Self Symbol GIF

My concept is 'Thinking outside the box'. I came to this idea because I've always thought of myself as someone who goes the extra mile, someone who is willing to push themselves and find another way to solve an issue. My GIF is the literal meaning of the phrase 'Thinking outside the box', and thus, I have the brain, an expression of the mind, rising out of the box, and becoming the center.

My initial thumbnail sketches had the box opening up during the animation, and then the brain just simply rising out towards the top of the screen. I realized that when I was going to make this animation in Photoshop, the box opening up was too difficult, and would have taken too much time. So instead, I decided to just have the box already open. As well, after the brain came out, I decided to lower the box and drop it off screen, and then make the brain the center in order to emphasize its importance.

This is so meta...

Where did all you zombies come from?

I feel that I must give some explanation behind the name of my project before I go into more depth. The title is part of a quote from a short story written in 1959 called "All You Zombies". It is at the end of the story, when the narrator asks, "I know where I came from - but where did all you zombies come from?", referring to the culmination of the events of the story, and the realization that each character in the story is  the narrator. I thought that was so fascinating, creating this paradoxical scenario in which the narrator is interacting with him/herself. I then thought that for my project, it would create an interesting concept in which there were multiple versions of myself interacting with each other simultaneously, adding a science fiction flair to my project. I also drew inspiration from a quote from the horror game demo, PT, which stated the quote, "The only me is me. Are you sure the only you is you?" It really resonated with me, with its mysterious, dark, and sinister tones. It made me think about the concept of parallel realities, and multiple versions of me. Though I didn't take it in that dark and sinister direction, my project still incorporated the idea of the multiple versions of myself.

I am happy with the results of my project. I think it really communicates what I was aiming for, and that anybody that observes it can clearly see the idea of my project. It's not confusing, and I think that the image flows well enough that people can see that it's basically me interacting with different versions of myself. I do not think the image is choppy, and I think the quality holds well. The only aspect I am unhappy with is that I think I should have adjusted the lighting more, and hopefully improving the image in the process. Otherwise than that, I am happy with how the project turned out.

When I first started my project, I took several photos of my living room, making sure to not change the position of my camera to keep the same background. The only thing I did was position myself in different places with different clothes to give the illusion of separate beings. When I uploaded the pictures, I made sure to keep one picture (the one with the tank top) as the official background which everything else would be relative to. After uploading the pictures, I copied and pasted each individual one to the same tab. I proceeded to create a layer mask for each individual photo, utilizing the paint bucket tool to fill each layer mask with black. Then, using the paint brush tool with white, I filled in the layer mask for each individual photo in a certain location to reveal each of the figures, and therefore making it seem as though they were all together simultaneously. As many of the photos had different lighting, I chose one to keep the background, and thus the lighting, the same across the whole image, and filled in the layer mask accordingly while leaving the figures intact. After that was done, and all figures appeared simultaneously, I proceeded to use the Image Adjustment 'Curves' to brighten the photo, as the image was relatively dark. I pulled the curve upwards in the middle to brighten the middle and back of the room. Then, as a finishing touch, I blurred each of the figures' faces with the blur tool, creating a sense of mystery and anonymity, relating to the mysterious tone of the PT quote.

Mini Lesson 4

Letter Project Reflection

The initial ideas I had were random and obscure, as I found it difficult to find a concept that really demonstrated a "Y". None were very artsy, but rather simple designs that just demonstrated the letter "Y".

As I moved on to my next eight sketches on the next page, I tried to think of concepts that related to me. Many of the ideas shown demonstrate qualities of me. The Nike one is a simple drawing of the way I dress. The handstand and pull-up demonstrate how I like to exercise. The item in the top right is a "flux capacitor", a device in Back to the Future, meant to show my love of film. The suspenders show how I like to dress nice and formally. And finally, the diverging road is a representation of Robert Frost's poem, "The Road Not Taken".

These final four drawings are also qualities of me, besides the pliers. I really take friendship to heart, and it really has a profound effect on my life, which is why I decided to incorporate the fists coming together. The bat is a representation of Batman, my favorite superhero, and the Spider-Man on the far right is also meant to demonstrate another one of my favorite superheros.

My decision ultimately came down between two ideas: "The Road Not Taken" and friendship. I felt both were ideas that I could really express strongly through my art. Ultimately, I decided on the idea of friendship, it being a stronger concept that had an impact on my life. My decision was solidified though through both Ms. Lee's approval and my friend, Glorimar, who reviewed my initial thumbnail sketches and liked the friendship one the most. Her opinion as well as Ms. Lee's made me think I should pursue this concept the most. I tried experimenting with what I should use in order to color the arms, which I thought were the most important aspect of the drawing. Water color and color pastel didn't suit the arms well, and so I decided to go with color pencil.

This drawing is a revision of my initial "The Road Not Taken" idea, as some people found my initial drawing confusing and not realistic.

For the final draft, in order to highlight my idea of friendship, I decided to continue with the fists coming together. Often, this image tends to exemplify teamwork and comradery, so it was perfect for "friendship". As well, I decided to color each arm a different shade of brown (brown was the most natural looking color for skin). This was meant to demonstrate how in my own life, I'm not restricted to a certain race or group. I enjoy having diversity in my life, and having such a wide variety of friends from different backgrounds, races, and cultures. To further highlight friendship, I decided to color the background a warm yellow to set a warm and kind tone. I decided to use chalk pastel to have the background be smooth and light, and thus giving the image an overall nice feeling.

The most challenging aspect of this project to me were the details of my drawing. Trying to color in the arms was difficult, especially the shading portion to highlight shadows. Blending was a hard portion as well, as between the lines of color pencil in between were portions of white from the actual paper. Trying to make the arms look realistic was a problem of its own. As such, I just found it difficult trying to accurately demonstrate my idea through details.

I am semi-happy with my project in the end. I feel that people will be able to see that my letter was "Y", but I don't know if my image is expressed well through my details. I think that my idea of friendship is accurately portrayed through the fists coming together, as well as the idea of diversity. So in the end, I am mostly happy with my project, the only thing weighing me down being the details. If I could change anything about my design, I would definitely try to experiment with some other type of medium to try to create an accurate portrayal of details.

So... how was your summer?

Hi. My name's Anthony. I'm a Puerto Rican senior attending Millennium High School in NYC. I'm an absolute geek and movie buff. You ever want to talk about stuff like that, talk to me.

So, over the summer I attended a College Now class for Business: Marketing for six weeks. From left to right, the people in my group were Dilpreet, Keno, Taylor, Zahira, and myself (the woman in the middle is Maziely, the director of the program). It was a great experience for me, as I met a ton of new people, got closer to the friends I already knew, and gained some real-world experience which I hope helps me in my path to be in Finance.

During the school year last year, I didn't get to see my brother a lot because of his college schedule. Then, over the summer, he got a job at a summer camp, and I didn't get to see him at all for a few weeks. After the College Now program ended and he came back from his job, I got to spend a week with him, which I really enjoyed. We've never gotten along immensely, but for that week, there was something different in our relationship, and I was really happy.

Of course, I went to the movies frequently. Film is my real hobby and passion, and I hope to be a filmmaker someday. So whether I went with my friends or my family, I was always at the movies.