- Description (Body & Gender)
Nowadays, fewer and fewer people believe a girl must have long hair and makeup, or a boy must wear pants and shoes without heels. But when seeing a person having the feature traditionally considered not belonging to his or her gender, people sometimes tend to find explanations to persuade themselves to accept this “uncommonness.”
- Pre In-Process Critique
– How are you doing with your project?
Before December 3rd I finished most of the line work, and colored one and a half pages. But at that time I didn’t know what the story’s ending and conclusion should exactly be.
– What are in personal and larger contexts?
My body and my gender.
– What are a few key words that define your work at the moment?
Comic, unfinished, conceptually vague and stuck, visually busy, unsure, digital, illustration.
– What are you struggling the most at the moment?
I didn’t know what should be the comic story’s ending, or if the story needed an ending. Also, at that time neither did I have a really concrete core idea, or argument, for the story to convey. I felt I was stuck that I didn’t know how to make the storyline fluent, persuasive and logical.
– What kind of feedback would you like to receive today?
Those could guide me to know what could be my story’s main idea, and how to have the story reach the core idea. Also, I would like to know how to make those images less messy in color.
– What is your assessment in the progression of your work? 30%? 50%? 60%? 70%?
Probably 40%.
– How many hours have you spent so far on your project (which includes seeking materials, ideation, sketching, experimenting, testing, making…)
I didn’t really count the time I spent on it. But I came up with and sketched the storyboard with the pencil on November 19th. After that, I started on November 26th, and drew the digital comic every night during the Thanksgiving break.
- Post In-Process Critique
– What are the action items to take for the completion of your work?
Having a concrete core idea the story could be surrounding. After knowing that idea I could then come up with a fluent, persuasive and complete storyline.
– What were the feedback from in-process critique?
1. Choosing comic as the story’s media was a smart decision, since it was a fairly simple and direct way to tell a story.
2. Change the colors in the illustration into lighter, less realistic and simpler ones, or even delete the colors and leave the comic having only black line work.
3. Change the main character’s gender, from being a girl to a boy.
– What kind of feedback are you taking with you?
1. Changing the colors from those in the images above to the lighter ones, and reducing the number of colors I use. By doing so the main character’s black hair can be highlighted, being what the readers visually focus on. Since hair is a metaphor or motif for the idea the story is conveying.
2. Changing the gender and making the main character a boy. When he was a girl, I felt so stuck for creating a complete and logical story, but after he became a boy, this new direction opened a new possibility to write the story. The fact that he is a boy with long hair brings out the contrast between other people’s guessing and his own interest more strongly than a female character. Plus, it also adds a sense of surprise when readers see the last page and are finally sure he is a boy. Hopefully it would be surprising.
