Technical Aspects of Schrag's 'Awkward and Definition'

Schrag’s graphic memoir Awkward and Definition is about her first two years attending Berkley High school. During this two-in-one book Ariel recaps the great bands, the great friends, and the not so great lost ‘loves’ and the while trying new drugs, becoming involved with science, and finding herself.

Within this memoir Schrag lets us relive her life through her own drawings. These drawing are laid out in a comic layout design along with a comical style of drawing. These drawings use thick lines and shading that makes a lot of her drawings look indistinct and messy. Ariel draws people with round heads and humongous eyes; although these are fun to look at, her characters do start to look like one another after seeing so many similar sketches. Schrag’s book is also printed in black and white which doesn’t provide and further information to differentiate between characters.

Aside from the drawings Ariel does to accompany her memoirs she has adds narrative pieces and speech bubbles to her comics. Schrags work is directly reflecting her first high school experiences and this is clearly visible throughout her comics. The text is in penned hand writing in an imprecise manor throughout this whole graphic memoir and at times the narrative may be hard to follow because you’re not always sure what to read first.

Schrag does an excellent job of highlighting her true feelings through her drawings in her memoir. When something important happens during her life she highlights it by creating a bigger/bolder comic slice which immediately draws your attention; although it is distracting from the story at times.

 After reading Awkward and continuing on to Definition right away you can see an improvement and slight change in Schrags style; this is her transition from 9^th grade to 10^th grade. When Schrags drawings improve, and her style changes, even though it may be slight, this lets the viewer(s) feel like Schrag is maturing right in front of us through her work.

The first photo is a page from Awkward and the second one is half a page from Definition.

After briefly viewing these two comics you can see the slight change in Ariel Schrags style. 

These two pieces reflect most of Ariel's drawings and writing within Awkward and Definition.

                                                                                                                                                   KB