Introduction
My first semester at Freestyle was a very memorable one. This page will highlight my largest assignments i’ve created in the past few months. I leaned a lot of new applications. I mastered Adobe Illustrator, as well as Adobe Photoshop. I learned a lot about ProTools, and started my first project on Adobe InDesign. InDesign is my favorite application I’ve learned so far. It’s ability to create whole books, magazines, and more is incredible. I’ve enjoyed all the new projects i’ve had assigned lately, but my favorite has definitely been my creature assignment for Design with Ms. Parkinson. I’ve loved learning about color and color theory, and using it to make new projects. In Digital Media with Mr. Florendo, we have had many in-depth assignments learning to use applications at a deeper level. In English with Mr. Greco, we read 1984 by George Orwell. We also learned about short stories, flash fiction, and even wrote our own short story!
I hope you enjoy!
Story
For this semester in English, our main assignment was to write a short story of our choice.
Sisterly Love
Pacing through Manhattan, Eve was invisible among the busy streets. She loved that about New York. Some people hated the never-ending chaos and incessant noise, but it made Eve feel at home. The only thing she didn’t love about the city was the men. Just on the way home she was catcalled twice despite wearing baggy blue jeans and her black sweatshirt, worn so thin she was astonished it wasn’t covered in holes. After saying goodnight to the old man that slept on the sidewalk next to her door, she stood in the doorway of her apartment complex. Rattling the loose doorknob, turning once left, twice right, and lifting it upwards a bit, it finally gave in with a push. The trudge up four flights of stairs was her least favorite part of the day, especially when carrying a lukewarm chicken. “DINNER!!!” she shouted through the small apartment as she kicked the door close behind her. She watched Mason haul his ass from the couch to the kitchen, wearing the same stained t-shirt and black sweatpants he wore seven days a week. He asked what they were having as Eve pulled the rotisserie chicken from her bag. “Again Evangeline…” he moaned as he fell into the seat next to him dramatically. She knew adjusting to their new lifestyle had been difficult for him, especially since she was out working most of the day. He’s been lonely since his parents died. He stopped seeing his friends and his pale skin reflected how little he went outside. Despite his grieving, she wished he would appreciate the work she put in to care for him. After all, she had lost her parents too. “Yes, again, now eat.” They devoured the meat in silence and took their plates to the sink, scraping the only scraps of bone that weren’t digestible into the garbage. Eve noticed her brother’s hostile sighs as he began to retreat to his spot on the couch where his body shape was permanently embedded in. She then had a thought, “follow me” she commanded. She assumed he recognized the stern tone in her voice because he didn’t throw his typical tantrum when asked to do something. They plodded down the four flights of stairs and out of the complex. “Hi John!” She exclaimed, barely turning to her right. Mason looked around bewildered, trying to find anyone else she could be speaking to besides the homeless man. He couldn’t comprehend why she was talking to someone so dirty. He watched her converse with the old man without saying a word. Eventually, Eve asked her friend if he’d like to come up to their apartment. Mason snapped his head in her direction, widening his eyes so big they looked like they would shoot right off his face. John noticed this and protested, “No, no, I’m doing just fine here.” Eve insisted relentlessly despite her brother’s disgusted look- holding the door open until John stood up, thanking her. Mason took the lead, making sure to keep at least a ten feet distance from the homeless man, as if he had some sort of disease. Inside their home, Eve asked the man if he’d like some dinner. Mason didn’t understand, they barely had enough food for themselves, why was she giving it away to someone who was hardly a person? John sat at the table and began to scarf down the chicken, thanking her profusely for the meal. “Do you have a family?” Mason asked, slumped on the chair across the table. “I do actually, my daughter is 17, I sent her to live with her uncle until I get back on my feet. My wife passed away a year ago. She was lovely, you would have liked her.” He responded between bites of food.Mason didn’t respond, he just stared at the man. “She sounded lovely, I’m so sorry for your loss,” Eve said sympathetically, finally breaking the silence. “Why are you homeless?” Mason blurted out. Eve looked mortified, apologizing to him. “No, it’s alright…” the man sighed, putting his fork down, “I was in the army for ten years. One day a bomb went off when I was in Iraq and burnt me half to death. I should have died that day but I survived. Unfortunately however, I spent my lifesaving on hospital bills. The government only provided support for so long, so after a while, the medications, doctors visits, and expenses for my wife and daughter back home, came straight from my pocket. Five years later, I’m here.” Mason stared in disbelief. He didn’t think someone homeless could have ever actually been something. He had just figured they ended up where they were because of pure laziness. “I’m so sorry, I had no idea.” he mumbled, avoiding eye contact with John. “Stay as long as you’d like please. You can take showers here and use my bedroom if you want.” Eve’s lips curled into a slight smile, and looked at her brother who seemed to have grown three inches after his kind gesture. “Yes please, stay. I’ll make you a copy of our key.” The old man’s eyes glossed over, his mouth opening and closing without making any noise. “Thank you. Thank you so much..” He finally squeaked. The siblings looked at each other, both grinning. For the first time, Mason felt light. He felt as if he finally contributed something to the world. Even if it wasn’t helping his sister, he did help change someone’s life. It felt good.
About The Story
“Sisterly Love” is a flash fiction about two siblings living alone. The sister, Eve, attempts to teach her brother, Mason, a lesson on kindness and impetuous conclusions about others. This story illustrates themes of gratitude. I chose to write this story in the third person because I wanted to show an unbiased view on each character from an outside perspective. Throughout the story, Eve wants to show the protagonist, Mason, that you feel more fulfilled in life when helping others. The plot is set in their small, New York apartment where the siblings live alone. This is important to the protagonist’s development because it forces him to live independently, despite typically relying on his sister to provide for him. The conflict becomes more complicated when Mason shows no interest in doing anything for himself or others.
During the climax, Eve forces him to speak with a homeless man who lives next to their apartment. It’s while talking to the old man, he realizes how wrong he is to assume the his story, and finally reaches out a helping hand. Ultimately, I chose to resolve the conflict when Mason invites the homeless man to stay with them, making the boy experience how fulfilling it feels to help someone else. My flash fiction was inspired by one we read in class earlier this year. The tale of a large woman who helped the poor boy off his feet after he tried to steal from her, while teaching him a lesson along the way. The plot twist was heartwarming to me, and I wanted to emulate the same effect for my readers in my flash fiction. During my peer review, my readers enjoyed my storyline, but suggested that I make the solution to my conflict a bit more obvious. I adjusted this in order to improve by finishing the story by stating how the protagonist changed internally. The most helpful feedback I received focused on adding sensory imagery to make the story come alive and encapsulate the reader with details that make them feel like they are inside my story.
Illustrations
In digital media, my latest project was to illustrate an object of our choice. I chose to create clothing art.
I decided to design a hoodie that was very much to my liking. I went to Illustrator but one of the biggest challenges I faced was deciding what to actually design onto it. I ending up creating four options for the design, drawing out each one individually on Illustrator. Ended up going with the last design I created. I modeled it after a page in a book, and tried to make it look as realistic as possible. This will be printed on a 8.5 x 11 piece of paper and pasted onto the hoodie. I decided for the front, I would write “the world” (the name of the page), and paste it on the hood of the sweatshirt, as long as the top left around the chest area. Finally, the heart with red eyes symbolizes the depressing aspect of the page. The hoodie it will be pasted onto is also red, so the color combinations will go well together.
I wanted to create a piece of clothing that i’ve never seen before, and I think i’ve achieved that. I also love the simplicity of the design, so i’ll get a lot of wear out of it. I love how this design turned out.
Music
Lyrics:
Hello, I'm here. I'm at a farm and I really want to start my own. What pets, do you have? Can I buy one of your chickens? I'm gonna name him Bob. Hello, can you hear me? I said I want a freaking farm, I'll fell so free and at ease With the chickens, cows, donkeys, and ducks. There's no difference between us, Except that I'm lazy... Hello, I want a farm. With lots and lots of smelly dogs. I just need money, and a few cows, and I'm lazy, but that's besides the point.
In order to create my parody of Hello by Adele, I used the original lyrics and beat in order to create a song that sounds similar. I created my own lyrics by speaking out loud and creating lyrics based on whatever the first thing came to mind. In this case, the first thing that came to mind was farms. I tried to make funny lyrics that didn’t make much sense, since it’s a parody of the song.
Mr. Florendo instructed us to make the song silly, and make sure we don’t sing seriously. Because of those instructions, I sang very off tune to add to the comical essence of the piece. I really like how the song came out and I hope it makes you laugh.
Design
My first large assignment, given to me by my design teacher, Ms. Parkinson, was to create a creature using Adobe applications. As she explained that the piece had to be a cross between five animals, each representing a different emotion. Realism has never been my strong suit, and making a strange cross between very different creatures seemed like a nightmare; especially using digital media. To make matters even more grueling, she told us we had to stick to 5 analogous colors of our choosing, but they could not be achromatic tints or shades. That meant I had to use color, and a lot of it.
I’ve never been against using color, but I prefer using whites and blacks to create value. I’ll occasionally use very diluted color if necessary, however I’ve never been keen on working with vivid tones. Working on this project was enigmatic, but over the course of a month, I was able to overcome my mental block and create something incredible. For the background I designed a cityscape for the creature to climb inspired by Godzilla.
My original creature included a lot of reds and oranges, but after putting the creature onto the background, which used many similar colors, I made an executive decision to make them green to match the turtle shell. I also made the sky green to add to the fictionality of it.
This creature is inspired by my story I wrote in English about a teenage girl, Eve, who teaches her little brother lessons about independence throughout the story.
My final animals I worked with were:
- Leopard (body) – Independent
- Turtle (shell) – Caring
- Butterfly (wings) – Confident
- Hummingbird (head) – Hardworking
- Octopus (tentacles) – Resourceful