Ravished Armenia: Manga Creation Journey

Goal of the project

My goal is to make a manga out of the "Ravished Armenia" book in English, which will be available to foreigners, especially to youngsters. Length (word count and/or presentation time).

Investigating

My goal is to make a manga out of the "Ravished Armenia" book in English which will be available to foreigners, especially to youngsters. Without a doubt, the young heroine Arshaluys-Aurora has become a real symbol of the generation who fought to the death and destruction, and at the same time-parting words for future generations an example unbreakable human will and unbridled desire to win over evil.

My goal is highly challenging because it requires me to learn many new skills to achieve it.

I must present the story of Aurora Mardiganian in illustrations. Furthermore, I know only the basic history of the Armenian Genocide and I have never learnt to draw manga before. Also, I will have to read many books about it as there is not much information on the Internet.

The inspiration for my topic has come from years of fascination.

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Dr. Karlyna PhD
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Since I was 12 years old I've had an increasing curiosity for the Japanese culture and Japanese manga. Pursuing that curiosity, I have read many different manga, watched a lot of videos about Japan and its culture. Back then, my dream was to create my own manga about the Armenian Genocide.

From the six options the best Global context for my project is Personal and Cultural expression. My project notably deals with the ways in which we discover and express feelings and culture, it also points the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity.

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My plan is to research the basics of the manga drawing-combined with the foundation of prior knowledge that I already have. I choose this context as I want to connect to each other the history of my hometown and the culture of Japan, as well express myself within the manga.

My project has two main sides drawing and the history of Armenia during the WW1. I have limited knowledge on both topics. I know that the Armenian Genocide was the Ottoman government's systematic extermination of 1.5 million Armenians. The starting date is conventionally held to be 24 April 1915, but Turkey denies everything. Also, I know that manga are comics created in Japan or created in Japanese language. Manga stories are typically printed in black and white, although some full-colored manga exist.

I don't know how Aurora Mardiganian survived and wrote a book about it so at first, I need to read "Ravished Armenia", which is the story of Aurora Mardiganian. Also, I need to look on the Internet how to draw a manga and try to understand which style will be better to use for drawing a historical manga.

Research

I consulted books and videos to build my awareness and understanding of the story of Aurora Mardiganian.

"Ravished Armenia" is a book written by Aurora Mardiganian, which tells her story and about the Armenian Genocide. It's a very reliable book and is a creditable source of information as it is current, accurate and is written by a qualifies experienced individual: Arshaluys Martikanyan (known as Aurora Mardiganian). This book explains that the Armenian Genocide began because of the religion of Armenians. Turks wanted to expand their territory and wanted everyone to follow Islam, but Armenians were Christians and were not planning to change their religion. So, because of that Turks decided to kill all the Christians.

I read 2 books: Ravished Armenia by Aurora Mardiganian and Aurora's road: Odyssey of an Armenian Genocide Survivor by Hayk Demoyan and Lousine Abrahamyan. These books gave me enough information for the manga which I was going to draw.

The last essential thing I needed to learn was drawing the manga. I researched this from multiple sources including websites and books. The most useful site was howtodrawmanga ( . It explained me all the basics, also there are many videos and tutorials.

The other important piece of information was to get a general idea of the difficulty of making this product. Unfortunately, I struggled to find this information online, but I have one Japanese friend who is a manga artist, so I spoke to her in depth and gained some valuable information.

Planning

My goal is to make a manga out of the "Ravished Armenia" book in English which will be available to foreigners, especially to youngsters. I devised some criteria to help me develop and measure my project. These criterions include:

  • The manga should be illustrated
  • It should have an interesting story
  • It should be attractive
  • It should be available online too

Although simple, these are important criteria that I need to adhere with. These criteria are challenging to meet as it has many aspects. Before creating my product, I need to find the perfect style for this manga. My project needs numerous materials which I am planning to buy online. My ability to be organized is a key skill that I know I will need to ensure my product will be completed on time. There are many challenges that I am going to face during this project. I should work every day to finish this manga in time.

Here is the list of things that I need to do to achieve my goal:

  • Read the book "Ravished Armenia"
  • Read the book "Aurora's road: Odyssey of an Armenian Genocide Survivor"
  • Watch the film "Auction of souls"
  • Watch some tutorials on
  • Search on the Internet for some advises from famous manga artists
  • Read the manga "Naruto" (because it is one of the most famous manga in the world I think it will help me)
  • Watch the presentation about the manga styles on
  • Buy online the art supplies that I will need during this project
  • Draw the main characters of my manga
  • Start drawing the manga
  • When the first volume will be done, go and print it out
  • Put it on one of the famous manga websites, so it will be available online too
  • Make a presentation about the manga to present at school
  • Interview a professional manga artist

To complete my research, I had to perform one interview, research the Internet and read books in relation to the Armenian Genocide and Aurora Mardiganian. I needed to learn about the past and present history of the Armenian Genocide. I had to learn many new skills, such as drawing characters making manga. I aimed to learn the basic skills of drawing manga characters in 3 weeks. This enabled me to begin the process of my product in the following week.

Before creating my product, I had to create 8 characters. There were a lot of challenges I had to face in the research and product phases of my project. One of the ruling challenges was that I didn't have enough time to draw every day because of studies.

Reflection helps me as a learner in many states. Reflection enabled me to think about what I had to do, changes I needed to make and ways to improve the quality of my product. For example, I could learn from what I had done and improve to be able to move forward and transfer the new knowledge I had learnt from.

Taking Action

Reflecting on my finished product, I can conclude that the project is of a very good and high standard. Making a manga is hard, especially when you are not a professional and you are working without a group. My goal was to "Make a manga out of the "Ravished Armenia" book in English which will be available to foreigners, especially to youngsters." I finished the first chapter and this product required me to investigate life of Aurora Mardiganian thoroughly, which I did using a range of credible sources. After investigating I did my first sketches and showed to my supervisor. Right after that I started drawing. It turned out to be very interesting, illustrated and captivating. I have proven that these criteria are met as I did a survey asking people of their opinions about my manga. 347 people completed it and they all stated that the manga was very interesting and that they can't wait for the second chapter.

After finishing my project, I have concluded that my product was efficient in helping me achieve my goal using the global context. From what I understood in that context I was persuaded to look at features such as the design and contest. During the creation of my product I adjusted my manga to better suit my global context, by expressing myself through my product to create a manga, different from others. I have been able to learn many new things about making and designing manga, that I would not have learnt had it not been for my project. I learnt many new things about Armenian Genocide and Aurora Mardiganian.

Thinking skills helped me to be able to assess sources of information. To do this I learnt that looking at the reliability and credibility of information was essential. Credibility is the author's qualification and experience. This allowed me to use high quality resources such as websites, interviews and books which gave me the best information possible. Reliability is how good the information is in terms of accuracy and currency. I learnt that the critically judgement of sources is essential, because it provided dependable information that helped me make good determinations about the product and the process.

Effective communication was necessary during my project. I communicated in different ways during my project, such as meetings and emailing. I learnt many important skills about communication that will be very helpful in the future. Communication helped me in creating and researching my goal and wouldn't have been as good if I hadn't learnt these skills.

Cooperation skills are focusing on how I was able to collaborate with others. I was able to cooperate in various ways with people such as my supervisor and interviewer. Many members of my family were posing and helping me while I was drawing. Good collaboration skills require acknowledgement, which helped me with my project because I could work with others productively to upgrade my manga.

Reflecting

After all this work, the personal project has been something that has enlarged my understanding of my topic and of the global context. Now, I know the challenges I can endure, the stress I can work with, and that I am able to produce something despite the obstacles that stand in my way.

My goal was to investigate the history of the Armenian Genocide and Aurora Mardiganian and then create my own manga out of the "Ravished Armenia" book in English which would be available to foreigners, especially to youngsters. After completing my product, I am very proud of the work I have done. The first chapter of my manga is very nice, and it is completely finished. All of the pages are very attractive and well organized.

I didn't only make the manga and read books, but also improved my collaboration skills by interviewing a professional manga artist.

I used to think that my global context: personal and cultural expressions, was about expressing yourself through creativity, but now I understand that my global context has more meaning, as it includes the knowledge I have gained from researching the "Ravished Armenia" book written by Aurora Mardiganian. I think that it is about expressing yourself by creating a product that represents both you and your faiths.

Before beginning my project, I had a lot of negative thoughts about this task. I thought that making a manga was extremely difficult and required a huge amount of skills and time. Writing the script is quiet easy task that does not require a big of amount of skill. It took less time then I thought but drawing took much longer. I was very happy to notice that my manga satisfied almost all the criteria and specifications that were created. The experience of applying my newly acquired knowledge allowed me to identify what I did not truly understand, and what required further research.

The International Baccalaureate describes students in ways that allow for success. Ten different qualities that are demonstrated by IB students including: Inquirers, Knowledgeable, Thinkers, Communicators, Open-Minded, Principled, Risk-Takers, Caring, Balanced and Reflective. There were four IB learner profile traits that I believe developed the most throughout this project. As an IB learner, I have improved as a Knowledgeable and Communicator.

The first of these traits was to be Knowledgeable. Although I had a minuscule base of knowledge on Aurora's story, it was nowhere near enough to carry out this project and hence a great deal of research was required in both Aurora Mardiganian's story and Armenian Genocide.

The second Learner profile trait that developed quite largely was to be a communicator. I communicated with my supervisor throughout the entire project, which actually took a lot of organizing, arranging and planning. As I already mentioned before, I had an interview with a professional manga artist, where he provided me with a lot of useful information. Also, I communicated with other people as well, which helped me understand how good my product actually is.

I am very proud of how far I have come since the beginning of my project and I have learnt many new things about the IB program and what it means to be an International Baccalaureate student. During my project I developed as a learner, which helped me to complete my project to a very good standard. While doing my research, I had an amazing time taking charge of my own learning. I have conducted substantial research on each of the research questions I came up with. During this project I was open to other people's perspectives and views on my manga. I took their advice as well as changed my product due to my research.

As a result, I have obtained new skills and confidence, so I think that I can complete any task in the future.

References

  1.  Mardiganian, Aurora, Ravished Armenia, Kingfield Press, Inc., New York, Jan-4, 1919 This book is about a little Christian girl with glossy black hair who was only 14 years old when the days of terror began. It is about Aurora Mardiganian who went to America to tell the suffering story of her people. Aurora told this story to H.L. Gates for him to tell the same in their language to all the world.
  2. You may read Aurora's story with entire confidence-every word is true. As the story of what happened to one Christian girl, it is a proven document." H.L. Gates
  3. Demoyan, Hayk, Abrahamyan, Lousine, Aurora's road: Odyssey of an Armenian genocide survivor, The Armenian Genocide museum-institute, 2015 This book tells the story of Aurora Mardiganian. It tells about her birthplace and childhood, the genocide, the road to America, about her first impressions of America and about the movie "Auction of souls".
  4. USC Shoah Foundation, "Genocide: Aurora Mardiganian the Armenian Genocide." USC University of Southern California website, There is a small part from the interview with Aurora Mardiganian.
  5. "Auction of souls", film directed by Aurora Mardiganian, 1919, "Auction of souls" is the movie which was directed by Aurora Mardiganian and which was about the Armenian Genocide.
  6. Japanese Manga University, "HOW TO DRAW·", howtodrawmanga website, 2018, In this website there are many tutorials which will help me to make my manga.
  7. Kishimoto, Masashi, Naruto, Japan, 2000-2015 "Naruto" is one of the most famous manga in the world, so I think that it will be a great example for me.
  8. WikiHow, "How to Make Manga." wikiHow website, This website shows how to make manga step by step with illustrations.
  9. Craftsy, "Magnificent Manga: 10 Beginner Drawing Manga Tips." Craftsy blog, 2018, There are some tips for beginners in manga industry.
  10. ThoughtCo, "How to write your own Manga." Thoughtco website, This website explains how to write a manga like a professional.
  11. Anime News Netwok, "Advice for Aspiring Manga Artists, from Manga Artists!" Anime News Network website, Here are some advises from famous manga artists.
  12. Akashi, Conan, "Style of Manga art." Presentation, Prezi website, In this presentation are shown all the styles of manga. It will help me to understand which style is better for a historical manga.
Updated: Oct 10, 2024
Cite this page

Ravished Armenia: Manga Creation Journey. (2019, Dec 14). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/ravished-armenia-manga-essay

Ravished Armenia: Manga Creation Journey essay
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