The Mundane Cycle of High School Life
| DVB102 | Week 3 (Images 6-10): Comic Strip | #oneperday2020 |
This week the subject was prompted by a fact that happened during your school years. With this in mind, I had various vague ideas in mind but I found it difficult attempting to contain them within only five panels. This led me to the decision of creating a comic strip that encapsulated a day of a typical high school student, but through my personal experience as well. Obviously not everything could be included, but I used the panels to indicate what I thought would be the most significant events throughout a day whilst following the structure of a comic. To challenge myself, I decided to use a Tombow Fudenosuke hard tip brush pen; not a pen that I would typically use to draw with. I aimed at creating slow precise lines for a clean and refined comic strip, however, due to the nature of the pen I was using the lines I drew were inconsistent. Despite this, the pen on paper created a texture similar to that of a charcoal pencil, which I thought gave the comic strip an aspect of playfulness. I initially intended to maintain a monochromatic scheme throughout the comic strip, however, I realised that implementing minimal colour could indicate various things such as emphasis on certain areas or even the time of day. The coloured pens I used were a 0.5 blue Muji ink pen and two Crayola super tip markers.
Panel 1 waking up: The first panel indicates the first stage of a high school student's life; waking up. This is indicated by the sleeping figure resting their head on a pillow and underneath a blanket as well as the time indicated by the phone screen. Blue ink was used here to emphasise the time of day.
Panel 2 going to school: I attempted to capture the high school student's commute to school via bus through the placement of figures and windows. Colour is a significant aspect within this panel as it draws attention to certain areas. These include the protagonist as her hair contrasts with the rest of the setting, and the sky outside of the bus windows which is indicated by the blue. Distinctive features such as facial features are not provided for the other figures within the setting as to not draw attention away from the protagonist.
Panel 3 school activities: This panel encapsulates the typical activities performed at high school. This is indicated by the protagonist simultaneously within three different settings. I think I could have executed the idea for this panel better by including more activities such as the protagonist participating in a sport activity. This is also the only panel in which text is incorporated.
Panel 4 coming home: This panel mirrors the second just within a different setting. The time is indicated through the colour of the sky; orange. Reflecting on this, I think that by using a different pen I could have made this more effective.
Panel 5: Once again the final panel mirrors the first but at nighttime. This is indicated by the phone screen which depicts a crescent moon against a black background.
Reflecting upon this exercise, I have realised that I focused my efforts on creating a minimalist comic strip that I wasted the opportunity to experiment with different drawing and pen techniques. In the future, I will aim at focusing on experimentation and processes rather than the final result.
