Narrative 1

During the Narrative Unit, I learned many things about creating characters and using my creativity to complete assignments and render good results. This unit taught me a lot more about Adobe Illustrator, and how to plan and organize my thoughts in order to create something I am proud of. I loved being able to work with others on some of these projects and have some fun!

For our English class, we were given the assignment to write a Flash Fiction story, there were certain guidelines about how long it could be, but the rest was up to our own interpretation. I love the city of New York, so I was destined to make that my setting. I wanted to make my character a fairly likable person but with a little more depth to her. I also wanted to create some conflict that was going to be resolved towards the end.

Ponder Pond

Behind the scenes of my Audio editing interface (ProTools)/process

My album art behind the scenes (the interface is Adobe Illustrator)

Mara always thought she could breathe better right after it rained.., The air was crisper, and it was more entertaining to be outside the cafe. Folks started walking in with closed umbrellas, holding onto them while they ordered. She had to assume her 10-minute break was up, although she only spent 8 minutes and 20 seconds outside. She turned towards the door and found herself in the reflection, pulled out her hair tucked under the neckline of her coat, and let it all rest on her shoulders. 

Sam always looked for a coat hanger whenever he found himself under a roof during a rainy season in the city. He wanted to show off his tricep pump in an excruciatingly tight dress shirt, he happened to know Mara would be working this afternoon. 

She could tell he had arrived by the consuming smell of cheap body spray, the kind that hit like cold air. She hid under the pastries and when he took a glance at the same menu for the 45th time she hurried back to the kitchen. 

Mara had lived across Sam ever since she and her father had moved in 5 years ago, although a liking nor a friendship had blossomed between the two. It was Mara’s father, Percy, and Sam who took a liking to each other. They always stopped in the halls, Sam would stop by to look through their record collection every Sunday. When Percy would ask Mara “Why haven’t you gone out with someone young like Sam yet?”, she would begin to dislike the unlikely friendship between the two a little more. 

She loaded up two sconces and four macchiatos on her tray and used her free hand to grab 3 sugars. She delivered the treats to table 6, an old lady sitting peacefully on her laptop, she always told Mara about her Nephews. How lucky she was to live in the city so close to them, although the drinks always got cold before they all arrived to meet each other here on Sundays. She had wished her father and she could have excursions like that family, or that Mara could have excursions at all. The sweet old lady couldn’t be a year or two older than her father, yet her joy, memory, and sanity all remained intact, although they were late. She never failed to leave a bright red lipstick stain on their cheeks. 

It was because he was the only person who knew how sick Mara’s father was, that he always left the big cash tip in the mason jar at the register. She didn’t want pity nor would she ever ask for help.

 “Hello dear,” he said 

“Sam, how are u doing?” she said in a monotone voice.

 “Listen, dear, not to freak you but Percy wasn’t in your apartment today” his words dropped on the floor of her stomach. Percy never left the house, only to knock on Sam’s door because someone was “watching” him from the windows across the way. Mara was home enough to be able to leave the house with him, but as more and more relatives no longer began to support her, she lost the help.

 “Did you check everywhere? Even my closet, and behind the boxes?”

 “Everywhere Mara”.

It was like owning a baby which was the hardest for her to swallow. Had he felt this rush of pins and needles in his stomach and arms when Mara wandered away from the school campus at age 8? Had fear hit him like a bolt of lightning? She threw her nametag and apron over the hook and told her fellow barista to cover her until she got back. Sam, who had never received his coffee, reluctantly followed. They checked his “spots” where Mara would take him and where he felt “safe” meaning where he would feel okay enough to talk about the war, how scary iPhones are, and where she would tell him again that she was his daughter. They rushed to Central Park, and the traffic horns and busy streets kept her head foggy, she didn’t need to explore all the possibilities of what could’ve happened. They headed in through the west end of the park, near their bench facing the pond, she had forgotten he had trollied along behind her, she thought he must’ve been amused seeing this as the first time she had run. Although grateful for his presence.

“This is the bench we always sit at, it’s the place the horse carriages come least so I don’t suppose he could’ve wandered that way,” she exclaimed assuming they were now in a team effort to find him. Which almost looked to upset him.

“Why here, in the city, you know this was going to happen eventually” he was nearly furious as if she had let his puppy out the front door. 

“It’s where he grew up, it’s what he knows, the sounds he has been hearing his whole life, the comfort in always expecting the same thing” That’s what he needs she said taking a seat, on her normal side of the bench. 

“You know what he needs,” he said with a sigh and rested his arms on the fencepost. 

And with less than two seconds he saw a small green kayak that was being pulled to shore by no more than 5 NYPD officers, and there Percy sat on the edge. His Eddie Bauer pajamas soaked in water, and his arms flailing and screaming at the women and men who in fact saved his life. 

Tears began to sit on the edge of her eyelid, as she had seen his fate right in front of him. She got up and ran along the edge of the pond. Peering through the brush to see the officers trying to get him to exit the kayak. Suddenly one fell back with a heavy force and began bleeding out of his nose. The rest of the four jumped onto the kayak and held him down, handcuffed him, and pulled him out onto the sandy rocky shore. She hadn’t realized but she had been in Sam’s arms staining the dress shirt with tears. Once the officers had planted two feet she cried ––––

“Percy Stein, 73 years of age, clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, I am his daughter Mara Stein and he has refused care so I decided to take him in to live with me and he had left our home alone for the first time ever, I am so sorry officers, I ensure this will never happen again just please don’t..” 

“Ma’am we have plenty of good hospitals where they can continue his care, but with 24-hour surveillance, Due to the assault we have to take him down to the station for briefing.”

The last words which came from his mouth left her with a sickening feeling “Mara”, and only now he would remember her name, maybe not her significance but how she tried to help, tried to save him. The look on his face convinced her, but also relieved her, that she did not have to send him off like this herself. 

In Digital Media our class wanted to improve our Adobe Illustrator skills for a couple of projects ahead, so as a little precursor we were assigned a project called Exquisite Corpse. A team of students got assigned four different panels that they had to work on with only one boundary where you had to draw in between where the panels meet one another. My group looked like this.

The group in order of work: Felicia W, Emily X, Sofi G, Sheer H

The next Illustrator Project we did was where students could create any kind of graphic they want and display it on a physical object. There were many different options, ranging from a patch, a mug, a mouse pad, and even a puzzle. I chose to make my design into a tote bag. My inspiration was to have one for next year since I am pretty tired of carrying around a backpack.

Top left: first sketch, Top Right: final colored version in Illustrator, Bottom left transparent paper prepared to be heat pressed onto canvas bag, Bottom Right: final product!

My artist statement for this project: My inspiration for this piece was taken from a rough sketch I had done on a piece of paper. I first started to design the intricate designs which I made into the face of the door. The columns came next, I know I wanted some kind of earthy feel to the piece, so I added in floral vines that wrap around each column. I made rough sketches of the bodies of the ladies, the buildings behind them, and the air crafts in the frame. Towards the left of the door, I know I wanted a Queen figure who is shown returning back to the land, her fine details didn’t come in until I uploaded the sketch into Illustrator. My doodling got out of hand, I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted to do until my pencil hit the paper.

In Digital Media one of our tasks was to create a parody of one of our favorite songs with one partner. This project was so fun, the process of coming up with lyrics combined with being able to go into the music studio for the first time definitely made this one of my favorite projects. My partner Sheer and I based our song on “A Lot” by 21 Savage, our point was to make the song mean the opposite of what it does. The parody is called “none” and it emphasizes the struggles of broke teenagers not being able to afford the expensive lifestyles that their peers do.

I dont got youuuuuuu

Turn up the coupons a little bit

Yeah  

For so many groceries              

       Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah  

Faster Yeah, yeah yeah yeah

Whah Whah, ah, ah, whoa, whoa, whoa, yeah 

How much cash you got? (Shut Up)

How much credit you got? (Shut UP)

How many bills you got? (none)

How much money you got? (none)

How many hours you work ? (none)

How much money you got? (none)

How many hours you work? (one)

Lets be honest (none)

How many pray that you venmo(A lot)

How many loans you got (A lot)

How many times u get asked 

If u can cover ur spot(A lot) 

The work ethic not applied (A lot)

 And Beating up ur self pride (A lot)

Spending too much on boba (A lot 

Finna put ur mom in a coma (A lot)  

She doesnt wanna see (A lot)

How much you spend on milk tea (A lot) 

How many chances mama gon give ya messin round with her card (a lot)

Every day the bell ring, I’m running to that dough 

That cheesy marinara grub but not that cash flow 

Told my teacher tum was rumbling but every snack got sold 

While they at Chipotle comprando nada por yo

Break it on down, I break it on down

I munch it all down, I much it all down , I munch it all down

Were broke with a frown were broke with a frown. were broke with a frown 

Were broke with a frown.

 Babysitting every night just to make a couple bucks

Bank so void  you’d think we have an android 

Gang vs. the world, its just fe and sheer

Then the bell rings and we have to face our fear

Friends not giving us bites turned us to a beast

Now our friends think were poor and turned us to the streets

Yet we lived through the norm and we can now guarantee 

though the other side aint money, we can plea to eat on fees 

How much money you got? (none)

How many hours you work ? (none)

How much money you got? (none)

How many hours you work? (one)

In our elective class at Freestyle in order to extend the ways we could use our short story to create more visual representations, our class was given the Narrative Creature project. The basis of the project was to think about the Main character we wrote about in the Short Storys we wrote in English class, once we assigned a couple of attributes and characteristics to this protagonist we had to find animal body parts from different species and families that correlated to each trait. Then it was our job to visually combine all of the elements and create a background that still put us into the setting of the story.

Since my character’s setting is in New York I created the sidewalk of a city street that is adjacent to central park and a nice Cafe next to my character where she works. And to finish it off I made a skyline silhouette. My short story, “Ponder Pond” is about a young woman named Mara who works at a cafe. She lives in New York with her father Percy, who suffers from Alzheimer’s. The only person who knows and is willing to help Maya is Sam, the neighbor. The story unravels with a rainy day, which Mara always enjoyed, already knowing when and where Mara works, Sam arrives with distressing news. Mara’s father is missing from their apartment! I wanted to capture the scene after Mara leaves the cafe, off for her quest. She sees this city street partially lit up from the sun which is almost down the horizon. This beautiful city is in front of her and she can’t enjoy it, caretaking is a huge commitment, and for her young age, she has become so tolerant of always having to step up and take responsibility.

In order to create a creature then a background that accurately depicted one of the scenes in my story, we had to find a color scheme. After I used Adobe.color to find my split complementary color scheme, I needed to find animals that resemble all of my character’s traits. My character is very adaptable like a Bee, tolerant like a Cheetah, invulnerable like a Shark, magnanimous like a Parrot, and frivolous like an Iguana. Once we found our animals and reference photos, we loaded them into Adobe Illustrator. Starting with tracing a body part for each animal on a layer on top of the photo. I started with the Iguana head, which took me a while to draw all of the scales. Once our animal was done I freehandly designed my background on a separate artboard. Working with an entirely different color scheme was refreshing, and being able to create this world was so enjoyable.

My Background (Adobe Illustrator)

My Creature (Adobe Illustrator)

Both elements placed together (final product)

The sun begins its journey behind the cityscape horizon, and Mara is still working. It has been a regular day at the café although she has been sighing around it the whole time, the whole month, and the past two years. Constantly working to keep her and her father in their ridiculously expensive New York apartment. Percy, her father, was recently diagnosed with Alzeihmers. This is where Mara would take on her second job, taking care of him without the support of her relatives. As she wipes down the counters and stares out the window into the sparkling city, she longs to venture this gleaming place in front of her. She craves restless nights and strangers at the bar. I wanted to depict the hopeful gaze she has in this scene, so close yet so far.

My first step in developing this portrait was to get the right scenery. I chose to use a kitchen because it is the most accurate scene compared to the café in my story. On my model I used subtle props to emphasize the look on her face and her natural beauty, to make the viewer understand she is young. I made a green headband out of a shirt to match the tiny logo on her sweater. The sweater was from a real restaurant/hotel which made my model look like she had some kind of work attire. The props on the counter are a guest check book to write down orders, a mug which says New York on it, a pencil, and a towel to show the model wiping down the counter. Figuring out good lighting was quite difficult. I solved the problem by making sure all the blinds and other external light sources were covered. This way I found it easier to replicate the sun’s glow on her face. I place one light with a slightly darker orange hue on the left side of her body, and a white light positioned at a 45 degree angle from her body. In Photoshop, I first applied an adjustment layer of “Curves” to brighten the right side of her face a little more, and make her torso with the black sweater more visible. I added a cooling filter to soften the orange on her face, but not too much to erase the orange glow entirely. Finally I added a black vignette to put her in the spotlight of the photo.