Andrew's COMM 165 Blog

For my visual resume, I focused on my skills as an Eagle Scout and the timeline of everything I had to do to get there, with all of the steps I took along the way and the time I put into it. I do not have many other skills when it comes to job work; I have not had a job outside of my work study because I have been busy volunteering with my Scout Troop every summer, and most employers for people my age would not want me to take a week off to go help with my Troo, especially for a summer job. Aloso not having a car is a big trouble. I wanted to tell the story of the steps I took to Eagle and the different skills and merit badges I earned.

I do not have a social media presence, so I could not really incorporate that as an option, but I did put in the link to one of my demo websites I made. My AHA moment came when i was planning out the objects I wanted to put on to the page and my thought process in my sketchbook shows the time I took to ty and plan it out. I have so much work due this week I needed to get this done sooner rather than later.

I used a website called Canva to assist in helping layout the general items. I am not good at any sort of art and my use of photoshop to make a timeline and a other objects shows that. Canva helped with making the layout alright, but still it is not the best and I would not be showing this to an actual employer. I would write up a regular resume, which would still be quite bare.

I DO NOT WANT this to be shown in class. This is my personal work and if people want to snoop around here they can, but I do not want this to be shown in class at all.

For my poster, I did a graphic featuring where certain elements go on a Scout Uniform. I did the common features of a Scout uniform, such as the patrol patch, the epaulettes, and the council and troop number badges, and a troop hat. I would show this to people that had just entered into Scouts, and were looking for an easy graphic to know where stuff was located. I showed this to my friend Nolan from my Boy Scout Troop (No not Nolan from class) and he thought it was a decent graphic, but I was missing some things. I used the graphic I had in my Scout Handbook to remember exactly where things go, to be sure I got everything right. I also used a picture from google that I attached to this post. If I had more time, and did not have a shoddy memory, I would have made sure to include other badges that can be found on a Scout uniform, such as the rank badge. What I struggled with was trying to make the dimensions right and to make sure they lined up properly with a real uniform. my AHA moment was when I was drawing the final image – I realized that I was getting the dimensions right and was inspired to keep it that way. I wish I had better colors to bring the real uniform color to life, I used the ones I had available to me. This would help someone memorize the locations of objects because they are numbered and and in easy to see locations, that make it obvious where each object will be on a real uniform. When we have the kids put badges on in Scouts we try to have them memorize where their badges go so this diagram I drew would be a helpful one in letting them remember the items.

For my comic advertisement, I did one on a fake product called DShoes, where a Nintendo DS is built into a shoe. My AHA moment came when I realized that I had “boring” clothes when I was a kid, but my DS was considered cool, so when thinking about projects that pre-teens would want I figured a shoe with a built in game system would look pretty funny, albeit its not that useful.

When I researched comic advertisements, I tried to find ones for joke projects and also looked at others in the class who did their own designs. I finished the final design after Thursday’s class, and used other peoples designs, like Nolan’s, for inspiration in what mine should look like. I went with a comic with multiple mini frames in the middle panel, so show that the kid has “boring” clothes compared to his classmates, and then went into the last frames which is like an ad, and the kid is now “cool” as he has a red shirt and his shoe is the DShoes.

McClouds transition that were used here were all mostly subject-to-subject, as they focus on just the kid and his issues with not having cool clothes, but then he gets the DShoes and he is now cool in the final frame.

If I had more time, and was a better artist, I would try and fully flush out the idea of a game in a shoe and try to make it in a better place then just on the side of the shoe. Thinking over the idea, a game in a shoe is just a poor idea as it would probably get very hot and not be comfortable to wear and be a pain for the wearer. But, it would still be a cool fashion statement.

https://www.gocomics.com/nancy/2019/12/10

In this Nancy comic., the transitions used are subject to subject for the first three panels, and in the last one the it becomes a scene to scene. The transitions in this comic are just switching between characters, adding to a sense of a conversation, and then the last panel proves Nancy’s point.

https://www.gocomics.com/nancy/2014/11/06

This comic is entirely a subject to subject transition as it focuses on the same area and the same characters the whole time. This one, being entirely subject to subject, is about the conversation had between the two characters and allowing us to see both and maintain continuity of the characters.

For my storyboard, I did a man riding a bike, and imagining it to be a race of some kind, and it ends when he gets home to his house. The transitions I mostly used were action to action,, as I still am not sure what kind of transitions each type are. I will do more research, its just that I am not good at identifying each type and they make me confused very easily. I feel like the transitions for the two faces is not needed, and I could have removed them and done another scene with the biker on the road.

In the draft, I thought about having a scene at the end where it cut to the mans face and it was him happy, but I decided to change that around and have two panels with him breathing in and breathing out. That gave a better transition, I think, and it looks better and makes the story run better. I am not an artist, so its not the best, but the storyboard has a decent story line to it.

According to Scott McCloud, there are 6 different forms of transitions, and I feel like I used 2-3 different types, scene to scene, action to action and subject to subject. I am not sure though about if I used or labeled them right.

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York : HarperPerennial, 1994.

For this assignment, I did a map on the trail connecting Pine Point to Chapel Point at Treasure Valley Scout Reservation that I went to in Scouting. The importance of the scout camp to me is enormous, as I went there every summer for two weeks, sometimes more. I became very acquainted with the trails, and knew most of them and where they led. I chose the Pine Point to Chapel Point trail because its along the lake edge the whole way, and passes by the council fire, and the swamp that the scout camp sometimes uses for mud events.

The path is mostly straightforward, and does not have much deviation along its way. The few points where another path does cross it, they typically lead further away from the lake which discounts them from being the path that should be taken. I mae sure to enlargen th etrail path, so that it would stick out from the actual roads, as I made the mistake of using the same color pencil for the path. I used a sharpie to enlargen the path and make it stick out, at the loss of the detail of the smaller path.

If I had more time, I would have tried to incorporate more detail, and include some more of the landmarks at the scout camp. I had to use an online map of the scout camp in order to know distances and some of the other trails in the camp, and got carried away with following the online map.

I showed the map to my roommate Angelo and he liked the detail of the map, and how the trail that I was showing him stuck out from the rest of the map, especially as it being in the middle could have made it become lost among the rest of the image. The tree for the marker of the start was also interesting to him.

What I was trying to achieve with this assignment was to explore different shapes, colors and elements to make a interesting luggage tag designs. I had a big AHA moment when I realized that I didn’t have to really stick to just geometric shapes; I was having a difficult time trying to think of real designs and started taking them from designs I noticed on other tags. Some general concepts I kept too was mostly general shapes, and then taking from my life, such as with the eagle and the green state of Indiana. I also love pool so I drew a miniature pool table.

I chose this as my interesting photo because it highlights the eagle and part of the pool table, the crown and the tag made out of my initials. I felt that combining my initials into a tag worked very well. It shows off the most interesting designs I had come up with.

Some problems I encountered were mostly just coming up with more designs after a point, as I was just having issues with imagining something interesting that could make a good tag. I solved it by doing more research and seeing what the early bird people did to get some idea of what they did. After I did more research I came back and finished the designs.

If I had more resources I would have cleaned up the drawings a bit more and try to make my initials more prominent on some of them. I rushed some of the designs and did not properly put my initials on them. Some of the connections.

I used this photo to demonstrate the sensory idea of color. The small dark specks that have appeared because of the aged paint have given this object a sign of age, and most people’s eyes are attracted to the darker parts.

This picture shows shape. Each hole is the same exact size, and your attention is drawn towards the holes and how they are positioned in a grid pattern.

This image shows the division of space made in a bench, as each board has a gap between each other plank.

This wood block shows the concept of lines with the age rings. The age rings and the crack in the wood stretch the length of the wood, and are one of the things that people would see when they looked at the block.

This image shows the concept of relative size. The sinks are right next to each other if looking at them head on, but when seen from the side the depth of the sinks and length is more evident.

What I was trying to achieve with these images was showing how a lot of different things we interact with in our lives have aspects to them that make you pay attention to small details, if even for a second. I wanted to try and capture how small things always get our attention.

Some issues I had with this assignment was trying to find objects I felt showed off some of the concepts talked about in class. I spent most of the time I was walking to classes, getting food, or meeting up with friends trying to find something that really captured my attention. That was when I realized that I was looking too hard and found my Aha moment, and started just looking at more basic objects. I noticed that many of the things we use show some of the concepts, and that was when I started taking more photos. I have some other photos that I was going to use, but I did not feel were as strong of a picture to show off a concept. I made sure to reread the power points that were shown in class to try and get some idea, and looked at the prezi that was linked as well, and those gave me some idea of what to take photos of.

If I had better resources, such as a car and more time to really know what I was looking for, I would have gone into downtown Providence and looked for some photo opportunities. Providence is such a diverse city that it would have many examples of many of the concepts.

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For the mind map, I focused on the problem of what I was going to do this summer. For the first mind map, I focused on the many different options I have available for myself and the ones I was excited to go on. When I was trying to focus on what I wanted to try and make a mind map again, I could not settle on what I wanted mind map about. Over the summer, I do not have many plans and I am often very bored. I wanted to try and map out what were the things I could do and will do, and which one has the best ways for me to enjoy my summer.I used the mind maps as a way for me to be able to see all of my options this summer and to try and choose the best one.

My AHA moment really came when I realized which mind map to draw, as I realized what kind of theme I could go for and how to be able to build off that theme. My mother lives in Indiana, and I decided that I wanted to try and draw the state of Indiana because I thought it was really cool when I went there.

If I had to change something about it it would be the position of the branch about what I plan on doing out with my mother. I left quite a lot of white space in the lower left, that I could have used more effectively. I showed my mind maps to my friend Aero and they thought that the mind map really showed that I had a number of options. I liked some of the drawings I did, including the one in the middle featuring the state of Indiana. I tried to color it based off a satellite map of Indiana, and i also marked the location of Fort Wayne and Indianapolis as they are places I might go when I see my mother.

My first idea for this project was more optimistic – I wanted for there to be greener and for it to not be as dreary. I settled on having a building be the source of “evil” in the world, and was going to have more of green, grassy areas. I wrote down my thoughts in my notebook, and tried to show my original idea. As I worked, I started pulling a lot of inspiration from the song Land of Confusion by Genesis and the song The Vengeful One by Disturbed. Land of Confusion is about how the world we live in is not good, and it is up to us to fix it, but due to the state of the world it might be too broken to fix. The message I wanted to convey is that working for most corporations is not necessarily good, as most of them only look to try and increase profit at the cost of the world around them. I also wanted to show how corporations mostly rule the world, and they contributed a lot to make the world the way it is. I wanted to also show how some people have dreams of what they want, but will not be able to achieve them. I chose mostly gray, black, and red because the world if it continues will mostly look that way. In industrial centers across the world most of those places are very dirty because of air pollution and unless something is changed about that it will happen to other places. I chose not to include a larger green scene due to my inability to really find a way to draw it the way I wanted too, and if I had more time and more skill, I would have drawn a larger, more nature type scene as I love nature.

I drew this image to try and get out some of the frustrations I have with some of the ways that people run the world that we live in with little care for those under them. They try and do things to only further themselves and their own ambitions and do not do much to really alleviate certain known future events that need to be focused upon by the world. My AHA moment was when I realized that I could try and turn the building into the outline of a nuclear bomb blast. They are very dangerous and if still around, have the possibility of destroying the world. I like the artwork. I feel that if I were better at drawing I could do better, but I am satisfied. I would add more detail if I were able. My roommate Angelo thought that it was very interesting. I would change the design of the cloud I drew to make it look more like a bomb cloud.