For the Conceptual Project, I developed my abstract thinking and communication skills to answer the question, “How can I use unconventional forms to express myself?”
This project emphasizes creative risk-taking through art, music, poetry, animations, experimental film, and web production, which challenged me to express my opinions through a distinct personal aesthetic. I begin developing their technical communication skills by learning a variety of modern professional equipment and applications such as DSLR Cameras, Tascam Audio Recorders, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Animate, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Audition, Avid Pro Tools, WordPress, and Google Apps. In all of my classes, I have developed the valuable skills that I can apply to my future projects, assignments, and to college.
Poems
The poetry unit was used as an introduction to all of the software we will be using in Freestyle. We got a better understanding of more advanced poetry and different poetic techniques.
Through producing poetry in different formats, I was able to take inspiration from various other things that I would not usually find inspirational. I was able to relate my poems to music, photos, and art.
Photo Haiku
For this project, we were challenged to write a haiku that represented a concept statement. I was challenged to explore the feeling of nostalgia through learning to love.
This project taught me how to manipulate Adobe Premiere Pro to make short videos. I learned how to use keyframes to fade things in and out and learned how to arrange different sections of the audio and video using the arrange window. These fundamentals will help me make more advanced videos in the future.
Elements and Principles
For this assignment, I was required to select three different photos for each element and principle. Out of the three photos, one had to be photography, the other had to be traditional art, and the last one had to be modern art. I got a deeper understanding of how the elements and principles work together to form art.
Design
For my elective in Freestyle, I chose to be in design. In design we learn all of the fundamentals used to create good design and all the advanced techniques to design like professionals. I use Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe InDesign to create my art. Every single piece I create consists of multiple layers that come together to form the final piece.
Conceptual Project
I am exploring the feeling of nostalgia through learning to grow up.
To represent the concept statement using two objects, I selected a wooden plank and some old Pokemon cards. I placed the plank in the center of the photo emphasize its power over the Pokemon cards. The Pokemon cards are laying beside the wood and look out of focus to show the lack of power and value they hold in the photo. The photo is angled so that the wood isn’t going straight down the middle of the photo, but going diagonally instead because it was more visually appealing. The photo was taken in the afternoon when it was still very sunny outside. The background is meant to be boring so that the reader does not get distracted from the main idea.
The old Pokemon cards represent the feeling of nostalgia. The Pokemon cards demonstrate the feeling of nostalgia because they are old and remind us of the toys we used to play with when we were young. The wooden plank represents the idea of learning to grow up. The lines on the wood are markings of how tall me and my siblings used to be each year. The wood demonstrates learning to grow up because at each new height we mature more and more and learn to like new things. We eventually find ourselves distant from things we once loved to play with. The Pokemon cards are out of focus to show the increasing distance we have from these things as we grow up.
This project taught me how to take photos for greater meaning. I’ve never taken photos to fit a concept before and I think this taught me that there is a lot more that I can do with photography. I learned a lot about how to use Photoshop and different techniques and skills that will be applicable in the future. I learned how to apply a vignette to my photo. I adjusted curves and contrast to enhance my image.
Alphabet Project
For this project, I went outside and found unordinary objects that look like the five letters in my name. I wasn’t able to re-arrange objects to look like the letters, so everything in the photos was how I found them.
Reflection
I have found design to be super valuable. I am a very creative person, but I have never explored the visual side of art. I’ve always been really focused on music and audio production, but I am also into fashion so learning how to manipulate photos and create visual pieces of art has been extremely interesting.