By Janet Salmons, PhD

Drawings, graphics, photos, and media catch readers attention. Sometimes the images are specific to the study, such as data visualizations or tables, maps or pictures of the research setting. Sometimes they help us gain a sense of the place, culture and historical period of the book or article. But they might just be a colorful element that conveys a friendly and amusing touch. How can we create or find images that get our messages across visually? In this series of newsletters I’ll discuss and demonstrate ways to:

• Picture using comics
• Picture going analog to digital
• Picture creating visual maps
• Picture creating clear diagrams
• Picture using your own photographs
• Picture using found images and media

Art, Work, and Life

First a little background about why I am adamant about avoiding AI pseudo-art. Actual arts have been central to the professional and personal sides of life. A few years ago I had the opportunity to bring these sides together in a chapter I contributed to a book called Creative Expression and Wellbeing in Higher Education, edited by the wonderful Narelle Lemon. In “Journaling Right and Left” I discussed ways scholars can benefit from incorporating art journaling into their research practice.

While I created the figures and tables for the research books I’ve written, this project was more personal. I illustrated the chapter with a series of pen and ink drawings.

Art journaling is a way to use the left and right sides of our brain.

It was just a contributed chapter, but I feel it represents some of my best work. Imagine my surprise when I got a message from a colleague letting me know that Routledge had signed a licensing deal with major AI companies. In an instant I had an email written and sent to my editor saying in no uncertain terms: I want to opt out. No can do, they said, too late. It was such a fantastic deal they saw no reason to inform writers, let alone ask for consent to use our work in this way. But don’t fret, the multimillion dollar deal will mean lots of money for writers! Two years have passed and I have not seen a dime. They got this chapter with all the artwork, in addition to three books that represented decades of research. Needless to say, I was not amused.

I have zero interest using AI to generate figures or art that builds on creative work that has been stolen or licensed without permission. I find it aesthetically displeasing. lt is garish and ugly. Plus, using an AI generated image calls the writing into question. When I see an AI image I assume that if the person didn’t care enough to create or find a real picture then they probably didn’t care about the writing either, and left it to bots. I move on to blog posts or articles by real living humans.

Whether or not you are an artist or photographer, there are many ways to convey complex ideas, show place or context, and liven up your writing.

Picture using comics in scholarly blogs, articles, or books

Let’s start with a fun option: comics. Create a single frame or tell a little story across multiple frames. You can draw your own, like Liza Donnelly, Grant Snider, and other fantastic visual journalists and cartoonists on Substack.

Or you can create simple comics without artistic skills using this free tool: MakeBeliefsComix. (Find them on Substack too! ) MakeBeliefComix was developed for children, but why should kids have all the fun? The advantage is that the learning curve is pretty short. You can use the tutorials to get a head start, or just play around and learn along the way.

Once you’ve logged in you can start making comics. Name it and add your name. You can create comics with 1 to 18 panels, just add new panels at any point.

Think about how you want to use each panel. What messages do you want to convey?

Choose your characters. They usually come in sets so you can show different poses in each panel. Just click on the one you want and they pop into the panel. Use your mouse to position it or flip it if you want characters to face each other.

These are just some of the fun zany characters!

Leave panels white or add a background.

A castle or the moon?

Add objects to the story.

Add balloons, thought bubbles. or text frames so you can include information or create dialogue.

What do your characters have to say?

The tool set is easy to use, and if you don’t like something just click and delete.

Save by clicking the “update” button. Export completed comics as png files to use online, save them as pdfs, email or print them.

Here are a couple of examples I made:

Illustration for posts about visual research methods.

A fun way to encourage use of comics to share findings.

No, they are not great art. But comic-making with this tool is flexible and can be customized to your mood and message. Your readers will know you cared enough to make an effort! Give it a try.

Learn more

As research community manager for Sage Methodspace (now Sage Research Methods Community) I offered a series about comics and animation in scholarly research and writing in 2022. The open-access posts are still live:

A three-part series by Lydia Wysocki:

• Comics as a research method: An ongoing journey (part 1)
• A collaborative methodology for using comics in research (part 2)
• Why – and why not – use comics as a research method (part 3)
• Also see her website with a link to download the how-to guide Applied Comics Collaborations: Ways for humanities and social science researchers to work together with comics creators.

An interview with Daria Khanolainen: Graphical Vignettes for Studying Sensitive Issues

Comics are more than fun! Journal articles show research potential. A curated list of open-access articles.

This license enables reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. In other words, you can use and share but you do NOT have my permission to upload the newsletter or art to AI.

Thanks to Beth Spencer for this badge, indicating that no AI tools were used to create this post!

Originally posted on “When the Field is Online,” a free blog and newsletter from TAA member Janet Salmons. Subscribe at http://tinyurl.com/qualnews