I decided to track conceptual issues that are relatively easy to think about. I started by choosing five things I wanted to track: Happiness, Productivity, Confidence, Stress Level, and how fast each hour went by on a scale from 1–10, with 10 being the quickest. Being in a new environment, college, I thought this would be a helpful activity to see where I’m at and to get a better understanding of how I feel on a day-to-day basis. Nothing in my data stood out too much, but I think the factor that changed the most was my productivity. While the others mostly stayed consistent, productivity was the one that could shift from an 8 to a 4 in just an hour. Since the data represents the mean taken from each hour of each day, I still think it’s difficult to see drastic differences. What I struggled with most was deciding how to rate my feelings throughout the hours. I didn’t want to be too repetitive, but I also wanted to be honest about how I felt. I chose to visualize my data in a bar graph because I wanted it to look good while also clearly conveying the information. I also chose to use different colors for each category to make them eye-catching and easy to differentiate. I would say that the visualization represents my life as pretty busy, especially becasue, when you take the mean of a whole week, the only consistent sleep I’m getting is from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. If I were to do this project in the future, I would probably choose to use an Excel sheet because of how long it took to calculate the mean for each hour and each category. I tracked my data on both my computer and phone but ended up handwriting it to do the math. While that made it easier to visualize, it took much more time. I also don’t think I would measure every hour again, because I found that hard to keep up with. Although I’m satisfied with the final product, I don’t think I would use this method again as a self-analysis tool. I’m sure there are plenty of other apps that would be more accurate and easier to use.

The pattern of structure contrasts between the two pages. The structure of Spinning‘s page consists of three identical panel sizes stacked horizontally, which expresses a sense of repetition and constraint. The horizontal segment of the panels portrays a movement through time as the reader reads from top to bottom. Additionally, the identity of shape and size of the three panels reveals a sense of “perfection” which would relate to the idea of how Tillie is comparing herself to other girls and always striving for perfection in ice skating. The box structure of the panels and the close proximity to each other also conveys a feeling of confinement, emphasizing how Tillie is constantly keeping her emotions and feelings about her sexuality to herself. While the gutter between the panels is very slim, the panels the distance between the panels and the edge of the page is greater, which amplifies the sense of containment. On the other hand, Stitches‘s page consists of open space drawings with a small box as the only resemblance to a panel. An interesting difference between the two pages is the way time is portrayed. While in Spinning, time seems to be moving as the reader reads from top to bottom, the structure of Stitches‘s page seems to have no movement through time, but rather that everything is happening at once. The structure of David in the top corner and his grandfather, who takes up the majority of the page of reveals the connection between the two as they both lost their vocal cords. There being no gutter between the two figures and movement of time emphasises how, despite their age, they both experience similar situations. Additionally, the only image of David on the page is boxed and put in the corner, which highlights how David feels trapped by his illness. The pattern of structure within the two pages conveyed the emotions the main character feels and also played with the movement of time.  Another pattern I observed is the artistic design of the pages. In Spinning‘s page, the art style uses simple lines and solid shading, while Stitches‘s artistic design is more detailed with complex lines and criss-cross shading patterns. While Spinning‘s shading is used to fill up to the panel’s borders, similar to how Tillie is hiding her true self, Stitches‘s shading is used to create the shape of a panel. The more dramatic and hectic shading in Stitches emphasizes the dysfunctionality of David’s family. On the other hand, the neat and clean solid lines and shading in Spinning highlight the clean appearance of figure skaters and Tillie’s hiding of her sexuality. 

The structure and artistic design in Spinning and Stitches‘s pages are contrasting, but they both emphasize the protagonist’s story and emotions; therefore, the authors utilize the visual component of comics to indirectly highlight the emotions of the story. Most readers typically only pay attention to the figures and story of comics and don’t question the choices that were made when creating the design and format. The specifics, down to the size of the panels, the gutter placement, the arrangement of frames, and the shading and art style, all reflect the narration of the story. 

This comic is a visual autobiography of how I moved from resisting reading to inhabiting it. It demonstrates the core idea from my essay—confusion, curiosity, method, and understanding—into three pages of images that my earlier self would have understood better than any paragraph: a story told in scenes rather than abstractions. Page 1 frames reading as burden. I could analyze the film but not the book because I had been “seeing” only pictures, not prose. I drew out two of my favorite films, which is Fight Club and Star Wars. The Gollum panel (with the word “READ” in harsh red) personifies the fear that reading would expose my weakness. In my essay I ask, “Why was this?”—the page answers by staging the mismatch between how I processed movies (visually, sequentially, effortlessly) and how I met books (as static walls of text). Page 1 is, therefore, not just failure; it’s a diagnosis. Page 2 marks the pivot from overwhelm to invention. The rocket and the oversized The Martian book show the first time I let a novel run as a movie in my mind. That choice mirrors the essay’s moment: “I imagined I was on Mars, cultivating potatoes.” The following panel translates process into practice: the pencil and the three margin questions—what is being said, how is it being said, why does it matter—materialize my teacher’s advice and my new discipline. Here the comic turns metacognitive: I’m not only reading a story; I’m reading the way the story works. The final panel on this page, where I face the Gollum with a pen, visualizes that I have learned using a pencil to write down things I both understand and not understand from a reading. In the essay, those verbs replaced summary; in the comic, they become action. Page 3 resolves the tension by showing that how I could now read the novel (which is The Hobbit) even I have no understanding before. I drew out Gandalf and one of the hobbit to show that now I could actually visualize the book, for both the plot and the characters. Visual carry the argument: caves versus open air, red threat versus warm greens, solitary struggle versus shared presence. Process is iconized—a pencil becomes a strategy; marginal questions become speech bubbles; rhetorical “moves” become choreography. Most importantly, the comic proves the thesis of my essay: reading power emerges when I slow down, ask better questions, and let language become visible. I did not become a “natural” reader; I became a deliberate one.

“Watching a Book” Literacy Narrative, Part 2

Click here to access the comic. Writing my literacy narrative as a comic, while allowing me to communicate my story in a different medium, comes with different constraints and opportunities. Compared to my written draft in part 1, I focused exclusively on the main argument, which is that the way I have been taught to write has shaped my relationship with writing, in the comic. The comic is concise and clearer. I realized that in comics, maybe due to their visual nature, it would be a lot more obvious if the argument is sparse and jumping here and there. If I drew my panels according to the exact sentences in my literacy narrative part 1, the comic would be confusing and hard to follow. On the other hand, in comics, I get to express how I feel visually. For example, I drew a lot of clocks, literally pushing the character down, to show the pressure from time constraints. Creating the comic also made me realize the different stuff the cartoonist has to think about, such as directing the reader’s attention to the right place, which writers don’t have to worry about since no one starts reading at the center of a page. In comics, unlike essays, you have to plan ahead before you put pen to paper because you have to consider the all-at-oneness. Or else the panels will not be able to interact with each other and make a page the smallest unit of the comic. Therefore, when I was creating the comic, I was engaging in a sort of bottom-up way of thinking where I developed a conclusion first and then decided how to lead the reader there with panels. In the literacy narrative part 1, I started writing first and waited to see where it would take me. I think the individual conference helped me a lot in developing an argument in a reflective text.  For the beginning of my comic, I tried to imitate the opening of Stitches, creating a sort of zooming effect. After I drew it, I realized that the first 4 panels of my comic would work better if they were all at the same angle, whether tilted or looking straight down. I decided to hand-draw my comic to give it a more personal touch than computer-generated drawings since the topic is about myself. In terms of material, I chose a pen over a pencil because the scanning of pencil tracings did not work that well in the tracing pages assignment. If I had watercolor, I would add color to my comic to help create different moods. In my comic, I put the most important scene in the biggest panel to lead the reader there. On the third page, I tried to play with interactions between panels by drawing the clock pushing the character down into the spiral. I think it worked out quite nicely, but if I had more time, I would make more deliberate choices in the last two panels. I feel like they are kind of disconnected from the upper part of the page.

The process it took to create this literacy narrative involved choosing what time frame I zoomed in on and how I would go about drawing that. Looking at the different phases of life I spoke about in my literacy narrative regarding reading and writing, I chose to focus on my early years. I specifically chose to focus on these years because they were a main influence on how I read and write today, given that that’s when I learned English and how to read and write in it. Drawing this stage of my life however was very different than describing it. When making this comic I had to make sure that my story and overall message were delivered not only through words but also through specific visual and artistic choices. First I decided how my story plot would be drawn out and which parts offered the most insight. Once I knew what I wanted to draw, I split up my comic into three sections, where the first page focused on my introduction to school, the second on my struggle with reading and writing in English, and the third on my dedication to learning English and benefiting from learning it both inside and outside the classroom.  By splitting these three points into different sections I was able to hone in on each event that led up to how I read and write now. In my first section, one visual choice I made was having the school be full of only white colored figures while I was brown colored. I made this visual choice because it allowed viewers to have a deeper understanding of my sense of alienation in an only English speaking environment. In the second section, I purposefully decided to take up two panels that were zoomed in on my worksheet because it allowed viewers to visibly see how I felt learning English. I put the words on the paper in a false language so viewers could experience a similar sense of confusion and despair as I had felt in this time of my life.  Finally, on my last page, I decided on doing multiple time jumps, so viewers could see my process of learning English and being able to apply it inside and outside the classroom. The last two panels specifically show time jumps of me using my new skills to read multiple books highlighting my enjoyment of reading outside the classroom. In the other panel it showed me coming out of school with an A+ report card in hand, symbolizing that my new abilities in reading and writing are being used to their fullest potential inside the classroom as well. Looking back at my comic altogether and how I conveyed my feelings through visual choices, a choice I would have made if I had more time or resources would be making the other students and teachers into aliens. While it sounds odd, it would’ve created a deeper connection to the cultural differences I faced and its connection to my reading and writing skills. Stereotypically, in the United States, Hispanics are often considered aliens or abnormal, but when I first entered school I was the one who felt others around me were abnormal since they spoke a language I couldn’t understand. So by having the secondary characters be aliens, I could’ve better illustrated my sense of alienation and confusion. As the comic progressed I hoped to have the alien characters transform into human beings and shift their confusing language to English. The gradual change would showcase my growth in reading and writing in English and my feelings of confusion turning to thriving by building a sense of joy in reading outside of class and exceeding inside the classroom.
Literacy Comic:Link

While starting this assignment I wanted to base it off of a well known saying that could provide a humorous punchline. I searched a couple sayings and I fell upon “let that sink in” which I have also seen a lot on social media. The most challenging part of the assignment was picking a saying that I could draw well and express thought only 4 images but I think it ended up being more simple than I thought. This was similar to creating the triptych because of the storyline with a limited amount of panels which challenged me. Although I had 1 more panel than the other sketch, it felt odd to stretch one climbing action seen across two panels but it ended up creating a build for suspense.