Week 5B

Today in class we started off by sharing our 200 word stories and getting feedback. I presented my idea to the whole class and got some good feedback but not a clear path forward. People liked the myth, they said I could use actually mythological characters though instead of inventing my own. James suggested that I change the wolf into the trash god or some other lame god in order to add more humor to it. My second Idea was the house idea, Kay said that she thinks I would do that one really well since it fits my drawing style better and she liked how it shows people interacting with the place. My third idea was the Tooth idea. I got the most positive feedback on this one but I think it's honestly my least favorite. The idea wasn’t really supposed to be too funny, but people thought it was. In my mind it was more of a metaphor for workers rights. People thought it would be good to focus on what makes the tooth mad, and showing the tooth being frustrated would be humorous. We then broke into smaller groups and gave feedback to everyone else. One idea from my group that I heard that I really enjoyed was a tiny UFO struggling to abduct people.

The idea that I am going to choose for the project is the address. I really enjoy buildings and showing how people interact with them so I think this will be a fun idea to explore. I also like the large time span for this story, I think it will be exciting to take a long look at an address, because I don't think many people think about the people that were in their house before them.  I started what I wanted the house to look like and think about layouts.

These are two quick sketch of what I was thinking, but the left one was too scary, and the right one was to plain.

This is the house that I’m going to go with moving forward. I think it really captures what I wanted with a sixties small suburban house. I explore it from every angle except for the back.

Here is what I pictured the house looking when it's starting to be run down.

I had an idea to show the story and have the house make up a neighborhood. Each new house in the neighborhood is a new step in the addresses story.

This would be the house as its built up.

week 5 out of class

Person

The DemiGod Thrangar

Thrangar was born in a flash of lighting on top of mount Bullthur. As his father Gurglund the lord of all, traveled to claim his son the evil wolf Venaheim stole Thrangar and hid him away deep in a mountain. Venaheim raised Thrangar as his own son and taught him to hate Gurglund and his people. As Thrangar got older he started to prove his strength and defeat monsters within Venaheim’s mountain. Eventually he started to travel outside of his mountain and made contact with Gurgland’s people. He went back to Venaheim and asked him about the men. Venaheim told him that the men were monsters who killed innocent people and enslavd them. So Thrangar went to the camp of the men and killed them all. As time went on Thrangar killed more and more of Gurgland’s people waging what he thought was a just war. Eventually Thrangar goes to kill Gurglund himself. They fight an epic battle. Gurgland strikes Thrangar down and as he goes to kill him he recognizes him as his son. He grabs Thrangar and rushes him to his healers. Overcome with rage Gurglund and his men go and hunt down Venaheim. In the depths of Venaheim’s lair Gurglund slays Venaheim and brings his head back to his Long Hall. He arrives only to find that Thrangar has perished from his wounds. Gurglund shaves his beard and wanders the land for the rest of his days helping others.

Place

Address: 687 North Maple Street

687 North Maple Street has a brand new house on it at the start of the sixties. A happy family has moved and is excited for life in their new house. The children grow up and eventually move off to college. The parents stay around for awhile but begin to grow restless and sell the house moving off looking for adventure. In 1981 a new family moves in, the house on 687 is not as nice as it once was and this family is not like the first. The husband is abusive and drinks, and the children don't play in the yard like the ones before. One day the husband dies, it is ruled a suicide and the wife and children quickly and quietly leave 687 North Maple street far behind. In 1995 a young man buys the house. It is run down and in need of much love, but the young man is an architect and he has vision for this address. He begins to work on his dream, fixing up the house and adding strange and wonderful rooms and wings onto it. Through his whole life he adds to the house, until it is no longer recognizable. In 2065 he quietly passes away in his marvelous house. The house lies empty for awhile and is at risk of running into disrepair again until a young girl discovers it by accident. She immediately falls in love with this strange and wonderful building. Not having any money to buy the house and save it, she starts a campaign to save it. She works hard and rallies support around her. After a hard battle 687 North Maple Street is declared a heritage site of the city, and will forever have its strange and marvelous house upon it.  

Thing

Tooth: Lower left second bicuspid

Lower left second bicuspid is the last adult tooth to enter the mouth. At first he is cared for regularly, brushed and flossed plenty. He does his job smashing up food for the mouth. As he continues to do his job for the mouth it wears on him and he grows tired and fatigued. The mouth stops taking as good care of him and and eating worse and worse food. Even drinking horrible sugary drinks and crunching on popcorn kernels.One day Lower left second bicuspid wakes up to find that he has a cavity. He hopes that this will cause the mouth to notice his struggle and that he will be repaid for all of his hard work. However the mouth takes no notice of him and continues to abuse the teeth. Lower left second bicuspid tries talking to the other teeth and encourages them to help him make a change, but they all ignore him and are scared or content with their part. Not knowing what to do he starts to hurt the mouth, digging in and scratching the gum. This causes him to finally be noticed and he is pulled from the mouth and cast aside to die. Seeing his fate the other teeth are shocked and motivated into action and they all at once pull out and abandon the mouth leaving it toothless. In the future the teeth speak of their martyr lower left second bicuspid.

Additionally outside of class I worked on designing content for the comic and doing rough sketches of the story. My original story line above for the house has been altered now. I’ve dropped the abusive family and now the original family accidentally burns the house down. Later the son returns to the house and he is the one to rebuild and add to it. So really the story also follows his life as well.

Sketches of designs for people, and important items to the story. I’m trying to keep things very iconic (not in the Scott McCloud way) and stereotypical in style.

These sketches are me exploring different ways to show the passage of time if I did the neighborhood page layout. The first idea is to show the passage of seasons and the position of the sun. The second is using the positioning of the sun and a fence as a gutter. For the final one I tried to use shading, but I don't think this was successful.

This was my first thumbnail sketch of the comic where I explored what the story would look like if I didn't do my neighborhood idea. I think it works but isn't very unique, and wouldn’t stand out at all. Here I used every type of transition except for Non sequitur. I marked on the page where I used them.

This second thumbnail explores my neighborhood idea. I mapped out the compositional flow for the image, since the page will be just one picture it is important that it flows properly. For the actual thumbnail I dropped the aspect to aspect transitions, and action to action. I felt like action to action was to narrow of a view for the story and aspect to aspect was to abstract for my idea.

IIDCON

Overall I enjoyed the conference.  All of the speakers were engaging and had interesting stories. Some big themes that I pulled away from the talks were that life doesn't follow a linear path, be engaged in your community, and do your research. Todd Miller’s story was particularly inspiring to me. He constantly knew how much he was worth and wasn’t afraid to ask for more, and now he is very successful. Sometimes I doubt my worth (as a designer) and I’m not sure of the value of my work. So being confident in my work is something I have to work on. I also liked a point that the Newswanger’s brought up. They said don’t pursue passion pursue curiosity. They said that you should always be trying new things and be curious. If you don’t repeat yourself you can’t burnout. Going into the conference I had four prepared questions, but my questions changed after hearing everyone present. I asked my question for Bri during the Q and A so I ended up with answers from everyone. My question for her was, “why start your own company when you had lots of other employment opportunities?” Everyone’s answers really boiled down to freedom. Freedom to choose the jobs you like, freedom from bad leaders, and freedom from toxic coworkers. My question for the Newswanger’s was if they made a decision to do work with nonprofits or if that was just how it panned out. They definitely consciously choose to work with non-profits. Even though there is less money in working with them they felt that it was important to work with a client who was making a difference in the world. I spent most of my time after the conference talking with Doug Logan. We talked about working with clients.  Specifically about shaping your clients decisions by what options you present them. By carefully selecting only good choice for the client you can help move them in a direction that you want without seeming like you're forcing them into a choice. This can even happen in early stages of development.  An example might be, when having them choose words to describe their company only present them with certain options on a theme. I unfortunately did not get a chance to talk to Todd Miller. My question for him was, “Do you jump into marketing on a new form of social media right away, or do you wait till it is established?” based on his talk I got the feeling that Wawa is a little more conservative so they might wait until something is established before they invest money into marketing on it.

Week 5A

At the start of class today we talked about IIDCON and our big takeaways from it. One thing that someone took away from it that I liked was that there is no clear path through life. All of the presenters had many changes throughout their life and said that you need to be prepared for things to not go how you expected. After this we had a quiz on the reading. I definitely got to questions wrong because I got perceived infor and receive info mixed up. When the quiz was over we talked about the six panel transitions. These transitions are moment to moment, action to action, subject to subject, scene to scene, aspect to aspect, and Non-sequitur. Then we had in class work time to group brainstorm about the new project that was introduced. For the project we have to tell the life story of a person place or thing. After brainstorming these are my ideas:

The life of a pimple

The life of an address

The life of a shovel

The life of a ketchup packet

The life of cheese

The life of a hair

The life of a bridge

The life of a hill

The life of old internet sites (myspace, AOL, dial up)

Life after Toy Story

week 4 out of class

     This week out of class I read chapters one and two of Scott Mcloud's Understanding Comics. Reading this book was a pleasant surprise, I had no idea going into it that it was an actual comic book. It really makes sense though, what better way to talk about comics then in a comic itself? The first chapter dealt with defining comics, and some history of very early comics. These examples included an old Columbian manuscript, a French tapestry from 1066, and engravings on the tomb of Egyptian scribe Menna. McCloud creates his definition in a question and answer format throughout the chapter that really helps the reader follow his logic. By the end of the chapter the definition for comics that McCloud reaches is "Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in a deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or produce an aesthetic response in the viewer". In chapter two McCloud discusses icons and how they're used in comics. Mainly he focused on turning characters into icons. This was called amplification through simplification. A reader can make a face out of almost an image and the more vague and undefined that face is the more likely they are to relate to it. Having a reader relate to the character means that you're more likely to impact them in some way.

Week 4B

Today in class we finished critics and played the game Mangaka. The game involved drawing cards and then having to create a comic that used the themes on the cards in the time limit.

The first comic had to be two panels and our theme cards that needed to be included through the comics were Toilet Humor, Archeology, and Bling. So in the first comic to archeologists are talking and the one found a jar and has his hand in it. Then the other tells him that the jar is really an old toilet.

The second comic needed to be four panels and include a sci-fi theme. So here the archeologists are digging around looking for proof of aliens when some aliens land. Aliens tell the archeologists that they need their poop to fix their engine. So the archeologists are on toilets having their poop harvested.  Having to stick to this toilet humor theme was a bit of a drag.

The third comic needed six panels, and I needed to add family values and Otaku culture. So the archaeologist is complaining to his son who is cosplaying as naruto. The son says you don't understand me, and runs away. He tries to do a ninja kick but farts. The father shakes his head and asks why the son can’t be normal.

The fourth and final round needed eight panels and we had to add  Horror, Excitement, White collar jobs, and insight. The first panel show the archeologists in some dark cave. Then the older one is excited because he thinks he can quit his white collar job after this discovery. After he says that they hear a mysterious growl from a dark door. They head down some stairs and at the bottom they see a bit of a beast covered in shadows. The beast lunges at them and Tim fart

Week 4a

Today in class we critiqued our comic strips. The first comment I got was questioning the hand in front of the text balloon in the third panel. I got feedback both ways for this, some felt it was to distracting and some felt that it was good because it showed that the text was secondary to the image. I was satisfied with that so it’s not something that I would change. The second piece of feedback I got was background verses no background.  The overall consensus was that the first panel could use a background, but it was fine that the others don’t have one. I definitely agree with this because after spending some time away from the strip and seeing others I think mine feels a little empty in the first panel. James recommended that the arm dipped more in the third panel to exaggerate the tiredness a bit more early on. I’m undecided on this because I like the consistency it brings being in the same place, but I can also see how dipping it helps the joke. Another suggestion was that I type the dialogue on the computer instead of hand lettering it. My hand lettering was a little sloppy and typing it will help with consistency in the word balloons. I think this is the right course of action, but I am disappointed because I like hand lettering. People also said that the Professor felt a little old and looked more like a stereotypical elementary school teacher. I can definitely see what they were saying, even though there are lots of old professors, I think the old lady stereotype is too strong in this case. In general people seemed to like my illustration style which was nice. People also liked the patterns on the cloths, which was good since it helped balance out not having a background.

Week 3 out of class

This week out of class I finished up my ideation and actually made my comic strip. First I drew it on 11 by 17 Bristol Board. I fudged up my math some how at this point and the strip was slightly larger then it should have been. However this wasn't a problem because I was able to still get it very close to the correct dimensions for the final product. Once I had finished drawing the strip at home I drove to school to scan it and print it out. I did one test print to make sure everything about the strip still felt right at the smaller size and I was satisfied with he results. The last thing I did before printing was finalize my title. I ended up choosing "Excuse me" because it further drove home the idea of the student asking a question and trying to get the professors attention.

Week 3B

Today in class was mostly just work time. Before that though we went over some basics of lettering, and this made me realize that I needed to address this still in my own comic. So first I finalized the dialogue for the strip. I’m sticking with the Russian history for the lecture because I feel like it’s something that people only have passing familiarity with. If it were something that they didn't know at all the reading might distract too much from the comic, and if it were something that they were too familiar with then it might stir unwanted mental connections. I also looked up the appropriate dates in the lecture just in case anybody bothers to fact check me on them. I then practiced my lettering and I got it to a point that I am pleased with. I want it to definitely looked handwritten but still be neat enough to read easily.

I also refined the character design for the professor and student. I really tried to emphasize the patterns on their clothes because I think it makes the comic more visually appealing and unique. I know that I don't really pay attention to read the joke if a comic doesn't have interesting pictures.  Im also focusing on the students face and arm in particular because they will show the passing of time and deliver the joke. The dialogue for this comic is really secondary.

Week 3a

Today in class we had lots of in class work time to continue to refine our comic ideas. I started by picking two of my sketches and then drawing them out in more detail. I really tried to focus on expressing the character's thoughts and feelings through how they were drawn instead of by having them say or think them.

The dancing professor idea strip was a my favorite to draw. Having the old man dance in an unusual and embarrassing way was lots of fun. I think having him stick his butt out in the air really shows that he’s letting it all out and has no fear of his students seeing him dancing here. With his exclamation when he realises that they see him, I had him waving his arms around almost as if he was casting a spell to ward them off or clear their memory.

The student waiting for the professor to show up for their office hours is more subtle than the dancing but I think it is more relatable. I know it has been quite a few times that I’ve gone when a professor was supposed to be there only to have them never show up.

This final idea is the one that I think I am going to stick with. The student has a question and the professor just keeps lecturing on and on totally ignoring them. I have seen this happen multiple times in class and while I feel bad for the student it's also kind of funny to wait and see how long they'll try and wait to have the professor call on them. The challenge with this idea is showing the passing of time without just blatantly saying 15 minutes later. James had the idea of their sleeve slowly falling down, and I've started to exaggerate the students feeling to show their exacerbation. Also I've included dates in the professor's lecture in the background to help show time.

week 2 out of class

Outside of class this week I continued to work on brainstorming and sketching ideas for the professor comic strip. I think I finally managed to get my ideas to be less of a joke that simply makes fun of the professor and more of a joke that every party is capable of appreciating.I wanted to do this because just making fun of the professor is the easy joke, and I wanted to reach for the higher fruit. At this point I have twenty two strip ideas sketched out so I’m feeling pretty good for ideation, and I think I’ll be ready to start on the strip next week. I found that as I was continuing to reach deeper and deeper for ideas, my ideas started to be a little weirder. I think the weirder ideas might be the best though since they're more unique and will stand out more in a group. I did all of my sketches in pen this time so that they'll be easier to see in the pictures.

I showed the sketches too my co-workers and these three are the ones that they liked the most. I think they liked the first one because it involves a dog, and then the other two because the comics themselves are a little odd and have a stronger element of visual humor. 

Week 2B

Today in class we started out with a short presentation on the three acts of comic strips. The first act or panel one establishes the context and answers who, where, what, when, and why. The second act or second and third panels sets up the goals of the characters and the conflicts that are stopping them from reaching these goals. The third act or final panel resolves the story or conflict and delivers the punch line. I have almost had this idea of the acts in mind  when creating my own comics but it was good to have them put out in front of me as a solid template to follow in the future. The rest of class was independent work time to start laying out ideas and sketches for our professor comic. We met in groups and bounced ideas and stories off of each other. I tried to keep the three act plan in mind with my ideas but I know that some of them don't quite follow the template. I also kept my drawings loose so I could get ideas down quickly and not get bogged down in details that don’t matter at this point. Most of my classmates stories and my own ideas are showing professors in a negative light, and involve unreasonable or not well organized professors. I think this is because these stories are the ones that stand out to us the most. This idea of the bad professor is one that more people can quickly relate too easily. A story about a supportive professor isn't quite as funny, but I did try and come up with a few ideas where students are the butt end of the joke. Number eleven particularly works like this.

Week 1 out of class

      This week I read the article on Gag writing The article was very encouraging and author believes that anyone can write a comic it just takes continued practice o do it well. The author set down out three steps for writing gag comics, which are situation comics that don't have repeated characters week to week. Step 1 related images, draw a bunch of images that strike your fancy then pick one for your comic. Step 2 wider observations, Think about the setting, who is there and why. Step 3 the problem have the characters facing some sort of problem that leads to the punch line.
        I also started to come up with ideas for our first comic strip for class, which has to involve a professor. So far lots of my ideas cast the professor as an antagonist because I feel that in the beginning of a semester most students are not close to their professors yet or really liking them. If this were an actual serial strip the professor and student could become closer through time, hopefully following the students who are reading the strip.

Additionally I started free drawing some potential characters for the strip. I'm trying to keep the students generic looking so that anybody could cast themselves in their shoes. For the professors I am keeping them older and stereotypical because that way it is less likely that any specific professor on campus might think they are being made fun of.