Blackout Poem

This assignment was rather fun to work on--take a newspaper article and a black Sharpie, and black out the unnecessary words in the article to create a poem. I found this article in a recent edition of the Poly, RPI's school newspaper. It was an article dealing with insomnia, which caught my eye because I'm no stranger to the curse of being unable to fall asleep. My only regret about this piece is that the article was printed in two narrow columns, and in composing the poem, I followed the natural reading order of the left column followed by the right. However, after shading with Sharpie, the columns disappeared, necessitating the addition of an arrow directing the reader's gaze. I would have preferred to not need the arrow, but overall, I was pleased with how the poem turned out.

Instructional Image

My attempt at making an image designed to teach someone a simple task. Instead of going with a step-by-step approach, I decided to create more of a general guide to transforming a realistic-looking anime character into a super-cute chibi character, or vice-versa. There's no specific order in which to use the advice presented here, but rather, an artist can work these tips into his or her own art style. The transition from normal anatomy to chibi anatomy was a difficult one for me, which is why I chose this topic for my instructional image. Not only did I get to practice my own technique while making this piece, but perhaps someone somewhere is struggling just as I used to and will find this guide helpful. Created in Photoshop CS3 with an Intuos 3 tablet.

Good & Bad Informational Graphics

Everyday, we see multiple images designed to instruct or inform. Some of these images are excellent for conveying their intended messages; others, not so much. Here is an example of an instructional image that I strongly believe belongs in the "bad" category:

These instructions (originally found here) are supposed to show the reader how to solve a Rubik's Cube puzzle. Unfortunately, all they do is add to the confusion. The images are all in black and white, with varying shades of grey to represent the colors on the cube; this is not nearly as helpful as it would be to see the cube in color. It is extremely difficult to sort out the words and images to figure out which set of images to look at next, especially at the top of the page where the text and pictures are so tightly intertwined. Seems as though they ran out of space to print the instructions, and just had to cram in pictures wherever there was a bit of open space. The text, also, is extremely grammatically incorrect. Just look at step 2: "The wayg of combinatoin on gecond laycr ia ghowed an below." I don't know what language that is, but it doesn't seem like English. Good luck to anyone trying to use this guide to solve a Rubik's Cube--I'm sure you'll need it.

This informational graphic, on the other hand, is one that I would consider good:

I came across this image a few years ago on DeviantArt. It accomplishes its intended goal not by specifically stating character traits to avoid or include, but by providing easy-to-understand examples of characters, and in the case of the Mary Sue, going extremely overboard to make the point clear. The images help to emphasize to the reader just what a Mary Sue is--an utterly ridiculous character with every possible desirable trait and absolutely no weaknesses whatsoever. Seeing these two characters side-by-side makes the differences between them quite visible. And below each picture, to wrap up the guide, is a concise statement about the character portrayed: on the left, "[a]n interesting, believable, well-thought out character with normal flaws" and on the right, "[t]oo perfect, beautiful, popular, powerful, and talented." I feel that this image is a very good way to learn what a Mary Sue is and see why they should be avoided.

Mind Map

This assignment was to create a mind map from a lecture or a TV show. Scientific shows were suggested, so I decided to create this mind map from an episode of the show Mythbusters. Three myths were tested on this particular episode:

• Does a sinking ship create enough suction to drag nearby swimmers down with it?
• Does the memory of a goldfish last for more than three seconds?
• If a trombonist packed explosives in the mute of his instrument and detonated them while playing, would the mute fly out and hit the conductor?

All three of the myths were busted.

To create this mind map, I used a plain sheet of paper, a black pen, and various highlighters. While watching the show, I simply took notes all across the page, adding little sketches and color to explain concepts and organize information.