SEQUENTIAL ART AT DUKE

Tree Mural

2009-05-03T14:02:00.001-07:00

I did my final project with Maya (the Tree Mural project). We decided to do our project together while doing the last mural, as we worked side by side and both really enjoyed the project. We originally had the idea to do a forest for a mural, but then realized that a) that would be overwhelmingly difficult, and b) there was not enough space or time to create a sequential forest. We still were keen on the idea of doing something with trees, and thus decided to sequential depict a tree growing, but in a unique way.

We decided to approach the tree's growth from two angles, I would depict the tree growing geometrically, using sharp angles and straight lines, while Maya would depict the tree's growth through a more organic, curved approach. We decided that we would each start on opposite sides of the final tree, working our way through the respective stages of the tree's growth, meeting in the middle with the final tree split in two, geometric on one side and organic on the other half. When we finished with the stages of the tree's growth, we realized that the mural itself was dark and very hard to see. To fix this, we tried to high light the trunks of the trees with lighter brown and white, but the mural still did not "pop". We decided that we needed a lighter background to contrast the dark colors of the trees, so we bought light blue spray paint and tried to create a representational "sky" around the trees.

Overall, this project was challenging in that we had to troubleshoot many things, not to mention the heat outside and the steep slope we were painting on. Although it was a challenging project, I had a great time doing it, and really enjoyed collaborating with Maya.

Twenty/Twenty

2009-05-02T15:43:00.000-07:00

For my final project, I made a sort of graphic novel, entitled “Twenty/Twenty.” The idea started with a specific medium I wanted to try out: transparencies. I like the idea of drawing on something clear, using black and white so that when you place the image over different surfaces and backgrounds, the image itself transforms. By drawing on clear sheets, I was able to view the drawing as a separate image, but also as part of the layer which it was placed upon. I thought that clear sheets might be particularly interesting to use with narrative/sequential art because by placing a clear sheet over another picture, you can alter the original image and use those changes to motivate a storyline. When the book is opened, there is a color image on left-hand page and the right-hand page is transparent with black line drawing on it. The right-hand page is laid on top of a black sheet, so that you can’t see what image the transparent sheet contains. Then, when the reader flips the transparent sheet over the adjacent color page, the black and white image lines up with the color image, changing it entirely. So essentially, each image is read twice: once in fuzzy pastel and again with sharper line-work and some changes.

In the end, this specific format inspired my story. In my physiology class, we had been learning about vision and the way different species’ eyes have evolved, so I thought it would be interesting to make a story in which all of the initial color images are out of focus, and then the black lines on the transparencies bring the fuzzy image into greater detail. The story itself is about a man who has very poor vision, but doesn’t realize it. The first panels are just in low-resolution pastel, depicting a typical day in his city, through his eyes. Everything is sort of frothy and dreamlike, with most of the details, text, and faces absent. However, in a crosswalk, he is almost struck by a car, and the irate driver sends him to a doctor to correct his poor vision. When he puts on his glasses, suddenly all of the images from his typical day are thrown into harsh resolution, revealing details that he previously had missed. The details aren’t alarming, they’re just unpleasant. His fuzzy, ethereal view of reality changes into a world that acknowledges the existence of cracks in the floorboards, sweat on a runner’s brow, and cigarette smoke in a nearby park. In the end, he smashes the glasses, in favor the blurred and hazy version of the world.

The biggest challenge with this project was working with the transparencies because they are slippery and don’t allow for much detail when drawing. But I adopted a sketchier style for this project, so in the end, I think the materials worked reasonably well. I’m pleased with the overall impact of flipping the transparency onto the color sheet.

2009-05-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

For this project I wanted to do several unrelated scenes that i could but together to make a story line. What i did as brought this character into the story from a bouncing ball. This character is involved in many of the scenes because he is the main character of the story. My video doesn't really tie into any story plot, but it is fun to watch the story evolve and the characters expand in different ways.

Mural

2009-04-30T20:40:00.000-07:00

For this project, I thought that drawing mural, which represents my nationality and my interest in fashion would be a great idea. For this reason, I decided to paint a woman wearing Hanbok, a Korean traditional clothes.

Hanbok is all about a unifying harmony of different colors of fabrics. When I was drawing the mural, therefore, I did my best to make various colors that match well with one another and place those colors that would go well with the flow of the fabric. Since we only had limited color for the paints, I used my acrylic paints and mixed them with the white paint to make a pastel colors.

I outlined the entire character and drew some details with black paint to make the mural stands out better. I also focused on the detail of the clothes and the composition as well to make the mural visually attracting.

I really like the way the woman I drew grab the tentacle of the octopus. I think they really go well together. I also really liked the idea of a ring girl transform into the Korean traditional woman.

It would have been even greater if we had more time and safer place to paint a mural so that we could really have a solid and detailed transition that makes the mural more unifying and stand out.:--)

Summer Day Dream

2009-04-30T20:22:00.000-07:00

My final project was about a high school girl who fell into sleep during the Korean History class. She had a very relaxing, yet queer dream, and when the school bell rings, she woke up from her sleep. Since the project mainly dealt with her day dream, most of the scenes portrayed the hypnotic images of Korean traditional house, woman, and sequence of random images, representing the randomness of a typical day-dream. I put contemporary Korean traditional music, which gives very warm and relaxing feeling to the entire project.

I used photo shop to draw the scenes. For making realistic images, scenes with the roof of the Korean house and the one with the Korean traditional woman, I googled the pictures and put them as the background layers of the photo-shop, traced them, and re-touched them by using tablet and photo-shop effects; for the one with the traditional woman, I deleted the background layer with the original picture after the drawing and retouching process; I really like this scene since it really gives a dream-like feeling. Besides those two images, and the classroom scene, I used tablet ad various photo-shop effects to draw other scenes.

For the scenes with transformations, I used the method that I used for the previous power point project. As I was altering the images by using liquefying effect and tablet, I saved the image as a new file often so that I could get a flowing change from scene to scene.

Although this project took a lot of time, I was happy after I finished this project since I was really satisfied with the outcome; I love all the scenes and the music I put into it! :--)

My Final Project

2009-04-26T18:15:00.000-07:00

Idea: I had a sketch of this monkey, inspired by Curious George. Instead of animating it in real speed, I wanted to slow it down. So every picture I drew, it has a trace of his previous movement. I used photoshop, so I can layer up all the frames. This movie consists 65 pictures in total.

Story: The first few second, he is just scratching his head. Then he gets attracted by a smell, so he decides to follow it. And it turns out that the smell is from FRIED CHICKEN! He loves fried chicken, so as soon as he sees it, his eyes turn in to hearts. But then he looks up and finds out that the chicken is from a super ugly female monkey who apparently likes him. Now he is in a dilemma. He doesn't want to leave fried chicken, but he does want to stay away from the ugly monkey. He thinks for a while, and figures out an idea. He pretends that he likes the female monkey by sending her flowers. The female monkey gets really excited. She drops the chicken and closes her eyes, expecting him to kiss her. But, instead of kissing her, he picks up the fried chicken on the ground and takes it away! Yay!

Tree Mural Final Project

2009-04-25T16:33:00.001-07:00

For my final project I wanted to explore telling a narrative through a mural. Emmy and I worked together on a mural that went on the 'other' bridge, the bridge that comes before the graffiti bridge. My side of the mural was the organic development of a tree, from a small sapling to a full tree. I wanted the organic side to be flowing and free form. I sketched out what I wanted it to look like, but I did it all free hand. The two murals joined together at the full size mural. Emmy will explain more about the mural process.

Below are some images of the mural. Check it out when you're heading to East or West! I'm sure it will be there for a while because no one ever paints there.

Final Project

2009-04-24T14:19:00.001-07:00

Movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFkKyELUCKE

Idea: For my final project I knew I wanted to animate something with Flash. The last time I really animated anything was 2 years ago, because I haven't had the time or the correct software to do so. However, I decided this would be a good opportunity to get back into it.

Inspiration: Over winter break I wrote a song that had a very spacy out of this world feeling, and so I decided that it would be cool to animate a story to the song. I definitely tried to let the music flow with the story I was writing. I made many of the new scenes arrive on beat, and I think that helped add drama and excitement to the movie.

Story: The original song I wrote/am in the process of writing has words. I'm a Christian, and the song is about how Christians are supposed to understand that this world isn't really our home or all that their is. Our home is heaven, and we are only here temporarily. Sadly, in this temporary state bad things do happen, and many people won't like us because of what we stand for. However, it's alright. I guess my movie is an allegory for that.

The space man is a traveler from another world. He's gets to the new planet and makes a friend. The friend symbolizes a person who knows a Christian is a little different but isn't angry, dismissive, or confrontational in reaction to what they stand for. This person simply wants to know more.

So the spaceman and the alien begin to hang out. However, as they walk along, I show that the people who live on the planet are shocked by the space man. This is a metaphor for those who don't like Christians and the fact that Christians bring up the idea that this life (their planet) isn't all that exists.

Instead of getting to know the spaceman or hearing all that he could tell them about life beyond their planet, they decide to kill him.

I guess it is "A Sad End" because the movie shows that people, who could have been helped by what the spacemen told them or showed them, decided to hurt him instead.

Technique: Besides the song, which was made in Garage Band, I used Adobe Flash and a Pen Tablet to create this movie. I used motion and shape tweening for a lot of the movements.

When I first got into making the movie, I was disheartened by the number of walk cycles I would need to create to illustrate the story. However, once I got into it, it wasn't so bad. This was a fun experience. It has been a while since I've seen characters come to life, and I look forward to making more cartoons this summer.

2009-04-23T23:25:00.000-07:00

These are not my final images as I altered some of them in power point.

Grass

2009-04-23T23:10:00.000-07:00

Imagine this piece with Claude Debussy's The Little Shepherd.

This project was based on the work of Robin Rhodes. He uses paint or chalk to create an image on a wall or the ground and then, quite often, places himself in the picture and interacts with the image. His works are almost always sequential and usually have at least six or more images per piece. My piece is made up of 15 images, and instead of paint or chalk I used rope to create the two dimensional space that the actors interact with.

I wanted to follow the theme of relationships as we are nearing the end of a year at Duke. These series of images are loosely based on how people drift apart and come back together. Sometimes they never come back together, but I wanted this to have a happy ending. A girl and a boy meet and are happy with each other. Then they start to drift apart. The girl grows butterfly wings and starts to fly away. Afterwards the boy lassos her back in and they continue their relationship.

I added a cement block underneath to give the images some sense of grounding. It is clearly photoshopped, however, in a powerpoint presentation the illusion works fairly well because the viewer will (hopefully) be looking at the people and noticing their changes rather than studying the concrete, as one might with a still image. I chose black and red specifically to contrast with the green grass. The costumes of the boy and the girl also correlate. Wherever there is red on one person there is black on the other, with the exception of the belt of the boy and the fact that they both wear black shoes. The colors of the ropes are completely arbitrary--they were whatever I could get. I changed the contrast levels to bring out the colors more, however I was not able to make it so that my dress did not blend in with the shadow, which was very disappointing. I would have also liked the girl's wings to stand out more.

This project was very collaborative. Kirsty, my roommate, was very good at helping us position our bodies to aid the illusion. We spent many long exasperating minutes trying to figure out exactly what angle our feet should be. Jake was very good at recognizing movement and gave me the idea of being tugged from the middle down and helped me to determine who I should position my body. All in all, I had a lot of fun doing this project. It really showed me how people could work together to create something amusing and worthwhile and it helped me learn how to artistically direct (direct an art piece? direct artistically? be an artisitc director?).

Credits:
Photography-Kirsty Fang
Actors-Alex Young, Jacob Harer
Director/Photomanipulation-Alex Young

STOP ANIMATION DANCE FINAL

2009-04-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

My project used stop animation. I originally was gonna use whiteboard animation, but I really like dancing and Micheal Jackson is one of my favorite entertainers of all time =.It came down to him or MC Hammer. I really enjoyed this project I used my Flip cam to record me dancing and then I took still snapshots, which came out to about 600 pictures in all. I used a Mac computer and use final cut pro to put all the clips, audio, and pictures together. Ever since I saw stop animation at the beginning of the semester I knew I was interested in attempting it. It was a fun project and really made me use my brain to figure out the illusion of clothes coming to me and defying gravity. I hope you enjoy and leave comments.

The Catch!

2009-04-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

My final project is about a person on my football team that is trying to learn to catch. The main character of my project is named Pridemore, he is the character who gets afraid of the football that is thrown at him. The other characters in my project are My coach( wind blower), the wind, the fire and of course the football. The first part of the project is when one of my teammate throws a football that gets faster and faster the catches on fire and the other character gets afraid and paranoid. The faster the football gets the more paranoid the other character becomes. The football finally arrives to he Pridemore and hits him in the mouth.

The next part of my final project is then best part when my coach blows wind out of his mouth to take the fire away from the football. The action of the wind is like a unstoppable force in which develops speed. The wind continues to transfer as well as the fire of the football and turns into a mass force of wind. While Pridemore is trying to take the football out of his mouth, he sees that the wind that was blown is becoming faster and faster. The wind that is blown soon turns into a fist and knocks the Pridemore off his feet.

This project was fun and very funny when I presented it to my teammates. It took a long time but it was worth it.I hope you like it as much as I do!

Teletubby with ring girl

2009-04-22T10:33:00.001-07:00

I got this idea when I was watching Ring. The original scene was the ring girl climbing out of tv.
so I figured I'll draw a teletubby instead of the tv to neutralize the scariness of the ring girl and the cuteness of the teletubby.
To connect my character with the ones next to it, I drew another ring girl climbing towards the dancing girl. The idea was the teletubby kept producing ring girls from his screen, and one of the ring girl turned into a dancing girl. On its left I drew a sun that was smoking cigar and emitting death rays onto the earth.

Adeeb's White Board Murals

2009-04-21T20:44:00.000-07:00

When deciding on my final project, I considered the previous work we did this semester. I really liked all of them but I never felt as though I completed the mural project. I like to draw multiple pictures in order to tell my story and so I felt as though I could expand on that previous work. Since this was a new project, however, I wanted to try a new medium. Somehow the idea of drawing on the whiteboards in the Link got stuck in my mind. I talked with the people in charge of the Link and found it very difficult to hold a classroom (with the gigantic whiteboards) for drawing and so I had to use the group study room walls. As a result of this considerable
workspace decrease, I scripted the story of my mural as four separate stories. I wrote the story boards but I found them very difficult to draw. I just wasn't sure how well they'd transfer onto the whiteboard since my pencil drawings are detailed and have a gradient of black whereas dry erase markers aren't too precise and only make one solid color. Thus, I simply went into the study room and went to it.

As you will read below, my stories are centered on one person. I'd like you to look at the pictures to decipher the story and then read my written plot underneath. One of my goals was to make the drawn stories clear on their own (except for one) since most of my artwork has always needed extra explanation. The stylistic choice for the drawing was pretty simple. I focused on the typical white board doodles and went from there. I used some basic techniques to make the stories coherent. For example, I used linearity (the story moves left to right and up to down). I also used arrows and bubbles with pictures inside to convey the words.

One quick note--each story ends with a detailed drawing of the character after the story has taken place. Also, these stories are pretty dark so be warned.

Story 1: Adam

This is the story of Adam and his younger brother Aziz. When Aziz is born, he is immediately loved and taken care of by his brother Adam. The two have a very close relationship. However, as all children, they grow up quickly and move onto their own paths. Adam starts having trouble in high school and at home with his parents. Aziz recognizes this and reminds Adam back to their good old days. Adam, who never wanted to see his brother grow up, is touched and begins to do well again. Eventually, he moves to college. In his absence, tragedy strikes his family at home and they are murdered. Adam cries and pleads to God. His wish is fulfilled as the Grim Reaper then pays him a visit.

Story 2: James

This is really the story of James' mother. After finding out that she's pregnant, she tells her boyfriend who then abandons her. The loss of her boyfriend causes the mom to have an emotional breakdown. She goes to confessional to and realizes that she cannot have an abortion. Later, she is contacted by a mysterious man who offers to help her. He brings her into a lab where her baby is given a mysterious shot. After she gives birth to a baby boy James, the man returns and takes her baby away. The man is seen giving a presentation about US soldiers to a general while the newborn is kept in solitude. Later, after James grows older, he is moved in an army van. He looks outside to see a tower falling onto the people below. He takes the new age army suit and then breaks out of the truck to save all the people.

Story 3: Roy

Roy is a young misunderstood genius. He has no friends at school and he lives alone with his mother who is actually in a vegetative state. He has no one who consciously cares for him. One night, after a bad day at school, Roy cries on the stoop of his home. A man who's been following him for some time pulls a gun and kidnaps the boy. Roy wakes up to see a satanic cult surrounding him in the middle of a forest. He's cuffed, covered in pig's blood and thrown into a coffin. As they bury him alive, they chant to the devil. The story ends with the cult burning down the forest in which Roy is buried.

Story 4: Max

Max is the most popular guy in school. After beating his rival high school in basketball, his envious opponents decide to pull a prank on him. They sneak into his locker room and leave a message on his cell phone. Max reads the message, saying his friends will be meeting in the woods that night. Max shows up and is confused why no one is around. The thugs from his rival high school appear and chase him deep into the woods. Max loses them and stops to catch his breath. He hears a rumbling somewhere near. A savage looking wolf comes from the bushes and attacks Max. Max blacks out. He wakes up in a strange bed with a beautiful girl staring right at him. Note--visually, the end of Max's story is pretty confusing. I wanted to make it like that since Max is also very confused at this point.

Dishcotron

2009-04-21T08:11:00.000-07:00

When we had to come up with a character for our pseudo-parade under the bridge, I immediately knew I wanted to create a robot character. My character is a robot dishwasher at a diner, who dreams of being a roller disco star. Thus, my robot is aptly named "Dishcotron". Dishcotron connects to the character on the left by dancing to the music the characters create, and connects to the character on the right by providing the port where the microphone for the character is plugged in.

Meiosis

2009-04-21T08:06:00.001-07:00

When I had to sit down and think of an idea for our project of evolution, I decided to break it down as far as I could, which resulted in my depiction of the cellular division process of meiosis. I decided to keep the colors pretty mono-chromatic, to give the same feeling/look that a slide under a microscope does.

Run Recover

2009-04-20T17:47:00.000-07:00

Since the beginning of the semester I wanted to make an accordion book of some sort. I was inspired by the ones we passed around in class and an odd folding book about being a waitress that we discovered in the Rare Books Room.

I had the what type of art idea in my head, but not a lot of creative ideas otherwise. Like all of my projects I wanted to keep this final one close to my personality and interests. One morning during a run I was brainstorming ideas for my accordion book and realized that there would be nothing better than illustrating a great run (one of my favorite things to do). In addition, I could use the other side of the accordion to document a typical recovery- which for me involves cereal- after a long run I am never happier than when eating my Kashi Mighty Bites. The idea just fell into place for me and I fell in love with it. I could express something I love in a form that I think is really innovative and special. In addition, running and recovering are both very sequential activities and the concept fits well into our course.

I started off with a mock-up or story board that went through each of the processes.

RUN!

You stare at the clock when you wake up at 6am, and think, "yes! time to hit the trail!", then you roll out of bed, change and tie up your shoes (Saucony XT-900s). After that its just you and the trail, and maybe some plants and people in between. The runner's watch shows 0:00 as she runs down her driveway and waves to her neighbor- shes heading to the trail across the road. There are some big up-hills and big down hills, you can see the sun begin to rise as the runner's watch goes forward in time. A rough hill, a map on the flat trail, lots of trees- this runner might be in a local park or forest (maybe its in the Duke Forest or in the South of Berlin). She passes another early morning athlete as she takes another hill. Once looking down to admire or check her gait- "is my stride long enough? Keep up the pace!" Then she emerges from the forest into a newly harvested wheat field. Now she could be running on an old dirt road in Alberta or a trail in Kansas. She can just catch a glimpse of a train in the distance, beyond the beautiful rolling cuts of wheat. All she can think is "this is perfect, this is perfect!" She keeps going and going, noticing the trees in the distance, nearing the end of her loop. Finally she's home, making her way up to her house- ready to refuel.

RECOVER!

The first essential, get some carbs in your system, you need to be ready for cross training tomorrow afternoon. You grab a pack of Gu- and down it with ease, letting the creamy strawberry-banana flavor warm your mouth and wondering if this strange product is actually healthy in any way. The you down some much needed water- knowing the importance of staying hydrated. Preparation for the most enjoyable meal of the day begins. Grab the cereal, grab the milk, pour the cereal in the bowl, add milk to the mix, and chow down. You always make sure you eat every last Mighty Bite! Then it is essential to take your vitamins, making sure that you are getting all of the nutrients your hard working body requires. You grab the pills and down them with another glass of water. What comes next- a banana. You keep your body finely tuned and always ensure you get your daily serving of fruits and vegetables. After a hard run and good meal you are ready to give your body a little break. You slip into your favorite sandals, grab a good book and put up your feet. The perfect recovery.

I didn't run into any problems when creating my book. The art seemed to come so organically because I really had my heart in the theme. I never had to think twice about what to include. 6am is generally my run start time- I'm a morning person like no other. The forest was inspired by the areas I run in in Durham, the wheat field by my home, and the house by my own house. The shoes are also mine- as is the watch (I own 2). The image where the runner is looking down at her feet is a mirror of something I always do on a run- there is always that time when I look down to make sure everything is in check. The recovery is also based on my own experiences (although I also would be eating some Gu on the run if it was an hour and a half long). I always treat myself to Mighty Bites cereal post run, and there is always a banana involved at some point. Unfortunately I often do not get to put up my feet and read post-run, but if I had the choice or the time, I would do it in an instant!

I also had fun putting the physical book together. I have a square block of post-it notes in my room and used that as the pattern for each of my images. They were easily cut with the paper cutter in the lab. The accordion itself was created out of normal sheets of green construction paper that were bound together with glue on simple seams. The book How to Make Books was very helpful in illustrating exactly how to put the accordion together. I made sure to put a lot of weight on top of each glue piece in order to ensure that there was no bubbling or buckling of the paper. This was very successful- I put the pieces between pages of a hardcover book and then wedged the hardcover underneath my bookshelf. No buckling! I got the inspiration for the cover from a book we were shown in class and that I was able to borrow (Thank you!) , called Yell-O: Names and Faces. The book was bound almost like a normal book, but rather than a spine where every page was bound, the spine only bound the end of the accordion. I loved this concept, and found some thick white glossy paper to be the cover. I was able to fold it and glue in the accordion to create a fantastic finished product. (All of my folds were made sharp by running a ruler over them!). The title page of the book is very simplistic, but also symbolic. It shows the title "Run Recover" in two very meaningful sequential arrays. First is in a continuous square (or ring if you will) that shows they cycle. If you love to run, after each recovery you will be back for another run, and then you will recover and run again, and this pattern will continue on forever in a loop. There is also the bumpy road that the Run and Recover follow across the cover that show the ups and downs of the process, but also reveal that each time you get out there and run you are moving forward- paving your way into the future, opening up the possibility for that next run to be there.

2009-04-17T11:31:00.001-07:00

2009-04-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

I am not quite sure where this idea came from. I think I was influenced by the fact that I am taking American Horror to fulfill a requirement, and watched Psycho earlier on in the semester. Whenever I look at the knife the Octopus is holding, the sound of the high pitched violins from the shower scene go round my head. I had a lot of fun working on this project. I did forget to finish drawing the left eyebrow, however. My section of the mural connects with the picture on the left as one of the tentacles actually goes into the frame and can be seen wrapping itself around the waist of the woman. The Octopus also connects with the picture on the right, the urban cowgirl, as one of the tentacles turns into the rope that she uses. Furthermore, the bubbles match the shape of the loop of the lasso.

Looking back at the photographs I think the octopus is too cute to be inherently evil. Nevertheless, the Octopus is a character that resonates with evil characters from horror comics-although it is not a serious character at all. It lurks around the streets at night, awaiting its victims. It carries a bloody kitchen knife and as it lollops towards you, you realize that no matter how many times you block the knife there will always be another arm coming at you. Its glowing red eyes haunts its victims for days until it finally decides to squelch along and strike its soppy blow.

"Stomp"

2009-04-13T03:26:00.001-07:00

“Stomp” is all about movement. It illustrates the pressing hoof that drives deep into the soil. It reflects the conquering desire that wishes to see others tremble beneath one’s feet. It symbolizes the thrashing ambition of a generation that itches to sink its newly-grown tracks into the world. The piece represents the restlessness of the young, adult but unproven, hungry to change the world now that their opportunity has finally come. These are the youth out to prove themselves, to take the rewards they feel entitled to after all their years of restraint. Society bends and groans under each load of self-serving pride, but ultimately recovers when the children eventually mature and begin to care for others.

The character design in this mural piece takes these themes metaphorically. An unnamed, young male of impulsive energy stands tall above a waning globe, ready to strike with a stampeding foot. His dress gives way to his history; he wears a suit, broadcasting his supposed qualification after university to be a full part of society, but also shorts, to say that his childish side hasn’t given away. His posture is one of dominance, arms outstretched in a smug realization that his time has come. Below him is the victim of the stomp, a misshapen globe, showing the strain of society to accommodate this new force.

I chose this type of icon to reflect a realization of mine after some extensive volunteer work and observation in China. I was previously overflowing with a sense of superiority, of arrogance, of entitlement. After all, I was the forefront of a graduating class, a respected officer of multiple organizations, a limitless prospect attending a prestigious university. My goal had been simple-minded, single-tracked: to be rich, recognized for my talents as I finally had my way with the world. It was foolish. I was the obnoxious man stomping in the mural. To experience the struggle of people born to awful conditions, bound by shortages of necessities and opportunities, was a harsh lesson in values and prioritization to my life. I hope to shed the image presented in my mural so that eventually, those others will also have a real chance to be like their icons.

2009-04-13T03:21:00.000-07:00

“Renewal” was the result of a collaborative project dealing with the importance of preserving the experiment. The short stop-frame sequence explored metaphorically the grandeur that can arise from salvaging the potential that is ruined each day by producing waste. Scripted by me and shot by Jacob A. Harer (with music synthesized by Matt S. Lyons), the minute-long film dealt with three major components: the revival of some trashed material, its transformation to something much greater than its meager beginnings, and its creation of new potential for others.

The opening segment relies upon extensive use of stop-motion photography and reversing of camera frames to illustrate recovery. Depicting a crumpled paper ball leaping out of a trash can and unfurling to a previous state of perfection, the scene proposes what could have been had the resource not been discarded. The camera zooms in to see the unfurling of a new idea.

The second segment uses frame by frame updates to assemble the painting of a tree, stacked upon by hundreds of individual pieces. Set to coordinated music inspired by the Postal Service, this scene took the most resources to complete, a few hundred photoshopped slides in all. As the tree develops, the first color used in the entire short form saturates, to ponder that the future could be greater than the patience required to reach it.

The final segment zooms back to the table as the tree “bearing fruit”, blossoming digitally before bursting into the form of another paper ball. If given a chance to thrive and develop, the possibilities untapped by reusing resources is bounteous and unlimited. The newly created paper bears the intended message of the entire scene, that Renewal grants Potential.

Transformation of a Freshman Girl

2009-04-08T10:34:00.000-07:00

The goal of my narrative powerpoint was to comment on Duke's cultures and the influence it has on freshman girls. I decided to show this narrative with the change in personal style. Freshman are strongly influenced by upper class girls- one very ways is through clothing. I confess that I was influenced by the style of upperclassman girls when I was a freshman, but after the first semester of college I found that I could have my own style and I didn’t need to ‘fit in’ by the clothes I wore.
If you take a stroll down West Campus Main Quad you’ll see a slight variety of styles, some pieces that you’ll always see are: heel boots skinny designer jeans, sorority shirts, fleeces, scarves, uggs, cardigans, polos, button downs, sperrys, and bags! If you take a stroll down East Campus at the beginning of first semester, you’ll be sure to see girls in sweatpants (all day), free t-shirts, sneakers, yoga pants, plain shirts, basic jeans, and lots of Duke apparel. Of course these are all stereotypes of the female culture on campus.
My powerpoint starts with a girl walking across East Campus, each frame she moves further across campus, one step at a time. She starts off in sweatpants, Duke sweatshirt, backpack and hair in a ponytail. In each frame she changes clothes slowly to show the passing of time and the way in which the stereotypes influence her. By the last frame she has moved across East Campus, and she is standing in high heel boots, skinny designer jeans, sorority shirt, fleece and designer leather bag.

First Semester Freshman

Beginning of Second Semester Freshman

Overall, I think my project came out pretty well. It was a lot harder than I had imaged it was going to be. Making sure her first foot was forward and she was looking in the same direction. The hardest part was taking away and adding the clothing. I wish I had done more frames, with slower transitions so each new frame had one new piece of clothing and lost one piece.

the painting on the wall by Adeeb Yunus

2009-04-07T20:17:00.001-07:00

My project is of a superhero-like figure. My main inspiration for this painting is Green Lantern. Without going into too much detail, the Green Lantern Corps is a fictional police force for the universe. For earth, there are two Green Lanterns (which is pretty excessive considering there are only like eight Green Lanterns but infinite alien planets). Anyway, the main Green Lantern is a white man named Hal Jordan and his "backup" Green Lantern is a black man named John Stewart. While growing up, I watched the Super Friends (the cartoon based on the alliance between Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc.) and the Green Lantern in that series was Hal Jordan. Later, I noticed the new rendition Justice League used John Stewart for no explicable reason other than having a token minority character (which the Super Friends did with Apache Chief). Additionally, the creators of the Justice League didn't bother to change the character. He was still the same exact Green Lantern but just black. I have always been curious as to why the comics or the cartoons never really touched on the racial identities of these characters. It's a very cool concept (to me, at least) to have two identical superheroes but of different ethnicity and, accordingly, different uses and struggles with their powers. Thus, I have based my painting off my own rendition of these two characters, making them more diverse.

I decided to take a more stereotypical approach to the characters. The black superhero is much more rugged than John Stewart. He has cornrows, a gold chain, some tattoos and an Obama symbol on his shirt. I also gave him a prisoner's outfit, with ball and chain, in order to show that he's not the ordinary police officer but rather a reformed criminal whose soul has been trusted to enforce the universe.

The white superhero is more of the classical superhero. Like Superman and Batman, he wears a tie when dressed as his alter-ego. He also wears the standard domino mask, which makes it impossible to guess his identity.

I mainly stuck with black and white for this painting to symbolize the racial border between the characters. The fight scene here is to show that tension between the characters and that they're not really "super friends." Also, instead of omnipotent rings, I decided that robotic arms would be a better weapon. The less powerful robotic arms provide more of a weakness and invulnerability that comes with the job of being a superhero.

The ball and chain on the end of the black superhero's arm is used to transition to the next character who is surrounded by bubbles. Additionally, the fade from black to white is also used to this effect.

Bridge Mural

2009-04-06T14:07:00.000-07:00

My character is Bobby. I chose that name cus it's a fun stereotypical hipster name. At least I feel it is. Anyway, Bobby is drawn in the style I used to cartoon with my Junior and Senior Year of high school. In general, I try to stay away from noses, unless I have a really fine marker, because I think noses ruin the cuteness/innocence of cartoon faces.

I drew a striped shirt because I wanted to use more than one color. I thought that would pop more, and it worked well against the orange background. I first wanted to make it look like Bobby was hiding from the police against a wall. However, I ran into a snag with his hands. Nevertheless, when I was positioning his body, I realized that I was running out of space to fit in his frame. That's when I decided to make him and his limbs look as awkward as possible. I especially like the way his torso turned out.

I also like that he looks like he's in a trance. He first had sunglasses, but I didn't like them, so I decided not to be lazy and to give him eyes. When I began with the white circles though, I realized that the hypnotized look would be cool, so I went for it.

I decided to give him 4 hands because Tyler, who drew the guy next to my work, said it might be cool to do that. I agreed. So I guess that's another way that we collaborated. My piece joined together with his also because Bobby looks like he is reaching over into Tyler's piece with a yellow spray can. Tyler's mural had a lot of yellow in it, so basically, my character likes to steal other people's work. The same is true for Kyle's piece. Another of Bobby's hands is holding a red spray can-- a color Kyle used a lot in his piece.

This was my first time using spray paint, and I think I'm hooked. (Thankfully not on the spray paint, but simply to drawing on walls.) It was really fun, and I will definitely work with spray pain in the near future. Perhaps when finals are done...

Bridge Character

2009-03-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

My character's name is Sherri- the Urban Cowgirl. She fights crime with her mind, body and spirit. Sheri always wears her yoga gear so she is ready to take on anything, her daddy's hat to remind her of her upbringing, and her sheriff's star to show everyone that she means business. In many ways this character represents me. Yoga is an important part of my life, for both spiritual and physical balance, and I believe it has helped me to ground my own convictions and beliefs. The perfect female super-hero, to me, would be a true Yogi- with control of her body and mind, able to use her whole being to fight evil and negativity. In addition to that, and on a more superficial level, I love yoga clothes. They are comfortable and allow the wearer to move around in any which way: and anyone fighting anything needs clothes that they can move in. As a bonus, some yoga clothes are super cute.

The cowgirl hat and lasso hail from my home- Alberta. Many people don't know this, but Alberta is Canada's cowboy province: rodeos, boots, trucks...we have it all and are proud of it. I wanted to include this aspect, the hometown-girl part, to give my character a more familiar feeling. Many might think the cowboy hat kind of cheesy, but I find it too symbolize honesty, hard-work, and family heritage (all things essential for any super-hero).

The sheriff concept was important for me to odd, because it justifies my character's power. People may not take a woman equipped with some yoga gear and a lasso seriously, but a sheriff designation gives some weight to her authority.

The lasso ended up fitting perfectly with the octopus beside me: one of the tentacles turns gradually into the beginning of the rope. I really like how this ties the two characters together-ensuring that any viewer realizes that the scene is connected. The other element that ties the images together is the presence of circular objects- air-bubbles in the water, open end of the lasso, and then onto the next image.

On the right side my image is tied to the Pac-man with her kicking motion- in part powering the movement of the pac-man away from my character. The lines coming from the foot and going towards the pac-man's hand show this movement and again reinforce that the images belong together.

When painting the image I was weary about my character's proportions. On paper I was able to do some rough measures and continuously change my sketch when something was askew, but that was a little different when painting on the wall. I ended up finding a great solution: I used my own body as a guideline for arm and leg length, height and other proportions. This allowed for my character to have a semi-believable physic (she was given some pretty hefty arm muscles to show her strength).

I initially painted the area that would be taken up by my character's body white to give a background- I did this only in outline form, meaning that I did not paint the entire block of space white, only the part that I would use to draw my character. I did this because I like the haphazard look of graffiti and wanted the artwork of others to come through through the background. I ended up using a marbling effect to blend my background into the graffiti and the blend the white blocks beside me into the graffiti. This marbling was easy to do with a brush and white paint: lightly making strokes resulted in a marble pattern because the surface of the wall is not flat. Perfect.

I then outlined Sherri using spray-paint. I decided on purple because it was a darker color, but was not black, like most others were using. Once I had my outline I was ready to start adding details, like hair, the badge, a face, etc. I was able to color in her hair and pants and try to give her a more realistic feel. Often I needed to grab more white paint to correct somethings that did not turn out in purple. I used my fingers to spread paint in smaller areas to give better details. The lasso remained black so that it could be a true continuation from the black tentacle of the octopus.

I was really happy with how my character turned out. The next day I drove by the wall in the bus and realized, however, that Sherri did not really stand out. This is mostly because of the purple color, it just kind of blends in and is not as bold as the black of the other characters. To counteract this I went out and outlined Sheri in black and made some of the white parts whiter. Unfortunately the weather was against me and the rain lead to some running of the new paints. regardless I am thrilled with the results: I realized for the first time that this character should not be perfect.

Clean and unblemished graffiti does not great graffiti make. After I stood back and really looked at my character I noticed that the flaws did not reveal themselves, they actually worked to make the character unique! This is really cool, especially for a perfectionist like me to realize. I could easily work hours more on my character, but all the effort would not achieve the effect that is currently present. A sheriff star is a sheriff star, with or without super well defined black outlines. If this character was on a canvas this may be different, but the fact that she is street art makes her imperfections acceptable, if not expected.

My character is an important symbol for me and works well in her context within our continuous mural, with connections to both characters around her.

MARIO... Iconic Character

2009-03-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

I chose Mario as my character because I always enjoyed playing the game on Nintendo. Mario always had my interest and I use to draw him all the time so for my iconic character I will paint Mario on the tunnel of East Campus.His facial expressions catch my eye, so I thought that it would draw attention to the tunnel also.

Mural Project Iconic Character

2009-03-19T17:49:00.000-07:00

The Iconic character I chose for the mural is PAC MAN he is a universally known character .PAC MAN is an icon of 1980s popular culture."Pac-Man is often credited with being a landmark in video game history, and is among the most famous arcade games of all time."PAC MAN is easily one of the most recognizable games in Northa America even though it came out almost 3 decades ago. I will try to add as much detail to make him recognizable and I think it will be interesting to incorporate him in the mural since I have never done anything such as a Mural.

Tomi's Power Point Presentaion

2009-03-08T12:43:00.000-07:00

Power Point Presentation: The Johnson Family Album

Idea:
For my second project, I decided to look at the transformation of a family, and in doing so, also show the transformation of a couple's relationship. I wanted to do this through portraits, because they could be incremental and easily show the changes over time.

Implementation:
Doing this project took a lot of time, I first thought the main think I would have to change in the photos would be the physical appearance of the characters as they grew older. However, I quickly realized that if I wanted to tell a story I would need to add facial expressions that gave tiny clues to how they were feeling at the different points in their lives. But that wasn't it. After, I finished drawing my storyboard, I realized that I could not simply draw the family with 2008 style clothing in each picture, because a society's style changes over years.

To figure out what their outfits should look like in the different pictures, I first mapped out all the ages of the members of the family in each picture. The final picture said that the parents were 54, and so I backtracked from 2008. If they are 54 in 2008, that meant that they were 20 in 1974. I started mapping out the clothes from that guide point.

Figuring out the clothes was the tough though, till I realized that I could google search "19-- family portrait." With those searches, I got a number of guides, and then drew form there.

I am pleased with the project though because it shows a couple different types of transformation.
1. Changes in the makeup of the family.
2. Changes in the relationships between the members of the family.
3. Changes in the physical appearance of the different family members over time.
4. Changes in style and dress in America over time.

Style:
This project also took a lot more time than I expected, because I wanted to switch up my drawing style. Although I would still use the computer, I wanted to stay way from drawing with the line tool or with shapes. I used the pen tool. However, the pen tool does not always make perfect lines, so I could not simply use the paint bucket to fill the lines in with color. What I had to do was create a different layer underneath the lines and color that layer.

Lesson Learned:
The great thing about this project though, is that it led me to realize that from now on, I can easily shade the drawings I make in flash by creating a new slightly transparent layer of color.

Birth of Munny

2009-03-04T10:04:00.000-08:00

My inspiration was those mustache-on-Mona-Lisa pictures, which made me think of combining funky things with classic arts. The painting I chose is The Birth of

Venus by Botticelli,

because he is one of my favorite artists and his Venus is so elegant with beautiful figure, long blonde hair and gloomy eyes, which is perfect for my objective. I decided to substitute a character symbolizing the new growing kid-adult toy industry, munny, for venus.

My idea is to show a make up process that turns the munny into a gothic bride, and then make the whole picture emerge from the background. I used several photoshop brushes, and layered every single change I added to the picture. I made its (her?) eyes blink to keep the pace of the whole transformation.

Life Cycle

2009-03-04T08:33:00.000-08:00

.mov file is better quality, but the timing is a little off because it compressed many frames when I converted it... but for the most part, it works.

The timing is better on this AVI file, but the quality is poor and it still loses most of its "animated" elements due to the compression.

I enjoy bringing elements of the sciences into art. I think that science and art are more similar than people give them credit for, and at the same time, a creative perspective on biological themes can provide some necessary contrast.

This work is about food chains, but instead of thinking about the food chain in a traditional way (from prey to predator, consumed to consumer), I reversed the perspective and began breaking down complex organisms into organisms that are farther down the biological "hierarchy." To a certain degree, complex organisms are made up of pieces of smaller ones, but it's interesting to invert this relationship and think about pieces of complex organisms disassembling as many complete smaller animals or plants.

I also really enjoyed the juxtaposition of very technical and somewhat disturbing elements (like the frog dissections) against the use of the archetypal frog prince story and the tongue-and-cheek coffee cup at the end.

I didn't expect this to come out as "animated" as it did, but I was suprised at how well powerpoint lent itself to small spurts of animation, like the falling seed pod or the leaping frog. I like the jumpy or disjointed effect it gave the animation. Also, this was my first time working with computers and photoshop to create an artwork, so it was a really good learning experience for me.

connected Beauty

2009-03-03T21:17:00.000-08:00

As the title implies, my project is about the flowing transformation of one form of beauty to another.

I had two main goals for making this project: to accomplish the smooth transitions from scene to scene; and to make each scene artistic and visually pleasurable.

For this project, I mainly used Photoshop. I started with the first main scene, the forest, and altered this image for transforming it into a flower. As altering, I saved the image as a new file as frequently as possible to make sure that I would have enough scenes to make a flowing transformation. I used the same process for transforming a flower into a butterfly, and a butterfly into an eye. This took a lot of time since the images were all drawn and altered by hand drawing, using a Tablet. I knew that this would take a lot of time, but I wanted the particular style that would only be achieved by using this method.

For an eye, I wanted the blinking motion to be natural. Therefore, instead of using a mouse, I set the ‘time interval setting’ really small, which enabled the smooth motion of an eye.

Overall, in terms of the time I had been given for and of the effort I put into, I am really satisfied with my finished project.

Aditi

2009-02-28T15:58:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately I was not able to change this into a movie file as it automatically squashed the image. It must, therefore, be viewed as a slideshow. I have put images 1, 26, 52 and 58, of the slideshow below. I named my piece Aditi after the Hindu goddess. Her name means boundless, or an infinite shoreless expanse. Whilst most religions identify a father/heaven-sun and a mother/Earth-growth, Aditi represents both the heavens and the Earth. Although I did not have a definite narrative, I worked with the sky/Earth theme. I wanted to focus on the transformation of colors. I stayed within the blues and orange/yellow hues for the details of her face and hair. As the sun moves through her face, her skin goes from dark blue to light blue. The transitions from dark to light look pretty smooth when the image is still but it feels somewhat jarring when you watch the images in succession. If I could do it over, I would try to get those transitions smoother. I also wasn't quite sure how to pace the sun, nor does it move in a smooth arc. The faster the sun moves, the more comfortable I am watching it. the hair also goes through a transformation, although it is more subtle (the eye will follow the sun). I wanted it to be reminiscent of clouds so I swirled the lines of the hair gradually until the lines became completely blurred. Even though the sun moves too slowly, the tree growing on her face is fairly well paced. This half of the project is more visually interesting as there is a shape change as well as a color change. The background also changes. I stepped out of my orange/blue theme and centered it on red hues. I wanted the background to be the opposite of the face in lightness/darkness. The hardest thing (or perhaps I should say most frustrating thing) about this project was the realization that something crucial was amiss or had to be changed in one image and therefore had to be changed in all 58 of them. There are a few things that I noticed towards the end but did not have the time to change. I think that this project would work well as a flip book.

Aditi

2009-02-28T15:53:00.000-08:00

Supra Skytop to Electronic Guitar

2009-02-27T10:14:00.000-08:00

Supra Skytops are the shoe I used in my project they are a skater inspired shoe that comes in many color patterns the color pattern I used is not in production , but could very possibly be with the unique patterns used by the designer. I actually have a pair so that is where the idea came from for me to use them for the project.When looking at them the first thing that came to mind was an electric guitar. Within the project I stayed true to the design of the shoe as it morphed but true to the color pattern of the electronic guitar.

2009-02-26T18:33:00.000-08:00

First off, I really can't seem to upload a good video of my project. The clip above is super fast and shorter than the file saved on my computer. I'll look into it and try to upload a nicer one later. So anyway, for this project, I stuck with the superhero theme. I love making munnys, which are these blank vinyl toys, and I've been meaning to make a superman one. I started out with a sketch of how I wanted it to look like. Then i drafted a rough storyboard for a blank munny to look at an image of superman then eventually transform into Clark Kent then superman. (It is incredibly hard to tell that from this video, I'll hopefully show the powerpoint in class). I wanted my idea to have a Toy Story feel to it. The munnys are very cartoony and I didn't want to pose him off as actually becoming superman. Also, the idea works since the munny is self-conscious that he can transform. The next step was to make the munny. I used sculpey to mold its hair. I actually melted the munny head the first time I tried this (The previous times that I've made munnys, I boiled the sculpey since my parents hate me using the oven for clay...). Afterwards, I painted the two bodies. I used acrylic paint and it came out pretty nicely although I had my fair share of problems with it, such as matching the mixed colors and scratching the paint. Then I started the photoshoot in my room. I took a bunch of pictures of the blank munny whose head and body transforms, using the stop motion technique. After, I painted the head of the munny. Then back to the stop motion. I had a few problems with the stop motion. Firstly, I'm just using an ordinary digital camera with no tripod. It's hard to move back and forth without the camera moving slightly. It doesn't come out too bad but I had to put in a lot of work to keep the camera as steady as possible. I also had to take a lot of pictures. The powerpoint has 79 slides. Filming was pretty intense but really cool to do. I think the transformation of the blank munny to Clark Kent to superman came out really well and I'm quite proud of this project.

2009-02-26T16:32:00.000-08:00

Let me relive my stress by saying, "Whewww"! Just playing but this project was fun when the transformation began. I allowed my friends to look over the project a couple of times. They were amazed! I was so happy when they told me it made since.

I began this project not knowing what I was going to do until I seen a Source Awards magazine. Where i found an idea. The little microphone at the top of the magazine helped my project grow. I had different ideas but they did not work, so I though i would transform a microphone into a basketball goal. My friends said,"how is that possible?". I started and now in Im finally finished.At, first it was hard to get started but now Im glad I did. I hope you enjoy this project like I do.

The title of my transition is "The Game Speaks". First, I drew a microphone which has this long cord attached to the bottom of it. The cord is the central part of the project. It transforms the microphone into a basketball goal itself. The top of the microphone( where you speak into) is also another main part of this project. Soon this top of the microphone transforms into a basketball. Now the fun part, the handle of the microphone is taken over by the cord and turns into the net of the basketball goal. The transformation of this project is clear because of the shapes and sizes of the basketball and the goal. The overcoming of the cord was very fun because it also transforms into the texture of a rope, which is the net. The theme of this project is the "importance of basketball". The project's title sends that message. Furthermore, it was fun!

Transitions

2009-02-25T17:43:00.000-08:00

I was really excited about this project and had my idea in the back of my mind since we started the course. I wanted to do some sort of transition project that showed the passage of time, specifically the changing of someone's life from birth onwards. I had two different ideas: 1) a shelf thats contents would change as time passed, from baby stuff to teenage and adult stuff, 2) someone's bedroom changing as they grew up. I decided that the shelf would be ideal because it is a) more believable that someone would have the same shelf over the course of their life and b) by using a shelf I would be able to focus more on the smaller details and make the content really focused and specific (with a bedroom there would just be too much stuff and the story, or transformation would get lost).

Luckily I had a trip home planned in the middle of this project which allowed me to really find all of the props that I needed to create the transition from birth, through elementary and high school, to college and post-college years. The most labor-intensive part of this project was finding and choosing what I wanted to use in the shelf. I dug through many shelves and boxes and filled up 4 laundry baskets worth of photos, memorabilia, books, movies, and trinkets. I then went through everything and laid it out in a sequential line on the floor in my family room. I wanted the changing shelf to have a very authentic feel and matched the objects with the age a best as I could. This was definitely a trip down memory lane as I pulled out old class photos, soccer trophies, and VHS tapes! The passing of time relates to my life, for the most part, but has also been exaggerated and generalized to fit the average person as well- I wanted everyone to be able to relate. I recognize that the people who can relate the most are those of my age group who would recognize the films or books from their childhood, but the sequence is not so subtle that a general audience could see the passage of time. (From Disney VHS, to funny DVDs, to drama DVDs, or the portable CD player to the i-pod).

I got really excited when I showed this presentation to a group of friends- almost every slide there would be a comment "I remember that! I have that movie! You read Nancy Drew too?" This really confirmed for me that my sequence was bang on.

I didn't really know how the final product was going to turn out, but I was willing to risk the work and set up a shelf in my house. I brought in an adjustable lamp to brighten the objects (mostly so the titles were readable), but also to cast some shadows: I wanted the shelf to have an authentic feel to it. The shadows really worked out well because they emphasized some of the objects and gave the viewer the feeling that they were peering into a shelf, not just seeing a picture of a shelf.

The camera was set up on a tripod and I would add some items and take a photo, subtract and add a couple more items and take another photo. I wanted the changes to be noticeable, but not too stark. By taking out only a couple things at a time I was better able to establish the identity of the shelf owner- you could see what the owner was interested in, what genre of books he/she liked, etc. Because time is a gradual change the small changes in the shelf helped to reinforce that time was passing, rather than speeding by: somethings changed, somethings stayed the same. There were a couple instances when more dramatic changes occurred. The most obvious being the change from high school to college. I wanted to make the point here that the shelf owner likely moved to a new location and is starting to develop an adult identity, it is a clean new beginning. Other stark turning points include the transition into high school, and into school in general. These are both defining points in most of our lives and the larger changes show the impact of this true life transition. The change from college into the real world is not so strong, because the owner develops a sense of who he/she is over the course of college and takes that with him/her to the next experiences.

I always find the ending to be a little depressing: you go from a pretty, lively shelf that really shows personality and character, to a strange piece of art (mother and child?) I though this was a step better than leaving the shelf empty at the end. It also shows a shift away from reliance on material things to define oneself. As you get older there is less of a need to outwardly display everything you have- you can be more understated and use your shelf for decoration. (I just look at my shelf versus the shelves of my parents: that piece of art was in one of Mom's shelves, my shelf is full of pictures, statues, trophies, etc.)

I noticed one I got all of the photos together that some of the frames were slightly different, in that I mean the camera shifted from side to side as I was taking the pictures. For some of the photos there is no movement, but when viewing the transitions between some pairs you can see that the shelf itself also moves (but between others you can only tell a difference based on the objects in the shelf). Unfortunately this was not something I noticed when shooting and I didn't have the opportunity to fix it. With limited resources (just the old trusted tripod from home) keeping everything perfect is difficult, but regardless of this little hurdle, the presentation turned out to be more that I thought I could make it, just working with powerpoint!

Putting it all together....

Once I got all of the photos onto powerpoint, and it took a while, I started to edit irrelevant and duplicates out. Then I began playing with transitions and immediately found that the "dissolve" function was perfect, it made it seem as though the removed objects slowly disappeared from the shelf and the new objects slowly appeared in. I fell in love with this animation because it really took the passage of time to the next level: you could see thing slowly fade out of and into this person's life! I played with the setting and found that the slow dissolve really played-up the effect, and by leaving each slide up for around 2 second I was able to really allow the content of each slide sink in for the viewer. I experimented with faster and slower times and asked some friends and classmates their opinions, and the 2 second won. It is just enough time for the viewer to absorb what they are seeing (read some of the book titles, see what movies the shelf contains) and the slow fade allows the view to really see what is moving in and out. More than 2 seconds got boring and less than 2 second was too fast for the viewer to absorb any of the content. The content in this project is the important part- you need to see that the movies change from Cinderella to Flubber to How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days to the Firm, and that the books get thinker and more knowledge based. Without the ability to really recognize what you are looking at the presentation is nothing more than a string of pictures of a shelf.

Unfortunately I was unable to capture the dissolve effect in the AVI file, but luckily, because of its lower quality the images almost run together to deliver the same passing of time.

If you have any questions about my project please just ask!

I had to split up the movie for space sake and used the transition to college as the split: a logical break in the flow of the images anyways. The transitions seemed to be cut out in translation, but imagine the images dissolving slowly into one another, so you can see certain objects appear and disappear gradually (as time passes) as the show moves along.

Before College

College and Beyond

...

2009-02-18T08:49:00.000-08:00

I created the narrative, which mainly deals with the problems related to the contamination of food sources. I’ve always thought that the government is censoring the media and not letting us know the significant parts of the aftermaths of the technological development and the reckless manipulation of nature.

My narrative is based on my imagination of the future. The setting is 2040s and all the silenced aftermaths of the technological developments have overwhelmed the World. All the people, who have ingested contaminated food sources, have gone through a serious mutation , which results in subsequent death.

I primarily used Black and white, and used colors only when strong effects are needed.

The story starts with the major character’s nightmare, which is the part of his childhood memory. The setting is a small coastal village beside the nuclear plant. The major character went out fishing with his brother and caught a giant lobster that has been exposed to a nuclear waste. The whole family was excited but the major character was horrified by the creature. Not realizing the presence of nuclear remnants in the creature, the family, except the major character, has a banquet made fully of the mutated lobster.

The day after the banquet, the major character found all his family, dead.

Gasping, the major character wakes up from the nightmare. Having been used to the nightmare, he wares his glasses and picks up a newspaper to start the day as usual. Now days, the newspaper serves as the list of newly found contaminated food sources, causing mutation. Among the lists, the major character finds the article, mentioning that the mutated people have invented the flesh light that can distinguish the ‘uncontaminated’ people from the ‘contaminated’ people. The article also mentions that ingesting the uncontaminated people may be able to stop and heal the mutation.

Mutated people are now madly looking for the pure people who have not been contaminated from the polluted food sources. However, none of the people seems to be ‘pure’.

James, one of the mutated people, goes into the dark compartment to find more people, hiding. Along the way, he notices the light coming from the wall. He looks through it, and sees the major character. James beams the flesh at him, and the light indicates that the major character is ‘pure’.

The major character has been able to stay uncontaminated since he has been paranoid about food sources. After the death of his family, he has started growing everything he ingests. As usual, the major character was preparing his brunch after reading the newspaper.

After putting his food into the oven, he hears the doorbell. He goes upstairs to check who’s there, and when he opens the door, James, ready to endeavor the character, waves his hand.

Pictures

2009-02-16T10:24:00.001-08:00

cover (back and front)

4 and 5

2 and 7

6 and 3

8 and 1

My Narrative Story about a death angel

2009-02-16T06:14:00.000-08:00

My narrative starts with my main character , a death angel, walking around a city with his suitcase. The leaves on the ground show that it is fall (I think fall is a sad season with fallen leaves)
Then he stops at a window and looks inside. There are people dining in this huge hall around a long table, which is supposed to be a happy scene. But, the death angel finds that everyone is depressed and their unhappiness forms a lot of purple bubbles with skulls and numbers on them.
He thinks this is weird because it is his job to determine when to end a person's life. So, he uses his power and his death pet (a cat-shaped devil) to read those bubbles.
In the first bubble he sees that because the economy is bad, a man loses his job. So, he goes home and has a conversation with his wife, after which she chooses to leave him. He is desperate with the loss of money and love, so he shoots himself.
In the second bubble, still because if the of the economy issue, a woman loses all her money in stocks. ( So i drew a skinny piggy bank to show she has no money now) She is walking on the street, thinking about how wonderful her life used to be, when there were clothes, wine, vip cards and lots of money (fat piggy banks). She senses no hope of life, so she commits a suicide by jumping off a building.
So the death angel sees blood. His world turned into a bleeding inferno. He smiled, because now, his work is done.
For the front page, I drew a shadow of the death angel on a wall, his shadow has a skull face and a skull heart. And the back page, there is a skull on his suitcase. Both of them show the identity o the main character.
The reason I choose this style is because I want to use the cute harmless look of the death angel to show that this economy social issue causes more fear than death. And that death pet adds cuteness to the whole taking people's lives' mission. And, those eyes are always something I wanted to try, because it gives out a sad feeling while maintaining to be simple circles.

I'll upload pictures later=)

Waste

2009-02-12T20:48:00.000-08:00

My comic is entitled ‘WASTE.’ Unsurprisingly, it is about waste management. It is very unrealistic, and the future I present is not a future that I believe will come to pass. However, I hope to engage the readers on the seriousness of the issue. If our waste is not managed correctly it can have a serious negative impact on the environment. Waste pollution is an issue that we must be concerned about in the United States as the most waste is generated in this nation. There is an average of 4.5 pounds of municipal solid waste generated per person per day. The first page opens with a dream sequence. A girl is sleeping and we see her bedroom disappear from around her bed. Then her bed appears to be on a watery surface which it then glides through. She falls through the air until she reaches more water. She swims through this water and finds herself in an underwater museum. She swims past cases holding relics from our present and the next two thousand years of history, suggesting that it is probably four or five thousand years into the future. I put a lot of robots in to give the idea of technological progress, however I wanted to stay away from focusing on that too much. This is why in the rest of the comic there are things that are clearly recognizable from our present whereas, most likely the styles will change. I thought that if I tried to think up what daily objects would be used in the future it would be harder to get my message across. She swims out of the museum through a window and finds that the water she is swimming through is incredibly polluted. There are cans and other objects floating around and she swims by a trash heap. She swims up out of the air and starts to fly. She flies over skyscrapers that have been submerged underwater. In this future the icecaps have melted and the sea has risen. Even five thousand years into the future, it is uncertain that the Earth will actually be submerged in water. However, for the purposes of my story and due to the fact that there is no dialogue, I wanted to make things drastic and therefore make my message clear. She comes upon a small city that is standing unsteadily on poles coming out of the water. She lands and goes through a pair of doors into a corridor. She goes through another door to find a room. She finds multiple rooms that are all completely deserted. There is a strong prevalence of trash bags that are not noticed at first, but later are seen everywhere. I chose the last panel of this series to be a doll on a trash bag because I was hoping to give the impression of desolation. There is no trace of human life and dolls are something that a loving child would not leave behind. I didn’t want to suggest that humans have all died out however I did not want to paint a hopeful picture. She then has a reverse falling process and wakes up. I copied the pages of my comic as they would have been bound together. The order is 8,1, 2,7, 6,3 4,5.

SMALL WORLD

2009-02-11T13:05:00.000-08:00

In an increasingly small world, the impacts of globalization are visible in almost every element of our cultures. The United States in particular is a nation whose influence is felt throughout the world… our culture is contagious. In traveling abroad last semester, I was astonished at how much of an impact our culture has had on other nations around the world. It was usually the little things that startled me: hearing an American pop song on a battery-powered radio in a rural village, or seeing advertisements for an American brand over a highway in Europe. In some ways, this global connectivity is awe-inspiring… Through the internet, telephone, and television, it’s getting to the point where we can communicate with almost any part of the world. However, the impacts of globalization are negative too.

Cultures are being homogenized, and usually, this homogenization is characterized by Western nations taking over important elements of other society’s music, religion, language, art, and education and replacing them with our own. Small World is a story about these negative impacts of globalization.
A old man (representing previous generations) gazes out over a modern city. The buildings are lit up by flames, which will come to represent our “contagious” culture, but in the distance, there is another city, unexplored and untouched by this man’s civilization. He blows smoke (the precursor to the flames) from the roof down the drainpipe, where it encircles a young man sleeping below. This young man has a dream of an unfamiliar and fascinating girl, and when he wakes she is standing before him. The young woman is startled and flees, but the young man, entranced by the idea of this foreign culture, follows her, stowing away on a ship. A rat, who was also encircled by the strange smoke, becomes his companion. The rat, which in the past has spread diseases, is the perfect symbol for contagious spread of civilizations, inspired by the transmission of plagues to the new world. During his search for this mysterious young woman, the young man is in awe of the new sights, knowledge, art, music, and people he encounters, but the rat, tagging along beside him, often ruins his idealistic view of the foreign city.

The rat, who spreads his own sort of plague, changes the tone of a foreign song, eats the words in a foreign book changing its meaning, and carries disease to this foreign culture. It serves as a symbol for the spread of Western culture.

In the end, when the young man finally finds the elusive woman, he convinces her to travel back to his home with him. But, the next day, when they arrive in his city, she is disheveled by the journey and the rat has marred her exotic appearance.

Her dress is ragged and her long hair has been gnawed away by the rat. The young man is disillusioned by the foreign woman being present in a familiar city and quickly falls out of love with this shadow of his ideal, and retreats to the building top where he and the old man gaze out on the foreign town, which has now been invaded by his culture.

I enjoyed playing with color in this piece. Usually, i go a little crazy with lots and lots of colors but it was nice to limit myself to black and white, only using red representing the main character and his civilization and yellow to represent the foreign city and the young woman.

Cultures and traditions are diluted by globalization, and i think that most things don't stand up to the process of translation. Much is lost in the conversion between cultures... but also, it's alarming to think that elements of our own culture are supplanting the rich traditions of other cultures as well.

2009-02-11T10:57:00.000-08:00

Disapperence: Sequential Narrative story

2009-02-09T11:11:00.000-08:00

My wordless narrative tells the story of global warming in the arctic. Each frame tells a different part of the story. The story starts off with a polar bear standing on a iceberg during the winter. The top frame is during the day time and the bottom is during the night with the strong colors of the northern lights. Each page tells the reader what season it is by the border, winter is signified by snowflakes, spring by buds, and summer by flowers blooming. Then each page has a iceberg that melts more each page. The polar bear starts out fully outlined and white, but as the pages go on the polar bear gets lighter and lighter to signify the disappearance of the polar bears. The bottom frame of each page shows the northern lights, and with every passing page the northern lights get lighter and lighter to tell the story of global warming which is causing the northern lights to get lighter. First page is on the left, last page is on the right.

When I started this project I was unsure what I wanted my social issue to be. I came up with global warming because it is something that I am passionate about. I decided that I didn't want to make a 'cartoon' because I found that there are many possible ways of telling a wordless story. So I took a slightly different approach. I really loved my storyboard, but actually getting the whole story to work together was quite a challenge. Each different component of the story brought a whole new problem with it. After hours and hours of working on each part I found that it lead to more problems with the next part. I used photoshop to draw the whole thing. My major challenge with photoshop was layering. I built off the first page, and after a while it was easier to just redraw the different parts.

Despite all the challenges I came across during this project I really liked the finished product. I also learned all types of new techniques in photoshop.

Ascension of the Watcher

2009-02-09T10:00:00.000-08:00

Ascension of the Watcher narrates upon the wastes of war through a sequence illustrating the element's of mankind's downfall as he is tempted by sin and driven to conflict. Skulking within the scenario of each panel, whether physically or symbolically, is the leering pose of a black crow, historically an icon of cunning and contempt, marveling at the capability of destruction in man's character.

The progression of panels emphasizes the escalation of conflict. Outbursts of sinful drive fighting in the first panels: a child bullied for a prize possession and a victim jeered in a bar fight. Overlooking both scenes are crows, silently scheming in the background. Humanity submits to forces of envy, malice and greed.

Violence ramps up in the next panels as mere squabbles turn into full-fledged war. The rush of movement in the style illustrates the plight of the soldiers, committed to savagery over an unseen cause. Dehumanization begins as humans start to lose track of their enemies, their vision blinded by a hail of metal and chaos. The original conflict may be all but forgotten in the struggle for survival.

Terror reigns as humans lose their rationality. Machines of war, suited for no other purpose, replace people in the humans' delirious attempt to win, rather than resolve the conflict. The crows are ironically unaffected as they make a mockery of the carnage.

The style of the comic sequence was chosen to reflect the festering mood. Each panel is black and white to drain the spirit out of illustration, with grays added to show movement. Some panels are augmented with blurs for a sense of capturing a specific moment in time, such as the bar fight right before the killing punch landed, or the rocket explosion rocking the core of the victims. The gritty lines and boundaries that compose the figures are put into place to show turmoil and instability.

The final panel completes the "survival of the fittest" theme. Mankind has been so hell-bent on achieving dominance that they overlooked the cost that it took. The panel shows the rotting carcass of a once prosperous city, derelict and plagued by destruction. It matters not if the city was part of the winning side or the losing side, it is simply uninhabitable. The crows converge, blocking out the sky, their ascension to this abandoned kingdom apparent.

Image/Inspiration source credits go towards:

(sun, last page) Damnation, credited to Kevin Walker, licensed to Wizards of the Coast

(city, last page)Ginza Chuo Dori, credited to Hisaharu Motoda, "neo-ruins" collection
http://hisaharu-motoda.petit.cc/0engine/tokyo_bbs.cgi

XXX

2009-02-08T13:31:00.000-08:00

My narrative is about dealing with an alcoholic parent and how the issue affects sibling relationships. I chose to create my whole comic predominately in black and white, while using color to emphasize certain aspects of the story (i.e., the "hero" figure's hair and eyes are in color, as well as the heart in the last panel). I also tried to use a minimalist approach so as to portray important aspects of the story/issue in a stronger manner.

The first three pages set up the hero character's awful job working at McDonald's, utilizing many symbols to convey just how miserable her job is. The fourth and fifth pages show the main character getting off of work, and how even though she is glad to be off of work, she is dreading going home.

The sixth page shows the hero character arriving home to find her little sister upset, and shows the two sister's father passed out on the couch drunk, surrounded by trash and beer cans, as well as depicting the trash full of empty beer cans, and the refrigerator empty save for a six-pack of beer. I intentionally exaggerated the house's state of disrepair to show the strong impact alcohol is having on the characters' emotional states.

The seventh page's first panel shows the hero character embracing her little sister and offering to take her to the park. In the second panel, the little sister is seen enjoying the park, as the hero character watches the bittersweet moment, as she knows it will be fleeting and end when they arrive back home.

The eight page shows the two sisters hand in hand walking home. In the first panel the younger sister is expressing her dread of returning home, while in the second panel the two are shown once again embracing, while expressing their love for each other through a speech bubble containing only a bright red heart. This break from the black and white standard in the use of the red for the heart is meant to make their love for each other to be overwhelmingly strong, and that is what will get them through the difficult aspects of their lives resulting from the alcoholism that surrounds them.

For the cover design I found a vodka ad in a magazine that was mainly in black and white, and added the "XXX" symbol over the label to be consistent with the way I portrayed alcohol in the rest of the comic. I also outlined the bottle in bold black lines, once again for consistency.

Poor Joey

2009-02-06T10:15:00.000-08:00

Angel and Demon

2009-02-05T15:10:00.000-08:00

In many graphic novels and books of a saga in comics, the author and artist usually incorporate their version of a director's commentary. Given that I've tried to replicate such a comic style, I'll proceed in a similar manner.

So here we have the cover of my comic. I thought that slightly altering the title of the popular book "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown would be appropriate for my comic since the superheros are an angel and a "demon." This cover picture is pretty important since I use it to establish both characters and their tendencies. If you check out the next pages, you won't see a detailed picture of the angel with his wings out (a mistake I noticed after I finished the drawings) so this picture connects the face to the hero. As for the two heroes, they are based of off Islamic mythology in which there are angels and jinn (ie. genies). In the mythology, jinn live on this earth but are made of a sort of fire and therefore invisible to the human eye. Jinn also have free will and so there are Muslim jinn, Christian jinn, etc., a characteristic unshared by angels, who must always follow God. Additionally, jinn have the power to possess humans, which is the case for the jinn in my story, allowing him to shuffle between human and jinn form.

On the first page, we get to see the jinn in action. I got the idea of him killing a pimp from Frank Miller's "Batman and Robin." I like the set up of the middle panels because it narrows the perspective to focus on the flame behind the pimp. This page also establishes the jinn's powers as well as his mercilessness.

On the second page, I use the angel's actions to contrast those of the jinn. The angel captures the mugger and drops him off to the police. The bottom panel was a challenge since I wanted to show that the two cops describing the angel to the rest of the police force (hence why one of the officers is waving his arms). Also, in the corner, we see the comic's antagonist--an officer who seems to despise the actions of the vigilantes. As a result, he talks with the mugger in order to figure out the identity of his capturer. The scene cuts to show the officer making a phone call while looking at a file.

This scene was my personal favorite since it really compares and contrasts both heroes. The pages show that both characters as Muslims, washing for prayer and subsequently praying. I have the jinn drinking a beer as he washes his feet (he was also smoking on the cover and first page) to show him as a more liberal Muslim in contrast to the steadfast angel. These pictures were the most enjoyabe to draw due to the power they have for me.

The left side of this page was the one of my biggest challenges. I hate drawing guns and automobiles, but I knew they'd be necessary to show the capture of the heroes. Basically, this page is the result of the phone call made by the antagonist. On the other side, I have the jinn, eyes ablaze with rage, about to fend for his freedom. I think I portrayed him well--very fierce and angry. Behind him, the angel reassures him and as a result, the jinn unhappily retreats. (I am actually not a fan of this ending--I'd rather draw the heroes battling the SWAT team but this ending works better due to its simplicity and for the overall message of the comic book).

On the last page here I have the court scene in which the antagonist argues that the angel is a terrorist. He provides no argument against the jinn even though the jinn is Muslim and killed a man earlier in the comic. The policeman is using the stereotype of a Muslim terrorist against the heroes and, as the final panel shows, is successful in getting the angel convicted. As a result, the fiery eyes of the jinn are stronger than ever, showing his fury at the results. As is usual for superhero comics, the story never really ends but is "to be continued..."

The back cover here is a pretty simple design, showing the heroes' sudden departure (to be reminiscent of Batman).

DJ: "The Battle"

2009-02-05T13:15:00.000-08:00

DJ: "The Battle"

I decided to do my project on the issue of "Man vs Machine". I really got my idea from the story of John Henry. When choosing my topic initially I believe I was thinking too hard. I simply sat back and let my mind naturally pick a topic and "Man vs. Machine" was the first topic that arrived. To be honest as a child John Henry's story seem to pop up alot, so it was an easy choice to base my story around . I basically took the storyboard for John Henry triumphant Man vs. Machine tale to create DJ, an adolescent disc jockey who battles a robotic disc jockey and is victorious when the two battle head to head seeming to be at a disadvantage to the robust, advanced robot.

To show how I came up with the idea I will give a short version of John Henry's tale and you can see how my story and his are similiar in many ways , but also contrast because of the time period in which they occurred. John Henry in every form of the tale is presented as a massive man of great strength who was the most skilled "steel driver" in the world. John Henry was loved by all as he was a monstrous man, but full of love and pride. This tale is based upon a true story of a man named Henry supposedly. But in short John Henry was challenged when his owner purchased a steam powered hammer . John Henry challenged his owner that he could drill more spikes in the railwasy than the machine. The battle occurs and John Henry is succesful, but loses his live shortly after the victory.He is a hometown hero when he is living, but after his death he becomes a legend.
DJ is my modern day John Henry as you can see after viewing my project DJ is loved by the people for his skill with music. I played off the enemy the steam machine with a robot character who in comparison to DJ had four arms and a strong backing from his robot community. The two battle and DJ's skill and variations are too much for the robot to handle as he overheats and eventually blows up.Unlike John Henry DJ stays alive and all is back to normal as the people still love DJ , because he is the best disc jockey around.

Here is a link to John Henry's story (or you can just click the picture above):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGglKPqG16s

Transitter

2009-02-05T07:25:00.000-08:00

The name of my comic book is "Transitter". The characters in this comic are the mother and father of Donovan, Robo a friend of Charles's and the babysitters Charles and Jermaine. Charles and Jermaine are the best of friends that live togethter and their own apartment. Donovan is the baby.

The story line is that this family needs a babysitter because they are thinking of going on a vacation. While playing in their living room, Charles and Jermaine(a bug) see this commercial on TV that is offering a quick job for babysitting but Jermaine realizes that he will not get to spend as much time with Charles if Charles takes this job. Charles gets a phone call from the family in the need of a babysitter and arranages the time to meet them at their house. At this time Jermaine is highly upset with Charles's decision. Charles knows that Jermaine loves him and that he is jealous of the opportunity but Charles takes the job anyway.

After Charles and Jermaine settle in the house to babysit Donovan, Donovan starts to cry like all babies do. The day passes and Charles is thinking he better watch over the baby, so he lets Donovan sleep with him and Jermaine. While sleep, Charles has this nightmare that some weird creature is trying to kill the baby(not knowing that was Jermaine's plan). He awakes after a night full of terror and goes to wash his face. Around this time the baby discovers that Jermaine is a harmful bug and starts to cry. Charles runs to where to Donovan is and immediately looks at the news flash on the TV. Meanwhile, Jermaine is in a room transforming into a monster. Charles realizes that Jermaine is not around so he goes around the house searching for him. Once he finds the room Jermaine is in, he realizes that Jermaine is dangerous and has transformed into this enormous bug. Nervous and paranoid, Charles runs to a telephone to call his friend Robo and tells him about the situation. Robo speeds over to the house and rings the doorbell. Charles answers the door in paranoia. Suddenly, they both hear a cry and rush to find the baby.

The baby is being choked by Jermaine and crying in pain. Charles rushes over and pulls Donovan away from the raged monster and hits him as hard as he can. Jermaine falls in defeat and realizes that he has no more strength. Jermaine is dead and Charles feels that he has killed his best friend but also realizes that he has saved Donovan from death. Charles is happy with himself and so are Donovan and Robo. Together, they wait for the arrival of the mother and father of Donovan and soon they come. THE END

Third Floor Triple

2009-02-04T12:37:00.000-08:00

Thought Process :

I decided to focus my project on the social issue of racism. As a black person, I obviously love talking about race (i should not generalize. i simply like talking about race), and so, I decided to focus on racial issues at a university. Although racism at Duke is not as blatant as it is in the story I tell, it exists. I just wanted to start the dialogue.

I decided to make the black people the majority in this situation instead of white people, because it just didn't seem right to make a story in which I pit the antagonists as white racists. I thought that'd be bad. So, I decided to reverse the situation.

Story Line:
The story is about three roommates living in a triple. The main character is the black boy without the afro. The main character has already met one of his roommates who is the other black kid with the afro. They are busy setting up their room when their third roommate comes in. He's white. At first they are stunned. I tried to show this with their shocked/"are you serious" expressions. The next panel shows their fake smiles. They are nervous about the whole situation, but they still want to try to be friendly.

The next two panels show that the chemistry between the white kid and the black roommates is somewhat lacking. However, there is hope. The second panel on page 2 shows this, as the main character breaks the 4th wall and smiles at the reader.

The next page deals with the boys discussing the white roommate. The boy with the afro asks his roommate what he thinks about the white kid. He's not yet sold on him. However, the main character says he doesn't seem like a bad guy. They walk discussing the roommate, race, and how they should behave toward the new roommate.

The next page is a whole different day. I tried to illustrate this with the change of clothing. The main character just finished talking to a pretty girl, and a couple of black frat brothers see this. They think if they add him to their frat they will be able to hang out with a whole bunch of pretty girls. I tried to illustrate that with the last panel where the black frat brother strokes his chin as he thinks about an equation in his head.

The frat brother invites him to his frat's party. The backgrounds for that whole scene was a pain to draw since I hate backgrounds for the most part. I tried to make the first setting on that day based on Bryan Center Walkway. The second for that day was based on the Main Quad.

Nevertheless, the main character has been invited to a party. I tried to show a white hand looking at the flier as a form of foreshadowing. I illustrated that the two black boys were getting ready for the party as the kid with the afro helped the main character pick out a good shirt. Suddenly, their preoccupation with themselves is broken as their white roommate asks if he can come to the party also. I tried to make it evident that he is pointing at himself in reference to the party.

The kid with the afro is not sure what to say. I feel his expression shows this. However, the main character, set on bringing everyone together, waves that he should come along.

I set the next scene by showing the picture of the frat house. The boys walk up to it and see a frat brother looking at them strangely. I then tried to show with the hands that the frat brother points to the two black boys, says they can come in, but tells the white boy to stop. He is not allowed in. The main character, who first got the invite, speaks to the frat brother and says he can't do this. The other two roommate are outraged, and I think their expressions show that.

I showed the frat brother's resolve to not let them in by drawing him with folded arms. He boys turn around and begin to leave when they run into the girl the main character previously talked to. She is with a friend, and they were heading to the frat house. She points to the house and asks them why they aren't heading toward it like she and her friend are.

The main character says it's because they won't let white people in. I think I conveyed that with the talking bubble and the faces. The girl's expression changes to anger because of what she has heard. She and her friend get out their cell phones, and the next panel shows that she calls her friend at the party.

The last page shows how the party room in the frat house suddenly becomes empty. I especially like the expression on the frat brothers' faces. The one looking at his watch is my favorite. Nevertheless, the last frame shows how the main character and his friends are now hanging out with a lot of the people from the party.

The main character, his roommate with the afro, and the other black people around won't tolerate racism. They don't mind that the kid is white. Rather, they enjoy his company, and they are all having a good time hanging out.

Programs:
I made the comic with Adobe Flash. I used to program to draw, layer, and add color to everything. I then exported the images from Flash and placed them in Adobe InDesign in order to lay them out properly.

Style:
My style is very simple. I try to avoid black lines wherever possible and simple use color to differentiate things from one another. I feel my style is reminiscent of Invader Zim. I use the same eye shape. My drawings also reminded a fellow classmate of mine, Emmy, of Foxtrot, which is my favorite comic.
I put a lot of effort into character design, because that is my favorite part of drawing. I especially tried to dress the characters well.

2009-02-02T18:08:00.000-08:00

Global Warming: When the Sun's Life is Threatened.

I created this narrative sequence with the perils of Global Warming in mind- this is an issue that is really important to me, as an Environmental Science and Policy major and an environmentally aware citizen. And the issue is becoming more and more important in our daily lives- we're starting to think of hybrid vehicles, reducing water consumption, and limiting our emissions, but there are still so many people who a)don't care b) don't think it's a problem c) don't think that their actions can make a difference.

I used the sun as my central character to approach global warming (or climate change if you will) from a different perspective. A lot of times we only focus on what this phenomenon means to us or "future generations", but it means a lot more to the environment. Yes, I realize that global warming is not actually heating up the sun, but this illustration shows that there are more things to consider in the situation.

I thought of using a tree or plant as the character, but their lifetime would be so short, especially if they were a victim of forest clear-cutting or changes in weather patterns that caused draught or torrential rains. The sun provided a character that could be all seeing, from the beginning to the end of time. The sun will outlive us all and is often seen as a symbol of life- without the sun there would be no humans.

The narrative starts with the sun "chilling" around the earth, nice and comfy in the daytime and wearing a scarf during the evening (this is to show that the sun is not too hot yet). It follows the sun from good times with Adam and Eve, the first fire by a caveman (without fire we would have no burning of fossil fuels), to the industrial revolution, massive amounts of smog, and then rapid industrialization of the whole planet (this is a little exaggerated to get the effect in). Viewers can see the sun turn from happy to surprised at the fire, and can see him from breathing easy to needing a dust mask to survive. More modern issues then come into play: deforestation and melting of the icecaps- where we begin to see the sun really breaking a sweat and even crying into the ocean (raising the sea levels).

Then we get the drama. The sun is on fire (its head is literally burning) and it has a thermometer in its mouth- definitely an ill sun. The sun is imagining its own demise, showing viewers the gravity of the problem.

But there is hope. We people begin to see a world without the sun they are awed and inspired to take action (depicted by a thought bubble with the sad sun, a band-aid and a tree ready to plant). The people, horrified by the thought of a world without a sun, start planting trees and commuting to their jobs on bicycles. It is really important to see the humans as the heros in this narrative- they are the ones capable of taking action to save the planet (or in this case the sun) from the horrors of global warming. The final frame shows the sun hugging 3 people, showing its gratitude with a wink- letting us know that we too can make a difference by taking some action.

One of my favorite parts about this comic are the front and back cover. One the from you see a match with the globe as its head burning up- this is surrounded by a frame of sorts, but looks really scary and hopeless. On the back you see someone mounting this "picture"- in a real frame on their wall, showing that this is not reality, but something to think about and keep in out sights.

Exercise No. 1 - Sequential Face Narrative

2009-01-27T17:47:00.000-08:00

For this assignment everybody in the class was given the above print out and instructed to create a sequential narrative.

The Results

Vivi Wu

Tomi Adewale

Maya Robinson

Kyle Singler

Jungyun Kim

Johnny Williams

Jillian Ziarko

Jason Tian

Jabari Marshall

Emmy Torre

Allison Simler

Alex Young

Adeeb Yunus

START

2009-01-07T07:34:00.001-08:00

This blog was created on January 7th, 2009.