Thoughts on the Self Portrait

What from Ch.4 in " Making Comics" helped with your photo self portrait series?

Chapter 4 focused on landscapes, scenery and backgrounds. McCloud reviewed different technical methods for creating the scenery of a frame as well as the messages that are communicated by the choices that you make as an artist concerning perspective, choice of frame and composition. Although I did my reading after I did my self portraits, I feel that I did my reading, I feel that I unconsciously employed many of the techniques for my 8 photos of scenery/ environment. The environments that I chose for the most part are empty. I know that I shot my images this way to evoke a sense of mood as well as isolation that I feel living in the suburbs of the city as a graduate student. Very few of my environmental scenes are close- ups or details- but almost pamoramas of the area. I did not do this intentionally, but I do enjoy the fact that I wanted to give the viewer as much information as possible within the confines of the frame. My compositions are generally simple, usually symetrical and evenly toned. Now that I realize that I do this, I think that I am going to make an effor to shoot a little more obscurely/ abstractly. I want to think about compositiona little bit like Degas though about his paintings. If I used obtuse angles perhaps, I could achieve a more dramatic effect. So often it's easy to go for the 'snapshot' approach when taking photographs. I think that because of the accessibility of the medium, I neglect to challgenge my compositions and focus on the mood or the subject. This is not a bad thing necessarily, however, it's something that I need to be more conscious of going forward.

Some notes from my reading:

3 ways to bring drawings to life:

1. character design: style and preference, however all characters need-
-an inner life
- visual distinction
- expressive traits
2. facial expressions
6 basic emotions :
-anger
-disgust
-fear
-joy
-sadness
-surprise
3. body language


Thoughts: After doing my homework for today (comic of 24 hours and 16 moments from a movie) I realize that I have not drawn with just a pencil in a while. What a weird thing considering that I sketched every single day. This is a result of drawing so much on the computer. How ridiculous. I need to get back into the sketching habit. When I started working digitally it was so weird for me to use my mouse and to create images in my style. Now, I find when I am drawing with a pencil and make a mistake I think to myself how much I would like to hit Cntrl Z.