The reflections unit has taught me more about myself than I have ever learned. Throughout this unit, we have been constantly challenged to explore in a deeper sense “who we are”. All our lives we have been developing into the amazing people we are today and in many aspects of it (such as regular school), we never get a chance to “reflect”. Looking back on your experiences can actually teach you a lot about how to move forward.
Through the big projects, we’ve had the opportunity to work on, our skills have really been put to the test. In our film class, we’ve created memorable 2-minute essay videos communicating a message about ourselves, and in my case, putting a message out into the world. In our English class, not only have we had an opportunity to work on our college apps, but we’ve explored our greatest challenges and the various ways we’ve overcome them. And finally, in our digital media class, we have constantly been applying our multimedia knowledge to create real, 21st-century art, that reflects our deepest values
Mandalas
In the mandala unit of digital media, we learned how to create a super cool form of art. Mandalas!!
Throughout this unit, we took the core values we had reflected upon in english and turned them into a physical piece of art.
Digital mandala (BW/colored)
Laser engraved mandala
Mandala build video
Throughout this project I was tasked with conveying some of my core values through a mandala artwork. I chose to base it of of community. In my personal life another word commonly used for community is my tribe. I know that tribes are prime examples of tight knit communities so I decided to make my mandala similar to that of a tribe.
Learning how to create art on a mandala definitely had many challenges, especially being the fact I couldn’t envision whatsoever what my mandala would look like. This taught me throughout, that I had to keep a very open mind and go with the flow of what came out. I was super surprised by how creative you can get with these artworks and a lot of times when I would make accidents it would actually turn out looking super cool. Overall I’m super happy with the product and I really feel like it represents the value of community and having a tribe.
Photoshop artwork
During this unit I learned tons about the proccess behind the digital artwork we experience in our everyday lives. Do you ever look at some crazy piece of online art and wonder “how on earth was that made”? Well I do, and this unit really gave the answers behind it.
We had the opportunity to use adobe applications such as Photoshop and pair them with our photography to create some amazing effects.
pastel painting
My inspiration for this project came from a photoshoot Tai, Nick, and I did sophomore year. I recently rediscovered these pictures and thought it would be cool to use them in a project.
This turned out to be a big struggle because there were so many dimensions to the picture. There’s the outside of the library, the interior of the library, the bookshelves, the building, and more. The lighting especially made the colors blend in a difficult way to recreate.
I struggled to figure out how to fill in the gaps because I didn’t realize there were more steps in the instructions hahaha. So, when I was painting I was very cautious of the layers I was using so I could have the colors overlap in a way that filled in the gaps without one color overtaking the other.
watercolor painting
In this project, I was inspired to create something visually immersive with the watercolors. I really like the way that the watercolors blend with each other, and in turn, it creates a cool mixing effect you cannot obtain any other way. I tried to focus a lot on the actual color of the background (Space). I feel like in many paintings it’s easy to draw a sky and planets but the actual visual aspect and little details of space are much more intricate. With the use of slightly different shades and layers, I was able to mix the colors and create a much more realistic-looking “galaxy”.
watercolor effect – Colored Memories
My inspiration for these projects came from pictures I found that really tell a story. I looked for colorful images that I could imagine being watercolor paintings. As I went through the effects I found a lot of cool choices on top of just the watercolor effects. Learning how to do an assignment like this really gives me a perspective of the work that goes behind edited pictures I see in everyday life.
Since I did this project later in the year I was able to use advanced techniques from later assignments and I really feel that all the work I have put in is coming together.
photography compositing
surreal composition
This assignment gave me a chance to apply the skills I learned in a creative way. I feel like tying it into our worldbuilding both inspired me to create this piece, and furthermore work on my story. The blending techniques really enlightened me on what your capable of doing in photoshop. I’ve always seen these techniques being used but now understanding how they are done is a cool experience.
College Personal Essay
Film Production
In our film production elective class, we were tasked with creating a 2-minute video essay reflecting on anything we like that we feel defines our unique lives. We had to create a script that we would voice-over throughout the film.
Something that has always stood out to me and felt unique has been my sense of direction. I chose to make my film about the value of building a good sense of direction and how it can be used as an analogy for the experiences we have in life itself. Throughout the process, I discovered how I developed my sense of direction, and how the unique life experience we have contribute massively.
Insert Reflections URL
Insert behind the scenes
One of the big struggles with this was recording the voiceover itself. It took many takes and initially I would try to do it all in one try. However, as I failed I learned that I could record certain sections and edit them together after in a way that makes it sound like one recording.
After finally recording the audio, it was time for post-production (The more technical stuff). In my film, I do a lot of reflecting on the past, so I found old images of myself that represent how my sense of direction was built, and I used them to better connect with the viewer. I also added some cool rewind effects and certain video filters to make the film itself more interesting to watch.
Reflecting
Looking back on everything I’ve done I have truly had some amazing opportunities to experience art in new forms. Not only have I learned about myself, but I have learned to express it through various mediums of communication. In my film class it feels like I’m on a real movie set, living what I’m learning. In digital media it feels like Im a real digital designer, and I’m actually designing art. And finally in English, it feels like I’m on my way to becoming a real story writer, and actually understanding the deeper meaning in literature.