Kristin Becker's DTC Classes at WSU

On the first day of scanning I brought in a few candy wrappers. I brought in a wrapper from my favorite chocolate bar from Israel, milk chocolate with pop rocks inside, and the wrapper of an Italian citrus hard candy that my roommate and I both really like. After I realized that I could do things like scan origami to tell more of a story and it could allow me to have more control with a “character.” Additionally, I though of things such as a T-shirt for a background and finding additional things for the background or foreground objects. I think origami would be interesting to use simply because it is something that can be flattened but still exists in 3D space. I was not very sure on what to bring on the first day as I did not find very many flat things that I just had lying around in my room. After this initial stage of being stumped I realized that there were a lot more different not completely flat things that I could actually bring in for scanning that was not just things like room décor or cards. I also had no idea of what I wanted to accomplish on the first day of scanning so I had no idea what it was I actually wanted or even what type of story I wanted to tell whether I wanted to actually tell a narrative or story with characters or if instead I wanted to do something that more loosely fit in the definition of a comic. There are a lot of not flat things in my dorm that I find interesting but for many of them it would be impossible to scan due to how not flat they are. I just simply would not be able to get a good clean scan of the object. Overall it was interesting seeing just what I could actually scan in and how to do it.

The objects I brought to scan were a polaroid picture of me and my siblings, a tag from a pair of shoes that i have, a tag from a sweatshirt, and my student ID. I will consider bringing a basketball jersey to scan the texture of the fabric that the materials such as the numbers and words are stitched on. I am also considering bringing a beanie to scan for the patterns on them or the textures of the logos or symbols that are on them.  The stitching on the objects should give for a good sense of texture even on the digital platform.

Tag from my Sweatshirt.

Polaroid of my siblings and I.

For the first scanning day I brought items from my room that either had sentimental value or that I thought would have a cool texture. Among this I also brought 3-dimensional items like a plastic skull and figurines because I thought I might be able to scan those. My second day I kept with items that could be scanned, like the feathers and my sand dollar. Other items I brought include a drawing a friend did for me in my junior year of high school that I kept, I like the idea of physical art being translated to digital form, it makes people think “how did they do this digitally?” I also brought some synthetic leaves because I thought the texture would look cool on a page. This is true for my pressed flowers as well, I pressed those at the beginning of last semester and have kept them since then.

Scanning was easy, but difficult. The scanner I was on kept freaking out over me opening the files while scanning, so I had to wait longer to get everything together. It was fun to see how some thing would relate to the scanning, like the crystal I scanned and the sand dollar.

I didn’t, however, have a story in mind when bringing my items, after the first and second scanning I want to add a character to my items to place them in my project to create a story. After seeing some of the other examples I want to include notebook paper as a background to make it look more like a doodle I did while bored in classes. I also want to include some digital text to stand out and make an anomaly type feeling.

For our first scanning day at the CDSC, I brought in some random items such as a carbon fiber textile, a leather wallet and a variety of metal. I was focusing most on different types of texture to give my collage a unique design to use as a background.

            Now that I know more about scanning and resolution, I can pretty much scan any item that is relatively flat. After seeing what other students brought in, it gave me an idea about what to do for my project. I want to create something that represents me and a big part of my life: basketball. For this idea, I will scan different clothing garments (basketball shorts, jerseys, t-shirts, socks) as well as other pieces that have interesting texture. I would like to scan a basketball, but it would be difficult to since it’s not flat. As a solution, I will scan my brown leather wallet and I am hoping that it will result in the same effect.

            I think these items will be interesting to use in my collage because the basketball-related clothes are made of different fabric, colors and logos. Combining these items will put together a colorful design, which is the concept I am going for. I would like to visually please the audience with bright colors and textures that are related to basketball.

            Thinking about Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics,” I will have to make a collage that supports his definition about “comics.” Aside from the basketball garments, I would also like to include pictures (hand-drawn or pictures that I capture myself) and words (short phrases, basketball noises and descriptions).

            The specific items that I plan to scan outside of class are below:

I brought a few materials to the CDSC to scan, some of these items are physical objects that are used daily, while others are drawings made with intention to create a scenario for my graphic novel. On the first day of scanning unfortunately I wasn’t able to scan any of the items I brought, but on my own time I brought a couple drawing I made and also brought a snickers candy bar wrapper. Some additional items that I would love to scan, now knowing more about how resolution and scanning works are things like decorative birds or other animal type craft items. This can add the effect of having life like images of animals in my comics, adding certain aspects like texture, depth, and variety to my work.

With these scans, I hope to make a story that keeps the reader interested and wondering what is coming next. I am trying to utilize the slogan “You’re not you when you’re hungry.” I will depict this by creating a scenario where 1 tomato is trying to cliff dive but keeps failing, until his helpful friend gives a solution to their problems by providing him a snickers.

For the first scanning day, I brought in an aluminum cutout of one of the art pieces that I drew. The aluminum was cut out by my brother and was a gift to me. I had chosen this piece because of the significance it has and I believe that I can use the texture of the aluminum for either a background texture or as a texture for a character. As for additional items that I will scan I am thinking of using a combination of scanned 3d objects that will end up in a form of sci-fi comic skit of sorts.
I think that the items will be interesting because they will provide the textures that are nontypical and add an interesting textural space.