Credit to Bob Fan Sep 29, 2025
When I started to conjure up an idea, I tried to came up with something funny. My first few ideas may work with three panels, but the drawing required makes them not really practical. It was not easy to think of a story that fits in three panels. Then, inspired by childhood experience, I had the idea of entering a wrong auditorium. I used scene to scene transitions to tell a full story. For the first and last panel, I drew from a general perspective to describe the plot. I chose the first person perspective for the second panel to highlight the reason of mistake. I also tried to draw objects that are further away smaller to create depth in the image. I feel like this activity differs from other in the way that it allows me to become a cartoonist and the power and responsibility that comes with it. Unlike in other assignments with some sort of a restraint, we can draw practically whatever we want in this assignment. We have more control but also a lot more choices to make.
First I looked at the Combophotos on the Tumblr website. I tried to find some photos on google and hoped for an inspiration but it did not work for me. So I turned inside my mind to envision my design first. After some thought, I decided I would do something with a weapon. I came across a photo of mortar firing and I immediately connected it to fireworks. However, the photo of mortar I initially found was took in daylight, which means it has a different color scheme with the firework picture. Thus I found one at night. I also adjusted the angle of the firework picture a little bit so the trajectory fits. I think my Combophoto conveys the idea of victory, since weapon connotes war and fireworks usually means celebration.
Photo Credits https://www.facebook.com/groups/1289904897817614/posts/2912814215526666/ – Justin Case https://nara.getarchive.net/media/us-marines-fire-an-81mm-mortar-during-training-in-c7cb23 – Defense Visual Information Distribution Service
Credit to Bob Fan
I don’t think the visual notes would be more helpful than the written ones as revision material. However, the process helped me gain a better understanding of the concepts since I had to digest the content before translating them into another medium. I realized that there are mostly results in my sketch instead of the mechanisms that caused them. In my written notes the mechanisms are shown in graphs which is already a visual component. In class we learned about diminishing marginal productivity, the benefit and cost of trade and the utility curve. I drew them separately but they are connected by more fundamental economic principles.
In my literacy narrative part one, I discussed my relationship with writing, specifically my weaknesses and what I did to make for it. The free writing exercise helped me reflect some of my writing experiences. I then summarized my writing habits from the experiences I recalled and made a rough outline. I thought about writing chronologically but eventually decided not to because it was incompatible with the way I wanted to sequence the main ideas. During the process of writing, I found my writing to still be a bit choppy. After reading the literacy narrative, I also realized there are a lot repetition in it. For example, I started a lot of sentences with “I” and used the word “writing” often. I also forgot to mention in the narrative that I usually plan a little bit before I start writing so I know the general direction I’m heading instead of start writing immediately which I don’t think I’m capable of.
“Sometimes in my essay, the train of thought would just abruptly stop, like an AI that lost connection to the internet instead of a human brain.” This is sentence which I thought would be the most interesting because there is a simile in it and the reader might ask why that is case which I am not too sure myself either.
I got this idea when I noticed that the USB for my mouse resembles the head of characters in Minecraft. I used a pencil to draw rectangles that make up the figure’s body and positioned the USB as the head. I didn’t have any other drawing equipment except pencils. I disconnected each part of the figure’s body to give it a more lively and dynamic feel. I did not want it to look rigid.
https://engrd101f25.davidmorgen.org/tag/sk2/
A lot of the images I incorporated in my avatar relate to my hobbies. The most noticeable feature, the stormtrooper line art, represents my love of the Star Wars franchise. The image in the top-left corner is a page from my favorite manga, One Piece. I also play soccer and tennis. I think I like soccer more so I put two pictures into the design, one on the field, another on the bench. The image in the top-right corner shows everyone in my high school watching the solar eclipse that happened last year. The last image in the left-bottom corner is from last summer when I was playing laser tag with my middle school friends.
I struggled deciding where to start creating my avatar. I spent a good amount of time reading through the directions, looking at the sample student post, and pondering what my avatar should look like. Eventually I got inspired by the logo of my favorite video game, Counter-Strike 2, which has a white soldier silhouette in the center and yellow and blue backgrounds. After I got started, everything went pretty smooth.
Image Sources https://wra.smugmug.com/ https://universe.roboflow.com/siegier/siegier02 https://openclipart.org/detail/318902/storm-trooper
