Comic Ch 9

Chapter 9 is the final chapter of the book and is about the process of reading a comic and taking all of the previous lessons learned or techniques used within a comic and making them into something more than still images. When applying the previous 8 chapters together within and reading a comic, the mind gives life to the story.

The chapter goes back to the argument that comics are a form of art and have their own style that differs from paintings, films, etc. For an artist a comic book may be a way of expressing their individual voice. It allows them to illustrate their individual perceptions on concepts in a large scheme or even on simple matters. A comic welcomes all to express themselves by creating their own comic as well as welcomes all to read and attempt to understand the emotions and ideas present within the comic book. Throughout time one can see the difference in artistic style used within comics and how they vary. A comic is an accumulation of visual with iconography, language and symbolism. But the most important aspect, or at least from what I understand, is the usage of "closure." Closure is the understanding that a comic only works when the audience incorporates their life experience into the techniques used in order to give life to the images. Scott McCloud states that "creator and reader are partners in the invisible creating something out of nothing, time and time again."

Throughout the book we have learned countless techniques used to create a successful comic book but the writer or author must realize that they are only effective when, as a whole, their used with balance. The balance of the techniques also creates a balance of the visible and invisible. A balance of what the author incorporated and what the reader will therefore include.

Sequence/Narrative Proposal

One possible idea I have for the project is taking a sculpture, drawing, painting and photo and piecing them together to create one fluent story. I can either base the art works off of a story I've herd or create a completely new one that the combines all of the works I find and incorporate. It may be easier just to make up a story but its probably better if I take an interesting story either of my life or of an others and create the art project.

Picasso

One of the most influential artist I've had the pleasure of witnessing some of his work is Pablo Picasso. My favorite painting of his is Las Meninas. As you can see it is the image to my blogspot background (and if you didn't know that then now you know). This painting is particular captivating because it captures a life like essence. In a sense, it follows Xie He's "Six Laws" which basically some up a technique or style of creating life to a still image. If you go from right to left, then you see a transition of abstract to realism but at the same time the abstract still retains realism while the realism still maintains abstract lines and shapes. The human like figures all have a central focus point. This central focus point is a white rectangular square which resembles a doorway. The doorway gives the characters breath, or motion because it creates the illusion that the characters are all traveling to this open space and exit the painting. The colors used within the painting clash well together, the entire painting has a blend of blue, black and white. Pablo Picasso has a unique style and therefore he is currently one of my favorite artist.

Confession Day 3

Overall I enjoyed all of the confessions given today. As far as my favorite of the day goes, I think I would give it to the jungle sounds in the dark. The confession had a background story that was illustrated through the sounds herd in the dark. The bay crying portrayed fear and the shower falling we learned was comfort. The presentation brought the audience into it and recreated the initial scene which originally caused the artist to fear the dark.

Today's weakest performances will be recorded as a tie, at least for me. Once again I'd like to state that I didn't think they where bad, just not as interactive or as technical as others. This may just be a choice of style, I for one prefer to have a more silent style piece. So the two that are tied are the cigarette body outline and the confession to God. The stench of death an illusion to it with the cigarette art work worked well with the general confession, I just thought it was a simple meaning. Honestly the critique from the audience picked up the piece ten fold and made it quite great. For the confession to God, it also seemed simple. A letter to God stating that your drifting is too common but including the sermon like feel to the deliverance of the letter did up the overall art work. There was a good deal of symbolism and I think that everyone in the class room could relate to it on some level so it wasn't a bad performance. 

Monday Lecture 5

On the 25th of April, within a lecture that began around 3:30 p.m. I learned a rectifying lesson that will last with me through out my trials as an art student. Professor Kip gave his students a metaphor which he also depicted through a picture. He began with the simple image of a rectangular wagon with two circular wheals. After words a donkey was drawn in front of the wagon which was followed by a man sitting on the wagon holding a long stick above the animal. Dangling from the end of the stick was a carrot on what I presume was a string. The carrot sat suspended a few feet in front of the view of the donkey.

The most important part of the image and or metaphor was the distance between the donkey and the carrot. Art work is much like the carrot and the space. the tangle performance or piece is the carrot itself but the deliverance is the spacing between it and the audience. If you haven;t realized it yet, we as the spectators are the donkey. The spacing between the art and audience is what determines whether an art piece will be good, great or forever remembered. Overall the metaphor and image was very simple but at the same time it has an old school fill of a character or icon tricking a less intelligent character within a story into doing their bidding. Perhaps, this aspect is on purpose; perhaps it's saying that we may in fact be using this technique as a form of tricking our audience into appreciating the message found within the art even if the message is no more special than anyone else.

Art In Athleticism

 Sports as an art in the way it is played but more importantly the art is in the human body and how it adapts. the muscles form in specific ways that are beneficial to the sport. the human body is so complex in the way all parts function together in order to perform every task. This event was put on by Desiree D'Alessandro which includes a few boxers within the community, most of whom attend UCSB. the different styles of fighting and even physique elude to the beauty of boxing as an art. Sports are complex challenges brought on by the human mind and spirit but carried out by the body.

I was told that UCSB has a history of boxing and holding boxing matches. Fridays boxing match was a way of honoring that past and in a sense calming the void that the university has felt for the past few years. For the entire week I could fill the school asking; begging for the a boxing match to begin. The air was filled with that salty sweat stench and human musk. The winds howled for flesh being smashed into an others flesh. Sadly I couldn't attend Friday's event but I know that UCSB now sleeps peacefully.



Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg was an artist who personally felt the need to create abstract works. He explored the possibilities of art. In other words his work challenged the audience to find meaning where the purpose or reasoning wasn't clear. Often times he was criticized for this style but in truth it was accomplishing much of what he sought for. The audience became engaged, sort of like the art appealed to much more than just the visual senses.

What's unique about Rauschenberg is that he himself claimed that he learned very little from art classes, but instead developed his artistic style and skills from the outside world. Eventually he came to the conclusion that discipline was an essential tool for an artist. Discipline in no way meant that he had to stick to one means of accomplishing a goal or task but rather, he would have to have the patience to learn different techniques and skills. Basically allow himself to finally learn from others.

Robert Rauschenberg created abstract art which not all understood, but he did so not necessarily for others to see but rather as a way of finding fulfillment in life. He stated, "I don't think of myself as making art. I do what I do because I want to, because painting is the best way I've found to get along with myself. And it's always the moment of doing it that counts." Rauschenberg teaches us that art is a way of learning about oneself but more importantly a way of growing.

Comic Ch.7+8

Within Chapter 7 Scott McCloud, the author, declares that comics are indeed a form of art. Comics are art because art is anything that doesn't come from survival or reproduction. Humans are consistently creating art because we don't spend all of our time focused on just those two aspects of life. Scott McCloud states that "art is the way we assert our identities as individuals and break out of the narrow roles nature cast us in." Art, based on this definition, is also a necessity for humans because it allows us to experience the vast array of emotions that don't necessarily coincide with survival or reproduction. Art has allowed the human population to grow both physically and mentally. By using these experiences and portraying them to survival and or reproduction, it allows modern ideas to be constructed as to make life and time more efficient. The path consisting of six steps was created in order to show the process needed in creating just about any form or style of art.

Throughout Chapter 8, McCloud tackles the ideas behind the usage of color within a comic. Thanks to the discovery of the three subtractive primaries (cyan, magenta, and yellow) are we able to use all types of colors throughout a work of art. The primary colors can be mixed together to make any possible color visible to the human eye. Not only do we find different colors but we see different textures and forms of coloring. The overall outlook of the color found in a comic was predetermined by the technology available at the time. the usage of bright solid colors allows the icons within a comic to stand out and become distinguishable from other literature. Simply put, "Colors could [or can] express a dominant mood. Tones and modelling could add depth." Color could be used as another tool to the artist, one just as effective as the images drawn.

Anonymous Act of Kindness

I had a midterm today so for my anonymous act of kindness I showed up early to class and set a few blue books around the class room. Before doing so I had to check with the TA administrating the test to see if it was okay. She agreed on account of it was only 8 blue books. Before placing them she skimmed through the books to make sure it wasn't a form of cheating. I guess what helped was that the test was mainly multiple choice and two short responses, so the blue book wasn't that important. Surprisingly most people who came in early chose not to sit directly at the seats with blue books. Whether the people who came in actually kept them or used them, I'm not completely sure but I would deduce that they did since no one turned one in before hand or asked the TA about them. I do hope that it at least made someones day.

The one mistake I will admit to doing is that I wasn't able to document the act do to the test setting but I also feel like it might have taken away from the anonymousness.

Confession Day 2

Hands down the most impact full confession presented today was about her grandma dieing and not finding out until five days after due to finals. WOW! My grandma is still alive, thank you lord, but even I was almost brought to tears. The presentation had all the right elements to capture the mood. The loud heart beat during the slide show went perfect with the transitions. It took me a while to realise at the end that the siren like noises was signifying her death. But even so it was well done, as the screen went black and the noise was so captivating. I didn't understand why she was blindfolded until she explained the piece and it made it all the more sadder. Overall well  done. I give this confession an A+.

Overall today's presentations where good. Don't know what to classify as the weakest presentation. If I had to choose then I would say the one with the video game mainly do to the presentation part but not on the overall concept. If he had shown the process of making the image and how long and vigorous it was and then erased it all within a minute or two. Then that presentation would have become at least three times stronger.

Confession Project

Within my project I am confessing that as a child I use to feel alone and some what distant from my imediate family. My father spent most of his effort playing sports with my older brother and my mother spent her time with my sisters. Honestly I would wish for more attention. I am the youngest of my siblings. Now I'm not saying that they just completely ignored me but it was like I wasn't a priority or as if my voice was never herd. Perhaps it is the reasoning to why I'm a quiet person of few words. In order to receive attention I attempted to become a soccer player. Soccer is my fathers favorite sport so I figured it would give us some common ground. Even so my father hardly ever saw me play. Eventually I found art (drawing) as an escape. It brought a sense of peace and calmness within my soul. To this day I think that if there was one thing I could do for the rest of my life and never get bored of, it would be drawing.

My confession project is a still motion video about my parents lack of attention but I incorporated a great deal of symbolism rather than realism so that the confession wouldn't be too straight forward. I did so in order to show that it's not a topic I like to straight out say to people, especially those I don't really know. The first and last few images within the video I think tell the most about my confession, the images depict my sense of distance from the rest of my family. the mountains that represent my family shift into soccer cleats in order to depict the sport as a means of developing a common interest between us. The cleats later shift into a marker which is meant to symbolize my love for art and the comfort it has brought me. The D and the words that start with "d" show both the good and the bad that I have felt over the years. There are both uplifting and depressing words thrown into the mix. The clear eye bottle is an abstract way of stating my sorrow and my desire of crying but doing so in a way that I'm not openly saying that it made me want to cry. The transitioning of the eye was used to show that no one was watching me but I was always watching them. So this is the explanation of my confession and my confession project, I hope people enjoyed it.

(haven't figured out how to get video to play on blog)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEUvHSMYw9U

Free

I dedicate today's free write to SPORTS. Why you ask? Because today was and still is a very eventful day of big games for the worlds greatest teams.

Unfortunately FC Barcelona lost today in the Copa De Rey finals to Real Madrid. The worst part of the match was that Barcelona came lacking the desire or passion necessary to win a big game against an al-star team like Real Madrid. Sure, Barca has the greatest player in the world, as deemed by Fifa, but Real has the second greatest player so never should this game have been taken lightly. I can excuse the tie between the two teams from the game last Saturday but this match up was for a title. Now we won't get to see Barcelona win the triple crown again, well at least not for another year. The final result was too disappointing, a 1-0 defeat in extra time, but man would raising the copa have been nice. I guess we move onwards now to the Champions league.

Still to come today is the second game to the seven game series between the Lakers and the Hornets. I do hope Kobe can muster up the strength to outplay the Hornets and someone on the Lakers roster can actually stop Chris Paul. Chris Paul is an amazing athlete, in the first game he probably could have single-handedly destroyed the entire Laker team only using his left arm. Pau, Lamar, Bynum and Fisher please step it up! Yet, as a true fan I will continue to chant for my team, the defending champs, the Los Angeles Lakers.

Strong/Weak

I honestly really enjoyed the presentation of the book with the toe headed girl. It incorporated the right elements within it to convey the confession. After receiving the confession at the end of the presentation the pictures within the book seemed to be stronger than when originally seen during the reading. They where different creatures with the toe headed girl, which signified her nontraditional and different family but a family all the same. The form in which the audience sat in a tradition circle for story time added to the idea of finding comfort in others.

So I don't want to bash on anyone but I would have to say that the presentation of the egg was perhaps one of the weakest confessions within Tuesdays class. I think that he could have gone a bit of a different route. some of the ideas given by the class would have definitely solidified the work and made it more meaningful, such as the idea of taking down peoples orders and just giving them the style of egg he preferred instead. To do that, would have stated that he use to be taken advantage of when cooking for others but he wasn't going to take it anymore. The original piece didn't have enough to it and his confession seemed simple, such ass he often had to cook for others.

Monday Lecture 4

Kips lectures continue to be entertaining. After four weeks of sitting in his two hour class I still have yet to encounter a single desire to sleep during the Monday lecture. Maybe the stretching before class begins actually helps but I think it has more to do with the fact that Kip presents his material in an interactive manner and uses the work of modern artist rather than those of say the 18th century.

Within this Mondays particular lecture, I felt like the flow of the class was slightly different. We had one theme openly expressed towards us. The concept of using maps as much more than just for the roads. We all are constantly using our minds to map everything we see. We make connections between the past, present and possibly even future. Another difference was that the professor used a smaller amount of artist to depict examples, such as  whose work showed up quite often.

Comic Ch 5 + 6

Chapter 5

Confession: Pride

So I've come to the conclusion that I haven't accomplished much in my life but truthfully I'm alright with it. At the age of 21 I'm still young and have much life to live so there still time for pride in my accomplishments. There are moments I'm proud of and will go down as "happy" moments. If I had to choose then I would say that at this point the greatest moment I can remember is opening the acceptance letters to the University's that accepted me. It was like all the work I put into high school actually paid off.

High school felt as if you go through four years and and you do a ton of busy work but yet your left with this feeling that you've not really gained or obtained much out of it. So to get accepted into an undergrad school was refreshing. It was like being a river, or at least what I imagine that must feel like. A refreshingly cool rush or sensation that's continually passing through and it never feels like it will die down. Finally I knew that my many sleepless nights didn't go to waist. I would like to add that I chose UCSB because of the beautiful campus but most importantly its serene atmosphere. To this day I have never regretted my decision and will continue to push forward until the day I graduate. Hopefully within the next year or two, by the time I graduate i will have found many more happy moments and one I can truly say I am proud of.

Confession: Fright

The scariest moment in my life occurred when I was around 10 years old. It happened at night. That night I was restless, sleep came uneasy. Probably two hours after initially attempting to sleep was I finally able to drift off into slumber. I don’t quite remember what my dreams where about but the must have been more like night mares. I distinctly remember sweating in my sleep that night and tossing and turning. Even so the worse part of that night had yet to come.

 I awoke on that still night in an almost trance like position. I was facing face up with my arms perfectly still at my side and my legs laying straight out touching one to the other. The room was pitch back except for a line of light shining under the door. Soon after realizing the light the door began to slowly creep open but there was no figure in sight in front or behind the door way who could have nudge it open. Shortly after I began to fill the print of finger tips slowly find their way up the sides of my arms and legs. There was an overwhelming presence surrounding my body. I tried to scream out but no sound would come out. The only movement I had was in my neck and eyes. I was trapped, completely vulnerable for anything to come.

Tears began to fill my eyes and just like that morning had come. The next image I remember was my brother staring at my frigid body covered in sweat and tears. My mother soon fallowed to check if I perhaps was catching a fever. I don’t know if this truly happened or was simply a dream broth on by the early symptoms of an illness or not but I do recall the sense of helplessness I experienced throughout this moment in life.

"The Common Task"

On April 13, 2011 I attended a Art program on Nikolai Federov, now there was more to the presentation but I was only able to stay for the part on Federov. The presentation was done in an artistic way as it was presented through a vivid video with beautiful scenario shots. these images where of Russia and depicted the beauty that can be seen within this vast last. Accompanying the video was a narrative of Federov's life, but the great aspect to this was that the speaker giving the presentation was the one narrating the story. This form of story telling gave the audience a face to piece with the voice creating a sort of direct relationship between the protagonist of the story and the audience. Simply put, it created a lifelike sense to the video of pure imagery. The only actually sound coming from the video was that of nature which would occupy the background and go in accordance to Nikolai Federov's life. For example during times of hardship, sounds of rain falling would be herd.

The main point to the presentation was to show how Russia came about the mission to reach to the stores; attempt to travel into space. Part of Federov's philosophy in life was that all matter throughout the Universe contained aspects of past human lives and that it would be collected in order for those people or being to be reincarnated and have this cycle of life and death continue on. This idea would later evolve into the premise that the world may come to an end and human life must look elsewhere for subsistince.

Overall the video depicted the life of Nikolai Federov but also the beauty of the earth and life present within. "All problems known to man have a single root in the existence of death."

Confession: Art Work

I understand that part of the theme or at least a message of the class is that life in general is art but I personally wouldn't say that I have created much of it. I am a fan of drawing and painting and throughout my up bringing I doodled on countless pieces of paper but it was never anything worth keeping. So about 3 or 4 years ago I did get an art binder where I decided to collect my art work but unfortunately I only have about 5 images within it. The biggest thing is that not a single one of them is complete. What I do admire is that I myself can see my self improvement as I go down the work. At this point I would have to say that the best image within the binder is a drawing I drew of Venom from the comic book spider man. The image is from a card I had of him and so the pose is in no way my original idea, but the black and white form of interpretation is my design.

I currently want to perfect the art of drawing realistic people within my own technique and so these are two images that I have more recently started drawing.





Sid Vicious



Rosie Huntington Whiteley

Monday Lecture 3

Its seems like Mondays lectures was themed to have a higher purpose in art as all the artist presented in lecture had higher meanings or goals to their pieces as well but to me they didn’t stand out so strong as a few of the artist. Two artist presented in lecture who stood above the others where Robert Mapplethorpe and Tehching Hsieh.

 It was impressive how Mapplethorpe was able to capture a humanly sexual essence out of objects or material that were not of flesh and blood. Even his photos taken with people posing captured or resonated Mapplethorpe’s beliefs, such as those of equality not only in race but also gender as in the sense of a person’s entire identity both on the inside and outside. His art had a higher purpose, to break the stereotypes or allow people to see around them. He used both males and females to be the icons within his work as to show that the female and male bodies are both beautiful in their own ways.

Tehching Hsieh perhaps has had the most interesting pieces of art presented to the class thus far. His work is so powerful that they demand attention and as if in the same motion reject that simple reaction. He does, what can be seen as simple actions and commits to doing them for so long that they become the most challenging commitments ever. Hsieh’s work teaches us about “time” and the actions we take for granted during the time we have of life and freedom. There are no real constraints such as still bars keeping us locked into a set way or life style. We as humans have the potential and means necessary within each and every one of us to at least strive for grandeur.

Confession: Embarassment

Let’s go back, I want to say five years ago, to a time when I was still in high school. I don’t remember the date, but OH how the events that transpired that fateful day still creep into my thoughts and whisper the story to what I have deemed my most embarrassing moment in life (at least thus far).

The brisk breeze was refreshing for such an irrational season as summer is in the desert.  The bell for lunch rang as I sat on the chill brick wall watching the hordes of students pore out of their miserable class rooms; some on their way to the next period and others gathering for lunch. Where I sat was the spot my friends’ would gather countless afternoons and eat their repetitive lunches and speak their uneventful conversations. Now truthfully the lunches were probably much more fun but after countless times of spending it in the same manner, the whole idea of lunch period had become quite stale. But this lunch would be far different, no this lunch would offer that change I had longed for; the only problem is that if I could take back my wish I would.

The story is kicked into action when my friend Danny arrives with a Joker smile (yes the arch enemy of Batman) and stands a foot away with a gaze fixated on my essence.  I hesitated for a second before questioning his satirical persona and with one little phrase he turned the tables on me, “I know someone who likes you.” Just like that my face shoots up red as I blush and the remaining members of our group crowd around all waiting for the revealing of this girls name. But no, that wouldn’t be any fun for Mr. Lopez (Danny’s last name). He had to get his own kicks and giggles out of this event; what a dick, a douche, a villain. He wasn’t going to say the name or at least not to me (but definitely to the others); instead first thing was to obelisk the imagery of this female. Soon they, as in my group of friends, were describing such tantalizing images of the perfect woman; a figure more goddess like than human.  

By this time I’ve become impatient and begin to beg for her name, but still that would be too easy. Instead I am given an ultimatum; having them tell her I like her and proceed to brings her then and there or find out who she is on my own accord. So I take what would seem to be the most logical choice (Man was I stupid). Moments later Danny arrives and my heart sinks, my day is ruined, no my week is gone. She is completely opposite of what I they had chiseled into my imagery synopsis. Now don’t get me wrong, I am a firm believer that there is someone out there for everyone so out of complete politeness and respect I will not describe her through my perception but I will say that she and I were incompatible. Now what makes this story so embarrassing is that by this time all the people in the quod have caught on and are paying more attention to my life rather than their own.

As she begins to approach I know not what to do anymore, so I wait, watch and listen for what’s to come. She says something along the lines of “so I here you also like me, do you want to go to prom with me?” (Oh ya did I forget to mention that this was right around the time of senior prom and let me go further into saying that the girl I actually took to prom was in the crowd watching). My heart skips an oscillation of beats, what have my friends gotten me into? For a brief moment I consider saying yes just to avoid the sheer awkwardness and embarrassment we are both about to face when I reveal to her that this is all a sick and twisted prank. All in all I come out looking like a jerk in front of a huge portion of the 2008 senior class and for a good while not a single day would pass where I was allowed to live the moment down. Unfortunately this day must have been even worse for the girl.

Stacks of Obits

"Stack of Obits," a performance by Stephanie Batiste.

The following is a list of thoughts and emotions jotted down while watching the 15min performance.

•                     A writer and Instructor who knows no bounds

•                     Actual deaths of people, known to the author or the family of the author

•                     The drastic inequities that life offers in a certain amount of space

•                     In the performance it closes the emotional gaps that exist

•                     Attempts to collapse the distance between performance and experience

•                     High level of empathy with a refusal of catharsis

•                     Important to avoid melodrama

◦                     There is a need to give an understanding of the violence without alienating the viewer

•                     A story about a normative family situated in a web of violence

•                     Piece is a kind of intervention against media caused numbing towards the subject

Confession

My first idea is to bring a small roll of scotch tape to class and have a thin black marker. what I will do is throughout the class time I will right single words on the roll of tape and place them around the room. I think writing the words as small as possible will work well so that the words or possibly the project won’t be so noticeable. I think it's a way of emphasizing how we hold tightly to these inner feelings that we try not to confess.


I currently can't think of a huge confession I might like to bring out but if so I think a good way of presenting it would be to set up my confession in a random kind of out of sight location in the room. Then with either a flashlight or light pointer I'll point at it every five minutes or so until people see it. Once again it’s a symbolism for the content of the confession being buried down inside and the flashlight acts as a means of bringing it to light.


I don't have a potential third interpretation to the project but I'd like to create a way of expressing a confession through a more direct form of symbolism or using symbolism that has to do with the confession being told rather than the idea of confessing.

Comic Ch 3 + 4

Within Chapter 3, the author Scott McCloud depicts the importance of closure. It is a heavily usable ability of recognizing and relating to other people. Although there is much we haven’t or can’t see, closure allows us to relate objects to things of familiarity in order to create images.  Basically closure is the rhetoric control of change, time and motion. Within comic books the usage of gutters, the space in between the panels, is a direct interpretation of the technique. The gutter space allows us to mentally connect the images within the panels in a logical way that isn’t necessarily given. McCloud goes on to say, “If visual iconography is the vocabulary of comics, closure is its grammar . . . then in a very real sense, comic is closure.” But closure is only powerful and as useful as the reader allows it to be.

Within Chapter 4 we learn that time and space is one and the same. Surprisingly enough, through the study of physics we also learn that time and space are one and the same. Time varies on the space or location. The panels and the bubbles create a timeline of the events occurring throughout the pages and ultimately the entire comic or work. When using closure it can be deduced that all actions have a set amount of time in which they occur.  It is the reader who incorporates his own experiences of actions and gives life to the comic.