Today's blog title is supposed to mimic phonetically "My Dog Skip" but I don't know if the already dull humor translated to anyone else besides me.
Like time, my blog too must keep going forward. I want to give it a facelift, as well as sharpen its strengths by adding relevant images. Some music, perhaps? The blog is undergoing renovation...
This blog is also a platform to share opinions, which I do often, and encourage readers to do the same. My opinions root mainly from my father and are always hard-nosed and straight-forward. Readers, be bold! Like it, don't like it, notice an absurdity, whatever it is I encourage you to share.
Small or large, tell it.
Did I ever mention seeing the construction worker driving a tractor while talking on a cell phone?
read more.
Wednesday, June 9
Tuesday, April 27
Ted Sexy
Stories, tales and exaggerations are genres of writing. Specifically, Sara refers to writing with a corresponding image, including but not limited to: a graphic novel (story); children's poem (tale); exaggeration (sardonic comics).
With examples from Persepolis, Improbable Records, and Married to the Sea comics, Sara will illustrate how visual elements and text enhance each other to form a lasting impression through a solid image from a connection made.
Her talk will show how text and images form a hilarious union.
read more.
With examples from Persepolis, Improbable Records, and Married to the Sea comics, Sara will illustrate how visual elements and text enhance each other to form a lasting impression through a solid image from a connection made.
Her talk will show how text and images form a hilarious union.
read more.
Tuesday, April 13
Making Meaning and Mixes
Last week, my classmates and I presented projects that featured our interpretation of how to "tell a story with images." The parameters were loose and we each employed various techniques to tell our stories. There were photo essays, slideshows, and even a film.
The process is a give and take: each person made a presentation, and we viewers made meanings from the images we saw. Our personal and emotional ties influenced how we each perceived the images.
While I created a slideshow for my presentation, I've become very interested in experimenting with image remixing. With Sumopaint, I upload photos I've taken and digitally manipulate the photo with the application software. Each image remix enhances and/or alters the visual aesthetic. I find the whole process both stimulating and satisfying.
As I remix, I think about how the image morphs from its original into something relative but different. The feeling emoted from each original to its remix changes.
Here is a photo that I took in Amelia Island, Florida:
Here is its digital remix:
read more.
The process is a give and take: each person made a presentation, and we viewers made meanings from the images we saw. Our personal and emotional ties influenced how we each perceived the images.
While I created a slideshow for my presentation, I've become very interested in experimenting with image remixing. With Sumopaint, I upload photos I've taken and digitally manipulate the photo with the application software. Each image remix enhances and/or alters the visual aesthetic. I find the whole process both stimulating and satisfying.
As I remix, I think about how the image morphs from its original into something relative but different. The feeling emoted from each original to its remix changes.
Here is a photo that I took in Amelia Island, Florida:
Coastal
Here is its digital remix:
Sun Peep
The original photo was taken on an overcast day, no sun in the sky. The remix was altered to bring out the natural blue hues of the sky, and a "sun" was added to peep behind the clouds.
What do you make of each image?
read more.
Tuesday, April 6
Reel Images
What is an image? Images are photographs, typefaces, familiar faces, a favorite place or flower. The sight of such images are evocative for their viewers.
Truthfully, we each have our own unique interpretations of the same image because it is natural for us to graft our own experiences onto that image. We want to make it ours.
How an individual engages with an image is in fact influenced by several factors, vis-a-vie aesthetic engagement: sensory, emotional and representative stand out in my image reels.
For my blog for class this week, I digitally remixed photos and grouped them together into image reels.
The images are shown morphing into their originals.
Shadows of myself.
Static.
Cherry blossoming.
Saffron.
Left.
Getting a bit more experimental now...
Somewhere over the (Jersey City) rainbow.
Water : sky.
Water falling.
Got the blues?
Sharps.
read more.
Monday, March 29
Words and Images: A Perfect Marriage
What is it, you wonder? It's Married To The Sea, a website that deems itself "The Champagne of Comics".
If Married To The Sea were not already married, I would marry it. Who knew that snarky text could spice up simple black and white two-dimensional comics?
Married To The Sea is the brainchild of Natalie Dee, an artist who boasts several webcomics from her pen, including the most popular, Toothpaste for Dinner.
What I appreciate about MTTS is that Dee has put together a collection of comics with an old-school visual feel and made them relevant with sarcastic banter. Check out her take on the D.C. monument for a better idea of what I mean.
Dee's comedic genius is but one way to enjoy words and images together. MTTS has also inspired me to expand my own ideas on how to "tell a story with images" for next week's post. Even I-a writer!-can take crumby, boring pictures, and make them hilarious by adding outlandish commentary.
A delightful combination of word and image, if you ask me.
PS, as a poor, unemployed, no-I-don't-have-7+years-experience-doing-anything-other-than-maybe-chewing-food member of society still hopelessly job searching, I greatly appreciated this MTTS spoof.
*Since I have linked to several of Married To The Sea's webcomics in this post, I would like to thank Natalie Dee for her brilliant artistry.
read more.
Tuesday, March 23
Making Writing
Lynda Barry is a visionary. In her book What It Is, she employs repetition through visual play as her primary communication tool. Her aim in this book, which is to educate writers on writing, is nontraditional yet still quite effective.
Interspersed between the story of her youth, Barry mixes media, incorporates old news clippings, pastes selections from grade school penmanship books, and draws endlessly. The final product, in turn, is a colorful and (contextually) vibrant book of graphic stories, lessons (for both life and mind), and rhetorical questions concerning the craft of writing.
Barry tells her story from the inside out. She writes from her earliest experiences with memory, vision, writing, and extends her introspection into her adult life. The point she makes is that writing is a lifelong-learning process, and we as writers and artists must continue to refine our craft as we age.
But what happens to writers, or those who wish to write, as they age? Barry uses a traditional graphic-novel style comic on page 140 to illustrate just that.
In the comic, Barry plays herself and encounters a genie character who's escaped from a can of pork and beans. The genie tells Barry that she is in a can; contained in that comic panel is also the question "Would that image make sense to you?", being in a can that is. Would you rather be In the Can or Out of the Can? Barry's character spends the rest of the strip contemplating this question.
The second-to-last panel shows her thinking for 5, 10, 20 and 30 years. Then there's the last panel, which depicts an urn, and a voice bubble that says "Out of the Can!"
Barry's point in this particular comic strip proves that the longer a writer sits on their hands simply thinking, the less time they have to write. So write while you're out of the can.
Barry's point in this particular comic strip proves that the longer a writer sits on their hands simply thinking, the less time they have to write. So write while you're out of the can.
Perhaps this is why she has included an extensive workbook section in the back of What It Is, providing prompts and activities to help writers get their mental juices flowing.
Click the cover photo to listen to NPR Talk of the Nation radio show with Neil Conan, where the host invites Lynda Barry herself to discuss how "'What It Is' Plumbs the Depths of Creativity." The show aired on June 2, 2008, and is no longer available for download. Simply click the Listen to the Story tab and the NPR media player will load the program.
read more.
Tuesday, March 16
Electric Images
To me, electric images serve to play out a dream or fantasy through a series of thoughts. What I've done here is create a series of photos taken during a visit to my parents' home during which two things happened: my older brother, Charlie, was visiting from Ohio, and a massive Noreaster snowstorm was burying the area. The gusting 50 mph winds carried with them 17 inches of heavy-wet-sleet-like snow over two days.
Since both of our parents worked, and the snow began Thursday early morning, Charlie and I were left all the shoveling. We were outside all day, literally. We rewarded ourselves at dark with pizza and a six pack.
During the course of our night, where we shared new stories and fond memories. I was also feeling nostalgic being in my childhood home with the brother I don't often see, so I felt it my responsibility to respond by taking these photos.
The five originals used are the truest representation of the night. Revisiting them to create the following remixes was a stellar experience. My inspiration for the remixes was the color purple, and its many lovely hues.
Remixing these photos was interesting. I wanted to keep the mood of the night visually authentic, while still incorporating color and texture elements from my own dreamscape. With sumopaint, I applied various filtering and appearance makeups, while also altering hue, color balance and temperature, and other color elements. The distortion options were endless, but I wanted to try as many as I could while remaining consistent.
Photo 1: Photo taken of the television with close-up of onscreen inferno. I brought out the red and blue tones for the fire and background tones, and then choose to pixelate the fire, almost overemphasizing its movie-like qualities.
Photo 2: View of the storm from the back bedroom window onto the yard. I experimented with the blur tools in the backyard photo, as I wanted hyperbolize the swirling wind actually taking place outside at the time.
Photo 3: Camera zoomed in on falling snowflakes. The photo from the snowflake's perspective is my favorite visually. To make the black background appear purple, almost deep-space like, I amplified the red and blue hues, removing green, and playing up the brightness to bring out the falling flakes.
Photo 4: Charlie and I running downstairs to get to the yard. The photo of the stairs is one I took by accident and realized only when I looked at my camera later; since I find it remarkable that it wasn't blurry but was quite clear, I did little manipulation and instead played up the flash against the stairs and darkened the contrast to bring out the wood grain.
Photo 5: Charlie high-fiving our brave mini snowman. Outside, our childish spirits took hold and we built a snowman, a tiny one to contrast the big storm. I wanted this photo to mimic an Impressionist painting, something that had rich texture and fine accented dimensions, so I played with the lighting and color balance before crystallizing.
What I've learned from this photo project is how to see an image, then revisit it to highlight its outstanding qualities in a way that will burn its electric imagery into your mind so you will always remember.
read more.
Since both of our parents worked, and the snow began Thursday early morning, Charlie and I were left all the shoveling. We were outside all day, literally. We rewarded ourselves at dark with pizza and a six pack.
During the course of our night, where we shared new stories and fond memories. I was also feeling nostalgic being in my childhood home with the brother I don't often see, so I felt it my responsibility to respond by taking these photos.
The five originals used are the truest representation of the night. Revisiting them to create the following remixes was a stellar experience. My inspiration for the remixes was the color purple, and its many lovely hues.
The dream begins with Charlie and I watching some movie, drinking Yuenglings...
A fierce gust of wind outside brings us to the window.../div>
I ask Charlie, what do snowflakes look like from another snowflake's perspective...
Lomograph...
Let's build a snowman! A tiny snowman... because that's hilarious...
Photo 1: Photo taken of the television with close-up of onscreen inferno. I brought out the red and blue tones for the fire and background tones, and then choose to pixelate the fire, almost overemphasizing its movie-like qualities.
Photo 2: View of the storm from the back bedroom window onto the yard. I experimented with the blur tools in the backyard photo, as I wanted hyperbolize the swirling wind actually taking place outside at the time.
Photo 3: Camera zoomed in on falling snowflakes. The photo from the snowflake's perspective is my favorite visually. To make the black background appear purple, almost deep-space like, I amplified the red and blue hues, removing green, and playing up the brightness to bring out the falling flakes.
Photo 4: Charlie and I running downstairs to get to the yard. The photo of the stairs is one I took by accident and realized only when I looked at my camera later; since I find it remarkable that it wasn't blurry but was quite clear, I did little manipulation and instead played up the flash against the stairs and darkened the contrast to bring out the wood grain.
Photo 5: Charlie high-fiving our brave mini snowman. Outside, our childish spirits took hold and we built a snowman, a tiny one to contrast the big storm. I wanted this photo to mimic an Impressionist painting, something that had rich texture and fine accented dimensions, so I played with the lighting and color balance before crystallizing.
What I've learned from this photo project is how to see an image, then revisit it to highlight its outstanding qualities in a way that will burn its electric imagery into your mind so you will always remember.
read more.
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