Reflections Project Introduction

For the Reflections project we worked on answering the question “Who am I?” by creating art within Adobe Illustrator and through writing. We did various projects in all of the classes, such as the Aboriginal Illustration in Design, Mandala Project in Digital Media, and the “Why I Write” Essay in English. Not only did this unit challenge our technical skills within the Adobe programs and our writing skills, but it also challenged us to explore our personal identities.

My Personal Mandalas

Within Digital Media, we started working on a Mandala Project which would take what we drew within a slice of a circle and reflect it all across. We were prompted to create something that had meaning to us, whether the theme would be a hobby or a trait, it had to be personal. We used effects and specific brushes within Adobe Illustrator to create our mandala’s, reflecting the designs across the circle as well as adding line weight for personality.

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BW and Laser Engraved Mandala

When I first saw my laser engraved mandala, it was actually still in the process of being made, so I was mostly shocked about how the machine engraved out the pizza board. I believe that this artwork matched how I created it digitally perfectly, since it being engraved into wood was mostly how I was imagining it in my head.

I decided to choose the pizza board for my material of choice since it was the prettiest to me. The slice of wood was a close runner up for me, but I had a phase where I used to paint those slices of wood and I believed my mandala would shine the most engraved on the pizza board. Throughout the whole mandala process, I mostly just enjoyed making all the symmetrical shapes. I never had an idea of what I wanted to do, or what theme I would follow, I simply let my artistic creativity reign free. Mostly, I enjoyed working with the black strokes better than only color because when I began coloring I had to sacrifice the unique brush I’d used for all my lines and swapped it out with the basic circle brush. Overall, I’m really proud of how I was able to tell a story from my drawings, since I never even meant to tell a story in the first place.

This project taught me a few new tools in Adobe Illustrator that I’m excited to use in the future, that being the symmetry effect. It also helped me hone my Illustrator abilities more, which is good. I can’t really stress how much I didn’t know what I was going to do before this project, but I’m glad that working on it has helped me know more about myself in a weird way, since I don’t let my creativity take hold without meaning (like how I did with this mandala) as often as I usually would as a kid.

Colored and Sublimation Mandala

For this piece I didn’t stray far from my BW Mandala design wise, but I did have to remove some smaller details which made it hard for me to color everything. Getting to see the final printed colored mandala was way different then seeing the wooden one, the colors give the mandala a whole different vibe of how I saw it in my head.

Originally, I just took a variety of colors off of the internet in order to use in my mandala. Later on I unintentionally chose only a specific range of colors, which reminded me of the colors used on real Parol’s in the Philippines. The colors I used ended up expressing my view of home. Working with color was a little difficult, especially when I had to rearrange the line art of the mandala to make something work. But, I think it really allowed me to show more of my original vision for the art piece.

I’m surprised at how everything looks all together, I was worried that my colors would clash with one another but all of them perfectly stand out from one another. Through this project, I can apply some of the effect tricks that I learned in Illustrator to other projects I might work on in the future.

Mandala Build Video

Why I Write

In English, we mainly focused on writing a “Why I ___” Essay. We were tasked to write about something that inspired us, and has/had a big impact on our life. We were introduced to authors like George Orwell and Octavia E. Butler, who wrote “Why I Write” Essays, introducing how writing came into their lives and how much it has altered it since then. 

For my essay, I decided to write about thrifting, and how I came to enjoy it. The idea came to me as a thought from GiselleM, and I decided to stick with it. I think I answered who I was through the essay with small conversational bits of writing, along with sharing all the creativity and knowledge I’ve learned from thrifting which has now had a large effect on my life. Writing this essay not only showed me once again how fun writing can be but, funnily enough, helped me realize how much thrifting has truly helped me thrive creatively. Writing has constantly been a guiding voice, which retold me points of my life, or personality, which I’d never quite articulated before.