For my final large scale drawing I wanted to experiment with narrative and structure. The original idea behind the piece was based on a comic strip I made in reference to the sketchbook project. I was curious to see what it would look like to make a large-scale comic which prompted me to think about form and storyline in different ways. I decided on making the separate cells tangibly separate drawings, the goal being not only an aesthetic one but also an attempt at playing with vagueness and relatability in terms of the viewer. I wanted to make something that was interesting to look at and hopefully reflective of the human experience in a personal way. My process for completing the drawing was not planned out with a traditional and chronological approach, rather creating cells that I thought up and then filling in the gaps.
The storyline became about a personal experience with loss, letting go, and coping with those things. The first cell I made turned out to be the beginning of the story, the dog symbolizes the thing that has to be let go of and the innocence that is trying to care for and protect something that needs to, in my own terms, learn to walk on its own. The second and third cells are the acknowledgment of that sentiment. The next three cells are a dialogue between a man and a woman. I added this because I wanted dialogue to be an aspect of my comic, and also to represent a change in perspective, transitioning from the internal dialogue to an external dialogue, therefore making the audience a witness and separating them a degree further. The idea behind that separation is symbolic of the self-protection and denial that may follow an event of loss. The next cell is representative of coping in the form of substance abuse, the following cell highlighting the disconnectedness and repercussions that might follow an action aforementioned. The last cell is a full circle, breaking back into the internal dialogue of the protagonist saying “I want to go home.” Here I was also thinking about moving away from college and the parallels of learning to walk on my own in that way, and then the need to be cared for after feeling hurt.
Medium wise, the whole piece was made with acrylic paint on bristol board. In terms of presentation I wanted the comic to take a free-form while keeping the storyline and original sentiment intact.
Through this project I learned how to follow my intuition while also thinking about the effectiveness of the final piece in terms of it accomplishing what I hoped it would. I haven’t made something as large scale as this ever, so it was a challenging and rewarding task. If I were to do it differently next time I might’ve planned the storyline before I began making the pieces, however, it came together through my personal process and in that way I am happy with the final piece.
