Review: Scott McCloud & My Project 2 Storyboard

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

I really liked how this article illustrated the length of time that can be found in a single comic strip box. In my project I probably won't be able to utilize this method because my project only has one action to follow in each scene. Having other things going on in the scenes (in my case) would be a large distraction, rather than adding to the story.

Something that I definitely think I will be incorporating will be the silent captions. They will be a perfect way to tell my story. I was initially planning on having no words or dialogue in the entire project because I think it would really challenge me creatively to produce images and a storyline that spoke for itself. However having a few silent captions will definitely help bridge the gap between myself and the reader of the comic in places where my artistic ability or the story fall short.

Lastly I focused on the section about movement and movement lines. I like the idea of movement lines and maybe I can use them to display wind or other natural occurrences, but I don't think that my project really warrants a lot of character movement, so I'm not entirely sure how I will apply them.

Overall I think this was a really helpful article/comic to read going into Project 2 and I think it gave me a lot of insight into parts of comics that I would normally overlook. For example I know that many times comic writers will drop the box and let the characters frame the "shot" on their own, but I never thought of this as an actual method to employ when creating my own comic.

My Project 2 Storyboard

I don't have a lot of solid thoughts yet for this project and I have no idea how to make a storyboard, so this is mostly brainstorming. I know that I want this project to focus on the environment, because I am taking this class for my ENST requirement. I was inspired by a Pinterest post about how to grow an avocado tree from a avocado seed:

I really want to incorporate this journey through time (as a seed grows) in my project. My current plan and what I am working on is creating a little character who, as a child, find an avocado seed and helps it take root, and then the two grow up together. I know that my project will definitely be a comic as a flip book wouldn't be able to capture this story the way that I want it to.

The first few slides will be the little girl first finding the avocado seed or receiving it as a gift. I think that having her receive it as a gift will allow for the ending to create a "back to the beginning" feel of my whole project.

After receiving the gift she places in it water until the seed begins to sprout, at which point she plants it and waits for it to grow. This portion should only take 7-10 comic blocks.

                    

The next 5 comic blocks will just be the timeline of the little girl and the seed growing up together, eventually leading to the little girl's harvesting of the avocado tree's fruit. After this happens the little girl (now an adult) will gift an avocado onto the next generation of growers. Hopefully this gifting will create a "back to the beginning" feel for my project.