Welcome

I'm Kelvin Jin and I'm a senior attending Ithaca High School. I'm involved with a special English course called the Wise Individualized Senior Experience program, or WISE. The main difference between this and a regular English class is that instead of going through two semesters of standard English class, we have one semester of English followed by a large project spanning our entire second semester.

More info about the WISE program

For my WISE project, I am illustrating a graphic novel called Tempus. The graphic novel follows a group of college-aged students that travel to a nearby life-bearing planet called Tempus (in an alternate universe where such a planet exists) to study its ecosystem. The entire plot I haven't actually worked out at the moment, but that'll come in the next two weeks.

From my journal:

Dear reader:

Needless to say, I'm excited for this project. Drawing has always been a hobby for me. I began to draw comics in third grade, and at the time I wanted to be a comic strip artist. I wanted to be like Jim David, Bill Watterson, or Charles Schultz - all famous cartoonists.

My interests have changed since I started high school - somewhat. I still enjoy drawing, but my aspirations have changed from being a comic strip artist to a graphic novelist. Whether I'd like to pursue this as a career I'm not entirely sure, but I knew when I was presented the opportunity to take this class that this was a perfect match for a WISE project, and that WISE was a perfect match for me.

My graphic novel focuses on a group of college students that travel to a nearby, life-supporting planet in an alternate universe where such a planet exists. The planet's name is Eurasia (now Tempus, latin for "time"). The students, however, are trapped in a dangerous situation where animals begin to act out of order and raid their research facility, and a time paradox threatens to erase them from existence. The plot details I haven't worked out yet, but that's the big story.

I hope to finish this in sixteen weeks. It's a tough project because I have a lot to learn and there's plenty to do. My biggest fear is I won't be able to finish the project. But what's a project without its challenges, anyway?

Kelvin Jin

February 5, 2011

And how about a two-week plan (also from my journal):

The first two weeks do not involve the actual creation of the comic at all. It's all about writing the plot, and learning.

When I say learning it seems ambiguous. And it is. I want to learn how to draw humans, animals, buildings (to an extent), trees, plants, and pretty much everything else, and at every angle. Of course, taking place on a different planet I'm going to have to take a few creative liberties and dream up my own alien flora and fauna as well.

I also need to learn how to ink. This also seems to be an ambiguous goal. I'd have my own standards for inking, but if I don't reach those standards by the end of the two weeks it won't matter too much - after all, the inking comes after sketching. I'll have to sketch every panel first before I ink, so I can afford not to finish this in the first two weeks.

My most definite goal is to write the plot to my graphic noel. In terms of detail, I want to have all the dialogue written exactly as it will be in the graphic novel itself, but descriptions and settings may be broad because after all, I want to be creative in my project.

These two entries come from my journal, and they will be the last of their kind. From now on, I will track my progress through this blog. If you want, you can follow me.