Kristin Becker's DTC Classes at WSU

Page 31 from Scott McCloud’s book, “Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art.”

On page 31 of Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art,” there are tons of examples that demonstrate the uses of the elements and principles of design.  To begin with perhaps the most basic element, line, I noticed that McCloud uses boundary lines most commonly, however, he does use implied lines as well.  On page 31, in the second panel (depicting the Wizard of Oz), McCloud uses boundary lines heavily in his self-portrait, but in the yellow brick road, boundary lines are present.  Lovett also talks about how lines are used to create other elements.  In the first panel of the second row, I noticed the lines across the face in the second portrait.  I think this is a good example of visual texture because, through the use of the of a few lines, the reader can easily tell where the highlights and shadows of the man’s face are.

I was also intrigued by the idea of size within Scott McCloud’s spread and comics in general.  Personally, my eye was immediately drawn to the two larger panels.  I believe this is partially because of their size and partially because of the empty space within said panels.  Like Lovett described, size differences create tension within an art piece.  This is definitely true in this case.  McCloud’s choice to make the bottom left panel so large and lack so much detail feels somewhat out of place in regards to some of the detailed artwork surrounding in on page 31 as well as the rest of the book.

The first principle that jumped out at me was unity.  I think that in the case of comics, unity is especially important.  On page 31 and throughout the entire book there’s a universal art style that the artist uses.  This helps the reader piece together the story and it also places emphasis on artwork that doesn’t necessarily match the rest of the panels.  Scott McCloud very clearly uses all elements and principles of design which is why his comic book is so effective and efficient.

On our first scanning day, I brought a mini heart, my work identification badge, and a medical wrist band. I wanted to scan these items at first because I figured I would base my comic on significant moments throughout my life. Basing my items from what everyone else brought, I knew I was definitely going down a different route. I saw that people were bringing fabrics and other cool items that got me thinking about things I should bring in to scan for next time.

Now that I learned more about what I can scan and an overall idea of scanning and resolution basics, I for sure want to change the items I am scanning. I definitely will scan some kind of fabric. I will also look for items that have a sort of aesthetic appeal to it. I know that I have to think outside the box when finding items to scan. Especially since that is the whole point of this project. If we look back at Lynda Barry’s comic “What it is”, you notice that there is so much items put into it. That is the goal with my project. I want to see it full of eye-catching items. I think having the same idea Barry did with my comic will make my work gain more attraction.

For my new scan, I ended up adding more aesthetic pieces of material and objects to my collection. I tried my best gathering things I knew would look cool for my project. Many of the products that I took to scan did not scan the way I thought they would so I had to take them out. The two scanned objects in the pictures attached matches the look I was going for. You can see that one is made of fabric and one made up of a type of metal. There are differences in the texture for sure, but if I were to collide the two pieces, I think it would give me something creative to produce for a comic. I will play around with my options for this project and see what looks good in the end.

This is the bill of my medicine for the stomachache I had in summer 2019

In the first day in CDSC I brought the bill for my medicine, the sticky note with a video game controller I got from our school esport club and a business card of my apartment. I could not use the scanner in the CDSC nor the one in the dimension lab so the one in Avery is what I successfully scanned and had this result.The detail that the scanner pickup is amazing although the file size is not that large ( about 3 Mb).

The reason that I chose this bill instead of other 2 object because it has more of a story with it. In summer 2019, My family and I went to Indonesia for a vacation for 4 days. In the second day of the trip I suddenly has a stomachache. It was a continuous pain last for the whole trips and it was really bad. I had a vacation but I could not enjoy anything rather than kept whining to my family of how bad it was. When I went back home, my father brought me to the hospital. I had a medical check and got medicine. After a few days of taking the pills, the pain stopped and I can finally get my life back.

In the future, I would like to scan something has more pattern like a towel of mine or clothes since everything I brought to the CDSC do not have that much of a color. For that reason, my result will look more interesting and eye-catching. In addition I also want to try out to scan something 3D and cover that object with some cover while scanning, this way my final project will have the depth rather than just a collaboration of flat material. In order to make my final piece more unique, I also want to have it contain some of my art. I have done arts since I was young and I believe bringing those up will make a great story.

The day the class went to CDSC to learn about how to scan items for the first time, I brought our school sticker that I received during orientation. The reason why I decided to bring in this sticker was because to me receiving this showed me that I am now officially a Washington State University student and this is a step toward my future. The second product I decided to bring in was my personal pocket wallet. As a student who is interested in art, I thought that the uniqueness in the patterns on my wallet can be used to represent more of who I am as a person.

For my digital comics collage, I would consider to use items that contain a physical, virtual, and textural body. Being away from home is one of the hardest things when it comes to being here in college. However, after living here for a year, I’ve come to realize that I am surrounded by things that made me feel as if I am at home but what stands out the most for me is Korean money. Bringing this money to the United States helps me remember the reason to why I am here in college and that home is not far away from me and that with time I will return back to my home and use this money.

Scanned image of my pocket wallet, Fall 2019

Scanned image of WSU cougar sticker, Fall 2019

During our previous class in CDSC we discussed on how to do Photoshop and scanning some of the items we brought to class such as a beep number that we use during races, i also came with some clothes not knowing what i needed but i had to come with a variety of items that i could use much decorative. and its in this topic where we learnt how to format our work and saving it into jpeg which is cool to learn.

There are some items i intend to use for example the medals i got during races the awards also to be able to come up with some unique and cool items for my Photoshop. I realized if i used a variety of items my work will be presentable and attractive to the viewers and it will give me a great project to focus on.The bracelets are intended to be used just for decoration for most of the people. https://www.etsy.com/market/kenya_bead_bracelet

my main goal is to be able to talk more on sports since most items that i scanned have much to do with it. and also i have some items that are 5 dimensions that i am really excited to try out for my first project. the red Masai blanket is used for the Masai culture but nowadays people tend to buy them since they are beautiful and they represent one of the main culture in Kenya that makes them unique.

The first objects I selected to scan (which I didn’t at the time) were a couple of objects such as some different colored dish rags and a plaid designed washcloth. I also brought along some larger objects two of which I discovered weren’t suitable for scanning. When I finally scanned some objects I chose two relatively flatter objects this time around with some texture I hoped would be very noticeable after the scan. The first was my wallet that has stitches around the rim, a leathery appearance, and a coin imprinted into it. The second was a piece of yellow note card paper. It had dirty rough edges and a large amount of dirty coloration and texture from sitting at the bottom of my bag. I had different difficulties from both of these objects. The first object I scanned between the two was the piece of yellow paper. It had a lot of folds and wrinkles before it was scanned. I had crumpled it before to give it some extra texture, but all the wrinkles didn’t show up in the scan. They were most likely squashed

shut by the scanner lid smoothing out the paper. Next time I hope to get the wrinkles in objects such as this one. The wallet had the opposite problem. I had to scan the wallet without the top of the scanner closed. Unfortunately the scanner picked up on the ceiling a bit to well. I cropped it as best as I could then edited to the wallet in Photoshop to try and erase the ceiling surrounding it. This proved more difficult than expected as the ceiling was of similar colors as the wallet itself, making it harder to separate the two. When I scan objects again I will most likely scan the paper again to get a better scan hopefully including the wrinkles. I probably wont use the wallet unless I have some inspiration from it but I will try and find a similar texture from another object.

On the first day that we went to the CDSC, I brought a card, specifically the Ace of Spades, a quarter, and a sticker. Although I wasn’t able to scan all of the items, I did, however, scan the card. I thought the pattern on the back of the card would look cool and could fit into my collage.

Ace of spades (back of card)

This scan was the first time that I ever completed a scan successfully. I think it’s cool how easy and useful this is and can see myself doing this throughout semester, not only for this class. I thought the pattern on the back of the card could make for a cool addition to a collage and could also serve as a part of a potential color scheme. It could also carry meaning in that it is part of a deck of 52, and that people typically play games with cards. Ultimately, it brings many possibilities and I had fun completing this scan.