(Art and Reflection by Legend T.)

The assignment was to make a comic based on the theme of obsession. My comic is about an obsession with fitting in. It took a lot of time to figure out a way to visually express this idea, but I think I nailed it!

When I think about fitting in, I think about people masking or putting on an act. I decided that my character would have a variety of “masks” that she wears.

In the first frame, it shows her holding her mask in her hand. I tried to make it clear that she had multiple masks by putting a "Popular Girl Mask" label on the forehead of the mask.

In the second frame, I decided to use a moment-to-moment transition (see, I was paying attention), where she is now looking at a different mask. I gave her the face of the skeleton to show that underneath her masks, she is exhausted, drained, and dying from trying to fit in all the time.

The internal dialogue is what I struggled with the most in this comic. I had to try to convey a big theme in a few sentences. I tried to make sure that it was clear that she had multiple masks, in case the label wasn't enough context for the reader.

When I was coloring the frames, I definitely stepped out of my comfort zone with the color palette. I only used a few alcohol markers for this, and I used various shades of gray. I usually don't try to color my backgrounds because I messed up the drawing in the past. In this case, I felt like it would make sense to try to convey the dark theme further by using the background to my advantage. I tried to listen to what you said and make the image the main communication, or only write in text what you can’t show in the picture.

Overall, I'm proud of this project. It's definitely different from the things I usually draw, but I had a lot of fun creating this comic!

Obsession: The Many Masks - image 1 - student project

Charlie Blaise

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