{"id":22,"date":"2024-10-17T21:41:15","date_gmt":"2024-10-17T21:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~CadeL\/?page_id=22"},"modified":"2025-06-05T19:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T19:42:12","slug":"explorations","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~CadeL\/explorations\/","title":{"rendered":"Explorations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Explorations Project<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Introduction<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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A page from AidaIro’s Toilet-bound Hanako-kun<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the Explorations Project, students explore a topic of their interest in order to find or expand their passion. Through this project, they develop and improve on a particular skill set within 21st Century Skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For my Explorations Project, I decided to write and draw a manga. I have been interested in this area for a while, but have never committed to finishing anything. I was inspired by the manga I read, particular by the artist-writer duo AidaIro. Their work is beautiful — both the art and the writing — and I wanted to emulate that beauty in my own work, even if it’s just a fraction of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect that I challenged myself with in this project is making it wordless. I wanted to tell a story without the use of dialogue, or even sound effects. Through this project, I hoped to improve my skills in visual communication and expressing ideas in unique ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Product<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Note: read from right to left<\/p>\n\n\n

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Process<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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I started by experimenting with the art style and also the age of the characters. At first, I imagined the vampire as being older, but eventually settled on both characters being young.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then I did the sketches in Procreate. It took a while to figure out the best layout and which panels should go on which page. After some messing around and some research, I eventually got to a layout that I felt was effective and flowed well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Before I lined the sketches, I made the panels in Photoshop. Because the gutters (the space between the panels) stays the same, I made layers with margins, and horizontal and vertical gutters. I then moved these layers around and erased the extra lines to the final panels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After lining all the sketches, I added screentones. Screentones are patterns, usually black and white, that are used to add shading and texture to drawings in place of hatching by hand. I downloaded some sheets off of DeviantArt. To use them, I imported the image to Procreate, then cut around the panels, and then erased the parts I didn’t need. After this step, I was done!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflection<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Overall, I am very satisfied with the final outcome of my manga. I think it conveys the story pretty well, even without the use of dialogue. It was a great learning experience. It took longer than I thought it would, but all the time I put into it was worth it. I had a lot of fun learning about effective panelling and how to use screentones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music Recording<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The song that I and Vee L chose to cover for this music recording project was Fight Song by Eve. We chose it because it is by an artist that we both listen to. It also happens to be from the anime Chainsaw Man, although we haven’t watched it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wanted to use this project as an opportunity to learn and practice our instruments. I played the vocal part of the song on piano and Vee played the guitar. Before this, I had stopped playing piano regularly for about 5 years, and Vee didn’t even know guitar, yet. After just a little over a month of practice, I think both of us have grown a lot as musicians. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is our final production! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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