Introduction
Film
Film’s reflection unit largely encompassed a reflection video that went over something important about us, something that we feel tells a story that allows someone watching it to get to know a part of us. Many people shared about personal values they hold true to them or experiences they have endured.
Digital Media
In Digital Media, we focused on our core values and how to use our creativity in different forms. We did this by making art such as a Mandala that represents our different core values. In addition, we gained more knowledge of the ins and outs of Premiere Pro and Photoshop.
English
In English, we focused on finding pieces of ourselves (these same core values) and putting them into a narrative form that can be put into our common application essay. In addition to this, we learned about other forms of literature and story-telling such as through Afro-futurism. We read a book called the Parable of the Sower which told an afro-futurist story and inspired our next unit which had us tell our own creative story. These stories we would create through brainstorming characters, themes and issues within a different “world” that we build.
Who am I?
This was the question was that was posed to us, and with all of our projects we slowly gained a chance to reflect on this question and build creative ways to express it. Whether this be through storytelling, digital art, or video. We not only were supposed to come up with our core values but also we were supposed to think of something called “essence objects”. These objects hold significance to a person, being objects that represent an experience or a feeling. For me, these objects were a battered water bottle that had followed me through high school, and my beat-up car keys that were previously my dad’s.
Projects
Mandala
The mandala project was an art assignment within illustrator. Mandalas are mirrored pieces that are made up of symbols to create a circular pattern. For our specific mandala, we were supposed to put together symbols that would represent the core values we had come up with as well as our essence objects. We learned how to draw in illustrator, how to mirror these drawings and how to create a video of our drawing process.
My Mandala was named, Peace on Earth. I decided to focus on peace and meaning because that is what I look for and apply in so many aspects of my life. I felt pretty uncomfortable with hand drawing for this project because it is not my strong suit but I tried sketching and improved over and over with the design. If I were to change anything I think that I would improve the flower drawing and make it more intricate and interesting. I am most proud of the inner section of the mandala because I think that the reverse-colored peace signs were really creative. I then created a colored version of this which I named, I’m in Peaces. I had a lot of details that resembled fire or the sun so I chose to use colors like yellow, orange, and red. As for the other details, I played around with the cooler-toned colors as it gets closer to the edge of the piece. I chose to not fill in the entire thing but rather color in the details within the mandala.
Photoshop Art
I am not usually one to focus on digital art such as what we were doing in photoshop. Drawing and painting have never been my strong suit of mine. However, I found that this was incredibly eye-opening to me and allowed me to try a new form of expression.
Pastel Painting
For this I just chose a photo of my dog. I wanted to play around with a streaky type of style for the pastel painting as I am not a very talented at detailed painting but I wanted to show the dimensions of the photo.
Watercolor Painting
Citrus Summer – In this project, I tried to emulate a painting I found online. I really love citrus and it was interesting to see how it could be presented using watercolor. The way that watercolor layers allowed for numerous shades and distinct separation between the peel of the orange and the actual fruit as well as detail within the fruit.
Watercolor Painting Effect
Driving by the Water – For this project, we were instructed to use a photo we have already taken and within photoshop make it appear as if it was a watercolor painting. I chose a photo of my friend, Sarah, from when we were driving next to the beach. I tried to define the shadows on her face as the details outside the window were drowned out by light. I made the outline darker and used blue tones to keep with the water theme. I think this could have turned out better had I used a photo with better resolution and more saturation.
Composite (of 2 photos, of 3+ photos)
Surreal Art
Consume & Resume – For this project we were instructed to put together a composition that represented an aspect of our world-building activity from English. In photoshop I put together Van Gogh’s “Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette” with monarch butterflies, orange smoke, and orange poison dripping down the insides of the skeleton. It is to represent within our story the negatives of the lead-poisoned water. In my interpretation, it is like smoking and drinking as people did not always know how detrimental it could be to your health as people in power would withhold this information. Similarly in our story, a politician is withholding information about how detrimental this water truly was.
Film
Reflections Video – Hugs
In this assignment, we were instructed to tell a story that lets the viewer gain an understanding of our values and who we are as a person. I wanted to talk about how much I love the relationships that I have in my life and how my experiences have changed how express my love to others around me. In this video, I tell the story of how growing up I hated hugs. As I got older and resolved some mental health setbacks, I found that I was able to embrace hugs with a new appreciation.
For this project, I took shots of different types of hugs, hugs between different people, insert shots talking about medications, and overall shots showing the relationship between my friends, family, and me. I used a DSLR camera to take these shots and put them together in Premiere Pro. The audio put behind the video is a paragraph that I wrote describing this value and experience, which I recorded and inputted in Premiere Pro as well.