As someone who rarely reads books, I was really glad that we were able to focus on the positive aspects of graphic novels and what we can learn from them aside from its entertainment value. For this class, it wasn’t as surprising to me that we had a module focused on graphic novels and its composition, but it was really refreshing knowing that we were appreciating this genre not just for the occasional information it brings but also the amount of time and effort put into these novels as well. Since I hardly ever read chapter books, graphic novels were my way of getting in my “reading time.” 

I’m not an artist, but as a kid I tried to learn how to draw after taking inspiration from my cousin and best friend who are amazing artists. Up until COVID began, I drew pretty often and learned a few things as I kept refining and changing my art style. It wasn’t as impressive as the people I took inspiration from, but I was improving as time went on. However, I stopped drawing as I couldn’t find as much passion in it as I had for other things. 

When we started our second activity under the module, understanding comics, I instantly had the entire comic book mapped out. I originally wanted my cousin to make a feature on this comic, however conflicting schedules led to the comic being drawn entirely by me. The character I used in the first draft was based on a recurring character that my best friend used to represent herself, a short haired girl with a sprout on her head. I originally thought it was cute at first, although the final draft was a character based off of an avatar I made on a video game I frequently played during COVID. Part of the comic featured multiple panels of the same character drawn in different art styles, getting more complex as each panel went on. This is where I originally wanted my cousin to make a feature, as she would draw the “most complex” panel. In the end, I ended up drawing the panel and this took a lot of time. I know the assignment wasn’t supposed to take as long as it did, but I enjoyed looking at my previous drawings and trying to improve while also replicating what I did in the past as at the time I “lost” my art style.

Another activity from this module that I’m very proud of is my experimental comic from activity six. It’s not necessarily a comic but I wanted to do something similar to one of the examples provided that was answering a question. This past semester, I began focusing on self care and especially the hygiene aspect of it. For my artistic piece, I wanted to include a “collage” styled piece that had all of the products and objects that I felt were very important in keeping me motivated in staying consistent. In terms of drawing out the piece, I focused a lot on overall details that would help the audience recognize the product/object. Even if they couldn’t tell what it was, I wanted to replicate the details as closely as I could without overcomplicating it. I also wanted the piece to look “cluttered” but in a pleasing way, so I made sure to put the products in areas that correlated with its purpose while also piecing it together in a puzzle-like manner that would make it look planned out.

On the last comic I made for activity seven, I struggled a lot with drawing specific panels because I never got to experiment with drawing angles which was a very crucial element to the manga I was referring to. It was very difficult drawing side profiles because even though on the actual manga panel the art looks very simple, it didn’t look right until after many attempts. I think the worst part was that after inking the drawing and erasing the pencil, I made a horrible coloring decision which made the comic look “rushed”. The intention of the coloring method I did wasn’t supposed to be completely clean and perfect either, but the execution made it seem sloppy, although I turned it in anyways.

Overall, I had such a fun experience drawing and making graphic novels that were inspired or based on examples or just manga/comics that I’ve enjoyed reading throughout my life. I think if I were to criticize the comics I’ve drawn, I would try to make the boxes and panels better aligned, take more time on specific panels that I felt didn’t get enough attention, and make better coloring decisions.