Sequential Narrative
11/28/21
Ink Wash
For this project, the goal was to create a sequential narrative, or comic strip, that imagined us as the hero of a story focused on our lives. It took a lot of introspection to figure out how I wanted to incorporate myself into a story about me, as I had never done anything quite this autobiographical before. In the end, I decided I wanted to focus on my tendency to overextend myself for others in attempt to gain their love. I was in a relationship for about 5 years where this was a constant problem, and when it ended it was very difficult to think about anything else. So as I thought about how to turn myself into a hero, I kept wracking my brain for a way to avoid this topic that was eclipsing so many of my thoughts. Eventually, I decided that I had to depict in some capacity, but instead decided to push my focus onto finding a way to show a positive alternative to this toxic mindset. I was very inspired by the way my friends treated me when I was still in a very fragile state of mind following this relationship. They knew the situation I was involved in, and took steps to make sure I wasn’t placing my importance to them solely in what I was offering them. This was the inspiration for the other character in the story. I wanted to be sure to show that helping your friends is good and healthy, but there has to be some give and take, and you need to be supporting each other equally.
This the follow up project, Narrative Comes Alive, in which the sequential narrative is made into a video that includes audio.