For this piece, I first gathered my thoughts on all the things I use to define myself. Once I had my plan, I used the basic brush for the majority of this project. Occasionally I used a calligraphy brush along with one of the custom brushes given by Mr. Flo. I played around with different swirls and shapes for the filler of the Mandala instead of leaving it plain with my bigger designs. My technique was honestly just taking different aspects of what I loved, incorporating them, and then adding nice filler designs to tie it all together. I am Mexican-American, so I wanted to include something regarding my flag, and thought the center piece to be the perfect spot. I am also a huge reader, and so I knew a lot of the things I read about should be included, like the dragons, or the mountains of a fictional location named Velaris. I also had a lot of borders that looked like flowers because in my culture and childhood, they’re beautiful gifts to people.

Finally, as you can tell a lot of my Mandala issues creativity from different media, so I also wanted to include a design for my favorite Disney Princess movie, Rapunzel, which is from the swirly sun in the middle.Using drawing tablets was definitely way easier than my mouse or trackpad, so I definitely appreciated the tool, however, it was quite hard to get used to the new technology. Sometimes I found myself going too far with a line or swirl and constantly having to redo it because the tablet felt so so so different from paper. Command Z definitely became my best friend. I was also quite nervous because sometimes I get a really bad artist block & can’t come up with ideas to do, but a lot of the swirls were improvised as a way to just fill in some space and add something more.

For this piece, I first created my black and white mandala, which held different pieces of my identity and things that I held close to my heart. Next, I went on to color it. The colors I used to bring my mandala to life were chosen to properly execute my drawings. Upon seeing my colored mandala, I was so happy – similarly to my black and white mandala on the pizza board. These projects were super fun to create, and I definitely incorporated different aspects of myself in it. Visually, I knew I wanted a solid gradient in the background – and I chose pink as it is my favorite color. The rest stayed true to its origin.

The Mexican eagle stayed true to its colors, and so did the dragons who come from my favorite book series. Working with color in Illustrator was amazing. I loved learning the tactics to get the gradient to look just right, and the end product made it worth the hours spent to get it just right. In my mind, the center with the eagle from my flag stands out the best. I love the way it sits, and I personally incorporated a different drawing of the eagle than what it is on the flag. Through this project, I can apply my knowledge on drawing with the brush tool and selection tool for other projects. Its preciseness in outlining is something I can see myself using for things outside of school.

embedded YT video here

Here is a video with the process of my Mandala! I created this using After Effects, which is a program I thoroughly enjoy using. A lot of my knowledge for this program comes from outside sources, so I love being able to incorporate some of my passion for editing in small school projects.

Three Art pieces I would ADD to my museum

Two Art pieces I would NOT add to my museum

A big reason for why I chose these pieces for each category is that I don’t enjoy modern art, or art that seems quickly done. I understand the deeper meaning a piece may have, but in my opinion, art that shows the hard work it took to get there is just more pleasing. The pieces I chose to have in my museum are examples of my claim, and are the most enjoyable ones to look at. I love colors, and am always so happy when artist use them to their advantage to tell a story.

One day we walked into class and were tasked to create a film in only the period, which for us, lasts around two hours. As a group of three, Jordan, Mao and I created a silly little Film. Essentially, Jordan and I get into a car and end up hitting Mao by accident because we were in a rush. In the end, we had a decision to make. Enjoy!

This project was practice doing surround sound, which was a skill we’d recently learned. A lot of practice came from Premiere Pro, and our initial class assignment for sound was fairly simple. I decided to do something similar and had my friend Mao help me out. I think I caught on pretty quick & I really enjoy sound!