Final Artist Statement

My portfolio has many projects that I’ve done throughout this whole year. The ones I feel I was most successful with were the first projects we did at the beginning of the year. For example, the rule of thirds, macro, leading lines and all those little projects we did. I was most successful in these because they were easier to understand. I struggled most with the quilt square project and the surrealism project because I did not know how I wanted my project to look like or what I was going to put in it to make it look nice and how Ms. Cook wanted it to look. I was probably over thinking it too much, like if I needed to make it perfect or something.

Hopefully in the future I could get better at all these tutorials and art stuff we did in this class. A way that I believe I could improve is by practicing these things at home on my own and reading over some tutorials. My favorite thing that we learned in this class was the tutorials we used to make ourselves look like aliens and vampires. I really enjoyed that one because I think its fun messing with the faces and making ourselves look way different than normal. It was a really fun project. I will probably use this lesson again sometime just to mess around with my pictures at home. I know the tools I will definitely use to fix my everyday pictures in my future.

Another project I really liked and enjoyed was the quilt square project because it related mostly with my life and my experiences. The project had to be about us and how different people view us on the outside and us describing our inside and future and past, by doing that it made me connect with my life like family members and experiences that I’ve been through in the past. In the project I seen improvement in was the quilt square project because that’s where I used the most tutorials we learned in many different ways. I had a great experience in this class. I did not expect to learn so much about Photoshop and cameras.

Aperture

Aperture is the opening of a photographic lens that determines how much light will go in to take a picture. Aperture is measure in f-stops and decimals. The smaller the number the bigger the lens in the camera which means more light comes in. If the number is big that means the lens whole is smaller and lets less light in the picture. In the first, top picture the lens is small, and you can tell by the picture because not much light is in it just the usual for a picture. The second, bottom picture was taken with a bigger lens and you can tell by the light hitting the flower.

ISO

ISO 5000

ISO 800

ISO 400

ISO 50

Flash

ISO helps you take a good picture with light when you are in the dark. The more ISO used the more light in your picture and the less ISO the less light and darker picture. I used flash first before using ISO in my picture and the difference is that when I used flash the Christmas lights light was not really noticeable but you did have more light. With the ISO on the Christmas lights was able to be seen better and they actually looked like they were on and you also had light on the person. The second picture I used ISO 50, which is less light that goes in your picture. In the third picture I put the ISO to 400 so now there is more light and the person in the picture does not come out dark. In the fourth picture the ISO is now in 800 so now the person and the Christmas lights are more clearly seen. Last but not least, in the final picture I put the ISO to 5000 and now everything is seen way better. My picture came out blurry but if you take a good picture it will look nice because of the ISO.

Flash

There are pros and cons for using flash in a dark picture. The pro is that you will be able to see whatever you are taking a picture of in the dark and in the day time it takes the shadows away. The con is that if you use flash the brightness will look blurry and not pretty in the dark and in the daytime it will look too bright and disappear some things from the picture you are trying to take. Flash is a good idea, in the dark, when you want to take a picture of something that is close and no light in the background. It is also a good idea, in the day time, when you don’t want shadow in your picture. The picture I chose is better with flash off because the lighting in the pumpkin looks nice. If the flash was on, the light in the pumpkin will look too bright and kind of blurry.

Metering

A light meter helps you focus on the main thing you want focused and by doing that you need to get close to the subject and then scoot back to normal and take the picture. On the first picture the focus was on the computer screen. I got close to the computer screen so the screen could be seen well instead of just bright light. On the bottom picture the focus was on the person so no w the person is the emphasis and not the computer screen. You are now able to see the person but not the computer screen. Metering can help you in the future if, for example, you are in a dark place and you want a certain object to be your emphasis.

Surrealism: :"Entering Death"

Critique: In this picture there is a supersized girl bending down opening a very tiny, small door. Inside that little door there is a desert landscape with skeletons standing on the desert. The background for this image is a brick wall and through that brick wall you can see an ocean. On the top left corner of the brick wall there is a window and inside that window you can see and ocean with skeletons in the ocean. Blood is also coming out of the window. The emphasis for this picture is the big girl standing in the middle of the whole picture. It stands out because of the big, supersized girl. The compositional trick that is used is rule of thirds because of where the window is placed, on the top left corner. I think the artists’ interpretation for this surrealism is that skeleton can symbolize many things although people might think it symbolizes death or such thing. For the artist, it might mean the problems in life. My overall view of this picture is that the artist did a good job on the objects used. On the other hand, the artist needs to work more on interpreting what she is trying to express. Maybe use more objects or something like that.

Surreal Practice Tutorials

In the Desert Tutorial we did many different things to make it look realistic. First we distorted the dirt from the bottom corners to make it look far away not like a wall. Then we added a blue background but we had to add a gradient with three different colors to make it look realistic. Then we added a lamp post but to make it look real we added a shadow that looks a little faded at the end. We also blended it a little with the dirt. By creating this tutorial it will help me with my surreal project because I learned new things that I might want to add to my project.

Art Show: "Rule of Thirds"

Rule of Thirds

This is my Rule of Thirds artwork. My goal was to place the emphasis in a corner using the grid that cameras usually have. The rock is the emphasis, with a blurry far away background. I like it because I was just taking random rule of third pictures and this one was my first and perfect one. The rock is right where it’s supposed to be, on a corner and in the middle of the fence shadow. It was a well taken picture.

Graduation Program

I think a strength in my design for this cover was the letters I used. They stand out and easy to read. After looking at everyone else's covers, I believe I could have done a better background like more interesting and not to plain and simple. I thought graphic design was going to be very easy. I thought I was not going to have any problems doing these program but it was kind of hard because I couldn't put my thoughts together to make it look nice. In graphic design I think knowing what your design is going to look like is very important because if you start from scratch it will be hard to put your thoughts together, similar like what happened to me. Graphic design plays a role in society today by design different things and making them look more interesting that it grabs people's attention.

Alternate Program: Senior Portfolio Show

I think a strentgh of my design cover was the colors I used because it is only about three solid colors instead of it being so colorful. The thing that I could have done better was to use a different picture on the front cover and maybe use a different background or use it a different way. The thing I struggled with the most was the picture we had to put on it. I did not know what picture I wanted to put so at last minute I just put any picture. I think I did better on my Graduation cover because I had better ideas on how I wanted it to look like. I did better designs, I think.

Personal Quilt

MY QUILT

INSIDE

FUTURE

INSIDE

PAST

Doing this project was a great experience working with Photoshop. The idea I put into this project came from me and some came from looking at others quilts. My decisions were pretty good but I know I could have had better thought into it. In some quilts I couldn't think of anything to put, my mind would go blank. I think some cam out better than others. Like my past quilt, I like that one better than the other three because I put more thought into it. On the other quilts it jut wasn't enough what I put in them. My struggle was thinking of what to add to the quilt square and finding symbols to express my ideas in such a way that would represent them clearly. To overcome these struggles I asked people what were some good symbols and pictures to add, it did help a little. All of my four squares had the color purple in comparison to unite them in a certain form. For each square I used different symbols but the one that most stood out to me the most was the rings in my future quilt because it was all big and noticeable. In all four of my quilts I was honest in expressing my thoughts. What I like about my quilts is that I used the color purple to unite them because purple is my favorite color. I also believe that would be the strongest part of the quilts I have made. I had a great experience throughout this project. I learned new things about me and new things from Photoshop. What I would do different is think harder about what to include in my quilts and out more thought into each one of the squares.