What is Anxiety Annie?

What is Anxiety Annie?

Assuming a lot of you are in the same course as me, you all know who Annie is. She's a coping mechanism I created to deal with my own social and general anxiety disorders. She stands about three inches tall and lives in my head. But don't you worry, she isn't a real thing and I'm completely and totally aware of that.

I have decided to turn Annie into a web comic. As I'm sure all of you are well aware by now. All panels will be done in ball point pen and computer paper, scanned in and put into a template of my own panel layout. Then put onto a website which is pretty usual.

I intend to output way more panels than I have been able to this semester. I also intend to be a lot more thorough about my website because I've been having a hard time working on all the technical aspects of outputting my webcomic. I'm willing to commission someone to work on the game and website aspects as it will give me more time to work on my actual story line and art.

A lot of the issue I have with outputting Annie is time. So I have decided to work harder at having deadlines and actual goals that are tangible.

Reading Log 1

Reading Log #1

Name	Raina Melendez
Title and Bibliographic information (where it is published, link to website, etc.)	The Mary Sue Interview: Jeph Jacques Talks Mental Health, Sexuality, and Trans Characters in Questionable Content www.themarysue.com/qc-jacques-interview/ Friday December 12th 2014
Learning objectives (what, specifically, do you expect to learn from doing this reading)	1. I want to learn why Jacques had added all the different quirks of the characters that he had. 2. I want to understand how the comic developed from a casual comic to a more socially active comic. 3. I secretly wanted spoilers about Marten and Claire
Performance Criteria (what, specifically do you expect to be able to do or understand after doing this reading)	1. I expect to understand appealing to your audience 2.I expect to understand what would occur when I put diversity in my own comics 3.I expect to understand the complications behind writing and portraying characters that you do not personally identify with
Vocabulary terms (identify unfamiliar terms from the reading and define them here)	1.I understood all of the words in this interview
Typology (who is the intended audience of the piece, what special features are there, how formal or informal is it)	The audience is the regular patrons of the Mary Sue website. She found a web comic artist who writes about sexuality, and mental health and that appeals to her audience. She got an interview with him which brings him more of an audience and more of a fan base. It’s a very informal interview and it just addresses questions about the authors interest in the subjects he brings up in his comics.
First read (notes)	Jeph seems to be exactly like his character Marten in the comics. He did not intend to have the trans character be in a relationship with the most heteronormative character. It just happened over time. He wants to show the different people with sexualities as JUST PEOPLE.
Questions (jot down any questions you have as you are doing the reading)	WHY DID I TAKE A BREAK FROM READING THIS COMIC I HAVE SO MUCH TO CATCH UP ON!?
Synthesize (was the reading, as a whole, useful, present a compelling argument, provide ideas for further reflection, etc.)	The reading was very useful and it gave me inspiration to examine annies sexuality in my comic.
Integrate (how does this reading connect or relate to things you have already read or seen)	I read a lot of comics involving sexuality. My own sexuality and gender are very fluid concepts and I like to learn more about myself and other people daily.
Concluding notes	Read the comic again. Create my own comic exploration. Always pay attention to the diversity around me so I can utilize it and show it to my own audiences.

5artists

Please forgive any typing errors or assumed laziness on my part. My laptop died and I'm having a hard time utilizing  the  interface of my kindle.

My 5 artists:

Jhonen Vasquez is the first of my authors/comic artists. I began my admiration of his work with his comic book series, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. It was  a dark comic, very simply sketched with even and simple paneling. His human beings were hideous whereas his animals were "cute" to the point of being overly simplified and creepy. His comic explored the actual emotion  of a sociopathic and psychopathic teenage boy named Johnny.

Andrew Hussie is the second of my artists that we will explore. He began a very dull web comic featuring "sprites" another simplified art form. The art in the comic flourishes between overly intricate and overly simplified. Oddly enough a majority of his work is done in Microsoft paint. The name of the comic is Homestuck. Gradually the storyline  picked up and so did the following. His web comic, featuring  No paneling and simple art has managed to amass a following that meets at conventions and participates is online  events.

Jeph Jaques is another artist who does comic booking. Starting with poorly drawn panels over time his comics( Questionable Content) art developed. More so  the stories about a bunch of 20 something's did too. He started a comic based on a life similar to his own an  because  it appeals  to so many people, he continued to work on an  develop his art skills and the story line of the comic.

Sarah See Anderson is an art student who writes a web comic in her spare time. The comic sticks to its namesake, Doodle Time. It  just a bunch of panels related to art student life. Easily relatable, simply drawn and extremely funny. It points out a lot about the stress an  anxiety in am art students life.

David Willis writes the web comic Dumbing of age. The art style is uniform throughout, primarily because this is not his first web comic. As of current he has approximately 6 other web series. This one is his most popular. It is literally presented in strips. Five sequential panels and bothered in only white.

As you can see I admire the simplicity of web comics as a form of media an  How they managed  to make their point with just image  an  short words. I love  How such a simple media can touch people an  That's what I want do with my work

By this time, you should have established what you need to learn from this year to bolster your professional portfolio, and possibly also discovered some kinds of research or creative problems that you are interested in developing. You should also have a clear idea of how some other contemporaries are operating in the field from the online portfolios you have been looking at. Now is the time for you identify 5 artists/designers who you would consider to be role models in your work, and/or some creative/aesthetic approaches. You will write about these models/problems and why you have chosen them here. Refer to the rubric in week one for evaluation criteria.

I have at this point figured out that a lot of the work I need to do, for this course and for all of the courses linked to this one, will be entirely independent work. I will need to work on a method to produce my webcomic as well as the webcomic itself. I also need to produce merchandise on a small scale for sale in the "shop" on my website. I need to learn how to legally sell my own product and to produce finished webcomic panels in quick succession and multiple at a time. 

I'm having a hard time identifying how contemporaries are operating in the field in ways that aren't already similar to how I am. First, comic idea, then website, then weekly/daily/monthly comic posts. Amas a following and sell your soul and dignity online. 

I have chosen dreamweaver to begin the coding for my Annie Website. I'm considering the use of illustrator for the Annie graphics for the website. However, adobe Illustrator is pretty trash and I'm not feeling vector graphics. I will continue to map out the panels in the original pen and computer paper media because it really is just traditional. 

My role models are pretty straight forward. Dark comic book writers, dark comics, regular comics. Currently my favorite comic book is Johnny the Homicidal maniac. And my second favorte would have to be questionable content. Both are very different and appeal to different audiences but both are also widly revered. 

Time Management

I can honestly say that this particular blog post applies to me very heavily. First and foremost, I spend large quantities of time micromanaging myself and others. Especially in regards to time.

My advice:

I find that physically mapping out a detail schedule is actually the first step. If you have a set work schedule or school schedule (I have both) it's good to make a week chart with all the hours of the day in each individual column. Afterwards I like to map out the not flexible pieces of my life. (Classes, work schedule, Appointments.) Once that is done, I try to remember to include daily habits such as eating, bathing, sleeping. After all of those things are mapped out I evaluate my free time. If I have free time, I include gym time, creative time, and even just leave the space blank so I can use that time at my own discretion.

I constantly set alarms and reminders on my cellphone. This paired with my mapped out schedule give me audio and visual reminders of appointments and homework assignments.

I have at least three planners and I send all of my homework to myself on facebook.

To be completely honest I have a bit of a problem. And all of this over planning is stressful and has been wearing on me over time. But I'm doing my best to continue to stick by it. Training myself to be efficient and to never miss anything. I think one of my favorite parts of this system is how I have managed to stay ahead of homework assignments and bill payments so far.

As a result of my over prepared personality, many people have come to me in an effort to get their own lives on track. I'm a bit flattered to be honest.

My general organization is filled with lists and sticky notes and reminders and a reminder web of individuals in case I forget things.

This week I have made almost every homework assignment before the due date and I have not missed more than one class.

The things I'd like to learn in my life

Unfortunately for you, this post is going to be a bit of a ride.

I want very much to be a woman with so many licenses and titles that I won't know what to do with myself.

I want to be a librarian, so I can spend time among the words of others
I want to be a bartender, so I can meet the people like me, alone and awake at night.
I want my business license, so I can offer a place for people who like books, coffee, cats and music.
and I want to complete my cosmetology course so I can be a certified cosmetologist,
I want to be a tattoo artist. So my art and my work can become living breathing things
I want to hunt and fish and camp, so it would be easier to run away when I wanted to start a new life

 I lived a very boring life, surrounded by books. And now I'd really like to live. None of this directly correlates to my degree and my education. But I feel like art and design explain more about the creator when they've lived.

And when they express it through their pieces.

I want to refine my photography skill, to take pictures of my sister in the moments when she doesn't think I see her.
I want to paint all the colours I see at night because I want the world to see that not everything is gray
I want to sketch landscapes because, quite frankly I suck at it and there's no poetry to this line.

I want to become a better writer so people will finally begin to understand exactly who I am and the way the world feels to me.

I also want to finish the things I start

But that's a journey for another post entirely.

My First Blog Post

For Orientation to Culm


There isn't very much about me that the members of the class who need to know, don't already know about me.

My name is Raina Melendez, I am in the Graphics and Multimedia Design course of study at SUNY Canton. I would like very much to be a tattoo artist and I have a very large fascination with cats. I honestly feel like I should have been in an art major instead of a graphics major but at this point I've gotten so far that I might as well finish the degree. I will be graduating with two degrees, one in Graphics, as I've already stated, and the other in Liberal arts. I really love to write and would very much like to write my own novel one day.

I'm not an overly interesting person. I'm just me and I'm trying to find a spark and a way to interest people in all aspects of my work.

If I'm on any sort of social media website it's under the username/id/tag lithiumstardust

Feel free to follow me on anything you can find me on.