Welcome to my showcase page! My name is Owen Peterson and I am a senior at Freestyle Academy, with a focus on design. Through the classes Digital Media, Design, and English, I have had the opportunity to develop my creativity and art skills. In the future, I am planning to study environmental science at Cal Poly. I am proud to present my two favorite projects I have fabricated here at Freestyle.
Projects
Bob’s Legacy
My first project is a Photoshop pastel painting that was inspired by a picture that I took of a Bob Ross bobblehead. I wanted to paint him and then give him a background of one of his own paintings like he’s painting the world he lives in.
My experience with creating a Photoshop Pastel Painting was very positive. I really enjoyed the process of creating it and being able to express some ideas. The process of painting was very satisfying, getting all of the colors to blend into each other but still be able to see the brush strokes, emphasizing the fact that it is still a painting. I put two different images together and I think it worked out even better than I had imagined.
The things that I valued about creating this project were the process and the creativity. Initially, I just started working on this specific image as practice for my idea of the final outcome, but I liked the practice image so much that I stuck with it. I valued the creativity of implementing a separate background of a different painting based on one of Bob Ross’ actual paintings, and the process of putting everything together into one piece.
I learned a few things about myself through this project. First of all, I learned that sticking with an initial idea and letting it morph as the project progresses is actually a real way of making a project. That is exactly what happened to me, with the initial idea being the practice image that turned into the final product. I also learned that I pay more attention to detail than I previously thought. I found myself wanting to get the shading on the subject perfect and redoing a lot of sections to make them look better, which I should account for in the future when going into any project. If I want something to turn out like what it looks like in your head, I have to be ready to pay attention to detail.
Assuage
My second project is a product design that I made from scratch in Illustrator for a mock juice company called Assuage that I made.
My product is a juice that is made from apples, pears, blueberries, and mint. It is marketed towards those who aren’t afraid to spend a little more money on an exquisite taste bud experience. It is a glorified fruit juice that is known for its health benefits and great taste. If you are looking for a juice that stands on top of all other juices and isn’t afraid to be a bold health staple while keeping a pleasant taste, Assuage is for you.
In order to persuade my audience to buy this beverage, I would work to convince the reader that they need it for their own health. The clean, modern logo design catches the eye and makes the product easy to approach.
The company Assuage wasn’t based on any other company, the way I created it was by sketching some logo designs and then creating my favorite one in Illustrator. Once I had finished that, I created ovals in the back of the logo to bring symmetry to it, and put a shadow behind the word “Assuage” in order to make it readable. For the label, I went to Placeit to look for juice cans, and picked out one that I thought was unique and stood out. I then used that logo for the label of the can, adding the ingredients and website below it, and specifying that it is “100% Organic Juice” at the top of it. One issue that I ran into was that the label looked too repetitive with the font, so I ended up making some phrases bolder than others to make them stand out. I also used another font for the website and the warning at the bottom of the can.
I learned a lot from this project, like how a simple logo can turn into a label, merch line, and magazine ad. Moving forward, I can apply what I learned about simple projects sometimes being the most appealing.
Reflection
I believe I have grown as a digital artist in many ways over the past 2 years. Not only am I better at using the software that we learned like Photoshop and Illustrator, but I have opened a lot of doors with my creativity and knowledge of art and design. I feel like now I have nothing holding me back from working on bigger projects in the future because I have experience with so many different kinds of projects and media forms.