Blog Prompts: 201

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Blog #1: Print Versus Digital Comic

For this blog, compare and contrast your experience of making a comic by hand versus using a digital tool. What were the benefits and drawbacks of each way of working? Likewise, what seems to be the difference between reading a comic on screen as opposed to paper? Finally, did reading the first chapter of Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics” give you any ideas as you created your digital comic?

Post images of both your Digital Comic and your Hand-Drawn Comic, saved as JPGs. You can take a picture of your hand-drawn comic in order to post it. Here is an example of a sample post from a different semester. Make sure you have read the posting guidelines.

• Title this post Print Versus Digital Comic: Your First  & Last Name
• Check the 201 Blog and Print Versus Digital categories when you post

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Practice scanning several items at the CDSC, which is open M-F from 8:30am to 4:30pm, (Remember to check their calendar too to see if a class is using the facilities: If the CDSC is not reserved, you can just stop in), or in Avery 101 (ask the consultant on duty if you need help). Post one or two of your scans, remembering to reduce your file size for web resolution. This means your jpg should be 1500-2000 pixels wide maximum. Make sure you have read the posting guidelines. Don’t forget to follow instructions for inserting media and adding captions.

Blog #3 Final Digital Comics Collage

Use this blog to explain both the creative and technical process behind the creation of your digital collage comic:

First, discuss creative motivations and the information or aesthetic experience you hope your reader/viewer will take away from your work. Make sure to address:

• How your comic fits into McCloud’s definition: “Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer” (McCloud pg 9);
• How other readings and class discussions helped you think about your work
• How the materials, objects, textures, and images you juxtaposed in your work help make meaning through the collage process; and
• If you used the linguistic mode in your comic (words), how you made visual choices about their representation as well (Visual mode? Gestural mode? How to the words look?).

Second, discuss your experience using Photoshop:

• Is this your first time using Photoshop? If not, how much have you used it before? What did you learn that was new?
• What tools and techniques from the tutorials were most useful in the creation of your collage? Be very specific. Explain how you used them. What was confusing, if anything?
• Do you like composing in a digital environment? Why or why not?

You will save a high resolution JPG of your PSD file to prepare for handing in your files via Blackboard. Now, saving as a copy, reduce the pixel dimensions of your document in Photoshop so it is web resolution: 1500-2000 pixels in the wider dimension, and 72 ppi. Insert the JPG of your comic at the beginning of your post at medium size, making sure the text of your first paragraph wraps around it. You may insert additional images, perhaps details of your work, if you wish. Make sure you have read the other posting guidelines. Don’t forget to follow instructions for inserting media and adding captions. All images need captions, even if you made the image yourself.

Note: Your post may exceed 500 words if you wish.

Blog #4 Closure and Time Frames

Find a graphic novel that appeals to you, both in terms of aesthetics and in terms of content: You may check one out from the WSU Library (see searching instructions from Lorena O’English) or borrow a book from your instructor. (Plan to read this book in its entirety by the beginning of April.) In the meantime, for this blog, skim your chosen book and look for interesting examples of closure and time frames, based on your understanding of Scott McCloud’s Chapters 3-4. Find examples and write a paragraph about:

1. One interesting example of closure, explaining why it is moment-to-moment, action-to-action, subject-to-subject, scene-to-scene, aspect-to-aspect, or non-sequitur. Insert an image of your example, scanned or photographed from your book, alongside your explanation.
2. One interesting example of time frames that asks for serious viewer participation or interpretation, such as on pages 105-106 of “Understanding Comics.” Insert an image of your example, scanned or photographed from your book, alongside your explanation.

Make sure your images are saved for the web: 1500-2000 pixels in the wider dimension, 72 ppi, saved as JPGs. Make sure you have reviewed all posting guidelines. Don’t forget to follow instructions for inserting media and adding captions.

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Blog #5: Northwest Alternative Comics

Note: You need to participate in the class visit to the WSU Art Museum Collection Study Center to complete this post.

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Blog #6 Graphic Novel Review

Write a review of the graphic novel or book-length comic you chose to read during the semester. First, give us an overview of the story and the iconography. Why do you think the writer/artist chose to use the type of iconography and drawing style s/he did? Refer to some specific concepts from Scott McCloud’s book “Understanding Comics” that you think apply well to this book/comic, especially the “Living in Line”chapter that you read for this week. Include at least one visual example from your book. Don’t forget to provide the title and author and to use a caption and citation.

Make sure your images are saved for the web: 1500-2000 pixels in the wider dimension, 72 ppi, saved as JPGs. Make sure you have reviewed all posting guidelines. Don’t forget to follow instructions for inserting media and adding captions.

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Blog #7: Weekly Blog, “Living in Line”

In “Chapter 5: Living in Line” from “Understanding Comics”, Scott McCloud talks about ways in which comic book artists convey “the invisible realm of senses and emotions” (135). Line quality has an immediate effect on viewer/reader perception. McCloud gives examples of how line can be “loud, rank, cold, quiet, sour, warm” (120). Likewise, he explains how it can show “anger, joy, serenity, tension, intimacy, madness, pride, anxiety” (118-9). In this blog post, talk about the specific senses and/or emotions you hoped to convey in your Week 13 comic. Make sure to address:

1. What normally invisible senses and/or emotions do you hope to convey?
2. What tools and techniques did you use to create the comic? How did the specific nature of these tools affect your image quality and therefore your ability to communicate specific emotions and/or senses?
3. What are your other observations about the tools or techniques you used this week, whether they were digital or material?
4. Bonus: What types of closure are taking place between the panels of your comic? You can answer this question even if your panels are implied. (See Chapter 3: Blood in the Gutter)
5. Bonus: Do you work inventively with time in this comic? (See Chapter 4: Time Frames)

Make sure the image you upload is saved for the web: 2000 pixels in the wider dimension, 72 ppi, saved as a high quality JPG. See the Week 13 Comic assignment for how to export your Illustrator file as a JPG. Make sure you have reviewed all posting guidelines. Don’t forget to follow instructions for inserting media and adding captions.

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Blog #8: Weekly Blog, “Show and Tell”

In “Chapter 6: Show and Tell” from “Understanding Comics”, Scott McCloud talks about how words and pictures may be used in different combinations. For your Week 14 comic, you created a work that uses some interdependent word-picture combinations. This is when “words and pictures go hand in hand to convey an idea that neither could convey alone” (McCloud, 155). For this blog post, share your comic and make sure to explain:

1. Why and how your comic uses interdependent word-picture combinations.
2. Do you also use any other types of word-picture combinations, according to McCloud’s explanation? If so, explain how they fit under word specific, picture specific, duo-specific, additive, parallel and/or montage.
3. What tools and techniques did you use to create the comic? How did the specific nature of these tools affect the visual presentation of your words (the linguistic components of your comic)?
4. What are your other observations about the tools or techniques you used this week, whether they were digital or material?
5. Bonus: What types of closure are taking place between the panels of your comic? You can answer this question even if your panels are implied. (See Chapter 3: Blood in the Gutter)
6. Bonus: Do you work inventively with time in this comic? (See Chapter 4: Time Frames)

Make sure the image you upload of your comic is saved for the web: 2000 pixels in the wider dimension, 72 ppi, saved as a high quality JPG. See the Week 14 Comic assignment for how to export your Illustrator file as a JPG. Make sure you have reviewed all posting guidelines. Don’t forget to follow instructions for inserting media and adding captions.

• Title this post Weekly Blog: Show and Tell: Your First  & Last Name
• Check the 201 Blog and Show and Tell categories when you post

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Blog #9: Weekly Blog, Putting It All Together

This last blog post is your opportunity to write about your final weekly comic, Week 15 Comic: Putting It All Together, which should be more lengthy and ambitious than your previous two weeklies. Accordingly, this blog post is also worth more points (50 rather than 25), and should be about 500 words (more is ok too).

For your final weekly comic, you were asked to express something about your individuality. Though “no other human being can ever know what it’s like to be you from the inside,” (McCloud, 194), the media we use to express ourselves help us communicate with other humans. Even if those media are flawed, they are better than nothing! In this post, explain in writing what you were trying to express in your comic. Use Scott McCloud’s Six Steps from Chapter 7 (pages 170-171) as your guide. Make sure to address all steps:

1. Idea/Purpose
2. Form
3. Idiom
4. Structure
5. Craft
6. Surface

Finally, explain why this weekly comic was more ambitious than your previous two.

Make sure the image or images you upload of your comic are saved for the web: 2000 pixels in the wider dimension, 72 ppi, saved as a high quality JPG. See the Week 15 Comic assignment for how to export your Illustrator file as a JPG. Make sure you have reviewed all posting guidelines. Don’t forget to follow instructions for inserting media and adding captions: Make sure to choose “Link to: Media File” so user can click on your image and see a bigger version.

• Title this post Putting It All Together: Your First  & Last Name
• Check the 201 Blog and Putting It All Together categories when you post