Author: Ria

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1. My Wallet
2. Carmex
3. A Wrist Brace
4. Car Keys with pepper spray and a Rock Lee keychain
5. A Pouch with Masks
6. Nametag for work
7. Boxcutter also for work
8. Random change
9. Sharpie
10. Retainer Case

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My cousins actually got me this black elephant bag from Claires years ago. I have used it on and off, but now it’s my go to bag because I can be kinda rough with it. I always keep it on the floor of my room and if I need to go anywhere I can just grab it and go. As for the contents, a wallet is very necessary because it has my money and license. Though I never go out specially to shop or go get necessities, I only leave my house is to go to work. There are a few reasons for that. First, I kinda live in the middle of nowhere, so to go to Walmart or work I have to drive 30+mins. With the pandemic, my dad was the assigned person to get groceries, and it’s still like that. On to the next item, I always have chapped lips, so I make to have some sort of lip balm around me. The wrist brace is for when I work. I think it is pretty obvious to figure out where I work. Chick-Fil-A. I bought the wrist brace to wear when I am taking orders on IPads because the IPads are heavy and very uncomfortable to hold. I got weak wrists :(. The nametag, boxcutter, and sharpie are also for work. Next is my car keys which I love because of the Rock Lee ( a Naruto character ) on it and bells on it that you can’t see that well in the photo. The bells are very convenient when I need to make sure I have my keys inside the black abyss of my bag. I can just shake the bag to hear the bells. The dotted pouch as an assortment of mask though I usually wear the mask from my CFA uniform. The last item is my retainer case. I always keep that on me even though I can go without wearing my retainer for 10 hours per day. Speaking of that, I need to schedule an orthodontist appointment.

Looking back at before the pandemic, I had everything in my backpack and more things. I like to be prepared and more. I usually had a mini first aid kit in my backpack with extra hair ties and whatnot. I also have extra things in my car as well like a blanket, small pillow, towels, hairbrush, jacket, and masks. I find comfort in have a lot of things that I know will be useful for me or others in the future. I think that my bag and its contents represent the pandemic version of me. To be honest, I just shove things in the bag and have to rummage through it all for a while to find what I need. It’s an organized chaos which I think describes me perfectly.

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For this sketch assignment, I wanted it to simple but meaningful. I had a totally different idea while going through Pinterest and finding a good photo. I was trying to find a photo that was landscape orientation, but Pinterest only had portrait photos. It take me forever to find a photo that I liked or was just the right amount of minimalistic that I wanted. The inspiration behind this sketch is the SAT tutoring scene from “Spinning” by Tillie Walden. In that scene, Tillie, the main character, was sexual assulated by her SAT tutor. I wanted to incorporated some essence of the scene in my sketch. I used Google Draw to add the boxes and frames. While thinking about the text, I wanted to keep it short but still impactful. I feel that this sketch can convey a lot of things, and because it is simple, it lets the viewers bring in their imagination to make it more complex. The dialogue could be put on another photo and still have the same meaning. I choose the bed photo because it hints to what may have happened.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/504332858273769038/

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While browsing through photos on Google, I was searching for photos relating to food and a specific color. I initially was going to combine a photo of Almond Joy and a glacier, but I decided not to because I couldn’t find a good glacier photo. Then, I came up with the idea of powdered sugar being dusted on a dessert mountain. It took me a bit to delete the unnecessary part of the hand photo because it was a little meticulous. The lighting of the hand and the mountain was off, so I had to play around with filters to make it as close as possible. The final image is a mountain being dusted with powdered sugar.

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I used the mountain photo from Flickr by Yoann JEZEQUEL https://www.flickr.com/photos/zeeyolqpictures/. The photo of the dusted powder sugar is by ShutterStock https://www.shutterstock.com/search/powder+sugar?kw=shutterstock&c3apidt=p11277540745&ds_rl=1243391&gclid=Cj0KCQiApsiBBhCKARIsAN8o_4j1MU7pG47MlT8h2Y6XnLRLWN0IBzHB7LHf88jxH384lpX6CZIMQDwaAm3uEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

These notes are from my intro to macroeconomics class. As you can tell, we are learning about gross domestic product ( aka GDP ). While I was creating this, I realized that I overlooked a couple of pieces of notes in class. I didn’t fully comprehend the slides. I enjoyed drawing my notes out because I was able to break the main idea apart, work on the smaller sections, and bring it back to a whole. I allowed me to get a better sense of the topic and easier for me to look over. On the bottom part of the notes, we were showed how to do certain calculations, and I like being able to take notes on what each number means and how it is relevant to the situation. Labeling and color coding allows me to focus on different things rather having a big block of black text. I knew before this assignment that I was a visual learner and that I like to revise my notes, so my notes are more like this assignment. I can’t really do this with all my classes because some are more reading based or excel based and there are also time constraints. However, this semester I am planning to incorporate this type of note taking more into my upcoming notes.

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Sketch 3: Visual Note Taking

A hair clip turned into a rib cage. I knew that I wanted to do something with the hair clip, but I wasn’t sure what it could transform into. I held it up at different angles to see. Holding it far away, I realized that it looked like ribs. I got this hair clip on Amazon so that I can use it to hold up my hair. Once I got it, I realized it was too small and couldn’t handle my thick hair. I looking so forward to style it .

During my drawing process, I wished to make it realistic but also minimal. I drew the lungs, a liver, and a rough outline of a torso. I did not draw a heart because it would be covered by the rib cage. Anytime I want to draw something, I try so hard to make it realistic, especially anatomy, but it never works out. I felt defeated when I see artists on Instagram sharing their amazing art. While I was drawing, I love just the drawing aspect of it since it has been a long time since I did draw. I felt more excited to draw than I had before. Also, I was taken back to my Human Anatomy and Physiology class in high school where we had to draw life-sized skeletal system though my more artistic friend handled the sketching part of it.

It felt so nice and comforting to use a mechanical pencil again. The last time I actually used a pencil this long was before COVID. I forgot how good of a mechanical pencil I had. It’s so smooth. I missed writing on paper since all I do is type away on online assignments.