Assignment 1

This is my draft for Assignment 1. I had some initial ideas about the submission but I decided to not do it because we are not able to freely change the dimension aspects. So i brainstormed awhile to come out with this concept. The decision to use minion was simple, because it is popular and cute. Thus I am appealing to you all with cuteness this time. Storyline isn't impressive at all, it is a simple love triangle with one getting the girl and one not getting the girl. To actually beef up the story, I wanted to let one of the guy minion present MONEY instead of his LOVE and have the female choose it... but I guess that is a bit critical so I decided not to do so. 

The reason I used black background for the last panel was to show the feeling of dejection... Not sure if that is the right choice. 

Technical details...

I used 3 minions for this project. Their hair and costumes are all pieces of my old clothes. I went ahead and cut them into pieces and tried to make my minions distinguishable. Initially when I took the photo, I made a desperate attempt to create a romantic background which i failed because I have not enough material. 

As you can see... it looks horrible. So I did a little bit of photoshopping, removed the background, increase its brightness and saturation and added a few digital pin ons to make my comic feel livelier. (Since these minions have no facial expression)

SUPER LENGTHY POST! PAISEH!

Class Exercise 3

This lecture, we analysed Luke Pearson's Some People.

This is a fairly interesting comic which I had to read a few times to understand. Luke used a handful of techniques to help him narrate the story. 

For example, his smart use of gradient to indicate a change in age. It is easy for the reader to identify that they are of the same person despite looking different in every panel. His use of colors also helped him illustrate the character's change in personality. Yellow being a "cooler" color than red indicates the subsequent change in personality. 

Luke also uses a variety of elements like a black background which I assume that it indicates a panel whereby judgments are being made, be it being judged, or judging others. However, this is just an assumption because I am still unsure of what the black background would mean. I would really wish someone would give me a convincing explanation. 

Luke used two types of text box to narrate his story. The cloudy text box indicates a thought while the solid box indicates a speech being made at the moment. This is a standard protocol in which most comic artistes adhere to and readers are accustomed to this way of interpreting. 

The long panels, I assume would serve to illustrate the loneliness that the man feels as he walks on the road. As if walking to infinity. And of course, to show the mother and child avoiding him.

This is a brilliant way of portraying the life course of this woman. One can clearly see the evolution process that the girl underwent, one of the attractiveness of comics is that we can see both the history, present and future, this panel allows an easier browsing through the girl's aging process. This is a good way to save space and time.

Class Exercise 2

1) Moment to Moment

2) Action to Action

3) Subject to Subject

4) Scene to Scene

5) Aspect to Aspect

6) Non Sequitur

Class Exercise 1: What is sequential art?

For an art piece to be considered as a sequential art, it needs to have a few characteristics. There may be differing thoughts on what sequential art is but this is how I see sequential art. 

These characteristics are 

1) There needs to be a clear sequence which allows the reader derive meaning from reading it. 

2) There is a focus group/target which enables the author to tell a story. (Something like main lead)

3) There needs to be substantial amount of art. (That is to say that there are more pictures than words)

4) The readers need to be able to see development in the art piece. 

These are standard examples of sequential art where the frames tell a story, there is a clear sequence and there is a focus in the story. Most comics are like that. 

While there may be a few clear cut examples of sequential art, most of the art pieces are very ambiguous. I would consider this to be a sequential art because I am able to tell what the sequence is, who is the main focus and there is some sort of development through the "frames". 

While there is a clear sequence. the graphics seem to play a secondary role in storytelling. I wouldn't consider this to be a sequential art. 

This posed a larger problem for me as I can't tell what is exactly is this. As much as I tried to force a story out of it, I failed miserably. So I would not consider this to be a sequential art.