Introduction

This is the first unit in our Senior year. During the unit, we learned how to express ourselves and identify our core values through different mediums. In Digital Media, we still learned how to use different softwares like Adobe and done projects like personal mandalas, art curations, and our core values. In English, we’re making our own stories and creating our own worlds through story, conflict, and depth. And finally, in Animation, we’ve used 3D softwares like Autodesk Maya and Zbrush for the first time and are trying to learn about how to use them.

Art Curation for Personal Museum

This was the first project in the Senior unit for English. Freestyle Academy hosted a field trip to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA for short), and we were tasked to snapshot 5 artwork pieces while exploring the rooms, and for our assignment after, we’ve had to choose only 3 pieces of art to put in our museum if they reflect upon who we are, and exclude 2 if they don’t interest us that much. The pieces of artwork I often prefer are ones that have a peaceful atmosphere, cultural background, and being made from the heart. I don’t like artwork that’s pretty angsty or have a sad tone to it because it’ll turn me off completely from the picture, but I do like artwork that can be pretty dramatic too.

I chose 3 of these artwork pieces because they caught my attention for the artists’ experiences in their past and how they made them, and my favorite is the one made by Richard Diebenkorn because I like how he made it just from an experience flying to the Caribbean islands. where Jamaica is located. It was hard trying to decide how I can choose which artwork I can exclude, so I had to go with the one made by Ellsworth Kelly and a photo taken by Jimmy Jocoy. Why? Because the former doesn’t interest me that much and the latter I found pretty disturbing and violent.

My Personal Mandalas

The Mandala project tasked all of us to create our own personal mandalas (a mandala is a geometric configuration of symbols) through using Adobe Illustrator. By creating our mandalas, we had to make them represent our core values or something related in our cultures and hobbies. At first, I didn’t know what I was going to add on my mandala, but since I’ve noticed a lack of video game themed mandalas in the DM room, I decided to make mine represent my nostalgia of playing video games growing up.

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For our first senior project in DM at Freestyle, we got to design our own personal mandalas. I built a 16-slice BW mandala using Adobe Illustrator. For the theme, I wanted to do something with video games, so I just pulled in some classic items from Super Mario Bros. and Minecraft. During the process, I used the rectangle tool to create all the tiny pixels and just copied them over and over. I started with the diamond sword first, and then moved on to other stuff like the magic mushroom, the skeleton head, and more. I used online images for reference as I went.

I chose Mario and Minecraft for this project because I grew up playing them, and additionally, the star in the middle represents the energy I feel inside. Before this project, I learned how to repeat each drawing around the mandala so everything can show up at once, but deciding which items to use was pretty tough, so I just did my best. The best part of my BW mandala is that I’m really proud of how much effort I put into it and that I got to show off a hobby I love.

This piece is different from my BW mandala in that it includes all of the same items from Mario and Minecraft, but everything’s all in color. Upon seeing my printed colored mandala, my reaction was really positive for looking super accurate to the digital one I finished, and I think both the pizza board and the final printing easily replicates the 8-bit theme that I worked on.

I intended to visually represent my nostalgia down through memory lane with items from the games I played. Working with color allowed me to change some of the black pixels on the items I chose to look like how they appear in their respective franchises in my artistic technique and workflow.

My favorite part about my mandala is that it has the video game theme I put on and reminds me of the times I played Minecraft and Mario. Other reflections about my colored mandala include my nostalgia through the power-ups and items from said games.

After creating our black and white and colored mandalas, we used Adobe After Effects to edit a “Build Reveal” video that shows our mandalas being created. The video is recorded in Adobe Illustrator, showing us clicking layer by layer to reveal each part of the mandala.

This piece answered “Who am I?” because I had a lot of nostalgia for playing video games. When I compare my digital BW mandala and my physical laser engraved mandala, there isn’t anything new between them and they’re just identical. My choice of a pizza board for my laser engraved mandala best represents me because I like to create items that can be usable instead of only being shown on display.

My reflections about the entire mandala project from creating mandala templates, BW mandala with pressure sensitive brushes, colored mandala, build reveal video, and final laser engraved mandala include being progressive. However, the only thing I was having a hard time with is trying to connect the tiny squares together while making the product.

What I’m most proud of is the fact that I got to see my digital artwork get engraved on a physical item. Through this project, I can apply working on my mandala for several weeks to get it done. Before this project, I felt stuck about trying to come up with something to put into my mandala, and now I feel my artistic skill thriving when I see others’ art.

Personal Essay

Coming soon…

Transition to 3D

Coming soon…

Core Values

As we’ve started using After Effects, we were given multiple small assignments so we can learn how the software can help us improve our skills. One of them was creating a video that showcased of what our “Core values” are, any whom which they represent who we are.

More coming soon…