Jody Culkin, an artist who uses a variety of media, speaking at South by Southwest Interactive 2013 in Austin Texas.
Lasersaurs, science geek comics, comic book how-to’s on lasers, creative uses of iPhone cameras, hacking, soldering, coloring books on electronics, rapid development of instructional manuals using photo-comics—Jody Culkin brought many graphic examples (pardon the art pun) in a slide show presentation on DIY comics to a South by Southwest Interactive Conference audience.
Jody Culkin, a teacher in the Multimedia Program at CUNY’s Manhattan Community College, is an artist in a variety of media, including comics, photography, mixed media, installations, and much more. She’s shown her sculptures, photographs, and new media pieces at museums and galleries throughout the U.S. and internationally.
Culkin suggested that comics, with their straightforward images and text, assist with the development of a ideas from prototypes to finished products. And why not use comics for product—hardware or software— documentation?
Making your own fun
Tools: if you have the money or access via work or school, it’s possible to use professional, expensive tools like Adobe’s Illustrator and InDesign for comics, but there are plenty of no- or low-cost tools that can be applied to DIY comics. Comic Life, while not open source, integrates well with photos and is integrated into IPhoto if you use the Mac’s photo database to organize images.
Gimp, an open-source tool similar to Photoshop, can be used for pixel-based, as opposed to vector-based art. It’s available for Mac, PC, and Linux. Gimp has a lively community of users. Find out more about Gimp at http://www.gimp.org/
And for open-source vector-based art creation, consider Inkscape: http://inkscape.org/en/
Culkin listed sites where science, electronics, DIY toy creations and more can be found.
- Fritzing.org, or “Electronics Made Easy” website offers an open-source hardware. http://fritzing.org/home/
- Howtoons, a website combo of comics, inventions, and toys. http://www.howtoons.com/?page_id=2
Perhaps the best way to experience what the artist brought to the audience would be to review her event slides, which she posted in SlideShare. What a great idea, eh, for a DIY comics outsider artist, to give us an easy way to take in the ideas and images? Bravo, Culkin! http://www.slideshare.net/jodyhc/culkin-diycomicssxswi2013
Links
- Jody Culkin’s comic link: http://www.jodyculkin.com/category/comics-2
- Youtube on Culkin’s comics work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqzO_1k44DU
- The Arduino Comic Wiki http://playground.arduino.cc/Main/ArduinoComic
- Jody Culkin’s photos of Comic Con dolls http://www.jodyculkin.com/photography/dolls-of-the-cons
Jody Culkin’s illustrations for Arduino.
Selected images from 2013 South by Southwest Interactive on Flickr
2013 SxSW Interactive Presentations on Soundcloud (no longer online)
Find out more about the South by Southwest Interactive Conference in Austin Texas.
Newosity: future report 