Animal Avatar Project

For my first Graphic Narrative project under Prof. Guy Billout, I was tasked with creating a narrative envisioning myself as an animal that represents who I am (an “avatar” that is our favorite animal). I did not have a solid idea on what I wanted to do with this project for a while. However, I eventually crafted a narrative involving a flying turtle (a creature I believe paradoxically represents me) and a wizard, an emperor, and an astronaut riding on its back.

The whole narrative is essentially a journey in which all three of these characters discover the angelic “Truth” on top of a mountain called Mt. Revelation, in a cloudy landscape with ruins on high peaks. The reader is left to question the origin of the Greek-style ruins, but if the reader is observant enough, he/she will notice broken statues of the “Truth” among the ruins, implying the “Truth” is a being of light akin to a god. The narrative embodies who I am because I am on a constant search for truth and meaning.

I created the panels first by drawing them on my sketchbook, then scanning them and increasing their contrast and exposure/gamma correction on Photoshop, then painting them using the Paint Bucket Tool. The result was beautiful.