Kristin Becker's DTC Classes at WSU

In chapter 6 of McCloud’s text, he illustrated the idea of the importance of having a balance of words and image to describe the story that the author is intending to convey while chapter 7 discusses the idea of applying six different steps from the text to really form that balance; idea/purpose, form, idiom, structure, craft, surface, craft, and surface. By having all these factors together, the comic will not only look more appealing, but also interesting to read.

Since the topic for this week is expressing our individuality through the style of comic, I was unsure as to what part of me I wanted to convey. Due to the pandemic, we have all been staying at home to keep both ourselves and others safe, I was reflecting back as to what my life was before the quarantine started and truth be told, it hasn’t really changed too much. Except instead of taking online classes, I physically went to class. Because of that, I figured, why not create a comic based on my daily life? This type of story could be placed in the Slice-of-Life genre. My daily life is not that all interesting. I live a simple life where I perform the same routine. To convey that simplicity, I did not add too many details into my characters or the environment that takes place except for when I zoom in on the character/object itself.  

Inspired by the comic Here by Richard McGuire, I wanted to illustrate a simple looking comic that depicted my everyday life using Adobe Illustrator as my instrument. In McGuire’s comic, he used little to no words in his comic. The only text he uses were of the dates for the event that was occurring in each of the panels. As for the environment and panels, the panels tell the different events occurring at different time but within the same environment. Wanting to use the same idea, I put time in the corners of my panels to inform my readers the timeline in which the event took place. The environment is within my apartment: Bedroom, living room, and kitchen. The gray line that is placed on the right of the comic illustrates a wall that separates my room and the other two rooms within my apartment. There is no wall separating the kitchen and my living room, so I did not add the same thick line as I did for my bedroom, however, the lining in the floor gives off the same sense of separation. Since all of the events that are occurring takes place in my apartment, the different colored panels help the readers differentiate between panels; each color expresses the mood that I was feeling when performing the tasks. An example of this is in the panel of 9:00 AM, it shows me sitting at a study table studying/doing my online classes. The time does not change until 12:00 PM, indicates that I was working between 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM before cooking brunch. There are two square panels that has two different timelines. This is meant to demonstrate two different events occurring within the same space of the apartment. An example of this is in the light purple and blue panel (12:30 PM and 7:20 PM) it depicts me eating brunch at 12:30 PM with my roommate, and then later that night, we at dinner together at 7:20 PM).

For my comic, the tools that I used to illustrate my story includes: the pen tool to draw out non-geometrical shapes such as the body or the cat and the character’s hair. The curvature tool to draw out the “heat” radiating out of the food and the white string on the cat’s toy. Text tool to add text into the comic such as the time for the individual panels and title of the comic. The line tool to draw a straight line. The brush tool where I changed the texture of the brush to be more “stringy” looking to make it seem like they were noodles. The shape tool (rectangle tool to create the panels, flooring, tables and chairs, my bed, and refrigerator and cabinet. Spiral tool for the burner on the stove top. Ellipse tool for the character’s heads, kitchen and dining equipment. Polygon tool for the character’s body. And rounded rectangle toll for the couches table mat, the fridge’s doors, books, computer, and beddings). And lastly, gradient and 3D effect tool to create some 3-dimentional effect on some of the objects within the comic.

This week’s comic, although the style of it is not as wordy and detailed as my week 13 comic, but it is not as simple as my week 14 comic, the biggest challenge that I had to face was creating a comic that portray all of the information that I wanted to express without the use of too much words. For all my comics, it tells a story about my life. However, the difference between this week’s comic versus my previous two is that this week’s comic plays a compilation of my every day’s life whereas the previous two only captured one specific event in my life that is now part of my memory rather than truly expresses my everyday personality.

For my final comic I decided to use a different program. Instead of using Illustrator like I had in the previous weeks. I decided to use an application called Procreate. The reason why I decided to change programs is because I felt that I could make the comic more ambitious. I also used this program in order to convey my personal drawing style, because I was not able to achieve this using Illustrator. The prompt for this final comic was challenging for me because of how open ended it was. So I decided to take it quite literally and base it of my personal experience with struggling with my identity.

The idea / purpose of this comic was inspired by this reading that I had in my Chicano/a studies class. The reading was about how some young latinos struggle with their identity. This really resonated with me because, growing up I was always judged by my looks and race, making me feel forced to confirm to Western / European beauty standards.

For form, I just chose to stay with the traditional box panels, because I felt using other panels wouldn’t achieve the look I was going for. for this step as well, me using digital, and more of a comic page instead of a comic strip form, helped me accomplish and fulfill this step.

For idiom, I’m not entirely too sure or if I even achieved accomplishing this step. But Scott McCloud stated in our assigned reading, that the comic could be a genre of its own. I feel that my comic could fall under that, or it could even fall under a “real life” genre, because it is based off my personal experience.

For the structure step, as stated before, I stuck to a more traditional sense and structure of a comic. Very simple panels and very easy to follow story flow and flow of time.

For the craft, I used digital tools and programs. I used a variety of brushes to create textures that I wanted and to create more diverse backgrounds. I also used a limited variety of colors. I felt that using less is more, and the pallet I used for this comic set the mood I was going for in each panel. I also downloaded other brushes because some of the pre-installed brushes didn’t have the effect or texture I was looking for. I also used layer masks to erase portions of my background, so I don’t accidentally compromise my line work.

For the last step, surface, I am not quite sure this step was really fulfilled. In some panels I used a “glitter” brush just to further convey the main protagonist’s happiness. I feel that I didn’t really using anything that gives my final composition a “finish”.

The reason why this comic is more ambitious to the previous two is because I used more techniques. Unlike the first comic, I used more variety in brushes and I used more color. In comparison to the second comic, I used more shading and highlighting techniques. I also used more brushes with different texture and effects. I feel that this comic embodies my previous comics and in a sense combined those two comics and used what I learned to successfully create this one.

For this blog, I wanted to create my comic using Adobe Illustrator to see what I could create as opposed to using pen and paper like the comics I made in previous weeks. For this week, we were asked to express something about our individuality in reference to Scott McCloud’s quote “no other human being can ever know what it’s like to be you from the inside.” This prompt was a bit challenging for me because it was so broad, and I had to think of an aspect of my self that could be communicated briefly in only a few panels. I began to think of different things about myself and some strengths and weaknesses. Even though I’m pretty terrible at making comics on Illustrator, ironically, I chose to make a comic about a part of me that I like, my visual senses. More specifically, my eyes, and how grateful I am for them allowing me to see and design things accordingly. My work for this class is pretty different from the work I do for my major, Strategic Communication. In my major, I use the Adobe software to design things such as layouts, advertisements, wireframes, magazine ads, social media ads, all sorts of things. One strength of mine is my visual sense when it comes to designing things, seeing if something out of alignment, and attention to detail. I wanted to try to create a comic that would showcase that side of myself that tends to be pretty hard to communicate.

Therefore, in reference to the first step of Scott McCloud’s 6 steps to creating art, “Idea/Purpose”, I utilized this step by creating a comic about my appreciation for my visual senses. The second step, “Form”, was met by me choosing to create a comic in Adobe Illustrator. His third step, Idiom, which is essentially the genre that my work would fit in to, it’s hard to say. I wouldn’t classify it as comedy or anything like that. It’s basically a comic that showcases something about me at the end of the day, so maybe it could be classified as fitting in some sort of self-reflection genre. For Structure, I chose to compile it in a typical way that comics are made, side-by-side panels. For craft, I used a variety of tools in Illustrator. Some tools that I used heavily were the rectangular marquee tool, the elliptical marquee tool, and the pen tool. The pen tool was used heavily to create all of the complex shapes in my comic. I hope that for Surface, people that view it will be able to get just a little bit of a glimpse about how I view things and my appreciation for the visual senses when I make designs, but in a more general sense, my appreciation for all of the beauty that can be seen in the world.

The last panel is inspired by the Summer I spent in Maui, Hawaii with my best friend. I got to see and experience some amazing things that naturally occurs in nature. When I get to see more of the world, the more inspired I become and the more I appreciate the blessing of being able to see it with my own eyes.

For my week 15 comic, I decided to use music as a way to express feelings and attitude for an individual. On page 194, Scott McCloud stated, “no other human being can ever know what it’s like to be you from the inside.” Although music can affect people in a similar way, each person is different with how they interpret music.

For my comic, I wanted to focus on the idea of individuality and internal feelings. With that being said, my idea was to have someone like an unpopular song. If someone truly likes something, they should stick with it and not follow the popular opinion. Not only is the person different from the rest, he also has some happy memories from listening to the song. This part ties in to the “internal feelings” section of the prompt. The audience does not know who the woman is in my work, but that is for them to determine. It could be an ex, a loved one or a friend. What truly matters is how they feel in the inside. In an earlier chapter, Scott McCloud mentions how simple artwork can be more relatable to the audience. People may relate to the experience, even if it is not the same song by Drake.

I used McCloud’s “Six Steps” as a way to frame my work. Looking at step 1, which is form, it is about the impulses, ideas and emotions. To show emotion, I used a concept from “Living in Line” to express how my person is feeling. In the first panel, the lines in the background are wavy. However, at the end of the comic, the feelings are different once he thinks about the good times. The lines are changed dramatically.

This comic is more ambitious compared to my other two because I spent more time on it. My last two comics only consisted of black, white and grey. In this comic, I wanted to add color to help spread my message. Another reason why I put in more effort into this comic is that I include more details. For instance, instead of leaving my person bald, I decided to throw on a beanie and give him a nice shirt. I played around with the gradient tool to experiment with the color. I think my comic from this week is more fun to look at and read compared to the previous two.

The techniques were pretty much the same throughout all of my work. I like to use the shape tools, paint brush and text. To create the comic panels, I use rectangles in black and white for the boarder. Something I did not use in this work was the 3D effect, which I use way too often. To help with the process, copy & paste came in handy, so I didn’t have to repeat anything. I like to work diligently so it helps me out greatly. I also think not including “The End” made it better. Overall, I am pretty satisfied with this piece.