{"id":26,"date":"2022-08-19T17:39:55","date_gmt":"2022-08-19T17:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~AnnieM\/?page_id=26"},"modified":"2023-10-31T16:49:43","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T16:49:43","slug":"explorations","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~AnnieM\/explorations\/","title":{"rendered":"Explorations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although short, the explorations unit was one of the most challenging and intriguing units. Most of our projects are pretty flexible, but this unit gave students the most creative freedom<\/mark><\/strong>. Our assignment was to explore our passion <\/mark><\/strong>while improving on a skill set that relates to 21st century skills, which are mostly technology based. I chose to focus on Visual Literacy, Creativity, and Self Direction<\/mark><\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of the time crunch, I had to plan a project that would be feasible while still ambitious and challenging. My initial idea was to create a puppet, but I wanted to expand and add more technological aspects. My final project takes inspiration from stop-motion animation, specifically Laika studios<\/mark><\/strong>. I challenged myself to design a character and bring it to life using clay and felt, and then visually convey a story using photography and props. Although I always had an interest in it, I have never fully committed myself to learning photography until this year, and I wanted to push myself to take some unconventional photos. I have also always wanted to do stop-motion, and although this project isn’t exactly that, it allowed me to work on my character-design skills as well as my 3D art skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first step of my project was planning<\/mark><\/strong>, and I prioritized designing a character that I was confident and happy in before attempting any sculpting. I decided to create a character based on a garlic bulb (although she looks a bit more like an onion), with a lot of strong colors and a simple silhouette.<\/p>\n\n\n

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garlic girl!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

From there, I collected my materials and began the sculpting<\/mark><\/strong> process. And right as I started, BAM, I hit a road block. Initially I had planned to use wire and air dray clay as my main components, but I quickly realized that the air dry clay wouldn’t work well with the wire a as a base. The clay would just slide right off, and it was additionally very soft and difficult to work with. I quickly shifted gears, and instead used a doll body and regular clay that you would fire in the kiln. <\/p>\n\n\n

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initial supplies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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the doll I ended up going with<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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the initial air dry clay head attempt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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wire structure<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Once I finished sculpting, I went on to painting the head and body. I decided against firing the head in the kiln because of the time crunch, and because I still needed to adjust a few things before attaching it to the body. I used a mix of acrylic gouache <\/mark><\/strong>(because I couldn’t find my regular acrylic white) and acrylic paint<\/mark><\/strong>. After that I started cutting out my felt pieces<\/mark><\/strong>. I colored them in with pencil pastels, and super glued them on to the head. I also used felt for the clothes, which I made templates for, cut out, and sewed together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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my horrific workspace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

final production<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here are my final photos! I wanted to give it a fantasy\/fairy-like feel, really giving the character life and personality<\/mark><\/strong>. I’m super happy with how vibrant the characters turned out!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Reflection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I absolutely loved this project. Being able to choose my own medium and art piece, as well as my schedule and direction, we were really given a lot of creative freedom<\/mark><\/strong> and not having limits allowed me to challenge myself. After doing the project, I have so so so much more respect for stop motion artists<\/mark><\/strong> (even more than I previously had). I really enjoyed all the different components of creating a character, and I’d love to explore the world of the veggie people more. Maybe someday I’ll come back to the story and characters, although I doubt it’ll be in animation form. I’d like to make a proper stop-motion puppet made of wire and moveable joints, but that’s for another day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lyrical Essay<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

In English, we were tasked with the challenge of creating a lyrical essay – a hybrid of poetry, essay, and memoir<\/mark><\/strong>. None of our previous works had been as personal, some scratched the surface, but the lyrical essay challenged us to dig deep. After some thought, I decided to write my lyrical essay about the first crush I had on a girl in sixth grade<\/mark><\/strong>. I really wanted to emphasize our naivety and that thrilling feeling of a crush, the dumb “like” that swarms your brain. We were given a lot of freedom with this project as well, in fact we were encouraged to take risks<\/mark><\/strong> with formatting and techniques. This is probably one of my favorite English works from this year, I’m very proud of how it turned out, and I like how freely I could write. We also used an annotated bibliography <\/mark><\/strong>for the first time, and it was a great chance for me to explain the metaphors I chose. <\/p>\n\n\n

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click here to read the lyrical essay!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

We were also tasked with using footnotes<\/mark><\/strong> in this project, something I had never done before. At first I struggled with including research sources and notes, but once I got the hang of it my footnotes came to me very naturally. I decided to include my song mashup from earlier in the year in the essay (linked at the top), and I included some song lyrics in the footnotes, as the progression of the songs follows the theme of the progression of a relationship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experimental music<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Our last project of the year, experimental music<\/mark><\/strong>! In Digital Media, we were taught how to use our keyboard, and how to use virtual instruments<\/mark><\/strong> in Pro Tools to put together our own original song! At first I struggled a lot, I wanted to make my song perfect, but Mr. Flo reminded us that the music was experimental<\/em>, and to have fun with it! After that I was a lot looser, and I just played what I wanted to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n