Explorations

Introduction

Welcome to my final website, Explorations!

This unit was all about creativity, and us doing our very best for our last few months at Freestyle Academy. I did a lot of experimentation, and worked with materials I wouldn't normally choose or be able to work with. We centered around the idea of "thought" and first impressions, with english and design works being heavily integrated and I produced two final pieces I am very pleased to end my Freestyle career with.

I've created this particular website to me entirely responsive, based on the browser window size and devices. Whether it's on a large desktop or a mobile phone, or even a tablet, this website will adjust for the perfect fit and be completely optimized to its viewers.

Blink

We called this unit, "Blink," based on Malcom Gladwell's book. He discusses the idea that sometimes first impressions and gut feelings can be much more telling than spending hours of mulling over a thought.

English and Design classes were combined and we had periods of meditation, drawing, writing, and playing. This was all fundamental in us creatively performing at our best and producing four written and drawn pieces. Of those pieces, we amplified our best written and drawn work to be ready for exhibition.

Following the prompt "isolation versus solitude," I could only imagine ice and snow. I pictured coldness, but also beauty. When in solitude, individuals shut the world out. When in isolation, the world has shut them out. A location such as that with blizzards, bitter weather, and beauty, I thought of a far-off mountain in the midst of winter. And then expanding from my written piece, what if the individual chose to be in solitude, and someone had helped bring them out of it, only to desert them? The meaning of alone is completely different now, and they are now back to being alone, but can never again be in solitude; but isolated.

I painted my initial image of being alone with Indian ink and watercolors. I began with an ink outline and painted with very basic, cool colors. Afterwards, I scanned my artwork into Photoshop and combined it with the image of a fire performer, seemingly trespassing the mountain to melt the idea of solitude. I learned a watercolor technique and applied it to the performer, so that it blended better with my watercolors. I also downloaded FilterForge 4.0 and used the Polygon Painting filter for mainly the background, to give the artwork a more crystalline-feel. I used certain key words from my written piece with a sketch/brush font to give the fire performer a haunting and creepy aura.

Humor

We had a humor unit, where we heavily focused on satire. We studied and discussed various types of humor, jokes, comedic stand-ups, and parodies. Each style appealed to different audiences and would be tactfully used for certain messages to be conveyed. I've noticed with satrical humor, a lot of political views are placed in it, and although expressed in ludicrous ways, they tell of important issues, and I personally found those the most tasteful.

I created a political cartoon that uses wit and satire. As current events stand, there are right-winged conservatives who do not agree with same-sex couples. Often they use The Bible for reasons why marriage can only be for one man and one woman. There is satire in that a conservative believes they can always use words printed on a book to protect themselves and stop what they do not approve, while the world continues to move on and advance.

I used Adobe Illustrator CC for the entirety of my political cartoon. I perused the art brush selections and found one that I felt most resembled the feel of a traditional, rough ink pen. I wanted to mimic how political cartoons generally look: black and white, sketchy, simple. Because everything was handdrawn, I really did not need to use any other program and stuck with the basics and what really mattered: a pen (tablet) and (digital) paper.

Mini-Project

For WebAudio and a mini-project of my choice, I opted for creating a mini, repetitive audio file with my ukulele. I wanted to try out Pro Tools more and not only practice recording, but as well as what I could create with my ukulele since it is one of my instruments of choice. Although simple and repetitive, I find it more as a very good backtrack or background piece for anything, and hopefully is pleasing to the ears.