Semester 1

Semester 1 Reflection

     This semester is graphic design has been really amazing. I have learned a lot and achieved way more than I thought I could. I'm actually really happy about my projects and how most of them turned out. In regards to technology, I believe my skill in illustrator has improved so much since last year and now I can actually make work that I am proud of and I have actually imagined possibly going into a graphic design field because of the amount I have grown and learned this year about the software, industry, and about design in general. This semester has really taught me much in the way of collaboration and communication. Learning to be able to ask for help and communicate my problems to my teacher and peers has really been important to my success this semester. Asking for feedback, help, and critiques from my talented peers has been essential in creating the work that I made. I also enjoyed being able to do the same for others as well. I learned to manage my time, not perfectly, but way better than I did last year. The imperfection can be shown in my lack of completion so far in my final patterns but overall I have been way more successful in my assignments than sophomore year. I think this might come from my overall gained interest in the assignments but also just personal motivation to want to do better and keep my grades and be able to continue in this program. 

     This semester I feel like my greatest strengths have lied in the area of drawing, creativity, and designing my projects. This has more or less always been the case but sometimes I have struggled with being able to bring my ideas to life in the software. I have grown tremendously in the illustrator software but I still have much to learn as this is still probably one of my setbacks and one of my weakest areas as of late. I feel like I need to also be a little more patient with my work and put in the required effort to make it how I want instead of having unrealistic expectations for how long or what it takes to bring about a really beautiful result. If there is something I would change I definitely think I would like to of put in more time near the end of the semester on my patterns because i was definitely capable of finishing them before the semester was done. I am really grateful for everything I have learned and am excited for what I will continue to learn going into the next semester.

Semester 2 Final

Semester Two Final

Greeting Card Project

The first project I will be talking about was the greeting card project we did. In this project we created greeting cards for people in our lives and used made them personal or humorous. I decided to do a greeting card based around beets and puns related to beets. The card is supposed to be inspirational and the outside reads "Don't beet yourself up," while the inside reads "you are unbeetable." This project actually did not take too long to be completely done with, maybe a couple of days hard work. It did take me a bit to get around to turning it in. The most challenging part of the project was just using the pen tool to actually make my designs look nice. The designs came out a lot different digitally than they did on paper. If I am being completely honest I really like my hand-drawn version of the card better than my digital one. I learned a lot about the pen tool during this project and I am very grateful for the critiques on the use of color and the pen tool during this project from my friends and teacher. I am pretty happy with the overall result although at first I was not too thrilled with it and I am happy to do more projects like this.

Typography

The next project I will be talking about is the Typography project which I actually entered into the e-Magine event and won third place in the typography category. In this project we had to choose 4 quotes and fonts to create posters from. I chose all my quotes from the poet Rupi Kaur. This project was definitely one of my favorites from this semester. I really tried to choose a theme and keep the consistency throughout all of my art boards. In this project I learned new skills about different tools like warp and other filters as well as the different brush styles available which I never really thought to use within my projects before although I was aware of. I chose a brush style and used it to create a connection between all of my designs. I am really happy with the way all my designs turned out and I am thankful for the critiques I received from my teacher and the judges who judged my project in the e-Magine event, They gave me many useful suggestions on the tone, theme, style, and white space usage of my project. 

Logo Design

My third project was the final project we completed this semester which was the logo design project. In this project we created five logo designs which were meant to represent us and our "brand" of sorts. This project took about a week or a week and a half of class time to complete. I created five unique logos and transferred them into adobe illustrator. I then created five different versions of my five logos using three unique color schemes generated from any online website. In this project I learned a lot more and gained more practice using the pen tools on illustrator as well as learning about color and design. This was also one of my favorite projects we had done throughout the entire year. I am grateful for the critiques and suggestions given about the designs and colors I used in my object and I was happy to change a few things which i the end I also agree made my project look much better. This project definitely was one of my best in my opinion.

________

I will say there were a lot of times during this semester that I didn't stay totally focused during the whole class period. This was especially true on block days. Despite this I still tried my best and when I noticed I wasn't focused for a long period of time I tried to get my self back on track to complete whatever task was needed to be done. I tried to ask as my any questions as possible and always asked for suggestions form my teacher and friends before declaring I was finished with a project. I often did attempt to learn outside of school and during class to enhance my abilities on the various types of softwares we use to create our projects. 

________

Strengths and Weaknesses

My strengths in e-comm definitely fall under the design aspect. I am terribly bad at animation and any involved with that. Digitally I am still learning about the programs but I am generally good at concerting ideas and creating rough sketches/plans on paper. Sometimes it can be quite difficult for me to transfer my ideas and turn them into reality on the computer. I am still an amateur at many of the softwares and at times it can be frustrating and creates a lack of motivation for me when I am not able to make something look like it does when I am imagining it or when I am drawing it on paper. This frustration was created during many of projects because I am somewhat of a perfectionist at times and it can make me give up easily. This is something I am really trying to work on mentally and to improve my drawing and digital art skills by practicing and learning about the different softwares we use in class for out projects.

________

Conclusion

I would say that my favorite parts about sophomore graphic design was the teachers and how dedicated and and they were. My teachers, Mrs. Beaudoin, was always willing to help whoever and was always very kind and passionate about her art and teaching. I am very grateful to have had her for sophomore graphic design and I hope I can have more classes with her as my teacher in my upperclass e-Comm experience. My goals for next year would definitely be to learn more about the programs and to maybe become an expert at a few. I am really wanting to create some good things next year and I can't wait to see what will be in store. Thank You!

Typography

Typography

For this typography project we had to find ten quotes and four different fonts. The quotes were supposed to be about us or special to us and in the end we had to decide on four to use and create graphics for as well. We used at least two different fonts in each of our final quotes. 

When I decided on my quotes I decided to use all the same author/poet to make it simpler. I decided to go with Rupi Kaur because she is one of my favorite poets and I have enjoyed and identified with some of her quotes in the past. I picked ten quotes from a huge list of her poems/quotes and in the end I narrowed down to four based on which ones I already had visuals in my mind for how I could use this to inspire different graphics. For my fonts I just wanted something that was aesthetically pleasing and fit the different themes of my quotes in a way. I chose both some simple and calligraphic fonts.

While creating this project I had a very fun time. It was probably one of my favorite projects we have done this year. I got to improve my illustrator skills a lot as well. For three of my graphics I found some simple designs on the internet and traced them over using the pen tool. These graphics were my hand in the water, the geometric heart, and my butterflies. For my book graphic I just used different shapes and line tools to create a simple book design. I definitely preferred working in color rather than doing the black and white project. For my colored versions I decided to make them all somewhat matching although that wasn't exactly the goal outcome of the project. I chose simple colors and simple coloring techniques with minimal shading. I also used the same line of watercolor on all my graphics to make them all connect in a way. 

I am very proud of my project and I am overjoyed with how they turned out. This was really something I was looking forward to doing in graphic design and the outcome of my project is something I have visualized as what I wanted to do coming into e-Comm. I really love the simplicity and aesthetic of my quotes and the graphics. It makes me want to keep working hard an improving. If I had to do something different I probably would have wanted to rely on more original graphics rather than tracing from photographs, and that is definitely something I will do in the future on future projects because I know I have the creativity to do so.

(Will add in photos when I return to school on Monday!!!)

Printing Processes

Relief Process

Relief process is when an artist uses linoleum or wood and carves into it to create a print. You start by creating a drawing on a piece of paper with ink and then transferring that onto the wood or by drawing an image onto a stained piece of wood. After that the artist can use black line or white line composition to create depth in the image. When the wood has been carved you can apply ink to the wood and use it to print onto paper and create images. This process can be helpful for making multiple replications of an image.

Relief Process Print (Obama)

Intaglio Process


In this process you must scratch onto a flat copper plate to create lines deep enough for ink to sink in and create a print when pressed onto paper. Firstly, you must prepare the plate by cleaning and polishing it and then preparing ground to protect the areas of the plate that hold ink. After preparing a ground on the plate it is jet black and you can scratch the surface to reveal the plate and create your design. After that you etch the plate by placing it into a bath of acid to create deep troughs that will hold the ink. It is taken out and the placed back in. After the plate has gone into the bath it is ready to be inked and used to print.

Intaglio Process Print (Plant Goddess)

Lithography Process

This process uses a stone that is receptive to grease and water. This stone is very delicate and is a very cool and complicated printing surface. This type of printing process is used especially by writing and news businesses. The grease materials used are lithographic pencils and crayons and that is used to draw directly on the stone. The stone is etched afterwards and different materials like rosin and gum arabic are added to the stone. Afterwards TAPEM is added and gum is added again. This stone is then buffed and a greasy solvent is added to the stone which prepares the drawing and stone for ink. After the surface of the stone is wetted, ink is applied. Ink is then forced into the crevices of the drawing and after multiple times, it is ready for paper.

Lithography Process Print (Lorde, Singer)

Panorama Narrative

Cat's Story

I slowly opened my eyes and immediately closed them again. A light shine brighter than the sun was right on my face and it took me a couple seconds to adjust. I looked up and saw my owner's hand coming down to pet my head. When my owner pulled his hand away he turned around and headed towards the kitchen. I followed right behind him and he poured himself a glass of water and filled up my bowl as well. After that I my owner opened up the back door and I trotted outside into the sunlight which was warm along with the cool wind.

The grass was wet from yesterdays rain. Usually I hated this but today I didn't mind. I walked over to the garden. My owner had been growing flowers for a few months. I leaned down and ate a couple dandelions I found around the flowers. A grasshopper hopped by, but I didn't feel like chasing anything around today. I watched the clouds move and the sky was going gray. It might start raining today. I went and hopped over the fence that was in our backyard and looked on at the creek that was behind our house. I walked passed some sand bottles on the way to the street which I didn't remember seeing yesterday.

I got out to the street and breathed deep. I crossed and started on my usual trail. I always walked around this way and wandered about seeing what I could find. A man sat on a lawn chair on the grass by the street. He had a flame in his hand. I could smell the man lighting a cigarette. When I walked around for an hour or so I found myself wandering into a bush. I smelled around the flowers and laid down in the dirt. Before I knew it I had closed my eyes and I didn't wake up till night had already come. A pretty boring day.

Photoshop Pop Art Project

Photoshop Pop Art Project

When I started creating this project I really had no idea where to start. I spent about 5 minute just starting blankly at the screen until I looked up additional examples of pop art and decided to start with adding shapes to my photo. I picked the rectangle tool and added different color rectangles around my project. I made smaller to large rectangles at the bottom to make it look at least a little organized. 
     For the color scheme, I decided to just go with kind of a rainbow scheme. The different color rectangles take center stage in the final photo so I feel that rainbow would be a good describing word. Besides that I had a yellow and tie-dye-ish glow that was pretty prominent in my photo as well. Overall, for most of my project I did not really plan anything out. I just kind of tried different things out until I found a style I thought went well. 
     At first I didn't really look at any artists for inspiration. I was already a bit of the ways into the project when I tie-dye-ishdecided to go back and re-look at the presentation. I realized James Rosenquist was an artist who I really enjoyed and so I tried to somewhat use his work to inspire the style in mine. I liked the randomness and creativity in his work and I just liked his a lot more than the other artists.
     Some of the different tools I used in my project were filters, masks, shapes, pen tool, adjustment layers, and clone stamp. I used the mask in order to get that rainbow background and the pen to create a thick border around my subject which I ended up blurring in order to blend in with the rainbow. I used shapes obviously to create that pop art effect and clone stamp in order to try and get rid of a lot of unnecessary background footage that was in my photo before. I also used filters and adjustment layers to change the overall look and feel of the photo. I feel like I did a pretty good job on this project and I think this was a good project to practice my photoshop skills for future projects. 

Photoshop Challenge #1

    

Photoshop Challenge #1 

For this photoshop challenge we had to edit a photo we were given of a man. We could do anything we wanted to edit him and create something original. Originally I had the idea to make the man fire themed, but after trying out some image and editing him a bit I realized that probably was not the best idea. It just looked weird and I knew I could do something that looked a lot better. Afterwards, I brainstormed ideas for a new theme I could use to edit my photo. One theme that came to mind was clouds or a sky. I went searching for some images and came out successful. 

     After I found my images I created masks with the quick selection tool over the areas where I wanted to replace my images with. I replaced the suit with two different images. For the outer part I chose a nice sky and clouds photo and for the inner shirt portion I chose a rainbow pattern to kind of go along with the theme of clouds and sky. I did not incorporate many blending mode changes because there were not many I liked for any of my images so I kept in on normal. I did however lower the opacity for the suit so I was still able to see a bit of texture to blend in with the image of the sky and clouds I had chosen. I also chose clouds for the hair and a sunset image for the background. 

     Overall, I really enjoyed this project. It was fun and a great way to incorporate the skills I learned from the tutorials and maybe learn some new ones too. I did not know what it was going to turn out as in the end and to be honest I think I did pretty good considering how well I know Photoshop. I went in to the project thinking I would do absolutely terrible and it was not as stressful as I thought it would be. I like my final image and think it was a good experience to prepare for future graphic design projects.