Narrative 1:

The Visual Narrative Project explores how effectively students can craft compelling stories through visual media. Drawing inspiration from both traditional fiction and graphic storytelling, students learn to develop character, emotion, and plot progression through illustrated narratives, digital design, storyboarding, film production, and animation. The course strengthens students’ creative and technical communication abilities through hands-on experience with industry-standard tools and technology, including digital illustration tablets, studio lighting setups, animation and video-editing software, audio production programs, stop-motion equipment, web design platforms, and collaborative digital applications.

Choice Project

For our illustrator choice project we could choose to create a design in illustrator that could then be printed on a variety of items: anything from t-shirts to mugs.

Project: Faith is about love not judgment– Wearable art

I chose this project because I love creating artwork that can actually be used in real life.

There’s something really cool about designing something like a shirt that I could wear

anywhere. I’m really excited to keep exploring the pen tool, especially pressure and

weight.

I chose for my design to reflect my faith. I’ve noticed that being a Christians leads to a

lot of people making assumptions, which honestly made me hesitant to have and share

my faith for a while. But through some harder seasons, I’ve come to understand what

my faith means to me and how important it is to me, and also how meaningful it can be

to share and talk about it. With this design, I wanted to create something wearable that

represents the religious part of who I am while also sharing a positive, encouraging

message. I want my design to reflect the friendly, loving, and nonjudgmental person I

am. I hope it can spark conversations and maybe challenge some stereotypes about

Christians.

Digital drawing in Illustrator differs from drawing with pencil and paper because it allowed me to easily test a wide range of colors and make precise adjustments by going back and modifying anchor points in your design. This was very helpful as I tested many different color pallets and would go back to edit the shape of my lettering using anchors.

I chose to have my design reflect my faith. I’ve noticed that being a Christian often comes with assumptions of being judgmental, which made me hesitant for a while to openly share my beliefs. Over time, though, I’ve come to see how important it is to talk about faith in open conversations. With this design, I wanted to create something wearable that shows Christianity as rooted in humility and love rather than judgment. I hope it can spark conversations and challenge some of the stereotypes people may have about who Christians are.

The production process was especially rewarding as I learned how to use Illustrator to design artwork digitally and bring it to life through printing and wearing it. I enjoyed experimenting with pressure-sensitive brushes and syncing my drawing tablet to better use the pen tool, which gave me more control over my designs. Exploring different line weights allowed me to create unique fonts and doodles, and I found it interesting how small changes could shift the tone of the message. Overall, the experience was meaningful because it combined my artwork with my personal beliefs while pushing me to learn a new program.

Being creative in illustrator is different than in other drawing applications because in illustrator you can edit stroke lines and specific curves or angles of each graphic after its drawn. Its differs from photoshop as it allows for more drawing and shape editing rather than changing images. Overall, I love illustrator as while having many simple tools, it also offers more advanced tools and editing options.

Exquisite Corpse Project

The exquisite corpse assignment challenged us to use adobe illustrator in Digital Media to independently draw a section of the image without communicating with our group members. It shows how different of creative visions each of us had and allowed us to utilize our newfound illustrator skills.

Short Story Album Cover

In English we wrote a flash fiction which we then learned how to record and add SFXs to in Digital Media. This cross class assignment was extremely exciting and I utilized my newfound illustrator skills to create the album cover below. To listen to the recording and see the text look below.

This story follows an elderly violinist who has spent years playing, slowly fading into the background as the world rushes past and he worries about fading into the wind and with it the last person who remembers his daughter When a young woman in red flats begins stopping to listen, her small acts of kindness—hearing his music, sharing a meal, and simply asking for his name—break through years of loneliness and invisibility. Through her compassion, the old man rediscovers a sense of belonging, proving that even the simplest gesture can help someone feel seen.

To produce the audio version of my story, I had to learn how to use the recording booth as well as how to compile different tracks in Pro Tools for audio, music, and sound effects. It was extremely fun and exciting to see how different musics and sound effects could create different atmospheres.

Artist Statment:

I worked really hard editing and re-editing to tell my story through the music and sound effects to convey a somber yet hopeful tone. This allowed me to effectively tell my story with well-timed SFXs and music that set a correct tone. I am proud of how the mistakes were edited out and how smooth the final piece sounds, especially how in sync the sound effects are with the timing of the story. What I value most about producing an audio-only story is learning how powerful sound can be in helping listeners visualize a scene. It showed me how music can shape emotion and set the tone without any visuals.

“A Name”

A Name

Soft notes rung in a minor key, falling with the light pitter-patter of rain. Echoing under the bridge, long forgotten were ballrooms where the music would dance around the room in gliding strides. By now, the bow hair started fraying, the violin’s bow began to sound tired, the music limped around the underpass. Yet, day after day he played. He played like he was waiting for someone, always holding a crinkled bag with illegible writing, empty but for a few grease stains, clutching it like he was holding on for his life. He looked like an old photograph of a sad mall Santa. 

The kids stopped gazing with wide eyes, and when applause used to echo, now there was only silence, and the pitter-patter of rain. He was a man worn down by time who stopped playing for tips and started playing for ghosts. 

Some days the morning crowd passed, but he just sat there staring at the empty space where people used to stop, at a life that never happened. But he kept showing up. Same corner, same time, one less bow hair. Then another hair snapped. Soon, he was humming to the cricket tune of a half violin. His clothes became more frayed, and he patched more holes. While the same river of shoes clipped and clopped along, he stayed on his patch of sidewalk. Some pedestrians would hurry past, crossing the street and avoiding eye contact, while others would laugh or point. An occasional few would throw a pitying glance, maybe even toss a few coins to feel better about themselves, though never enough to buy even a gumball. Still, he endured as days slipped into years.

He stared at the haze of tattered sneakers, shiny high heels, and suede shoes. On Sundays, polished loafers rushed home late at night, and Thursday came with hideous neon orange sneakers at the crack of dawn. But, one day, bright polished flats crossed his view. For the first time in years, he became anchored in the present. His eyes couldn’t leave the flats until they disappeared out of the underpass. He closes his eyes. Adagio for Strings reverberates among the underpass, and he sees another pair of red flats carving a path in the road, repeating the square dance he practiced with his daughter in ballrooms many moons ago. Some days, he was worried he was fading into the same melancholy grey the rain becomes as it washes along to the gutter, bringing along the last person who remembers those moments.

But when the pair of flats passed back, they belonged to an unfamiliar young woman. She was new, he was sure of it: he would never forget those shoes. 

The woman’s steps tapped with a rhythm because something in the tilt of the old man’s bow reminded her of her grandfather tuning his instrument with his warm tea and dessert. The woman, with a slight tilt to her head and jingling to her steps, questions him.

 “Have you ever thought about fixing it?”

The tilt, the twirl, memories flood into his head, and tears fill his eyes. One Summer’s Day fills the underpass in response: his daughter’s favorite song, the one he played at her last birthday. As he drowns in memories the young woman becomes long forgotten. She goes to the park, or maybe to dinner with her family, but he continues to sit there sinking further away.

The haze returns as the flats disappear, replaced by a pair of loafers and with it the clattering of pitying coins. Shoes come and go. No one sees him, too busy to notice how he has become a relic of the past shattering into the wind.

The young woman never drops coins. But also never hurries her steps or crosses to the opposite sidewalk. She never looks at the ground or at something interesting on the wall, but gives a smile every morning.

She walks by carrying books and coffee stained papers. This time her red flats pause as she passes him. She looks with sorrow as she observes how no one else stops, no one else enjoys the music. She closes her eyes inhaling the music, broken tunes and all while each flat taps and twirls. She doesn’t hear the offbeat notes as she glides and spins. His music plays louder, each note held for longer. Even after her footsteps are only a memory and the shadows grow longer the rain stops and the birds whistle along to his music.

The next day she passes by and she looks at him. She pauses reaching into her bag, hesitates, then pulls out two sandwiches wrapped with care in parchment paper. One has her name in gorgeous script, the other one crisp white. She holds the blank one out. He stares at the paper with a gaze akin to an old statue in the wrong exhibit. She notices him hesitating, pulls the sandwich back taking out a sharpie. 

She asks him, “What’s your name?”

 Taken aback, the old man stammers his response, almost embarrassed by how long it takes him to remember.

She writes his name with a flourish on the sandwich, and his eyes water as he touches the ink like it might disappear.

 “I haven’t seen my name in forever. Thank you,” he said with a pause. “For everything.”

She drops the sandwich with an absentminded smile, “It’s the same kind my grandpa liked.” Then she’s gone already back to her day.

But he stays, like he always does. But this time, he unwraps the sandwich slowly with a small smile as tears wet the paper like watercolor on a canvas. He saves the paper with his name in fancy script, hands shaking, he carefully ties it around his bow. 

The bow is still not perfect, the tune still screeches, but it holds the broken hair together long enough for one more song. 

We were challenged to create a creature that embodies a character we wrote about in English. I valued how this assignment emphasized creativity as well as how to create a unified creature.

Creature: Fizarord

Background:

I learned how to draw using linear perspective to help create more depth in the image. I chose a theme park as a theme park is filled with bright lights, colorful rides, and energy. Roller coasters twist in the background and a childhood carousel moves in front, with lots of bright signs and lights. The park feels energetic and happy, a place where people can forget their worries for a moment and be kids filled with optimism. This setting reflects my side character’s optimism and youthful bubbly personality, as she acts as if life isn’t weighing her down. It also represents her ability to bring energy and warmth into any space, as a theme park is somewhere where people are happy and can connect through unique experiences. In my story she alters the older somber man’s point of view, and this reflects how the environment my creature in affects his demeanor.

Mood Board

For my mood board, I chose relatively somber colors as my character is very lonely and hopeless, however I transitioned to using some brighter variations as by the end of the story, he feels seen and hopeful. I chose the happiest color, yellow, and a somber color, dark muted blue, to represent the journey and change in emotion he felt.

Artist Statement

A Name, is my short story that follows a fallen violinist who once played in a ballroom and shared music with his daughter, but now performs for ghosts. His violin slowly breaks as he clings to memories of the past as the world rushes past. He plays in gloom beneath a rainy underpass day after day, slowly fading into invisibility.

However, one day, out of the norm, a young woman begins to notice him. When others hear broken turns, she is drawn to his music, reminded of her grandfather, and dances despite offbeat notes. Though she can’t solve his poverty, she helps give him back his dignity and humanity, making him feel seen and heard. The scene ! depicted shows where the young woman continues forward to. I envisioned her moving to somewhere that matches her bright, hopeful energy. I chose the scenery of an amusement park because its bustling movement and energy, when juxtaposed with the somber stillness of the man staying under the bridge, emphasizes the difference between the two characters, further reinforcing the idea that compassion can emerge from the most unlikely encounters. This scene shows how she looks at things through optimism and joy. While others saw the man as a burden to avoid, she saw the best of the man, seeing a human struggling to be seen. This is symbolized by the joyful scene, as while many see the world as gloomy and hopeless, she sees it through the eyes of a carefree kid. Together, this scene and its connection to the story explore how connections and simple kindness can mend the pain of isolation.

To create my illustration, I used Adobe Illustrator, primarily working with the Pen Tool and a lot of layers to build my hybrid animal character piece by piece. I began by researching and sketching different animals whose traits and symbolism aligned with the young woman in my flash fiction, A Name. I started with a snow leopard body, an elusive and rare creature, representing how she was different and had the desire to help the man and notice him when everyone else turned away. I added horned beetle horns to represent her bright presence and quiet resilience while being different, and the starling represents her empathy and attentiveness, as starlings fly in flocks together. The iguana represents authenticity, while the fish conveys her grace through its fluid movements. Together, these animals combine her defining characteristics into one cohesive figure. I chose an exterior setting and used a one-point linear perspective to depict an amusement park, allowing the viewer’s eye to move forward to a single point, reinforcing the motion that is essential to an active outdoor amusement park. Bright colors such as orange and yellow were intentionally used to emphasize the woman’s optimism, youth, and energy, helping the illustration feel lively and emotionally open rather than static or somber.

Reflection

While this was an extremely difficult project, learning how to draw unique shapes to create a whole scene in one-point perspective, I am extremely proud of myself for pushing myself to try objects besides square houses. Next time, I would definitely spend more time on the color palette for the background, as I feel it takes away from the character, as well as visualizing where the character will be before laying out the background, since a lot of detail ended up being covered by the character. I struggled to get my vision onto the board, as I did not initially have the knowledge of the techniques needed. However, after watching many videos, I learned about clipping masks, feather techniques, gradients, and line art allowing me to add unique elements such as making the tail feel wispy as envisioned. Overall, I am extremely proud of my project. Learning a new type of drawing and different Illustrator techniques has been extremely fun and rewarding, and I am proud of my fun creature!

The music projects this year pushed my out of my comfort zone to work with a form of art I have never before. recording music, then learning how to edit different tracks was challenging but very rewarding to listen to in the end! Additionally, the experimental music project challenged me to learn how to make all sorts of different sounds and instruments from the keyboard.

Getting to record a song with all six of us was an incredibly enjoyable and highly valuable experience. We really loved the process of experimenting with different sounds and watching our collaborative ideas evolve into a finished track. It gave us a fantastic, real-world understanding of a professional recording session. We learned a lot about what goes on during a session, seeing firsthand how things like recording microphones and perfectly synchronized headphones are absolutely crucial for ensuring clear communication in the booth. We’re all walking away with practical knowledge that will definitely help us produce much higher-quality work in our future school and personal projects.

• My inspiration for this music was to go with the flow. I started with drums and followed the beat when adding in piano and other instruments. I knew I wanted to have an impactful piece while also ending with the same quiet that it began with, because life is circular and after everything the end will look like the beginning with only memories of the in between.

• In this Experimental Music Production process, I am most proud of learning how to play the drums using a piano keyboard! I have always wanted to learn how to play the drums and despite the drums giving me many challenges and issues, I am really proud that I was able to make music incorporating this instrument.

• I value learning how to use MIDI Virtual Instruments for music production, because it is extremely cool how many instruments and sounds one computer can make. Additionally, as I aim to produce more videos of my artwork, this is a great way for me to create my own background music, and it is awesome that it can all be done on the computer by someone who can not actually play any physical instruments.