Introduction
In English this semester, we wrote narratives to develop our understanding of characterization and descriptive storytelling. In design, we used the main character of out story and represented them as a hybrid animal using their character traits.
I enjoyed learning about the format of stories and the want/need conflicts. I had a lot of fun in design learning about linear perspective and playing around with different numbers of vanishing points. I also learned a lot more about Illustrator and the different tools that you can use.
Story
We started this project with learning about characterization. To do this, we had a list of questions to answer as our character. My character was based on my best friend so I had her help me come up with some of the answers.
My character just wanted to stay home and read and was too anxious to get out of her comfort zone and try new things. This became the want/need conflict of the story. She wants to stay comfortable, but really she needs to go out and engage with other people.
I read my story out loud with an audio recorder and then used pro tools to edit out pauses and unwanted noise. In the background, I put some royalty free music that I thought matched the story’s tone as well I could and put sound effects to show the falling objects in one scene.
I enjoyed writing the story and brainstorming with my classmates about possible plots or changes. I also had not had a lot of experience yet with pro tools so I appreciated the opportunity to get more practice with it.
Illustrations
To make the exquisite corpse image, we formed groups of three and made an Illustrator document with three art boards. We chose a starting and end point on the edge of each art board. Without seeing what the others were doing, we created an image that starts and ends on those points. For my part of the project, I decided to draw a cow being abducted by aliens.
For the Illustrator project, we were supposed to make something using Illustrator and turn it into a physical item. I wanted to use Illustrator to create a pattern to crochet. My goal with this project was to create pixel art then and use it as instructions for a crochet sweater. This was very challenging as it was my first attempt at creating a complex design with multiple colors. One of the biggest problems I found while making it was creating smooth transitions from one color to the next. One thing I would change if I could would be the moon. I think it created too much contrast so I would rather have not included the yellow. Because of this, I also wish I had done more of it in separate panels because it would have made it much easier to go back and fix mistakes. However, I am proud of how the plant turned out. I had to redo it many times to get the look I wanted which was really frustrating, but eventually I was happy with it. This project made me realize how hard it is to follow a pattern. I usually use only measurements which are not as precise and are much more forgiving. Now I can really appreciate those who use patterns and follow them exactly. This project took a lot of patience and I had to be okay with starting over and spending time fixing my mistakes. I think this will be important for the rest of my life. I am human so I expect to make a lot more mistakes so it is important for me to be able to spend the time and effort to fix them rather than just give up and turn in work I am not proud of.
Music
For this unit, we were told to find a song and make a parody of it. We wrote new lyrics, recorded it, and edited it using Pro Tools. We wanted to use the instruments but remove the vocals of the song, which we did using Pro Tools and using equalizers to try to hide the singer. I paired up with Thea Nair for this project so we tried to find a song we were both familiar with. We chose the song, “Despair.” This is a very upbeat song with not so happy lyrics so we wanted to keep this tone.
I’ve lost control, and ran into a lamp post
Air bag deployed, now I have broken bones
And looking at my car which is completely wrecked
I have to think of a way to get myself out of this mess
I hit my head way too hard
And now I’m seeing stars
I want this to be done, bleeding out is no fun
My head is bleeding, please get help i’m pleading
I can see my life force depleting
As death gets near
I close my eyes in fear
I open my eyes, beeping machines surround me
Doctors hurrying to ask me, they want to know about the crash
And even though I want to sleep and snore
I can’t help but think about that goddamn boar.
Design
In design this unit, we used our short stories from english to create a hybrid creature using the character traits of our main characters. My character is a crow, fly, porcupine, chameleon, and jellyfish. I chose a crow because she is a collector. She is also very shy which made me think of the phrase “fly on the wall.” She is very guarded as well which is why I chose a porcupine. But she also is very easygoing and able to change and adapt. Chameleons are known for their ability to change color and jellyfish to me seem very easy going as well. They kind of just go with the tides. To make my character in illustrator, I used a lot of the gradient tool and copied and pasted tons of feathers. Because of this, I think it looks pretty three dimensional and textured. For the background, I used a library in two point perspective. I am pretty happy with how it turned out, but I wish I had chosen to include less books as it was very tedious.
