What's Your Stance? Blog Reflection

First Draft

Final Draft

1. Do you believe your stance clear within your poster? Defend your answer- images, fonts, color, composition, etc.
I believe my stance was clear within my poster, because the font of 'No Homework Means' contrasted with the rest of the fonts. The use of script and the larger text portrayed the magical world of what no homework meant. This choice of a different font stood out among  the poster, emphasizing my stance. Moreover, I chose to use a blue background, because blue represents freedom. This emphasizes my stance, because it shows the freedom that one would attain with no homework. Furthermore, the use of handcuffs portrayed how limited would feel when one was given homework, emphasizing the many opportunities and activities one misses out on. 

2. From your initial thumbnail sketches to your hand drawn draft- Do you feel you were successful in re-creating your poster idea digitally? If not, do you like the new visual outcome?

No, because it was difficult to find images to use and manipulate so it could match my draft. Additionally, I failed at drawing the photos myself since tools such as the pen tool was difficult to use. However, I like the new visual outcome, because my new poster was more clear in portraying my concept.

3. What were the changes you made from your first version to the last version of the poster? Explain why you made those changes?

From the first version, I had jail bars in front of a bed and handcuffs with big text saying 'Land of the Homework Free". However, since it was difficult to understand what my idea was without any background knowledge, I used more text to help emphasize my concept. I also took away the jail bars for a more cleaner look. The incorporation of blue in the background represents freedom and I made the text 'No Homework Means' bigger to make my concept seem more visible. 

4. Looking over your rubric, which category do you think your project is strongest? Explain why. Which category do you feel the least confident? Explain why.

I feel most confident about my concept, because the poster successfully portrayed how I felt about homework. The listing of the many different possibilities when one did not have homework portrayed my stance on how limiting homework makes one feels. It evokes the emotion of pity for those who have homework. I feel least confident abut the design, because I had a difficult time composing the poster. I struggled with not knowing what colors to use so that certain aspects would stand out. For example, I wanted the text 'No Homework Means' to stand out but struggled with the background color and color composition so the poster would not look 'boring'. 

5. What was the most challenging aspect of the project, conceptually?

Conceptually, the most challenging aspect about the project was trying to format the poster. While I had an idea, I struggled with putting it on a poster since it was difficult to convey the many possibilities of having no homework.

6. What was most challenging about the project, technically?

Technically, the most challenging thing about the project was the clipping mask. It was difficult to get the whole design I wanted to fit into words since the structure of the words could only fill up parts of a picture.  For example, for the word "Shopping&", I attempted to fill the word with Bloomingdales' bags to portray shopping. However, it was difficult to identify my purpose since the little brown bag photo could not be seen. 

What's Your Stance!

Sexual Assault on College Campuses 
Going to college in less than eight months, I am concerned for my safety as my parents can no longer keep a watchful eye over me for I plan to move away. With sexual assault becoming more prevalent in colleges throughout the United States, where one in five women are sexually assaulted, I believe the issue of sexual assault should be addressed immediately. While many colleges acknowledge the issue, many do not adequately address the issue. For example, while Harvard University made a task force in attempt to address the issue, they have done nothing physical to address the issue. Therefore, I concluded that colleges should increase their security for the students best interest as college is a place for education rather than sexual assault.

Illustration:





Links:

• http://www.weeklystandard.com/an-assault-on-common-sense/article/1051200
• http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/04/harvard-sexual-assault-victim-letter-crimson

Unjust Admissions Process
Since I have been applying to colleges for the last couple of months, I am quite informed about the college admissions process. While many colleges claim to have a holistic review of applicants, I have noticed that many colleges are taking race as a factor into their admissions process. More specifically, I do not agree with how elite colleges such as Harvard University give an unfair advantage to whites and under-represented minorities such as African Americans and Hispanics. Statistically, Harvard, hopes to cap their Asian population to below 17%, forcing many over-qualified applicants to be denied due to their race. Minority groups are mainly admitted into such elite colleges through affirmative action. However, since Asian Americans are labeled as "model minority" as they mostly outperform other racial groups academically, affirmative action does not apply to Asians. Moreover, since preference is given to those who have legacy or attend private feeder schools, in which Asians do not have qualify for either as many Asian families are low-income immigrants from China, Asians are at an unfair disadvantage when compared to whites. Asians are even taught to not identify their race as it could be used against them.

Links:

• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-cahn/whats-behind-asian-discri_b_7498760.html
•  http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-harberson-asian-american-admission-rates-20150609-story.html
•  http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-adv-asian-race-tutoring-20150222-story.html

GIF Reflection

"Perfection"

My self symbol concept is a ballerina turning in a pirouette while the background color changes. I arrived on this concept by listing my different hobbies. Having danced dance recreationally for over 8 years, I have an unconditional love for the art and the sport . Therefore, I started listing ballet actions and ended up choosing the action of turning in pirouette as it is a difficult skill to master. The action ehanced my concept, because the changing background colors convey the joy and myriad of emotions one feels when successfully turning on pointe for it is a huge accomplishment in every dancer's life. Having mastered the skill myself, I wanted to convey my own emotions for its feeling of bliss is incomparable to any other. Additionally, since a ballerina conveys perfection, it shows my desire to be perfect. From her perfectly executed turn to her rounded arms in fifth position, a ballerina could not be a more appropriate definition of "perfection". Therefore, I drew a ballerina as opposed to just a regular dancer.

Originally, my thumbnail sketch only had a dancer standing on point in passe but did not move. In the post-its, the ballerina was turning with low first position arms. However, through the use of Photoshop, I added background colors and made the ballerina turn more seamlessly. The background colors enhanced the emotion aspect. Furthermore, I made the ballerina's arm in fifth vs. in first position like I originally had it to convey a ballerina's confidence. The higher arms show how that she can keep her head up high at all times despite  adversities. 

Thanksgiving GIF

Portrait Transformation Refelction

The Playground

Before:

NYC Skyline (not original photo)

Sunset Park Playground (Original Photo)

1. Concept: Inspired by the images of the Photoshopped environment as viewed in class, I was inspired to brainstorm ideas surrounding my environment, New York City. As New York City has many diverse features from skyscrapers to rats eating pizzas to an overabundance of squirrels to the point that they seem to be "flying"around the city, I decided to incorporate these images in my Photoshopped image to demonstrate the uniqueness of my city. Additionally, growing up as a New Yorker, I explored New York City similarly to how children explore a playground. I, therefore, decided to put the backdrop of New York City behind a regular playground to portray the concept that every New Yorker's true playground is not only limited to a regular playground, but also New York City.

Final Product

2. I am somewhat satisfied with my result, because I successfully included both the beauty and the absurdities of New York City while portraying my concept. However, I am unsure if my audience knows what I am attempting to portray as it might be unclear without any knowledge of my background as a New Yorker.


3: Process for Layer Mask:
1) After editing the NYC skyline layer with photo filters and curves, I added the park layer on top of the NYC Skyline layer.
2) I, then, added a layer mask on top of the park photo because I wanted to reveal parts of the backdrop of the NYC skyline to replace the sky of the park
2) I adjusted the size of the brush tool and used the brush tool in black to erase the unwanted parts of the playground picture to reveal the NYC Skyline background. Since there was a layer mask on top of the playground picture, the result when using the brush tool is the layer underneath it (NYC skyline) rather than a black paint.
3) I continued to use the black brush until I revealed all the parts of the NYC Skyline I desired, including the skyscrapers and parts of the skyscrapers' reflection in the water. If I made a mistake and revealed more than I wanted to, I used the brush tool in white to recover the playground picture.

Photoshop Mini Lesson

Letter Project Reflection

1)  Receiving the letter ‘o’, I first brainstormed words that started with the letter ‘o’ such as octopus, orange and oreo. As I stared more at the letter, I also brainstormed objects that were discretely shaped like the letter such as Earth, Saturn and the Sun. Finally, I narrowed down to more specific ideas that were related to my letter and my interests/preferences such as a Christmas wreath because Christmas is one of my favorite holidays and a wreath’s shape is in a letter O. 

 

The thumbnail sketch process was helpful, because it gave me many different options when choosing my final concept. In the end, I did not have to worry about brainstorming more ideas because of the excess amount of concepts I previously came up with.

Ultimately, I narrowed down my concept to a ferris wheel and a donut. Since I wanted to personally relate to my concept, I drafted a ferris wheel because of my love for theme parks and the adrenaline rush it gives me and a donut because of my love for food and more specifically, donuts. On my drafts, I tested out possible colors so my letter could be more visually appealing. However, after helpful peer review, I concluded with drawing a donut because of popular majority's vote.

2) To represent my concept visually in my design, I colored the donut a bright pink to make the donut standout. While the pink was bright, I made sure to color it darker so it would be visible from a far. I also chose to color the background a lighter blue to make the donut pop out from its background. 

 

3) The most challenging aspect of this project was coloring my donut because I had to be very careful not to color outside the lines. Since a donut is a perfect circle, it was difficult to keep it that way when using messy materials such as chalk pastel. I also did not outline the donut for aesthetic reasons, which made it difficult to keep colors from mixing.  

4)  I am somewhat satisfied with my project, because my goal of making the letter 'o' recognizable was achieved. However, since the chalk pastel made streaks and the donut was not perfectly circular due to colors of the donut and the background colliding, the coloring of the project could be improved.  

5)  If I could change my design, I would make the donut a different angle, because it would still show a letter ‘o’ but in a more creative yet discrete way. It would also be more realistic since it would add depth, making it seem 3-Dimensional where as a front facing donut seems very 2-Dimensional.