writing here, I want to express what I perceive as true and real – to learn to communicate clearly enough to make the esoteric recognizable and intimate. As A writer, I want to be able to lend whoever chooses to hear me my whole self, so they can feel through my experience and see from my point of view.

My Avatar: The Silence of Color

Student Posts

The image that I have chosen to represent for my avatar is of a man covering his mouth and displaying the label of “minority” on his forearm. The name of the course is ” The Secret Language of Comics: Visual Thinking and Writing” and I chose this picture which utilizes the contrasting colors of black and white to symbolize the power struggle between people of color and white Americans. The silhouette of the young man covering his mouth is a direct parallel to the silencing of minorities who wish to find an America where equity is possible for people of all walks of life regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, sexual identity, and nationality. This picture embodies my interest to provide a voice for people who are unable to voice their opinions due to the fear of being ostracized for their beliefs.

Sunday Sketch #1

Student Posts

I chose to make my avatar an image of me standing alone on Earth for two reasons. First, I’m an only child and I’ve had to learn to do a lot of things myself. I never had an older brother to teach me how to throw a football, or a little sister to play dress-up with. The image of me standing alone represents how I’ve learned to conquer my own world. In the picture, it may seem as if I’m lonely, as the only thing around me are stars and the vast universe. In reality, me standing alone is my way of showing that I’m perfectly content with learning and exploring my surroundings with nothing but my own thoughts.

The second reason I chose to use this picture as my avatar is my greatest fear is space. To me, space represents the unknown, and in this picture I’m surrounded by nothing but the unknown. This, however, doesn’t bother me because I believe that the only way that I can grow as a person is by surrounding myself with my fears. By doing this, I will eventually learn to overcome them. Sure, I may be scared in the beginning, but eventually I’ll become accustomed to my surroundings and I’ll be able to move on past what was once holding me back. This will allow me to continue to grow and prove to me that getting out of my comfort zone can have positive outcomes.

Images used: https://www.google.com/search?biw=1440&bih=706&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=NLN1Xe2rG-2P5wLozr1o&q=earth+in+space&oq=earth+&gs_l=img.1.0.0i67l4j0l3j0i67j0l2.19651.20337..21414…0.0..0.57.295.6……0….1..gws-wiz-img.sMH3Y3SCXgE#imgrc=ouzI-rmreH-qwM: Images used:

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