Introduction
For this unit, we were challenged to answer the question “Who am I?” Through my work I expressed myself in different ways, paying attention to my values that made me who I am. Along with the Personal Statement in English, I explored my essence objects, background, and experiences that have shaped who I am today.
Mandala
For the mandala project, we created a symmetrical image in Illustrator, using the brush tool to create hand-drawn lines.
High Five Artist Statement:
My inspiration for this project were my core values I brainstormed in English. I tried to communicate the values of creativity and community. To do this, I made the people to look like paper chain people. I wanted to make some of it inspired by Keith Haring so I added some squiggles and short lines to fill in space. It was hard to learn how to use the Wacom tablet at first, but I got the hang of it after some practice. This project taught me how to think about the meaning behind what I am making and how to communicate those themes through my art.
Lines Artist Statement:
For this project, I made a new mandala and tried to use different gradients and colors to give the mandala more dimension. I liked how having just the lines colored looked and I also left some white space to make the mandala more interesting. Overall, I am happy with how it turned out and my favorite part is the outside most part with the yellow lines.
High Five Artist Statement:
The inspiration for this mandala was my core values. I did my best to incorporate aspects of my core values and essence objects through the different components. My favorite essence object I included was cello. I did this by drawing an f hole near the outside. I think it is not too obvious but can still be picked up on if you look carefully enough. I tried to make the mandala have a doodle style so I drew many squiggles and short lines and outlines of shapes. I chose to get mine engraved on bamboo because I thought my design would look nicest on it. Overall, I am happy with how it looks printed, but I would have liked more time to make it look better and more interconnected instead of just separate elements.
Photoshop Art
Painting
For these projects, we used different tools in Photoshop. We used the brush tool to create different kinds of digital paintings and selection and mask tools to composite multiple images.
Changing Leaves Artist Statement:
With this project I challenged myself to create my own painting without tracing an existing image. I took inspiration from a watercolor painting of a similar scene of a road and changing leaf colors. I think the most important part of this painting is the layer with the tree stems. They help tie the whole piece together and I think it helps the blobs of color look more like trees. I tried to go for an abstract watercolor look making exaggerated blobs of color. I had trouble trying to create texture in the areas of leaves, but layering low opacity brushstrokes over the base blobs of color helped create more dimension. Overall, I like the final painting, but next time I would try to add more details.
Watercolor Effect
Travel Shots Artist Statement:
For this project I chose photos I took on vacation with my family that capture memories from those trips. I used Photoshop to add a watercolor effect then add a mask and brush over it to reveal the photo under. I made a few mistakes at the beginning and couldn’t figure out how to get the mask to work, but I like how they turned out, especially the rainbow photo.
Photoshop Compositing
Click below to see the before and after of the firework sunset!
Star Sailor Artist Statement:
For this compositing project, I decided to go with a space and ocean theme as a play on the meaning of “astronaut”. The roots mean star and sailor, so I used images of stars in space, waves, sailboats, the moon, a goldfish, and a lifesaver. In our world, the main character, Rhea, is a worker on a luxury space station orbiting Earth. When their contact with Earth is cut off, Rhea has to work with the people and resources on the station to survive.
To create each part, I used a layer mask to brush out the parts I wanted to show through. I multiplied the water layer over an image of the earth’s surface so you can see both. I exaggerated the size of the moon and the lifesaver to make the image seem more unrealistic.
Progress Shots in Photoshop
Design
Public Service Announcement
PSA Artist Statement:
For this Public Service Announcement, I used Adobe Illustrator to make a bubble in the bottom right corner and a hand popping it with a pin coming from the bottom left corner. There are flowers flowing out of the bubble all the way to the top of the PSA and it is captioned “Try New Things”. The idea behind the PSA was to tell viewers to step out of their comfort zones. The flowers outside the popping bubble represent the good things that you discover when you pop the “bubble” of what you’re comfortable with. I went with a cool color palette of blue, green, and purple for a calm feel. The hand and bubble are a similar blue to the blue flowers. The words and the pin are a darker green so they stand out.
In Illustrator, it was challenging to make all the flowers and make the hand look like a hand but also be simple. I used the brush tool to draw lines for the filled in flowers, then I made them into shapes using the pen tool and adjusted them using the direct selection tool. The doodled flowers were made using just the brush tool. For the hand, I used the pen tool to trace a picture of a hand and for the bubble highlights, I also used the pen tool then feathered the shapes to have the colors blend more nicely. To make the words “Try New Things”, I adjusted the warp.
Aboriginal Art
Swan Stars Artist Statement:
This piece is meant to show the story of who I am. The aboriginal symbol in the middle represents five people sitting at a table. I put five people because I have five people in my family and I value our time together, especially during meals. The constellation in the bottom right corner is my zodiac symbol, Gemini. The two blue swans are my spirit animal because I just always thought they were really pretty. When I was little, I would go to the botanic gardens in Singapore and feed them bread with my brother and grandpa. I reflected them on either side because my zodiac is Gemini, which is a constellation of twins. The moon is in the top left and the two purple symbols represent a cloud or rainbow. My element is air, so I drew wavy lines in the background to represent wind and dots among the lines to represent rain. For the border, I chose simple lines and I drew dots spreading out from the table to give it more movement.
To make this piece, I used brushes in Photoshop to draw all the dots. For many of the dots, I had three layers with the back being the darkest, the middle slightly lighter, then the smallest on top the lightest. I traced images to create the swans and the constellation and I used the circle marquee tool to make the moon shape. If I could do anything differently, I would make many more layers because I had to go back and redo dots a few times because two sizes of dots were on the same layer.