In my bag I usually carry with me the necessities: my iPad for taking notes and annotating readings, notebook for planning out my daily schedule, headphone, student card, and water bottle. If I’m going to the library and planning to stay for a long time, I will also include my laptop and charger. I do think that the “what is in your bag” challenge is to some extent reflective of an individual’s personality. A few years ago when I first entered the boarding school system, I enjoyed observing everybody’s desk: a family photo, a sticker with quotes or lyrics written on it, a decorative figure —- there must be some special meanings or a piece of memory associated with each object so that the owner decided to incorporate it into the most intimate corner of his/her life. Similarly, the “what’s in your bag” challenge offers a glimpse into one’s life.
Initially, I was struggling to come up with a topic to draw about because we had too much freedom, and I felt that it would be easier if we were assigned a topic. Eventually, I decided to draw inspiration from life. Considering that Valentine is coming, I picked one of my favorite love poems and illustrated it in three panels.
During the process of drawing, I particularly focused on establishing a hazy, ambiguous ambiance. I used pencils as the main media since their pale grey hue naturally possesses a melancholic quality and I could use them to create subtle textures while rendering the clouds. And I erased the outline after filling the interior with shadows to better enhance the haziness of the work.
In searching for materials for this assignment, I was particularly attracted by the slender structure of my tripod. Like the legs of an iron octopus — this idea came to mind and inspired me to create an “industrial octopus monster”. The idea of octopus naturally led me to use my ink bottle as the head. Then, to create a sense of suspension, I found this place in my res hall that has an EXIT sign shining in bold red light and took pictures of the objects there. Lastly, combined the two pictures through procreate. Done! An elegant metal octopus lurking in the corner of the basement.
For this assignment, I created a visual note to summarize what I learned about Samuel Fusso’s photograph “The Chief WHo Sold Africa to the Colonists” in my art history class.
Even though normally I would also include a fair amount of visuals in my ARTHIST notes — like images of the details of the work or of the other works created by the same artist — I typed out most of the information in a word doc instead of writing them down by hands with doodles on the sides, since for me typing is the easiest and most efficient way to record all the information covered in class in an easily recognizable manner.
So I used this opportunity to create a summary sheet for this particular artwork, and through the process I found it to be a great way to make connections between the various concepts mentioned during class as well as to memorize the key points about the artist and the work.
Before writing this assignment, I jotted down a list of events that have influenced my reading and writing style and surprisingly realized that almost all of them were interrelated. So the main challenge for me whiling putting everything together was how to select the most important ones and weaved them together within the 1000 word limit.
I mainly reflected on how my love for reading and writing fantasy stories led me to redefine my reality and determine what kind of writer I want to become. I strived to explain what I learned from facing the conflicting purposes of writing demonstrated by school composition assignments and my interest in writing fantasy stories.
Overall I enjoyed the assignment a lot for its level of freedom and how it inspired me to reflect on my past experiences which led me to become more determined in what I hope to achieve as a writer
The item I chose was my highlighter and I transformed it into a firefly, as I noticed that the bright-yellow lid part looks like a source of illumination, and the black, rectangular body of the instrument could be easily transformed into the body of the bug.
I used my dark-blue pillow as the background, took a picture of it with the highlighter on top of it, and doodled the details on top of the picture in Procreate (since it’s impossible to draw on a pillow).
Somehow after completing this doodle, I felt a peculiar sense of pleasure when I was using this highlighter again — as if the yellow mark was indeed light being poured out onto the paper surface, glowing.
For my Avatar I wanted to create an image that would reflect what I like, what does comics mean to me, and what I hope to achieve through this class. I used my own pictures of my uncle’s cat and the plants I grew at home as the basis, and I also searched up a few mushroom pictures on Pinterest as references.
The focal point of this image is a black cat playing classical guitar, which basically represents me. I’m particularly fond of black cats’ bright yellow eyes that seem to secretly observe and keep a record of everything, and their sleeky furs which look like silk. And my uncle’s black cat Boby is just one of my best friends and I’ve been using its photo as my social media profile picture for years. In terms of classical guitar, I’ve been playing it since high school, and even though I’m still bad at it, it’s one of my favorite leisure activities. The music notes float in and out of the door, symbolizing that music allows me to temporarily detach from the real world.
The door at the back of the cat represents the boundary between the real world and the illusory land of imagination, dream, and art. It also represents how I feel when I’m reading or creating something of my own — which is what I’ll be doing in this class. Here the imaginary world is overgrown with giant plants and fungi. Even though I’m a terrible gardener, botany has been my favorite drawing subject.
Except for the pale green color in the background, I only used black and white in this image since I particularly like illustrations that look complex and a bit out of order at first glance, and the easiest way to achieve it is through delineating details through fine lines. I usually add more layers of shadow, but for this assignment, I want to keep it simple and retain a relaxed free-hand-doodle quality.
