Introduction
In all our classes, we were prompted to create a variety of works such as illustrations, short stories, and audio recordings. During this unit, I valued being able to create many original pieces using many of the tools we are given at Freestyle. My work during this unit has [also] motivated me to be more creative with the work I make.
Story
In English, we were prompted to create an original short story. My inspiration for my story was what I see myself doing in the future because the character I created had a career in making music for other artists. For the audio recording of my story, I used my Tascam recorder to record my story. After I recorded it, I put the audio file into Pro Tools and added music and sound effects to my recording. I enjoyed being able to record something I wrote and [another word] make my story into multiple forms of art.
Short Story
“Turn it down bro.” Julian told Marsyl.
“We should turn down the melody a lil bit right?” Marsyl asked.
“Ya.” Julian responded.
Julian and Marsyl were at Julian’s were working on some new track in Julian’s home studio because he had lost some of his music. Julian’s “studio” was just an extra bedroom that he had transformed for his own musical needs. There were loose keys on his keyboard. Scotch tape held his headphones together. Monitor screen flashing on and off once in a while. He would even have to position the aux cord in a specific way in order for the music to play through the speakers. But he made it work. The music was ear-piercing, and Julian often got complaints, but he didn’t care too much. Marsyl was Julian’s best friend. They met each other freshmen year at UC Santa Barbara through their mutual interest in music. They often pulled all nighters together, but never got any homework done. Eventually they got distracted and started working on things they actually cared about.
“After we finish this, we out to lunch?” asked Julian.
“Ya fasho.” said Marsyl.
They never left. Once they finished one part of a song, they continued on to the next. Hours went by. The sun set. Marsyl’s friend Martin came over. He mixed and mastered tracks. More hours went by. Julian’s girlfriend, Marisa came over from her friend’s house. Her anger seemed to enter the room before she did. She was wearing ripped jeans, dirty vans, vintage tee, but her hair was all done had She heard the music from the entrance of the apartment building.
“You guys are still here?” Marisa asked annoyingly.
“Ya but we are almost done. Just give us like half an hour.” Julian responded.
“Hi Marisa. Marsyl said.
“Hey Marsyl.” Marisa responded.
They never went out for lunch. The sun even went down before they finished. Marisa didn’t say a word. They lasted till about one in the morning. The bags under Marsyl’s eyes prompted for a much needed break so he went back home. Eight hours later he came back to work. Marisa still didn’t say too much as Julian and Marsyl worked. Marsyl was mixing on the monitor, while Julian was playing the keys to come across some new melody. As Marsyl was mixing, a notification ring played loudly through the speakers. He looked at the top right corner. It was from Atlantic Records. Marsyl jumped out of the worn out chair, nearly breaking it.
“Julian look!” Marsyl shouted.
“No way.” Julian said in shock.
Atlantic Records had asked to sign them after hearing some of their stuff on YouTube and SoundCloud.
“What the hell.” Julian said to himself.
Julian and Marsyl stopped all progress on what they were working on. Julian did small laps around the room. So did Marsyl. In five minutes they were breathless.
“What happened?” Marisa asked as she walked in.
Julian pointed toward the monitor.
“Oh my.” Marisa said to herself.
She gave both Julian and Marsyl a huge hug and became the most energetic Julian had ever seen. This is the most support she ever showed towards Julian’s music and the most she has talked to them in days.
“Have you guys responded yet?” Marisa asked eagerly.
“Not yet. But we are going to soon.” Julian responded still breathless.
“Ok ok that’s good. Congrats guys.” Marisa said.
This time Julian sat in the chair and read the email. His demeanor shifted after 30 seconds.
“Bro.” Julian said disgustingly.
“What happened?” Marsyl asked curiously.
“Read this.” Julian responded.
The email stated that they were required to give their music to label and only do that. No involvement in sessions, an absurd contract agreement, and not even credit given for their music. However money was obviously involved.
“We can’t do that.” Julian said.
“I know.” Marsyl agreed.
A while ago, they agreed to try their best to stay independent because they knew all the troubles that came with signing with labels, so they both agreed to respond but respectfully decline the offer. Marisa heard this from the other room.
“You guys are joking right?” Marisa asked hopingly.
“You’ve heard me say this a lot Marisa, I’m hyped about getting some recognition, but you read what that said.” Julian told her.
“But the money Julian.” Marisa responded.
Julian sensed this when it came to his music. Marisa was often never to supportive of his music, but she never talked him out of it either. For the next hour signing to the label was the only topic Julian and Marisa talked about. It was a shouting match between the two. Their voices replaced the music.
“You’re never going to get anywhere if you’re going to be like this.” Marisa said to Julian.
“Is this how you feel?” Julian asked.
“You aren’t going to go anywhere with your music.” Marisa told him.
Marsyl didn’t say much, but he showed not agreement with Marisa, if anything Marisa’s statements shifted Marsyl’s mood. The room was divided in two, as if there was a line drawn between Julian and Marisa. The music that was once playing and the arguments now transitioned to a long pause.
“You know what Julian. It’s either you respond to Atlantic and do something with your music, or else.” Marisa said.
“Or else what?” Julian asked angrily.
“Either you do something with this, or I’m leaving. It’s been years of this. Time you could be spending with me or doing something actually productive.” Marisa stated.
Julian didn’t say a word. He looked over to Marsyl and he was just as shocked as he was. Julian didn’t what to do, but he knew he had to do something. He walked over to the monitor. Clicked around the screen for a minute or so. Pulled the usb out of the monitor and threw it to Marisa.
“What is this?” Marisa asked confusingly.
“It’s what we’ve been working on for the last week.” Julian answered.
“Do what you want with it. What we’ve been making hasn’t been for nothing.” Julian said.
Marisa’s reaction matched Marsyl’s. Not much was said after. Marisa left a couple minutes later.
“Bro that was all of your music, why would you do that?” Marsyl asked.
“This was bigger than music.” Julian said.
Marsyl didn’t really get it, but at the same time he understood.
“Let’s get back to it.” said Julian.
Illustrations
During the Narrative Unit, the two main illustrator projects we were prompted to create were a Geometric Light Cover and any Illustrator project (I made a hoodie).
Geometric Light Cover Artist Statement
The piece of art that I have created is a laser-engraved design on a light cover. My design includes multiple obscure shapes such as boomerang shaped designs, wavy lines, and rounded pentagons that I arranged in a way to imitate a spiral. I also included stars in a simple arrangement to contrast the complexity of the other shapes. Lastly, I added wavy designs onto the “tail” of the light cover.
The message I’m trying to convey with my light cover is that the perfect balance of intricacy and simplicity can achieve visually appealing results in your art. In this project I used Adobe Illustrator to create the design on my Geometric Light Cover. Over the course of a week, I developed and put down a design by using Illustrator. Using the tools in software such as the pen tool, transform tool, and white selection tool, I was able to create two different designs for my cover. Some complications that I came across while doing this project is thinking of different designs to draw and how they could compliment each other on the cover. I developed a variety of shapes and designs throughout the week, but eventually decided on my final designs. Another challenge I faced was arranging my designs, but I eventually overcame this by continuing to play around with arrangements until I found one that looked good to me. I quickly found a nice arrangement for them.
During this project, I valued a lot from designing my Geometric Light Cover. I valued being able to learn the software during a semester, and being able to quickly apply my knowledge into a project that required a lot of brainstorming and deliberate drawing. I also valued the ability to develop an idea and put it down on a platform that can fully express it. I feel like being able to do that will encourage me to continue to be creative with future projects in Design, English, and Digital Media. This overall project was successful for me in terms of evaluating my skills in Adobe Illustrator and motivating my creativity in the future.
Illustrator Project
Illustrator Project Artist Statement
For my t-shirt, I drew the acronym OTR in a font I created. OTR stands for “On The Run,” which is a music group my friend started so I decided to make merchandise for him. Under the font I had a drawing of Earth in the regular blue and green color, but I also had a version of the earth in dark brown and orange. In addition, I was able to create a clipping mask for the acronym, so each letter was filled up with some part of the Earth that I drew. I was able to do this by putting each letter over my drawing of the Earth. I plan to put my designs on the left side of the chest and on the top of the hood.
In my project, I’m trying to convey that you can be able to create art related to interests you have outside of school. By being able to follow his passion in music, my friend can reach out to me to create things to promote his brand. Another message I’m trying to convey is that different forms of art can connect and combine to create something together. My friend’s music and my illustrations combine to boost his brand.
During this project, I valued being able to create something for my friend just based off of a vague description of what he wanted. I value this because I like the idea that I’m available resource to my friends if they need anything art-related. I also value my new ability to quickly develop an idea and put it down just how I wanted it. I faced challenges from the beginning of the project for multiple reasons. This was because I was attempting to create a new font for my acronym, which required a lot of time and development. The main problem I had was figuring out the right measurements of each letter and spacing so each letter looked proportional. I eventually solved this problem by keeping track of the sides of each letter so I could each measurement according to the previous line I made. Overall, I was satisfied with my piece and satisfied with how much I learned.
Design
During the Narrative Unit in Design, we were prompted to create a completely unique creature and background in Abobe Illustrator. The creature and background were based on the short story we had written in English. Our creature was composed of five different animals. During this production, I valued being able to continue to experiment with different methods of how I could achieve the effects that I wanted on my creature and background. Being able to try different approaches and features in Illustrator has allowed me to become more skilled and helped me [devlop] make my creature look the way I wanted it to. I’d like to thank Ms. P and my classmates for being there whenever I needed help or suggestions on my artwork.
Narrative Artist Statement
The short story that I created in English was about an LA producer, Julian Viernes that was challenged to choose between his girlfriend and his music career due to his girlfriend’s skepticism regarding his career choice. In this specific scene, we are outside of Julian’s apartment complex. In the distance is downtown LA, and the time of day is around dusk.
To create my character, I initially traced over pictures of each body part using images I found on DuckDuckGo. I traced over the images using the pen tool and eventually filled them in with the colors I chose. On each body part, I added a gradient in order to show where light is coming from. In addition, I added fur to the head of my creature to exhibit texture. For my character, I decided to use a tiger head, turtle shell, monkey tail, kangaroo legs, and praying mantis arms. I felt like a tiger represented Julian because he is an ambitious character and is willing to do what he needs to in order to accomplish his goals. A turtle suits Julian because he is wise in terms of his financial decisions and in controlling his temper. I used monkey and kangaroo parts because sometimes Julian can be pretty active and rambunctious. Lastly, I decided to add praying mantis arms because Julian is a pretty calm person. For my background, I decided to draw buildings in the distance. Leading up to the horizon line I have a road with other parts of the city included below. Initially, I had problems figuring out how to illustrate the distance between the buildings and the road but eventually learned how to use darker and lighter shades to exhibit distance. I also had problems tracing my initial template, so I decided to delete it and create my own background for the lower portion of the piece. One thing I would’ve done differently would’ve been to add more dimension to my buildings. I feel like that would’ve added more complexity to my background. I also wished I spent more time on gradients because some are uneven and inconsistent.
Color
One of the many things we learned in Design was color theory. We learned about the color wheel and how to use it to find color combinations such as complementary, triadic, tetradic, etc. We were also taught how to use a combination of colors to achieve certain moods. We used color theory in our narrative illustration using a Pantone book that had many different color palettes. We also learned about tints, tones, and shades and specifically how to use them in our art to accomplish a certain effect.
