A Short Introduction
Hello!
My name is Maria Haggart, and I’m an Animation student at Freestyle Academy. Through Animation, I’ve had the opportunity to explore different areas of art, such as modeling 3D objects in Autodesk’s Maya, rotoscoping, and gesture drawing. Freestyle has also allowed me to develop my passion for writing, allowing me to explore the different genres while offering a different approach to the typical English class.
For my Senior Showcase, I have decided to focus on writing and show my Junior Documentary book, as well as a compilation of concept designs I have created for various projects. I chose to show my documentary book because it represents a large part of who I am both inside and outside of class. Along with the book, I am showing the concept art portfolio to give visuals to the characters I had created in recent projects for Freestyle and a personal project.
I would love to get feedback on my writing and the general design of the book and portfolio. Is the sentence structure varied enough? Is the word choice within the book appropriate? How appealing is the layout of both projects? Did the portfolio have too many drawings? If so, how should I narrow them down in the future?
Next year, I plan to pursue creative writing at Chapman University in Orange, California. I am excited to be close to Los Angeles with all the opportunities the city has to offer and taking classes at Chapman to help improve my writing ability.
Feel free to contact me at maria.a.haggart@gmail.com!
My documentary book
This project was the most demanding project of Junior year. Along with choosing a topic that was both easily accessible and something we were interested in, we needed to write a research paper, expand it into a 26-page book that was fully designed by us, as well as create a product for our elective classes. I remember spending hours trying to figure out what to do for the project, listing what I had access to, what I wanted to, and looking for overlapping areas. In the end, I chose to write and research a water polo club I participated in every winter and summer. I knew the coaches well, which made communicating easier than it would be if I chose a topic I wasn’t as familiar with. Even though there were mishaps, such as accidentally not recording an interview and having to redo it, as well as accidentally making a copy of the InDesign document, this project was one of my favorites. It allowed me to develop my writing skills in a genre I wasn’t extremely familiar with, as well as learn more about my coaches and my club. I learned how to better manage my time, even if I’m still not the best at it. This project allowed me to learn new computer programs and helped me learn how to better edit my own work.
My Concept Design Portfolio
This project, rather than a single one, is a compilation of the best sketches, drawings, and backgrounds I’ve done in the past two years at Freestyle. While the portfolio book is long, it showcases both my artistic development in a short time, while also showcasing how I viewed characters in my story. Many of the sketches came after the major project for Senior year, the Zenith. It was after this project that I became motivated to work on drawing people and faces, as it was always something I wanted to avoid. I spent multiple weekends finding references and drawing those, and slowly, I got better. It still takes me multiple hours to create a drawing that’s good, but I can do it. This practice will ultimately help me become more confident in my own drawing abilities, and help me be more confident in my own work in general, as I’m generally nervous about sharing my work.