What's Your Stance?: Reflection

Draft

Final Draft

I do not believe my stance is clear with the art that I created. I realize that the image that resulted through my efforts does not fully express my initial idea. I wanted the United States to be expressed as a menacing force, dominating the world, almost like a controlling regime with an iron fist over the world. The only way to know that I was expressing America in this image though is through the color of my text, which I made red, white, and blue. I do believe though, that the "FREEDOM" written in blood does express how the United States proclaims itself to spread freedom to other nations, but only leaves terror and death in its wake. I feel that my final draft successfully recreates my idea on my thumbnail sketches and paper sketch, and my final draft adds even more to the idea through the use of the clipping mask in Adobe Illustrator. From the first version to the last version of my poster, I decided to keep the idea of outlines of bodies, but changed it from white chalk to the bodies outlined in blood. I decided to also attempt to make my stance clearer by writing more text. As well, I decided to fill in the bodies with images of terror and destruction to communicate the idea about the detrimental force that is the United States and its military. I feel that of the rubric, the Design aspect is expressed strongest in my art. I feel that the colors I used, most apparently red for the color of blood, express my idea, and the images in the bodies through the use of clipping masks also express it. The weakest part of my project was the Concept aspect, as I believe that my art fails to fully realize it, and it is also left unclear to the audience. The most challenging aspect of the project, conceptually, was trying to come up with an image that would realize the idea that I had in my mind, since the topic I chose was so broad, and can be interpreted in an infinite number of ways. From a technical perspective, the most challenging part was the clipping mask, as I had no idea how to use it. I failed time and time again, and only through trial and error I was finally able to use it. As well, with the assistance of my teacher, Ms. Lee, I was able to find an easier and quicker way to use it than what I had been doing initially.

What's My Stance?

College Tuition
In today's society, going to a college or university proves to be no easy feat. With the outrageous tuition charges in many public and private universities, to many young adults, it seems downright impossible. Why is it that each year, the United States spends over half of its budget on the military, resigning education, and thus the knowledge and power that comes with it, to a lower standard? With the United States in trillions of dollars of debt, perhaps the government should consider shifting its priorities towards something more important than military spending. Other modernized countries, such as Germany and Denmark, have abandoned tuition, making it free to attend university for all their students. Perhaps we should follow their examples, allowing universal education for all to succeed in this harsh world. Everyone should be allowed to have the opportunity to seek the romanticized and ever sought-after American Dream, and the key to this is through a proper education.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/magazine/is-college-tuition-too-high.html
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/16/why-college-costs-are-so-high-and-rising.html

Feminism

Another topic that I am interested in, feminism has risen in the past few years, becoming a very debated topic in our society. Though I do not take a proactive role in the feminist movement, I agree with its ideals wholeheartedly. Compared to what others might think, feminism is not the domination of men, and the empowerment of women. Rather, feminism strives to create equality between both sexes, in the hopes that women can be on equal standing with men. Often today, women are paid less than their male counterparts, about 78 cents per every dollar a male makes. This difference is simply unfair, especially in contemporary society. We claim to be advocates for social justice and equality, yet we still do not have equality among the most basic of needs. Women are also subject to harsh criticism, often attempting to have to live up to unrealistic beauty standards. They are often slut-shamed, and under the threat of rape, often being held responsible for the threats they receive or the act itself, which is disgusting and illogical. Women live difficult lives, and the time has come that they receive more of an equal standing in our society.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/equal-pay/career

https://www.southernct.edu/sexual-misconduct/facts.html

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.