Flight: A Junior Visual Narrative Comic by Sasha Heye (2017)

In this project, I learned a lot about how to express mood and tone through illustrations. I also learned how to manipulate layers and use the pen tool on Adobe Illustrator. This helped me grow as an artist I was able to build a whole story from scratch which helped me learn how to express emotion and tone through simple colors and shapes. Each piece of my comic has a purpose, which shows how much time and thought I put into each panel. A challenging part of this project was organizing the panels to make a concise, clear, yet complete story. Since the assignment was only to illustrate the rising action, it was challenging to make sure the reader understands what the story is about without any background information that the beginning of the story provides. Another challenge from this project was learning how to keep my layers organized so my illustration could look exactly how I want it to. Since I’m used to drawing on paper, it took a while for me to get in the habit of adding layers. It is very difficult to illustrate scenes from the front to the background, so I had to restart many of my panels.

I would change my story to be more aesthetically interesting. I have trouble drawing realistic birds, so I was forced to stick with cartoon looking ones that do not match my art style. Also, I wish I added more shading to give my illustrations more contrast and value to them. I am most proud of how I got in the habit of adding layers and starting my panels from the background forward. I am also proud of how my story is clear to the reader. What I learned in this project will help me in the future because I am faster at using Illustrator and more efficient with how I organize layers. Also, what I learned about using color and shapes to express emotion will help me with all art I make in the future.