Narrative 1

The Narrative unit was a very fun unit for me due to how much freedom we had in what we could do. In English, we could write a short story about whatever we wanted to, which we then used for inspiration in Design. In Digital Media, we could make an illustration, and then put it on something like a cup, or a t-shirt, or in my case, a night light. Another fun project we did in Digital Media was make an instrumental song using Midi instruments.

In English, we had to write a short story about anything we wanted to. I created a small robot girl who meets a strange wizard. Below is the audiobook of my story. However, due to my questionable voice acting skills, I believe it would be a more enjoyable experience to read it instead. The written version is also featured below.

Robots and Fairies

 I’m not fond of strangers. Upon seeing me they scream and scramble back, or stare at me with bulging eyes. I don’t really get why, though. As far as robots go, I am one of the less scary ones with my small, pudgy, purple body, vaguely resembling a human silhouette. Whatever the reason, I don’t like the attention. 

As I grumbled to myself about the audacity of people, I felt a small tug on my cloak. Well speak of the devil. I sighed, “What is it?”

“Apologies, I was wondering if you knew the way to Springville”, an unfamiliar voice behind me responded.

The same way I’m going. Yipee. “I’ll take you, I’m heading the same way”, I muttered as I turned to face the person, bracing myself for his reaction.

The stranger, a tall man with long silver hair, froze when he saw my face. Predictable reaction. What I didn’t expect, though, was the look in his eyes as he peered into mine. It reminded me of the look in the eyes of friends meeting each other after years. Of that look people get when they find something they thought they had lost. But not quite. It had a sadder tinge to it.

“What are you doing here?”, he whispered in an oddly familiar tone. Which was crazy. I have never met this weirdo in my life and he seriously needs a reminder of that.

“Minding my own business until you came along”, I replied bluntly before turning to continue my walk home, more briskly than before. Shaken out of his trance, he scrambled to keep up with me, mumbling apologies for his rudeness. The walk was filled with a tense silence until we finally got to Springville and parted ways.         

                                       …………………………………….………………………………………………………………………….

“You’re back!”Iris exclaimed when I opened the door to our townhome. I turned to look at her and Vi as they ate their dinner. My makers. I wouldn’t call them something familiar like my family or parents though. Parents raise and teach their children from a young age. I was created by them knowing exactly what to do in life. Also, children are supposed to represent their parents in some way. My makers just based my looks off some flower fairy they became friends with when she moved nearby after a big fight with her family. I will say this though, I don’t want anything happening to them, but it’s definitely because they are the most capable of repairing me if I malfunction. Definitely.

“Hello”, I cooly replied, drinking from the cup of motor oil waiting for me on the table.

“Hey Aster, did you hear about the new guy vacationing in town? They said he’s a wizard,” Vi inquired. I nodded. “I met him. He’s odd.”

“Makes sense”, Vi remarked knowingly. “He’s a wizard, they’re all a bit kooky.”

 Iris glared at her. “You’re teaching Aster bad manners!”

“She’s completely right though.” I said, defending Vi. “Also, don’t magicians always have familiars of some sort?”. 

“Not necessarily. They can choose never to have one in the first place, or sever bonds with a familiar if the familiar wants to leave. It is a touchy subject though, so don’t ask.” Iris replied. “Probably the second one for that bloke.”, Vi whispered to me under her breath, grinning. I nodded, smirking slightly. Oh well. As long as I don’t run into him, all should be fine.

And, to my utmost dismay, “run into him” I did. Or more accurately, he seemed to have sought me out.

“Well hello there again!”, he called to me with what he probably thought was a casual, charming smile on his face. He just ended up looking constipated. I frowned slightly. “Your name is Aster right? The hotel manager said so”.

“If you know my name, why are you asking?”I deadpanned before turning to walk away.

“Wait!” he exclaimed. I stayed in place, wondering what he wanted. “Your design. It is heavily inspired by flower fairies.”

“…Duh?”

“I was wondering if your makers modeled you off a specific fairy they knew or something. If you’re not sure I can just talk to them directly”.

I frowned, my core warmed due to… some sort of negative emotion. Who did this guy think he was butting into my and my people’s personal life like this? This is far from the proper human etiquette I have observed people to conduct. Iris always told me to treat others how you would want to be treated. That must mean that this wizard (whose name I still don’t know and don’t really feel like learning), must want me to pry into his personal life, right?

“How about first you tell me a bit about you. Don’t you people have familiars normally?”, I inquired, remembering what Iris had said earlier about it being a touchy subject. He froze. I continued on. “Did no creature want to partner with you. Did you have one in the past and then they left?”

He sighed. “Yeah. The last thing you said”. My eyes would have widened if they could. “She’s a flower fairy. Looks almost identical to you so…”

“Couldn’t be who I was modeled off. She came here after fighting with her family. A brother I think.”

 “That must be me!”, he exclaimed. “But you’re not related”, I countered. He shook his head. “Family is who you care for not who you are related to.You should know considering how protective you just got of your makers, despite not sharing blood. I’ve heard people say that they are even basically your parents, teaching you human mannerisms.” I opened my mouth to object, but… he wasn’t wrong exactly. I stared at him for some time. He looked back. I sighed. “I’ll ask them for the whereabouts of your… sister.” He smiled, but I started walking away before he could say anything. Heading home. To my family.

In Digital Media, we had a project called the parody project. We could write parody lyrics to any song we wished to. I chose to do Shape of You, but its about getting oranges from the grocery store, because I really like oranges.

Farmers market isn’t the best place to go shopping so Safeway is where we go

Me and my mom getting groceries for the week I’m walking to fast she tells me to walk slow

I go to the fruit isle see a bag of cuties and i want them really badly

Cause they’re quick and easy to pack for school and in the mornings im kinda lazy

And im singing like mom can we get oranges

They’re good for you and really really tasty

Super sweet and juicy come on don’t you want me to be happy

Say “Well I guess they’re good for you”

Cause they got lots of fiber and Vitamin C

So I guess they are healthy

Pretty decently healthy

Our first Illustration project was something called an Exquisite Corpse. I, and two other teammates, each drew part of a drawing that would later be connected. The interesting thing is that none of us knew what the others would draw. All we agreed on was that the theme would be red, gold, and purple. The one on the left is mine

Our second big project was the Illustrator project where we could design anything we want to and place it on something like a bag, or a cup. For my Illustrator project, I wanted to do a nightlight because I thought it was really cool how the pattern glows and changes colors. The girl on the nightlight is a character from a game I really like. I always loved her personality, and how flowy her hair is, so I wanted to draw her in Illustrator. A huge thing I learnt from this project is that adding multiple details to the project doesn’t necessarily mean that it is better. My first draft of my project was filled with details, like her eyes had multiple sparkles, and her hair had more texture, and she was wearing more jewelry. Unfortunately, when the machine tried engraving everything in the glass, it turned out really blurry due to how the thinner lines didn’t show up, and the thicker lines blurred together. So, I had to simplify the drawing a lot, which was kind of disheartening, due to the time I spent on it. However, I think that it looks really cool and I am pretty proud of how it turned out. It is very cool seeing something I drew glowing multiple colors.

Narrative Creature

For the Narrative creature project, we had to make a creature based off the main character of our short story in English. For making the creature, I traced the outlines of five animal’s various body parts. Each animal used represented part of my character’s personality. To represent how she is overall a calm person, I gave the creature the head of a mountain horned lizard, a species that shares that trait. To represent her introverted nature, I gave her the wings of a grasshopper, which is known to be mostly solitary. She is very observant of the world around her, so I gave her the tail of a mantis shrimp, which has incredible eyesight. She is quite proud of herself and has an ego, so I gave her the neck of a peacock. Finally, she is very loyal to her family, so I gave her the limbs and body of a wolf. For the background, I decided to do the beginning of my story when she is walking home since I wanted to do an outdoor background. I chose to do one point perspective because I liked the idea of drawing a trail going on into the vanishing point, trees clustered on either side, and the character in the middle so that there is some symmetry between the left and right sides without it looking unnatural. I made sure that there were unrealistic elements in the background (like light blue grass) because the story is in a fantasy setting, and therefore, the forest shouldn’t look that realistic. For me, the hardest part of the project was finding the right effects to give textures, as for parts like the feathers, it was hard getting the wispy texture. I like how my work turned out a lot, but I do wish I put more texture and detail into the legs so that they look less plain.

Narrative Portrait

We are looking at my main character Aster, who is a small robot with multiple human-like characteristics. With the help of an irritating wizard she met, she realizes that the people who made her are family to her. She originally dismissed their bond because they weren’t blood related, and she didn’t realize how much they influenced what she is like. In my photograph, we see her drinking oil for dinner at home after an encounter with the irritating wizard, before chatting with her makers.

I created this image by making my little cousin pose with a mug at my dining table. I used a neutral back light, but for the main lights shining on her, I used a purple one (because Aster is purple in color), and a warm yellow one because the scene is supposed to create a sense of home and belonging, which makes warm, more positive colors come to mind. A problem that came up was that with the purple light, the background turned up in cooler, less homey colors. To fix this, in Photoshop, I added a yellow tint over the walls, making them appear as more light pink then a blueish purple. Another problem was getting my cousin to agree to model for me as toddlers can be quite difficult. But, I was thankfully able to bribe her with nail polish in the end. The main editing I did in Photoshop was slightly changing lighting. As stated earlier, I made the walls a warmer color. Also, I gave my cousin’s face a shinier tint, as my character is a robot, and robots have a more metallic texture. However, i made sure it still appeared natural looking. I also made her coat appear more of a purplish pink color, as it looked too blue in the original photograph. If I had to change anything, it would be that I add more props, because the scene does take place at dinner time, where her makers are eating dinner while she is drinking her oil. So, I would put some plates and bowls with food to show that.