The Secret Language of Comics

Tag: sk4

Deconstructing an Octopus

Student Posts

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.

Sketch 4: Fish Butterfly

Student Posts

For this sketch assignment, I was confused at first. It was hard trying to think about what I could combine. My first thought was to combine an orange and the sun or an eye and coffee mug. However, that did not work out. Then I started to look at butterflies, but I could not think of anything that I could combine with it. Then, I started to look at fishes and I noticed in one of the pictures that the tail kind of looked like a butterfly wing. At first, I did try to combine it with another half of a real butterfly, but it did not look how I intended. So, I decided to combine two fish tails to create a butterfly. I think that combining the images to make it look realistic was pretty hard. In the end, if I were to look at my image as the audience and not as the creator, I would think that it conveys the connection that most things are very similar, but different. Yet, they still manage to connect with one another.

This is how I envisioned the ‘fish butterfly’ to look.

Link To Images Used

Doigts de Saucisse

Student Posts
Credit: Alexa Melendez

The process of creating this image took more brainpower than I anticipated. If it were not for my feud with technology, I am sure this would have been more smooth sailing. For the longest period of time, cropping the sausage picture proved difficult. I also used pixlr which is an editing application that I am quite unfamiliar with. At the end of the day, I gave up and used Word, cropped the sausage into an oval shape and placed on top of my fingers. Although the process was frustrating, I am satisfied with the end result. The inspiration came from the Shrek 2 movie with the insult, “Don’t you point those dirty green sausages at me!”. I don’t particularly think that this image conveys a message other than the limitations of my knowledge in a photo editing application.

Cooling down at the beach

Student Posts

Initially, I wanted to use a beach and substitute the sand for the yellowish frosting you find on cakes. While searching for pictures of beaches, I came across a picture of a blowhole and thought it would look cool if instead of the water being shot up into the air because of it hitting against rocks, it was shot out of a massive aerosol can.

With that idea, I got these two pictures and layered them on top of each other giving the impression of a large spray can spouting water into the air.

The hardest part of this project was the meticulous cropping of the spray can. Clearly, I didn’t do a great job, however, with the resources and time I had allocated for it, I feel I did a fine enough job.

Spoons and Skateboards

Student Posts

I decided to combine these images because they all seemed to be the same colors and seemingly wooden. I thought that a chair would be a good starting point for adding elements and changing them. I faced several challenges when editing these images together because I do not do well with this type of computer work. My combo photo is not the most seamless thing, but I think that it demonstrates a fair attempt at combining several different objects into one. I thought that the back of the chair looked like a skateboard and I also thought that the legs of the chairs could be adapted into something else that is wooden. This does not look the way that I wanted it to look in the end, but I look forward to more practice and learning some techniques on how to edit images in the future. I don’t think that the final image conveys any specific themes or messages but I think that it connects three different aspects of life (cooking, furniture, and outdoor activities) to make one picture.

Image Credit:

-Chair: Uploaded by “Just Dining Chairs” in Washington found on Flickr

-Spoons: Uploaded by “basic lunchbox” found on Flickr

-Skateboard: Uploaded by “ohaiadeola” found on Flickr

Dead Leaves Leave the Deads

Student Posts

There was a myth about the root of a mushroom. Perhaps there exists a reflectional symmetric counterpart under the biggest mushroom in the quad?

In the process of creating this image, the only technical difficulty is to create a relationship between real-life objects. Putting the two pictures together, however, is an easy process.

Sketch 4: Combophoto

Sketches

Due: 2/6

Tag: sk4

Stephen Mcmennamy is an Atlanta artist and Creative Director at the advertising firm BBDO. He first came to my attention when I saw his series of “combophotos” that splice together two different images to form a surreal new creation.

Here are a few examples from him:

cauliflower + poodle

paintbrush + spaghetti

bridge + guitar

Take a few moments to look through the images he’s posted on his site linked above or on his Tumblr or his Instagram. Then create your own square combophoto and publish it to your site. You can take your own photos, but probably you’ll want to use CC_licensed images you find on Flickr — make sure you give credit to the originals that you modify to create your combophoto.

The level of technical aptitude for this assignment is actually relatively small, just simple cropping and resizing. The greater part of the challenge is thinking creatively and finding images that you can work with. That said, note that Mcmennamy comes up with ideas and then specifically stages photos to combine, and he seems to often spend significant amounts of time shooting and selecting his images. You won’t have lots of time, models you can hire, or expensive photo equipment to work with, so I don’t necessarily expect your final images to be as polished and perfectly aligned as his are. More important is for you to be playful and come up with images that combine to create something funny or witty or striking.

To edit the two photos together, you can use whatever photo editing software you’d like. Pixlr is a good free web app, as is PicMonkey. Adobe Photoshop is also available for you to use on the computers in the Media Library on the 4th floor of the Woodruff Library.

Once you have your image, publish it in a post on your class site. Don’t forget to give it a funny or witty title! Tag your post “sk4“

Write a paragraph about how you went about choosing the two images you combined and why. What challenges did you face as you created your combophoto? What do you think your final image conveys?

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