These are the thumbnails for a three page comic for my Digital Coloring and Lettering class. We are going to pencil, ink, color, and letter our pages for our final project of the quarter. My story is called "The Sacrifice," and it is basically a framed narration, a term that I've recently learned in my Comic Book Scripting class. A framed narration is a story within a story, and so in this case, the first story is about the protagonist visiting a grave in a present day cemetery, then he has a flashback, which is the second story.
Like most of my stories, it will not end happily. Do not expect to be cheered up when you read it. It's purpose is to tug at the reader's emotions, and if the first page, which I've finished penciling already, doesn't do that then nothing will. Although this story talks about the ultimate sacrifice it can actually be considered a parable for any sacrifice that one has to make in their lives for the greater good.
Theft and Defacing
I had created three poster designs for the SCAD-Atlanta Animation Society to advertise for their meetings this quarter, and I printed out two for each design and posted them around SCAD-Atlanta. I had heard stories about theft at the school such as laptops, but unless the thief broke into someone's locker it was all due to carelessness. I may be extremely trusting, but I wouldn't leave a laptop laying around somewhere. I didn't think that I had anything to worry about since we are all art students at SCAD-Atlanta, and I figured that we would respect each other's art; we don't have to necessarily like it, but we would respect it. Well, there's my naivety shining through.
On the morning of Thursday, October 20, 2011 I had just come out of Comic Book Scripting when I happened to glance over towards the women's bathroom on the 3rd Floor of the main building to check on the first poster shown above, like I normally do when I come out of class. However, this time it was gone. There was another poster in its place, and the real kicker is that this poster was hanging right next to its duplicate. You don't need to hang two posters for the same event right next to each other! That's overkill! The theory is that that bulletin board doesn't have any spare tacks, and so they took mine, the ones that I bought, to hang this poster. They either threw away my poster or...there's a chance that they hung their poster over mine, and so maybe once that event has passed it will appear again unless of course, some individual discovers it himself beforehand.
I was ticked off about the theft, but it was nothing compared to the anger that awaited me at the DMC. After I finished my Digital Coloring project that was due that day I went around to each poster location to make sure that they were still there, and they were, which I was glad about. In order to put a poster up at the school you need to get it confirmed and stamped with the seal of approval, and I had. This seal of approval mentions that the date that the posters need to come down is November 16th, and while I was at the 3rd floor of the DMC I was examining the second poster shown above to make sure that the seal had that date. During my examination I discovered that someone had drawn a tiny tongue on Norman's face, making it look like he was sticking his tongue out at everybody. There is no way to describe the anger that I felt to seeing that vandalism, and neither can I describe the depression and discouragement that followed. I have worked hard to help the Animation Society get the word out that they exist, and someone has basically just spit in my face. This is the type of behavior that I would expect from the thugs in Watson's Grove, my neighborhood, not SCAD.
Like I said, I would think that art students would have more respect for each other's art than what I just discovered. I began to question whether all of the work that I've put into the Animation Society was really worth it. However, after hearing from three friends of mine I have decided that the work is worth it no matter how discouraging it can get when one runs into a couple of bad eggs. I know one thing that I won't feel better until I get back to school and rip that defaced poster off the wall and replace it.
Final Thoughts
I need to get back to work on writing a script that's due on Tuesday. I am hoping to have the Hulk drawing completed by the end of the week, and I say "hope" because I've already started the coloring over once. Thank goodness for flats that make it easier to start digital coloring over.
On Wednesday I will be writing about my recent trip to the High Museum for the 14 Modern Masters Exhibition. So until then, this is Billy Wright wishing you all a good night. So long, everybody.
