Natalie Roche, 5/9/11, In-Class Revision Articles

Article 1: Ben Katchor (Cartoonist)
This cartoonist was constructing a multitude of characters for a project call The Cardboard Valise, where he created a "collection of the weakly comic strip of the same name and his first book in more than ten years". In his article he talked about his creation of the characters, how he would take people he saw in his real-life activities and construct his characters around those that appealed to him. He also had an online portfolio of some of his works. The first one consisted of a bunch of quick face sketches, reflecting possible existing people but also caricatures revolving around certain stereotypes - someone who is lazy, someone who is pompous, etc. His style is blocky and sketched out, but the musculature is still quite apparent and each character exhibits unique features. It may not be realism, but it's still quite obvious through the style what Katchor was trying to reflect. I think this can reflect upon my writing because, like with art, when you write, you're creating a piece that entirely revolves around your product in every aspect. You want the style you write in to fit your topic and the audience you think its best suited for. And by the end, you want to make sure everything is fitting as a whole and there are no awkward parts that will throw it off.

Article 2: Laura and Kate Mulleavy (Fashion designers, rodarte)
Laura and Kate Mulleavy are two sisters that are apparently quite popular in the fashion field, and in their article they discuss how they come up with some of their ideas for their collections. They used their fall line of clothes as an example. They stated that for this project, they were inspired by the American plains - the prairie, The Wizard of Oz, tornadoes, and storm chasers. They had some interesting designs, such as incorporating a wheat design on the bottom of a long dress with a sort of swirled, more intricate design on the top, representing a tornado. They also stated that they wanted to experiment with "things that looked soft", focusing on the calm aspects of the prairie as opposed to the rustic, western ones. It gave the whole idea an original outlook for people to explore that was inspired by the landscape and things that already played a role in the designers' lives. It can influence my own writing and revision by putting a lot of thought into my creations. It's important to start off with a theme and take off from there, revolving around that idea when you create your piece, just like these two did with their fashion design.

Article 3: Sarah Ruhl and Scott Bradley (Playwright and Set Designer")
What these two playwrights focused on was, like the fashion designers, originality, but they also to push their staged effects during the play to metaphorically and visually capture a moment. They based their ideas off of past occurrences or dreams, then took them to the next level. They discussed how amazing it was to see their ideas come to life. When writing, there is a similar process. It's important to take your ideas and make them strong, bold, and clear to the reader. I think this is something that I have trouble with - maintaining a steady subject and revolving around one idea/opinion throughout the piece. However, that's something that I can work on and use in improving my writing.