Introduction

In the narrative unit, like all other units, we unite our story telling skills across various mediums. Our goal is to develop our skills across uses of applications like Wacom Digital Drawing Pads, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Avid Pro Tools.

In class, our productions include illustrations, story telling writing, and music. Throughout this journey I have practiced many new skills I endeavor to keep using and improving. It was an overall enjoyable and exhilarating experience.

Story

Flash Fiction

“CROSS” 

As she lay, legs dangling off the edge of the cliff, bits of sand and rocks bit into her skin. Nevertheless, she found strength and solidarity in the cliff’s lonesome figure. Much like herself, it had become a shell of itself through years of experience, now wary of the onslaught of time.

Only the squawking of seagulls, consoled her deprived soul. A gentle Malibu breeze sped its dance away to fill the void of the waves. 

The gust sent her clashing against what might just sweep her off, but sheer will tethered her unto the ground.  

Watching bits fly off, the waves received them with a thunderous roar. It prompted her to realize that could be her—swallowed as easily by responsibility. 

She turned away, unable to bear the weight. What she grasped in her pocket heavied exponentially, attacking her heart with memories. She grasped the gold in her to reveal a pocket watch encrusted with a ring of black and the most brilliant pink diamonds that formed a bloom. 

It had been a gift from her mother. She’d been giddy at the recognition.  

That was, until she overheard it’d been snatched through blackmail. 

Meaning, it was scrap of her mother’s hoard, essentially equating to nothing more than cobwebs in her mother’s cluttered mind. Even despite having coerced her to be the best of the best.  

Doing so millions of times. And would millions more. 

And that would never change. 

Ever. 

The dark spots crept, tightened their hold over her airways. The unrelenting pangs of desire to be appreciated turning to echos. 

The crocodile tears shed dried and holding the streak of brown in her black mane coiled into a fist– her mark of imperfection.

3:00 PM

Peeking at her hand, it was time to go. 

Her mother awaited her coming of age performance. 

As she made her way, the dying bonfire crackled to life, giving a roar of encouragement. The sand falling crafting the path of no return.

” NIGHTFALL”

As the Audi-S5’s engine quieted as she and her mom got off. The Broad looming ahead.

Acting as infiltrated prehistoric art agents, they met and greeted participants with million dollar smiles. While CCTV’s were wiped, the media censored, shouts, sprinklers, and chaos cleared the audience hall, and the miracles of modern-day makeup orchestrated the perfect alibis. 

In the back room, her mother and self got to work transporting the pieces to their original cases, they worked at the speed of the sirens closing in. 

Before finishing she peeked towards her mom for the last time. The artifact in her grasp lingered a millisecond before- 

She spun around, sending her mother spiraling backwards, leaving her aghast, gaping like a fish, like it had never crossed her mind.  Glancing at her mom’s steel blue eyes,  she noticed what might be, for the first time, respect. 

She flicked her wig off, only the flickering lights witnessing her score. 

Not looking back, Anne-Marguerite strode past the route towards the overhead helicopter, instead heading straight towards the police dispatcher waiting at the back door. Getting on, she hit the pedal. 

Her mom had taught her well. 

Maybe too well. 

After all, art theft wasn’t the only way to commit fraud. She’d already sold the originals off and looking towards selling the fake certified ones as well. Likewise, the sparkling diamonds dangling off her neck could make even an evil fairy appear angelic. 

On the ground, back at the gallery lay a shining splintered object attempting to spin its hand with time. 

In the end, it could not.

Intention Statement

“Cross” is a flash fiction about a girl learning the value of choice. I believe it is a universal struggle young people experience and have difficulty learning independently. Therefore, I decided to dramatize this situation so that the reader, too, might experience breaking free. 

I wrote this story in third-person limited omniscience because I wanted to focus on the evolution of the protagonist, Anne-Marguerite. Anne-Marguerite comes from a line of con artists, who have to pass their initiation and prove themselves worthy with a parent as an accomplice. Based on this,  Anne-Marguerite, has faced immense pressure for being the most successful. 

For this reason, the setting is split between a cliff and art gallery. The cliff reflects her inner turmoil,  depicted through visual imagery and personification such as, “swallowed by,” and “ craft her sentence.” Its purpose is to exhibit the daunting choice she is faced with: to determine her identity with no chance at redemption or continue facing conformity, especially made more difficult by her desire to be recognized. The conflict escalates when it is time to leave the cliff, an instance which showcases the magnitude of her choice as she especially wants to still be recognized. At the climax, in the art gallery I transition to similes like “gaping like a fish” in order to convey the full excitement of the situation. Anne-Marguerite now understands the extent of her actions. She decides to unleash her potential, simultaneously gaining respect from her mother, that she would have otherwise been ecstatic to receive. Her indifference indicates her growth.  To end this way is because Anne-Marguerite has gained the liberty she most wanted at this point in her life and even after standing up to her mother, she is able to hold her resolve.

In order to create subtext I integrated a past memory and attempted to implicate the most possible emotions and actions before ever directly stating them. For this case, Anner-Marguerite’s memory served to set the undertone of implications and emotional trauma she has dealt with. Regarding implication, my efforts were based in allowing the reader the opportunity to experience the emotions of the character progression. This distinction was made through words such as“blackmail,”“hoard,” and “fraud,” implicating an unlawful career with no certainty until the end. As well as highlight the importance of change, independence in order to flourish and the unharmonious journey it can be to achieve so.  

The most helpful feedback I received focused on clearing up my story. When I initially began writing, my storyline was ever changing. This was made clear by me already having world-built too much that I had difficulty harnessing my story into a shorter time frame. I was particularly inspired by Laura Walker because of my appreciation for her vivid imagery and unsuspecting twist she gave in “The Flowers.” Due to this, I attempted my best to animate emotions and events. 

In the end I was able to have fun recording and editing my voice in Pro Tools. In order to illustrate the mood I added in SFXs so the listener could be transported to the setting and be able to connect the parallel between environment and character, Anne-Marguerite. As for the Illustrator, focused on slightly different aspect. I wanted to reflect Anne-Marguerite’s inner peace and determination.

Illustrations

Stickers: Cats Spreading Worldwide Sparkles

For my Illustrator project I chose to create stickers, I wanted to make sure my friends and family could receive a part of what I worked on. Since I wanted to have fun, I simply began to draw many different things until I realized I couldn’t possibly fit them all together on one sheet.

That being said I was motivated by wanting to make sure I created something that evoked the same smile I experienced– while making my stickers on other people. In other words, if not evoking a laugh then at least visual mood booster. In that way, my channelling of the cuteness of cats and sparkles landed me with some stickers positioned at awkward angles and stickers blasted by my explosive use of color.

Music

Parody Project: Tumbling Stairs

• What techniques did you use to remove original vocals from your chosen song?
• What was the inspiration for your new parody lyrics?
• Upload your .mp3 (NOT .wav) version of the Parody Song to your WordPress Media Library, then embed the music onto your page so that the viewer has minimal controls to play, pause, etc. 

(START)
I remember your last selfie, you said your face looked swollen 
And I remember I was screaming- as you were leaning back 
It was just a little bit too much, I knew you were gonna fall for and oh my hands shook furiously when you cried out for you phone/selfie

I don't know why
But every time I look into your eyes
I see a thousand falling shooting stars and yes I love you
I can't believe that every night you're by my side

I swear if still want to, I’ll take your pretty lookalike, puckered bee picture 
So people don’t forget your face, making sure, this isn’t how it ends , 
When people tell you to get a life, I’ll make sure to wish you National Selfie Day 
Every time 
Every time 

I’ve seen ur face more time than my own
I Remember you how your selfie addiction 
Almost got you caught you by the train
Or every selfie you took by yourself
- at your grandma's house, on our date
I cant believe I'll promise yo take you to Mount Hua for a selfie , I'll do it 

Will the high being chased by a bear bring you back to life and connect your heartbeat to your phone
 Can’t call believe I call that a date

I don't know why
But every time I look into your eyes
I see a thousand falling shooting stars and yes I love you
I can't believe that every night you're by my side

When they don’t see your selfie every 10 hours, 
Maybe they question: what’s going on?
They’ll think you’ve  finally found a new hobby 


As you're falling a million miles, I wouldn’t care 
 As you were falling to your death
You only shouted for ur phone
Wondering if it uploaded, to your iCloud for one final time

When I saw you, I knew you were the one, my own Narcissist and I Echo,
When I first saw you, walking down the street
Getting run over for taking a selfie
I ran to call 911, 
But that time i fell into the lake you only took more selfies while half drowning
Half drowning 
(END)

As newly introduced to Pro Tools, I am most proud of having now developed a basic understanding of how to navigate Pro Tools. I am grateful for this chance of learning because otherwise it would never have caught my attention or had been aware of. I now believe it is an incredible form of projecting art that cannot otherwise be transmitted visually. Truth be told, this project has granted me an opportunity to further experiment and explore a skill most in my own family are unaware of.

Furthermore, along the way I discovered issues that left me stumped. Initially, I was troubled by my inability to come up with something creative. As I chose my first song, it became my main impediment. I had forgotten that the start of the song was fast paced. Although with practice I became better, I was still not yet satisfied with my performance, hence, I chose a different song. Following this was my trouble being humorous, as it is not one of my strong suits. To solve this issue, there was nothing more to do than create. In retrospect, the creation of a parody song was difficult in new and unexpected ways that still, did not diminish whatsoever my appreciation for my learning experience.

Design

Moodboard

A moodboard is a collage of ideas, it includes images of a specific theme or idea that help inspire the creator.

In my case this was my preliminary outlining for my illustration. It depicts my chosen animals and color scheme in order to help visually organize and help inspire other ideas.

Narrative Illustration

Aob Nevar Ylerif

(A-Ob NeVAr Yel-rif)

In Design, we were tasked with illustrating our stories from English.

My short story, “Cross” follows Anne-Marguerite’s moment of revelation. Born into a family of professional con artists, she must choose between following through with her family’s initiation practice and be the perfect daughter, or risk the consequences of defiance.  In this piece Anne-Marguerite has turned her back on her family.

To create this piece, our class was instructed to search for various reference images and determine our color pallets to create a combined creature reflecting our character’s own traits. On Illustrator, I assembled parts of a cat, boa constructor, firefly, angelfish, and raven traits which reflect boldness, secrecy, charm, serenity, and unpredictability.

Narrative Background

After I outlined my creature, I set the location on a different planet in 2 point perspective to illustrate the physical alienation Anne-Marguerite experiences whilst exhibiting the promise of a peaceful future.  As the first large-scale piece on Illustrator I was excited to experiment with architecture. I struggled most with creating the stairs, even more so on aligning the structures with the perspective. 

Concerning future projects I now know the importance in saving changes. Lack of doing so I realize stunted my progress on multiple occasions. It is something I will not repeat. Nonetheless, I enjoyed and am overall content with my piece in Illustrator!

Elements and Principles

In Elements and Principles series, we learned about basic rules of design. These are some examples.

First off, we practiced blending techniques in order to comprehend the relationship colors hold. Following we practiced creating monochromatic, analogous, complementary, split-complementary, triad, and double-split complementary color schemes. Lastly, I experimented with blending different colors and as I overlapped them, I noted the importance of the bottom layers impact.

Another simple piece we did which exemplifies my interpretation of contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity.

This allowed us to put into practice what we were learning and make sure we were understanding the meaning and importance these principles they contribute to everyday pieces as well.