Lillian Casazza

how great thou art

Reflections

The Reflections unit was all about identity and self-expression, stemming from the prompt “Who am I?” Throughout this unit, and across all my classes, I mainly focused on expressing my values of culture, passions, and experiments. One of the first exercises we did for this prompt was in English class during the College Essay unit, in which we listed various “Essence Objects,” objects that are of high-value to myself.

Some of my “Essence Objects” were…
– frog blanket
– Uncle Andy’s college crewneck
– bag from Scotland
– DVD collection
– container of origami cranes
– rock collection
– photo album
– film camera
– box of memorandums
– postcard collection
– 48 minute behind clock

Although not all of my “Essence Objects” were directly referenced in my work this unit, I found ways to incorporate ideas, topics, and subjects that I value. Please look through the Freestyle work I have done this semester, enjoy : ).

Mandala

For the Mandala project, I used Adobe Illustrator to create mirrored drawings from a single slice. I incorporating things that represented my personal values. I only used the mirroring technique for the border, but it still was extremely helpful in creating a seamless identical illustration.

B&W and Colored Mandala Illustration
Laser Engraved Mandala – “Porcelain Breath
Mandala Reveal Video

B&W Mandala: The first step of my project was understanding its boundaries, so I searched up the definition of a mandala: a discoid object with a geometric design that holds significant meaning. Frankly, I was disinterested in creating a heavily repeating pattern. I thought space could be used more effectively, so I knew I wanted to create something fluid but not repetitive. Structure-wise, I was inspired by half-and-half mandalas, where the bottom half of the mandala overlapped the rest. This breakage in repetition and strategy to use overlapping to make it more holistic is reflected throughout my piece. Design-wise, I decided on a traditional Chinese art style. The various motifs symbolized my different values; the dragon represents strength and individuality, the clouds represent peace, and the blossoms represent renewal and new beginnings. The traditional art style itself also represents my appreciation of culture and history.

Colored Mandala: For my colored Mandala, I wanted to continue the “Porcelain Breath” narrative of tradition and power. So I used blue details on a white background to resemble a piece of porcelain china. I used the combination of red, gold, and green to create a very wealthy feeling for the border. I chose to make the dragon mostly red and used various colorful elements to fill in its details to make it the center of attention. Overall I am not impressed by my coloring, I think there are too many clashing elements, I would like to make the border also porcelain, and incorporate the green, red, gold pattern in the dragon. In the future I would like to experiment with different types of brushes.

Laver Engraved Mandala: I wanted my piece to pop out like calligraphy on paper, so I removed the original black backdrop and replaced it with a faux white lightbox. Overall this project has been tedious, unexpecting, and rewarding. I have put in a lot of detail to illustrate a porcelain-esque look, some of which is by the wood grain of the pizza board, which was frustrating at first, but ultimately I decided to keep it that way. I am satisfied with my work, and I am currently working on a version that dilutes the awkward wood grain.

Photoshop Art

For the digital art pieces I made, I learned and used various photoshop tools and skills to create textures, overlays, and use different brushes. I have already used what I learned for my own personal projects, and I think the tools are extremely useful to know.

Pastel Painting Artist Statement: My inspiration for this painting was concept art from How to Train Your Dragon. Using Photoshop, I learned how to use different brushes, how to fill empty space, and how to make digital paintings. I like the gradients in the sky, leaves, and cliffs, but I wish I added a bit more texture to the tree leaves. Overall I am happy with the results.

Photoshop Watercolor Painting Artist Statement: Through this piece I was able to learn how to use watercolor in Photoshop. It was very different from traditional watercolor, and rather challenging, but there were many more colors and brush types available compared to what I would have for traditional watercolor. I was inspired by Chinese traditional watercolor paintings, so I painting a classic mountain and red sun scene, with a person in a boat to complete it.

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Photoshop Watercolor Effects – “Experiments”

Photoshop Watercolor Effects Artist Statement: For this piece, I wanted to select three photos that went together. I looked through my film photos and found a roll of film that I experimented with at night, to see how well light was captured. I really like the water color effect I created. I made the brush detail really high and the outlines with a low opacity to retain as much detail as possible. When choosing the colors for the cloud renders, I chose colors that would emphasize the light in the image. Overall this process was very fun, and quite simple, so I will definitely be using on my own in the future.

Photoshop Surreal Art Composition Artist Statement: In this piece I wanted to do a surreal composition of my indie worldbuilding project that is criticism on the mundanity of office life. A key detail on the visual setting of the city is that it looks like a dead coral reef, and office workers are like animals that mindlessly migrate from one place to another. I made use of masking and overlay to symbolically portray what a day in the life would look like.

College Personal Essay

In English Class, we took the first quarter to write our personal essays for college applications. However, it was meant to be more than just an essay, and to tie into the prompt “Who am I?” I had already written a personal statement, so for this assignment I wanted to experiment and incorporate poetry. I feel like the essay turned out great and also represented me through how it was written and the content.

My Great Uncle Andy recently passed away; he was the first family death I experienced. remember every visit with him vividly. Just before the pandemic, my family visited my Great Aunt and Uncle’s Summer home. As we entered the foyer, I was greeted with 

Clocks. 
Enveloped the walls in blinding polishes and hypnotizing veneers.
Clocks. 
Sang a melody of high-pitched chimes, rich bass gongs, and splintery cuckoo caws.
Clocks, clocks, clocks. 
Why are there so many clocks? 

Ignoring my confusion, Uncle Andy insisted on teaching me how to make a stool. He taught me years of his woodworking expertise within a day. It struck me like the hour hand hitting noon: the culprit of the excessive clocks was Uncle Andy. He was a clockmaker.

The following Thanksgiving, we visited him in his Connecticut home. A familiar ticking orchestra welcomed us in. Before we left, Uncle Andy gave me a rich wood clock with a blinding white face accented with gold and black features. It was a short visit and the last one.

Summer before Freshman year, I was scouted to join my high school's Science Olympiad team. Sacrificing all my Friday and Saturday nights to hours of studying at workshops was my best decision in high school. Studying niche subjects–by identifying syenite based on its floral glade environment, burning fibers to identify them by their smell, and deciphering morse codes–was refreshingly challenging after repeating the same topics at school.

During Junior Year, I joined It’s About Time: a half-exam, half-construction event. We had to make a “clock”: a non-electronic device, made without commercial parts, that could signal a random given time for up to five minutes with absolute precision and accuracy. High school trained me to learn from textbooks, but there was no book, article, or video about how to make an analog timer. I was stumped.

Uncle Andy’s clock! I immediately became terrified of my thoughts. It’s my last piece of him, what if I broke it? Over a month, I researched the clock’s mechanism for extra preparation. I was ready. 
       
I subdued the ticking clock and laid it on the ground. With shaking hands, I held my screwdriver and began dismantling, while taking videos of every step. I lifted its face to reveal:

Its heart.
Golden gears, 
intertwined and fixed in a ballroom dance.
Pins and levers,
locked into places that seemed impossible to reach.
A pendulum, 
struck the coil gong with an enchanting pulse.

I gazed upon the treasure I discovered, and scribbled notes and sketches of every mechanism. I retraced my videos, and screwed everything back into place. I exhaled proudly and sat the clock upright.

Its heartbeat stopped.
My curiosity was fatal.

Its lifeless corpse stared at my teary eyes and laid in my room, silent. That was the second family death I experienced.

Months that my teammates spent preparing, I spent trying to revive the clock. On the morning of tryouts, my build was nothing but an empty floor. I quickly gathered my tackle box, some tools, and scrap wood. I made a Galileo Escapement, an ambitious task for half a day of work, but finding the perfect synergy between the fishing weights, escapement wheel, and levers came so naturally. It felt like Uncle Andy was guiding me. Later at tryouts, I raised the pendulum in the air,

tick, tock
tick, tock
I made a new pulse. 

Its rhythmic breathing dominated tryouts and the rest of the season. It put my guilt to rest and made me realize that Uncle Andy’s time may have stopped, but he still lives through his creations and legacy. I learned the risks of inquiry and the haptic beauty of craftsmanship. Just like my

Dear Uncle Andy,

I want to create something 
that endures the oxidation of time,
is so divine it lives beyond a heartbeat,
in every era and realm.

Love,
Lily

Concept Design – Character Concept

For this project, I had to make a character based off of a character model sheet. Originally I wanted my character to fit within my world building world, but I ended up changing my world building story. Regardless, I started with the character model sheet of one of Astrid’s concept art drawings from How to Train Your Dragon. From there, I made the foundation model from basic shapes in Maya. Then I imported the model into ZBrush to create all the fine detail seen in the final product. Then I imported the model into Substance3D Painter to add colors and texture mappings. Finally I used Substance 3D Painter’s render settings to create a light and environment render.

Environment Modeling – Greek Temple Render

The purpose of this assignment was to familiarize myself with the most basic shapes, learn how to change the numbers of sides, and manipulate vertexes. I also learned how to create terrain mappings to make the hilly environment. To export the image, I learned how to create renders in Maya, using dome lights various settings. All of these skills were essential for all future projects.

Environment Modeling – Greek Temple Render

Prop Modeling – Fire Hydrant Model

The purpose of this assignment was to use basic shapes to create general models and use techniques to soften edges. I used my new knowledge on how to render within Maya at specified settings and resolutions.

Prop Modeling – Fire Hydrant Model

Digital Sculpting – Human Skull Render

This assignment was to learn ZBrush detailing tools to manipulate and manually and import details. I used a reference image to model the skull from one sphere.

Digital Sculpting – Human Skull Render

Digital Sculpting – Head Bust Render

The purpose of this project was to familiarize myself with more detailed sculpting tools in ZBrush. I wanted to challenge myself with round-like models, since it is difficult to make it without dents. So I chose to make Yoshi. I learned how to merge separate objects and I used my previous skills of dividing objects to get more detail.

Digital Sculpting – Head Bust Render “Yoshi”

Digital Sculpting – Game Weapon Design Render

For this project, my intent was to create a melee weapon that suits my character model for the world building unit. I wanted to design a weapon that could be animated with lots of arcs, so I used circles to create organic shapes. Eventually I decided on a double scythe that could retract and be holstered on my character’s back. Using Maya, I constructed a general shape of my design. Using Zbrush, I added more details inspired by nordic weapons to my imported Maya model. In Substance 3D Painter, I followed the viking theme by using corroded copper, wood, and leather for the texture and color palette. Initially I had an inverted version of the decals, but I decided to highlight them with copper instead. I enjoyed using several different softwares to create this weapon. I wish I made the scythe’s main blade sharper in the initial Maya model, but overall I am happy with the results.