Saturday

Assignment 2: Slice of Life

In this assignment, we were told to produce a comic with inspirations from our daily lives. I've thought for super long and finally decided on this topic which occurs to me almost everyday (haha) - THE DIET CYCLE.

I was complaining about how much weight I've gained recently and then my friend told me that I've always been complaining about this but I just kept eating fattening food whenever I feel like it. And then I thought that this is really a slice of my life and also for many other girls' lives I believe. Thus, I decided to try producing a comic regarding dieting which is relevant to me and many others such that when others (those who have the same issue as me) would read my comic and go, "Ahhhhh. That's exactly what happens to me every now and then too..." :)


Some comments and suggestions were rather useful for my comic and I appreciate the class for all the good comments and insights!! They are as follow:

1. It might be better if I was able to arrange my panels in a way such that it really forms a cycle, linking the last panel back to the first. So some suggested that I could place the panels in circular form but I thought it might waste a lot of space on the small piece of A4 paper and that a bigger paper might be required. Thus, not very feasible. However, someone else suggested that I could actually add another panel after the last one which is exactly the same as the very first panel. Readers would then be able to link up the whole cycle better.
My take: Yup! I agree that arranging them in a way that portrays the idea of a "cycle" is a more effective portrayal of my idea. And I really liked the suggestion about using the first panel as the last panel again to show how the cycle repeats itself. Therefore, I will be editing my comic accordingly. :))
2. For panels 4-6, some classmates actually suggested that I could remove the "M" from the picture as it is obvious that I chose to have some fast food. However, someone suggested that I could even have panel 4 with the KFC sign, panel 5 with "M" and panel 6 with "Pizzahut" to exaggerate the irony between wanting to go on diet and munching on such unhealthy and fattening food. 
My take: I thought the exaggeration was a great idea because it helps to create a more exaggerated effect and create more contrast and irony between the first panel and these 3 panels (4 to 6). Also, as Jing mentioned, comic does not have to be realistic, thus, I will be changing my panels 4 to 6 to include logos/signs of different fast food restaurants! :))
 3. Panels 9-12 show a sequence of how the character makes her own home-cooked food, which is supposed to be a healthy meal but eventually turns out to be an unhealthy chicken drumstick meal. Friends commented that panel 11 and 12 seem to be repetitive and unnecessary. After some thought, someone gave a really brilliant idea that I could swap panel 10 and 11 to easily resolve this problem! Then the sequence would be opening fridge to look for food -> chose chicken drumsticks and brought out of the fridge->fry it->place on table and prepare to eat.
My take: I thought it was really brilliant and I am definitely going to accept this idea and make changes accordingly to my comic. :)

So that's about all the comments I will be taking in and making changes to. It was really a great critique session and I appreciate all comments given to make my comic a better one! Wait for my update after I edit my comic before I post an update entry at the bottom of this entry soon! :D


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UPDATE


This is the final product of Assignment 2.

Firstly, I've changed to a landscape orientation because I thought it allows better portrayal of the idea of cycle.

Secondly, I arranged the panels in a circular form whereby the last panel links back to the first panel to show that it is a CYCLE. I also added the text "woke up in the morning" in the first panel because if there's no text, the link would be a little disjointed and abrupt. Also, the title is drawn in such a way that each alphabet is arrow-like. It kind of leads readers the direction of the comic and also even tell them where the "start" of the comic is since the letter "d" starts just beside the first panel.

Thirdly, I removed the letter "M" in panels 4-6 and included sound texts instead. And previously, I mentioned that I will be changing each panel 4, 5 and 6 to fastfood from different restaurants. However, I decided against it because the purpose of panel 3 is to show that there are a few choices the character has in mind and the next 3 panels are intended to show her decision. Since it is a diet plan, the deciding process is important because I want to show that despite saying that she want to go on diet, all she thinks is fastfood and even after thinking, she still chose the unhealthy food. And this is why I decided to just use Macdonald's food (burger, fries and drink) in panels 4-6.

And tadah! This is the final product that is going to be submitted and exhibited in Random Blends!! YAY! :D

Reflection
This assignment is indeed very very interesting! I loved the part whereby we could draw using pencil and paper! I feel that in today's era, many things are done using the computer and we've lost touch on how we could use pencil and paper to create wonderful and beautiful stuffs. This assignment gave me a chance to pick up my drawing tools again (I attended weekly art lessons in the past for many years! stopped at the age of 14 though. how sad!). I had fun drawing and colouring and writing! I got to admit the decision to colour or not gave me quite a headache because I thought comic should be returned back to its black and white format and sometimes, black and white presents a story better than when it is with colours. Hence, I opted for black and white! :D

Technology and the variety of tools and colours etc etc gave us more room for creativity but sometimes, I really prefer the original, pure and traditional way of things. :)

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