During the Senior Narrative Unit, I seized the opportunity to implement new, advanced techniques in familiar software such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects in Digital Media. My art was created with the intent of conveying the narrative shaped by the novel, futuristic world that I built in English. Being a Design student who tends to gravitate towards illustration, I stepped out of my comfort zone and experienced notable growth in the film-based special effects program Adobe After Effects, where I advanced from a two-dimensional workplace to the world of 3D Space. I also dove deep into working with layers as I created Stacked Wooden art in Adobe Illustrator. Overall, this unit greatly broadened my skillset regarding digital software, helping me bring a new realm of creative ideas to life. It also gave me a voice to communicate my world-building project in English through various forms of media.
surreal composition
Surrealism is often defined as the fusion of fact and fantasy. In the Surreal Composition project, we were challenged to combine unique photographic elements in order to create a seemingly realistic piece that incorporates unconventional visual interactions, based on the unique perspective through which I view the world. For me, personally, I chose to depict my piece from what I recalled of my perspective as a young child. My piece is called A Sweeter Place, and portrays a young girl standing atop a bright pink planet, surrounded by a purple-pink sunset and looking up at a giant butterfly. It is intended to represent and exemplify the beauty of young, naive people as hopeful dreamers who view the world through an unrealistic lens, and even feel on top of the world. In portraying the sugar-glazed perspective of a young person, I was inspired by elements of childhood dreams that made the world feel magical for me. For instance, the color pink, butterflies, sunsets and cotton candy. The unrealistic aspects include the size ratios and colors, while still maintaining the realistic photograph look.
stacked wooden art
The purpose of the Multilayered art project was to incorporate a more complex use of layers in the creation of an Illustration, where I stacked elements that would later be assembled into a physical, multidimensional art piece comprised of stacked wooden layers. The piece itself was inspired by my world-building project. My futuristic world was focused around the themes of artificial intelligence and technology, which are represented throughout my piece.
My final creation, titled Saturn Rising, conveys the visual of a human head that is powered by a computer chip, symbolizing the takeover of AI, and Saturn shapes as eyes, to represent a gaze on the future, along with other technological elements to encapsulate the themes of my world. Throughout the creation process, I also drew from the main PSA of my world-building narrative, the Artificial Revolution, which is the destructiveness of blindly submitting to the dark side of technology, as represented by the exploding bomb. I created the illustration itself in Adobe Illustrator, and used the laser-printing technology as well as marker ink to bring my piece to life as physical art. I then made additional visual portrayals of my piece via other mediums, such as a 3D-model film to display how each individual layer contributes to the whole in Adobe After Effects, and a video showing a time lapse of my assembly process. Additionally, I added color to my piece in Illustrator, and created a final poster to display my art.
behind the scenes
Stacked Wooden Art Layered B&W Line Art
Stacked Wooden Art Assembly Process Film
Stacked Wooden Art 3D Model Display Film
Stacked Wooden Art Laser Cutting + Engraving Components
3d digital model display
multilayered assembly film
music project
I also expanded my knowledge of music production programs and added a variety of tools to by belt such as combining virtual instruments, enhancing recorded tracks, and adjusting sonic levels. I became familiar with using Adobe Audition as a tool for creating a wider variety of musical compositions. In the learning process, I worked with two others to produce a cover of the classic song Bette Davis Eyes, by Kim Karnes. After recording vocals, guitar, drums, piano individually (I personally sang and played guitar), I worked to trim and line up my tracks for cohesion, followed by numerous frequency, pitch and volume adjustments. As a musician, this experience taught me many valuable assets of the music production process that I will be able to implement for the rest of my artistic journey. Personal music productions, in which implement these referenced skills, are featured on my personal projects page. The cover art and final produced track are featured below.
funny photoshop composition
In Adobe Photoshop, I applied tools such as clipping masks and selection tools in order craft two funny photo compositions. This assignment allowed me to gain experience in working with the Photoshop features I would need to implement in my surreal composition project.
