Was struggling to find subject matter for making a sequential artwork during Neil’s second workshop, so took screenshots of myself looking for inspiration and rearranged them to play with chronology/ordering of my research (which way most clearly showed what I was doing?).
I really enjoyed the Compostion in Storytelling video in Neil’s youtube playlist, and would be keen to work some of those techniques into my project on Negative space/absence (was a particular segment on negative space).
Reordering of frames creates different narrative and different meaning.
I found it hard to land on a subject but decided to go for a daily diary approach – bringing together observations (written, photographed or drawn). The days previous I had been dealing with effects of my wisdom tooth extraction at home and at work (modifying what I ate, taking pain killers, speaking to customers with an increasingly swollen cheek and numb tongue).
Of the comic artists shown us in Neil’s first workshop, I was particularly drawn to Aidan Koch for their fragmentary, minimal arrangement of image and text. There’s something awkward and deliberate about the juxtaposition and a secrecy obstructing understanding (requires decoding).
I like the aesthetic, and I like that it’s indirect/fragmented. Why am I drawn to this approach? Is it because it’s genuinely what I enjoy/how I enjoy working or is it because I don’t want to do the hard work of making it make sense.
These workshops have helped me to re-engage with my project and I look forward to applying sequential art techniques to my ongoing Negative/Absence project.
Still slightly worried I’m only making work to fill course requirements – which is why I’m trying to incorporate research more heavily, to give my project more of a sense of purpose.
calummartin 