For the Reflections unit we were challenged to explore personally relevant issues through our art. We made projects in each class that clearly showed something that is important to us. In English we wrote our Common App essays, exploring a significant life challenge and writing about it. In Digital Media we used our Adobe Illustrator skills to design mandalas that showed something important to us. In Film we made a 2 minute video about ourselves. Throughout this unit I noticed that I value hard work, commitment, empathy, and perseverance. My work reflects my core value of honesty because I am very up front about who I am and my feelings.

My Personal Mandalas

In Digital Media, we learned how to make templates for mandalas that had a certain amount of slices and then repeated and reflected any brushstrokes we made inside the clipping mask area. We then made our own personal mandalas that reflected who we are. Once those were done, we got them printed on a material of our choice and we got to see everyones mandalas set out in the digital media room. Then, we made a new Illustrator file and colored in our mandalas, then got those printed.

When I got to see my laser engraved mandala, I was excited about seeing my art actually laser engraved. I liked being able to see how the digital drawing translated to the printed version. I chose the slice of tree trunk because I felt it was fitting for the outdoors theme of my mandala, and seeing it printed it really did add to the artwork. I really enjoyed making the mandala even though sometimes I struggled. It was cool to see that I can make this kind of art that looks super intimidating to begin with, but by breaking it into steps it became more manageable. I am most proud of how I made a very clear theme, even though I had trouble some days with drawing because I don’t have a lot of experience in drawing. Because of the practice I got with this project, I will be more comfortable with digital drawing in future projects. Before this project, I didn’t really know what went into making a mandala and now I appreciate other artwork more.

For this piece, I first copied my black and white mandala and colored it in because the drawing process for my black and white mandala took a long time, and I was happy with how it looked. I chose to visually represent the memories I have of summer camp with vibrant and contrasting colors. Working with only black strokes felt like it didn’t allow me to fully represent the emotions I have related to the outdoors, but adding color helped me show the joy I felt at summer camp. My expression of emotion with the color theme I pick stands out the best in my mind. I am happy with how it turned out, and I would like to do more digital art to improve my skills.

I used After Effects for the first time to make my mandala build video. I struggled at first with After Effects but after trying again and having more patience with it, I finished my video and also realized how useful After Effects is and now I am excited to continue using it.

Overall, I learned a lot while working on the many parts of my mandala project. I am happy I persevered through the difficult moments and got everything done. Now I know how to make a mandala template in Adobe Illustrator, do a before and after comparison using code on WordPress, and make a build video in After Effects.

Art Curation for Personal Museum

At the beginning of the school year, we went to the SF MoMA, and our assignment was to pick out pieces of art that we would put in our own museum if we had one, and to pick out art we wouldn’t put in our own museum. The art that I selected to be part of my Personal Museum reflects who I am because of how they make people feel and how they are presented. Two main themes that came up in my pieces I liked were joy and neatness.

My own artwork has influenced my choices about my Personal Museum Curation because I like to make and see uplifting pieces of art. That influenced the pieces I chose, most of them were overall very vibrant. I also have found that in my process I like to be very organized, which is reflected in the pieces that I selected to be part of my Personal Museum.

Film

In Film we made 2 minute videos about ourselves using voice overs and supporting visuals.

For my Reflections Film I took inspiration from my love of sitcoms. I did some reading into why I like sitcoms so much compared to any other type of TV show. This project helped me articulate part of myself that I don’t think about so deeply.

Exercises

1 Period Movie

We wrote, shot, and edited a movie in one period of film class. My group came up with a simple story so that we would be able to complete it on time.

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1 Minute Collaborative Videos

In film class one day we were told to write a short story and storyboard it. The next day we passed our stories around o that another group would shoot them. After we shot them, we passed them to the next group to edit it. Here are the final products.

For this film, Tina and Estelle wrote it, Mao, Giselle, and I shot it, and Darian and Fierris edited it. Mao Giselle and I had a lot of fun shooting this film. The storyboard we were given was about three dogs, and we didn’t want to use prop dogs, so we took the big idea of the story and characters but turned the situation into a topical joke about Digital Media. We also had fun working briefly with Mr. Flo for this film.

This film was written by Darian and Fierris, shot by Estelle and Tina, and edited by Giselle, Mao and I. We had a lot of fun editing this because of the content of the story and the creative way it was shot.

This film was written by Giselle, Mao and I, Shot by Darian and Fierris, and edited by Estelle and Tina. We had fun writing this story because we didn’t really know it was going to be made and because it was based on a situation I had a few days befpre writing this.

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Surround Sound Video

To display what I learned about surround sound, I made this video of me shooting webs behind the camera. This exercise was a little stressful for me because I have a hard time with audio, but I think it came out well and I can use those skills in the future.