When my reader views my digital collage comic, I hope that they are able to see the deeper meaning that I tried to implement into my work. When I started this project, I wanted to add scans of items that represented me and where I’ve been and what has made me who I am today. After adding all of these scans, I felt that I had just made a big clutter of objects with no meaning. I started brainstorming how I could organize these items with meaning and I finally came up with the perfect solution. I decided that I wanted to put the majority of the items into a basket as if I was trying to “clean up my clutter” just like you would do if you were cleaning up a messy room in real life. However, I also still wanted my collage to express my personality and story, so I included materials and photos of items that I thought best brought out my personality and taste. Finally, I included two quotes that best represented this deeper meaning of my collage comic that I am trying to portray.

My digital collage comic fits into McCloud’s definition of comic because as I just explain, all these objects that I scanned into the collage hold meaning to the story that I’m telling. Each item represents a chapter or a memory of my life that has shaped me into the person I am today. Some of these objects were collected while traveling, given as gifts, or represent an importance in my life. Most of these objects convey a message through imagery rather than linguistics. I found myself implementing many of John Lovett’s design elements throughout the process of creating my project.  Texture and color played a huge role in the format of my collage. When scanning items, the texture and color of the objects would make a huge difference to the mood of the image. I also used the linguistics mode in my comic for two quotes. I decided to use linguistics to portray my deeper message of positivity and how it can help clean things up when times get clustered or overwhelming.

I have used Photoshop before in previous courses, but not in the same manner that I used it for this collage. I had experience in Photoshop with photo editing, but for this assignment I purposely stayed away from photo editing so that I could focus on learning different features of Photoshop. Over the time of this project, I became much more sufficient at embedding scans into my file, selecting the portion of the image I wanted, scaling and rotating the image, and adjusting the layers properly to find the right arrangements. The most useful tools from the tutorials were the working with layers videos and the make selections videos. Even the getting to know photoshop tutorials were great refreshers to the software to re-familiarize myself with the program. Overall, I enjoyed composing in a digital environment. It opposed challenges but was also very rewarding. I am proud of the work that I completed and very satisfied with the deeper meaning of the art behind it. I feel that I have not only learned a lot about comics through McCloud, Lovett, and Lynda Barry, but that my skills in Photoshop are not as narrow minded as they once were because this project has taught me to think more creatively.