“Who Am I?”
Senior year at freestyle focused a lot more on who we are as individuals, our entire semester focused around on one question, “who am I?”. As college apps were coming, our English class focused on college essay writing and creating a personal essay that we could submit. I had to talk about what challenges I had faced in my life and how they shaped me as a person. Then in Digital Media, we created a mandala that allowed us to explore ourselves in a peaceful environment. Animation was the most challenging for me these past few months. As we started exploring 3D modeling, we each had to design and model our own environments, characters, and models. Overall, the year challenged my character and helped me dive inside myself to answer that one important question.
Mandala
For this project, we were given free rein to create a personal mandala. I chose the 12 slice mandala and began illustrating around one of my favorite folklore that my mother used to tell me, about the rabbit in the moon. Soon enough my mandala turned into one that showcased my family and my culture. This project helped me learn more about illustrator’s interface and vector art, I wasn’t as frustrated with the software and the art felt much smoother than other times.
Artist Statment
My mom used to tell me how there was a rabbit in the moon, that you could see him pounding mochi once every so often. I loved that story as a kid, and every night I’d look for the rabbit in the moon. The concept of the story is something I adore and I wanted to share it with my work. If I were to redo this project, I’d go with the same concept. However, I would like to change some aspects of the design. I wish I could incorporate more of my family and who I am within the piece since I don’t feel as if I had done that quite as much as I wanted to.
I really valued the sense of individuality in the essence of creativity for this project. That even though given just a few instructions, the artist determines the work to what they interpret. All of the created mandalas are so different and can show an extension of a person.
Creating this mandala really showed me the importance of my family and where I come from. I’m able to express a side of me that I often feel denied from and I feel more confident not having to shun myself away from it. Small details from my family are present, from the days spent in the countryside in the mountains to the symbolic representation of our family name.
Photoshop Art
For this section, we explored photoshop and tried new medians of art through the digital world. While I have done some traditional art, I’m not well versed in using paint and it can be very frustrating for me. Replicating the paint feel within the digital world was not only fun but allowed me to challenge myself through something I was already comfortable with. However, I must admit I still have much to learn(especially with anything related to water paint).
Pastel Painting
Artist Statement
I really enjoyed the experience of digital painting. I’ve always wanted to try real gouache paint, but it’s expensive and I struggle with it. The entire process was really relaxing and I deeply enjoyed being able to produce a messier painting than usual. I really enjoyed the fact that I could somewhat replicate the gouache paint look with digital brushes and it feels a lot less intimidating since I can easily erase my mistakes. I mainly use digital art as a form to express myself, but this project made me genuinely more curious about traditional works. I would love to be able to create a work with real gouache paint or even any paint in general, but it’s always so intimidating compared to digital works.
Watercolor Painting
Artist Statement
The painting I did was of a video game character that I deeply enjoy, I admire that he’s one of the strongest people in his story but isn’t traditionally “manly”. I enjoy what his character inadvertently demonstrates, plus his character design really takes me away. I really enjoyed just letting myself go while trying out watercolor. While it’s not a physical brush, the strokes still felt so loose and I didn’t feel the need to create stronger, more rigid lines. Watercolor isn’t a technique I can handle easily honestly, I’ve tried it on paper and on a screen, but I always seem to struggle with the paints and colors. I enjoyed the pastel painting more, the thicker and consistent strokes made me feel more confident and sure of what I was doing.
Watercolor Painting Effect
Artist Statement
My first photo is actually of myself when I was younger. My dad loves that picture, however, I can’t even recall where it was taken or how old I even was in it. It makes me wonder how many events from my younger years are lost to me but held dearly in the hearts of my parents. It’s a strange thought.
My second photo is of one of my beloved dogs. He’s a little rascal sometimes, but he still has my heart. I don’t remember a life without him, but I can distinctly remember the day he came into our lives. Whenever I see my dogs, my heart bursts with joy, but it’s always followed by the looming dread that in a few years they may not be here. I can’t protect them forever.
My last photo is of a piece I did myself. It was when I was starting to get more serious about digital art, but I had forgotten about it until recently. I made it only 2 years ago, but looking at it reminds me of a person I feel is so distant now. I don’t remember drawing it honestly and weirdly I envy my past self since it feels like she had a more consistent style back then. I wonder if my past self would’ve envied the artwork I make now.
Photoshop Composition
Surreal Art
Artist Statement
The world isn’t great, many know this by now. Thinking about this kinda stuff always makes me feel really anxious, how much time do we even have to really save our planet. While I wanted to first convey a message about global warming and the ignorance that follows with it, thinking about it made me extremely anxious and I guess it worked itself into the piece.
One method I found extremely useful was clipping masks, I used them mainly to cut out the photos I wanted and manipulate them to my liking. I also used blend modes a lot in order to get a darker yet more striking color.
I feel like surrealistic photo compositions are actually quite intimidating. Both seem so but realistic compositions don’t seem to need to be super far-fetched. Surreal photo comps always have this vibe that you never really put your finger on and trying to imitate that was really hard.
3D Modeling
In Animation this year we took off to 3D modeling and animation. We mainly used Maya, Substance Painter and Z-Brush. We created an array of items and some of them were quite hard. Having to use shapes in order to make so many items proved challenging, especially when it came to making the human body. However, I’m glad I had this opportunity to learn since doing 3D work had been one of the biggest things I was looking forward to in animation.
