Life Update

Hello Everyone!

I just went back to college about a week or so ago and things are going well.  I FINALLY GOT MY ART STUDIO (hooray!!!) and just finished moving all of my supplies and pictures over a few hours ago.

I'm doing well in my classes - even with my busy schedule- and I promise to start uploading works in progress that I've been doing for some of my art courses.  I have a 3 x 4 ft painting due in a week, so you probably won't be hearing much from me until I get that done and out of the way.  Wow....okay....see you guys later!
-The Niz

College: so much supplies and so little space

So, as you know, I am preparing to go back to the wonderful world of college in a few days and so, I spent all of today packing and sorting all my art supplies.  Now since NONE of my art teachers have responded to me or sent me any sort of supply lists, I just have to overpack and hope for the best (and bring a lot of gift cards for the art stores in town).

My main worry for move in day is my roommate running out of the room, terrified that she's living with a hoarder who brought 8 boxes of art supplies on the first day.

In order to avoid this scenario, I am discreetly going to bring up my materials in different waves.  Since I live close by, my parents are going to bring my materials over the course of a few days, so I don't get overwhelmed the first day.  The hope is that I will also have an art locker (and HOPEFULLY a BFA art studio to work in) but we'll see.

For my first wave, I'm just bringing up the supplies I HAVE TO HAVE.  I also plan on working the weekend before classes start (such an overachiever) and I want to start working on another paper cutout model of my church.

So far my list is as follows:

FIRST WAVE-

• Mungyo Gallery Soft Oil Pastels (3 old boxes of 48)
• Portfolio Water Soluble Oil Pastels (3 new boxes of 12)
• 3 Sennelier oil pastels (black, gray, and white)
• All tortillons I have on hand
• Prang watercolors (half and full pan)
• 4 cheap brushes
• 5 vine charcoal sticks of various sizes in a glass jar
• 2 Scraper tools
• 5 Color Shapers
• 2 Trays to hold water (for watercolors)
• 3 pieces of wood (16" x 4" x .25")
• Metal ruler
• 6" clear ruler
• T-Square
• Triangle Ruler (can't live without it)
• Tape Measure
• Scissors
• Smart Living Invisible Tape (6)
• Sandpaper (varying tooths and sheet sizes)
• thumb tacks
• 2 Strathmore Sketchpads 5.5" x 8.5", 100 sheets each
• Plastic portfolio 30" x 23"
• first aid kid (I'm clumsy)
• box cutter
• Cutting Mat 16" x 23"
• 6 Kneadable Erasers
• Pearl Eraser
• Camera/Charger
• Flashlight and Lamp (for light sources)
• pencil sharpener
• pack of Ticonderoga #2 pencils
• 8 leadless pencils
• pack of Bic round stic black pens
• a box full of old colored pencils of various brands, sizes, and colors
• giant drawing board with clips
• MY SAVIOR - my lap desk (a comfy drawing board with clips, a pillow underneath it, and indents to store all of my tools when I'm working

SECOND WAVE-

• 9 Oil Paint Tubes
• 2 Sable brushes
• 4 dead brushes (last year was a bad year)
• brush cleaner
• gamsol
• galkyd 
• 3 alcohol inks (Adirondack brights - red, blue, and yellow) 
• Alcohol Blending Solution
• India ink
• Sumi ink
• Face/Mouth mask (for charcoal)
• extra xacto knife (for my possible studio)
• 100 No. 11 xacto blades
• Iridescent Medium
• Ox Gall Liquid
• Masking Fluid
• Gum Arabic
• A Sponge (found in Hobby Lobby) - good for texture
• YES! Paste
• Scotch blue painter's tape
• electrical tape
• 4 Sharpies 
• 3 Golden Artist Colors Acrylic Paint tubes (red, blue, and yellow)
• Strathmore Sketchpad 5.5" x 8.5", 100 sheets
• Borden & Riley #880s Royal Sketch Book 6" x 9", 60 sheets
• Strathmore Watercolor pad 9" x 12", 12 sheets
• scrap pieces of tracing paper
• Canson XL Mixed Media Pad 18" x 24"
• Canson Drawing Pad 18" x 24"
• Strathmore Newsprint Pad 18" x 24"
• Canson Watercolor Pad 18" x 24" 
• Yupo Sheet (huge)
• Arches Paper 22" x 28" (around 7 sheets)
• Any old artworks, references, art magazines I feel are inspiring enough to bring back with me
• As much scrap paper as humanly possible

And there you have it.  This is the chaos that I'm living with right now.  I am taking a figure drawing class and a painting class next semester with professors I've never heard of, so I really have nothing to base my supply list on.  I can't say that I've used all of the materials mentioned since a lot of art professors make you buy a ton of stuff and never use it in their classes.  Honestly, if any of you know anything about Iridescent Medium, Ox Gall Liquid, Masking Fluid, or Gum Arabic PLEASE tell me!  

Anyway, thanks for listening to my hectic life.  Now that everything artsy is sorted (for the most part) I can go on to packing and sorting through all the clothes and books in my closet, YAY! *collapses from exhaustion*

Home Stretch!

Wow, 5 days left until I go back to school - which translates to 4 main work days and one packing day.  I'm trying to plan and sketch one of my last pieces of the summer which was inspired by the challenge #drawthisagain .  I plan to redo my glass squirrel picture again for the third time since 2012.  Let's hope I finish in time!

I'm also trying my best to write up and film the video on subtraction I've been working on and I also promised Lady Avolate (a good friend of mine) that I would try to do a dance video of Last of the Wilds by Nightwish.  While I don't have the editing tools, space or time alone to do it at home, I have already cut the song and am thinking of steps and choreography, so we'll see when that gets done.

Also, just to give you an idea of my progress the last few years, here are my two glass squirrel oil pastel pictures:


The first is from the summer of 2012, right before my senior year of high school and AP Art.

The second is from March of 2015.  It was made during my junior year of college for my Thematic Drawing class.  It was the first drawing I did in oil pastel and also one of the last since the professor hated oil pastels.  She also hated color which explains the sad lack of color.

My next picture (the one I'm working on this week) will also be in oil pastel and will thankfully be in color.  Getting started on it right now! Woohoo!

And Another One Done!

Woohoo! Just finished this piece a couple of minutes ago.  This piece looked hideous for so long that I'm actually excited it came out looking a little less ugly.  I definitely have trouble following through with my artwork and committing to ideas, so this was a practice of that more than anything else.  I created the base picture with all forms created and shaded with oil pastel - like I would do for any normal artwork of mine - except I left the figure and background lighter than usual.  Instead, I went over the whole thing with black charcoal in the darker areas to give it that extra layer of a smoky, rich black.  I only have 12 more days until I go back to school, so I'm trying to finish up as much as possible and straighten out my BFA ideas before classes begin.  

This piece is based on some Hermione/Lupin fanfiction (don't judge) I stumbled across where she ends up being bitten by a werewolf.  I am in love with the story and it made me start to research more about werewolf art and how artists depict the transformation.  Not to mention, I also just did another 2 hour "photoshoot" session where I just do random poses with random lighting and props and see what pictures inspire me.  I just completed another fabric "photoshoot" which only lasted for an hour since I was getting frustrated by the end, but I got a lot of creepy, twisted forms out of it, so I can't wait to start drawing them.  

I also just saw my new dorm room today and am freaking out since it is half the space I had the last 2 years.  I don't know where I'm going to store all of my at supplies since the desk is just a small board attached to the foot board of my bed.  There is no storage space and I haven't even begun to think where I can work in this tiny space that I will be sharing with a girl who is not an art major.  Needless to say, my anxiety is through the roof.  

Any video suggestions you might have for my artist channel can be left in the comments below, on my facebook page, or my youtube channel.  I am trying to at least do one or two more videos before college starts - but if I get more suggestions, I'll do more.  So far, I have the requested sgraffito video planned and I thought I might do one on what art supplies I'm taking with me to college.  Also, I have another piece (sgraffito) nearly done, so I will post that and show how I made it in my tutorial video.  

New Video!

Hi guys, just posted my new ART That video on my charcoal and oil pastel work.  Next up is a video someone in the comments asked me to make on sgraffito with oil pastels, so now I just have to decide what piece I'll be making for that video.  As always, I would love to hear from you - any comments, concerns, questions, suggestions, etc.  I only have a few weeks left before I go back to college, so I want to get as much done as possible before then.

I want to map out some of my BFA pictures and my theme a LOT more.  I have a huge list of books I want to read and some that also relate to my theme.  I also want to get ALL reference pictures I could ever want or imagine done while I'm at home since I won't be in a room with an art major this year and I will have no real personal space or time to myself.  And finally, I want to share as much as I can here and on Facebook and my Youtube page.  I'm reading a book called "Show Your Work!" by Austin Kleon and I would DEFINITELY recommend it!  It provides me with motivation and makes me want to work and share and build a community and network of artists.  Anyway, that's enough of my rambling for the night.  Good night everyone!

My Religious Journey (Warning - Long and Sad)

Hi guys!  Hope you are all doing well.  If you have checked out my Youtube page, I have mentioned that I was going to explain the meaning of the theme of my BFA theme, which will be my religious experiences.

Short Disclaimer: I do not mean to offend, these opinions are mine and are based on personal experiences.  I also still identify as Catholic, still go to church and still believe.  I am not anti-Catholic or anti-church as much as I believe reforms are necessary.

Ok, with that being said, this is my story:

When I was little, I got all the normal sacraments, went to religious ed every week and church every Sunday.  However, I went to a small church because it was close by and as a result, we had less than qualified religious ed teachers.  My first teacher was a teenager with a face full of piercings who only read from the textbook without explaining anything.  She left in the middle of the year due to tongue piercing infection.

My next teacher was a baseball coach who just talked about sports with us, so I didn't learn anything with him.  Then I had an amazing teacher named Mrs. Judson.  She actually taught us and a the end of the year, she sewed a stuffed teddy bear for everyone in the class.  I didn't want the year to end when I had her.  But sadly, it did, and the next year I was forced to take a class with a man who spoke of nothing but video games and how they were all leading us to sin.  Occasionally we would watch a movie in the class on religion and religious education, but those were few and far between.

My mother finally got fed up with this long line of ineffective teachers and told our parish that we were going to relocate to another church.  The lady that ran the religious ed program said that that was fine, but we would never be allowed back into their program again.  She even said that in front of ME and MY LITTLE BROTHER.  Because of this, I always felt like I was "kicked out" of this first church and that I was "unwelcome there" and I still feel that when I occasionally go there to this day.

From there, we went to our second parish, which was a larger community in the most beautiful church you could ever imagine.  We got involved in the church's religious ed summer camp which took the place of a year of religious education.  After being in the program for two amazing years, I was able to become a camp counselor and was assigned to a class of kindergarteners.

It was by far, the most rewarding experience of my life.  I found that I loved teaching and working with kids and it is because of this experience that I decided to be an art teacher.  As I worked in the camp, I also felt my faith being restored.  I felt closer to God and I just felt WHOLE.  I loved my kids and I stayed with them as they moved up to first, second and third grade before being placed with another set of first graders my final year.  During this time, I made so many friends, I matured, and I also crushed on the RIGHT type of guy for the first time.  As I worked my way up the ladder, I was given more responsibilities and, after telling the woman in charge of my desire to be a teacher, she made me a co-teacher for a first grade class.

Honestly, I never was a super religious person and no one in my family was either.  But for the first time, I WANTED to go to church.  It was a place to see my kids and connect with people in the community.  I felt like a part of something bigger and I knew that there were people I could always turn to if I needed help.  Doing this camp was the ONE thing I looked forward to every summer, even more than vacations!

After my graduation from high school, I wasn't worried about quitting the camp.  Many teens came back from college to volunteer there over the summer and I wasn't going to be the exception.  The woman in charge even offered me a position as a full time teacher for one of the younger grades!  Everything looked like it was going to be fine but sadly, camp never happened that year.

While I was away at school, we had a new priest come in from the city.  He immediately got rid of the religious ed program and summer camp, saying that it wasn't a recognized or acceptable way of teaching in the eyes of the church.  We showed him letters of support from nuns who loved the program, but he ignored us.  He then got rid of the altar servers, saying that they were disrupting him and the ones that weren't "fired" quit.  I couldn't believe that altar servers - just CHILDREN were being fired from their roles at mass.  Next, the priest stated being difficult with our choir and musicians - locking up the instruments so they couldn't practice and treating them like criminals who wanted to steal the instruments.  They didn't last long either.  The musicians quit first, followed by the singers and finally, the children's choir was disbanded.

After that, he seemed to take his anger out on the other priests in the church.  Our priest from Africa, (amazing man, couldn't say enough about him) was given an inferior role in the church, rarely saying mass and performing tasks like taking out the trash.  You could see the sadness in his eyes every time you went to church and he did speak to some of us about it.  Eventually, he too left us and was reassigned to another church hours away.

The other priest there was also highly respected and had worked at our parish for many years.  Somehow, a spot on his record came up after decades of silence.  He apparently had a relationship with an underage boy that was made known when it had happened and had been swept under the rug.  He was removed from the church and we don't know what happened to him.

Then the new priest, with all others gone, started firing everyone.  Secretaries that worked in the church offices, maintenance workers, even an old gardener who had worked there for years.  All were fired.  He even fired the two women who coordinated the entire religious ed program and they were escorted out by police.  As if two highly respected old women would do anything violent to harm a priest!  He then replaced all the staff with new people - hiring organists who couldn't play, teachers with no certification or experience, and replacing the altar servers with the children of his supporters.

Suddenly, my church had turned into a battle ground where everyone was taking sides.  People were turning against one another and the people who sat next to us in church, though one friends, shunned us for our support of the religious ed women.  Almost overnight the priest had also gained a powerful ally in the mayor of the city. The mayor now frequented the church, spoke at mass, provided funding, and even was responsible for the police escort.

In this incredibly hostile environment, people stopped taking their children to church.  One by one I saw my kids leave me until there were none left at all.  We, the opposing team, created a facebook page and an email account, emailing everyone we could possibly find from the parish.  We planned meetings and I was shocked when my normally shy mother agreed to go with me.  When I walked into that first meeting after a month or two of an empty church, I felt like I was home again.  I saw some of my kids, I saw so many parents I recognized, the musicians, the chior, the ushers - everyone was there.  We spoke of what we knew - separating rumors from truth -  and tried to find a way to bring the parish back together.  We wrote so many letters to anyone who would listen.  We called the archdiocese of NY and when they told us all to stop calling, we started emailing them and sending letters.  We sent letters to anyone with power or influence in the church that we could think of and one girl even sent a long message to the Pope imploring him for help.  Still, we heard nothing.

Finally, we had to act.  There was a chance the church would be closing and combining with another nearby parish because our funding was so low (no one was going to church).  We could not let the church we called home for so many years get destroyed.  In one last - ditch effort, we made our final stand.  We all attended church one Sunday morning and everyone was told to wear blue in honor of our most immaculate mother Mary.  All of the counselors and teachers wore their camp staff shirts with a picture of the church on the back that said "Celebrating 100 years".  We emailed people who had long ago given up hope and had moved on to other churches and begged them to come.

When I arrived at the church that day, I couldn't believe my eyes.  In front of me was a massive sea of blue.  All of my friends and kids and the community I had grown so close to had come back.  I felt powerful again and I felt that I BELONGED.  After weeks of counting only 20 people at mass, that day we counted 200+ and more people were expected to show up after mass to join us.  After weeks of no one singing and no joy in the parish, we sang to our hearts content.  After mass, we went outside to a place where we were legally able to peacefully demonstrate.  We held signs that said OLMC Pray For Us and we all did a decade of the rosary.  Afterwards, we sang.  We sang for an hour or so and it was amazing.  My kids came back to say high to me and they all sang with us as well.  As the mass emptied out, the priest's supporters became very angry.  One man in particular yelled at us as we were saying our hail mary's and cursed at us in front of all the kids.  Cops were called, but they just watched on since we were doing nothing illegal.  We invited news people to tell our story and broadcast the even and we tried so hard to get the event out there - not for the publicity but because we thought that it might get the archbishop to LISTEN to us.

Instead, nothing happened.

Everyone found different churches,the choir leader moved thousands of miles away, and it was like it never happened.  Everytime I go to church now, I am constantly reminded of what we used to have.  I remember how it was in the first pew from the right that I learned one of my kids was partially deaf and it was in the pew behind him that I comforted his classmate when her mother left her for the first time.  It was six rows back in the middle row that I sat next to some of my favorite kids during the end of camp closing mass and it was after mass that we all had a big group hug.  I remember the last year of camp when I was in the center left row, disappointed that I didn't get placed with my kids again until I found out that I was the counselor to many of their younger siblings.  It was in the back of the church during a class on stained glass biblical stories that I stayed in the back with one of my campers when he was feeling sick and was in the third row from the back when I watched him and his classmates receive their first Communion.  I remember the sleepless nights I spent making pictures of all my kids' favorite animals and I remember the year I got a drawing back in return from one of my campers.

In the now-closed religious ed building opposite the church, I remember racing counselors up the stairs to get the campers' supplies at the end of the day and I remember fooling around with them whenever we had a break.  Outside a classroom on the second floor I taught my girl the Hail Mary (since she was ahead of the other students) and the following year I comforted a girl outside the next door as she cried from homesickness.  I was the first one singing and dancing during music class, the one who would get you any art supplies you could dream of during art class, and at lunchtime I was Super Woman, opening any water bottles and stubborn chip bags.  I helped set the camp up, painting backdrops and decorating the gym and I was one of the last ones leaving on the last day.

Now church is just a grim reminder of what once was.  I still don't feel welcome in my own parish and even though everyone is home from college, no one has come back to the church.  I hear that other people are thriving at other parishes, but I just can't move on.  Mount Carmel was my HOME and I can't believe that in a place I once felt such joy and wholeness, I now feel nothing at all.  Other parishes just don't cut it.  Though it is a depressing sight now, I still have the memories every time I step through those doors.  Though make me sad, I can't let them go, can't forget - because that would mean forgetting that community and most importantly, forgetting my kids.

More than anything, I pray that they will be able to move on and forget.  I pray that they were all saved from that priests sexist and mean spirited actions and words and I hope that this doesn't shatter their faith like it has for me.  I'm still a practicing Catholic and I still believe, but these events have left a lasting scar on my soul.

I no longer sing in church, I feel guilty because I have doubt in the structure of the system of churches and its power.  I feel like I don't belong in Christian or Catholic groups on campus because I consder my personal faith as inferior to their own.  I just don't know how to worship anymore or be so closely connected with God.

It has been over three years since my last confession and all I want is to be able to go to camp next week like I always did all those years ago.

ART That - New Youtube Series

Hey everyone!  Check out my new Youtube video:

It's on Artist's Block and Motivation and hopefully it's less awkward than my last video.  I'm thinking of making my ART That videos into a series.  If anyone has any topics they want me to cover put it in the comment section below.  My next video will be a quick one just describing my charcoal experiments with some progress pictures.  I'm almost done creating it, I just have to do the voiceover, which I should be able to complete today.  I don't know when I will be able to upload it since this last one took 3 hours to upload.  I might just have to wait until I get faster Internet speeds, which should happen in the next few days.

Charcoal Experiment #2

For the second day in a row I created another charcoal oil pastel piece.  (I apologize for not posting my religious theme story like I promised in my last post, but it's 2 am and this was easier to cover before bed.)

This time, I continued with the whole fabric thing I have going on at the moment.  Funny enough, I'm still referencing and being inspired by pictures I took 2 year ago at college of my roommate with my bed sheet over her.  I'm so glad I organize my reference pictures by year and subject so I can easily access them.

This time, to further experiment, I tried to apply the charcoal to a base layer of Portfolio series water soluble oil pastels instead of my usual Mungyo Gallery soft oil pastels.  The reason for this being that the Portfolio pastels are incredibly cheap and I have tons of boxes of them.  Therefore, I love to use them when I work on huge projects, like when my professors tell me to do 3 feet x 4 feet projects (which actually happens quite often).  My Mungyo pastels are far to precious to waste like that, so I sacrifice a little bit of quality on my larger works so I can save money (college student budget).

This time, my piece turned out quite well with no noticeable changes as far as the charcoal sticking and blending are concerned.  This piece is 5.5"x 8.5" and was created on Strathmore Sketch paper (my favorite kind of all-purpose sketch books).

Experimentation and a Possible Theme

So this week I've been thinking about my strengths and some possible theme ideas for my BFA.  Originally my theme was impermanence, which I then narrowed down to my religious experiences.

I went back and looked at all my old artwork and found that the pieces I was most proud of were from two years ago during my foundations art year.  Those pieces were drawn mostly from life with some intense shadows and dramatic light sources.  I also found I love the methodical process of drawing fabric.

Though it wasn't my original idea to use religion and fabric together, now I find myself wanting to find a way to fit them together.  I promise the next post will go into my whole experiences with my church, but for length purposes, I thought it would be better to separate the posts.

I also want to say that I am in no way anti-Catholic or atheist or anti-church.  I still identify as a Roman Catholic and go to church regularly.  I've just had some bad experiences with corruption in the church that have made me struggle with my faith.

Now onto what I've been working on today.  I love drawing fabric, but find it's easiest to draw with pencil and charcoal.  The only problem is that I despise charcoal since it can just be wiped away in an instant (done it before by accident) and I hate breathing it in and getting it everywhere.  But now, I think I've found the perfect solution for me.

 My main medium is oil pastel, so I did one layer of pastels, blending them in with my fingers and I had a slight gradient to them to match the lighting of my reference picture.

From there, I did a separate drawing of the same figure on a piece of paper (the same size) mapping out the lights and darks of the piece.

 I then cut of the dark forms with my box cutter (since my xacto knife is mysteriously missing) and cut out the background as well since that too is dark.

Next I ground up some vine charcoal on some scrap paper, wiped my brush in it (just the cheapest paintbrush I could buy) and dabbed it on the stencil over my original oil pastel background.

I then removed the stencil and continued to play with brushes and creating lines and gradients in the picture.

My first test with a snowflake pattern cutout

The oil pastel locked in the charcoal so it doesn't move (unless I blend it out) and stays fixed to the paper.  It also creates that lovely smoky effect that charcoal is known for.  I want to experiment more with this because it sounds like a pretty awesome idea and I definitely need to work with it more.  It would look amazing as a large scale drawing, but I think I may be running low on my preferred Mungyo Soft oil pastels, so we'll see.

 As always, feel free to give me feedback and tell me what I should do next.  I want to make a Facebook page and get more of my art online, so we'll see when I decide to take on that project. Until next time!

Upcoming Pieces

So here are a few pieces I want to work on this summer:

I'd like to get a few more religious pieces/sketches out of the way since that's most likely what my BFA will consist of.  No real ideas yet, but we'll see.  I'll definitely have another post or 2 regarding my concept and theme and the story behind it.  Hopefully going back to the original concept will help my work be more focused.  We'll see.

Another topic I want to cover in my art is obviously my foster greyhound, which I told you about in my last two posts.  Now that there's a chance we'll get to keep her longer, I'm putting off sketching her for the time being, but I definitely have some fun drawings planned for her.

A huge focus of my summer work is going to be beach art and pictures of my favorite place in the entire world, Wildwood, New Jersey.  At college, all the professors want art with meaning and dialogue and soul searching.  So every summer, I like to take a step back from all that and just focus on art that makes me feel good.

Similarly, I want to do some fan art pieces for Disney stuff, favorite books, movies, etc.  Just like most artists, I suffer from some severe artist's block and there are times that I just feel no will to create.  I try to be more lenient with myself in the summer since I don't have the luxury of just doing nothing at school, but to work through these blocks, I try to just do stuff that's fun and enjoyable.  Sometimes I just need to remind myself of why I went into a major in the arts and just do something to keep that flame alive.  Some of the art I want to do include references to  Harry Potter, Stardust, Queen (2014 Bollywood movie), Pirates of the Caribbean, Tarzan, and definitely Hunchback of Notre Dame (which incidentally has been inspiring my religious themed artwork as well).

I also plan to finish up a lot of the Disney art I started last summer but failed to finish.  My original plan was to create little pictures that I could put up on my wall in college and create a cool mosaic/collage.

I'm also taking a figure drawing course in the fall, so I definitely have to get back in the swing of drawing people, since I've been avoiding it for a few months now.

There are also some major birthdays coming up regarding my friends and family, and I always make art for people just as a special way to give back and say "thank you" to them, so you can expect to see some works like that as well.  (I have a lovely Corona bottle on a beach picture that I've been working on for a while now that I plan to give to my mother for her birthday so stay tuned).

  I plan to update you guys on my process and sketches and ideas as I go.  I might also make a Facebook page for my art just so I can get the word out more.  I'm also looking forward to using my new Youtube page since my first oil pastel video was so popular.  (Don't worry, I promise the videos will be a lot less awkward now that it's not a school assignment).  And hopefully, you'll see less of me and more of my artwork.  That's all I can think of at the moment.  I just wanted to write everything down so I don't have any excuses next time I tell myself I have no ideas and nothing to draw!

Puppy Update!

Well, it's been a week since we received our first email regarding our greyhound changing foster homes and finally we have good news!  A big thank you goes out to all of our friends in our greyhound group for just being so supportive of our puppy and willing to stand up for what's right.  Our puppy will still be away for a while when we go on vacation, but we will continue to (hopefully) foster her afterwards as well.  Yay!

Update: What have I been doing for the past month?

I can't believe it's been over a month since I finished my Digital Visual Culture class and the only question that comes to mind is "what have I done in the past month?".  The easy answer is that I'm taking a month long college course and then going on vacation, so I'm currently using that as my excuse to my lack of progress or artwork. 

On top of all of the craziness, my foster greyhound is being taken away because the leader of my greyhound rescue group is a terrible and spiteful person.  I have yet to hear back from the woman, but from what I've been told, she will be re-fostered (for the THIRD time) and taken away on Saturday.  Now please don't misunderstand.  I did not abuse her or do anything that would make them take her from me.  I merely asked for vacation coverage in the upcoming month and somehow that turned into finding another foster family.  I've had this dog for about 7 months at this point.  She was always the first one to greet me when I came home and the first to whine when I went away again.  I love this dog with all my heart and it's sad to say, but I love her more than my last greyhound, just because I feel like she's more affectionate and attached to me.  I wish I could adopt her, but like everything else in my life, the timing is just not right. 

I've been crying all week over this dog and I cannot imagine parting with her.  I can't bring myself to lock myself in my room to make art when I know that I could be spending these precious hours with my puppy.  I want to have SOMETHING to remember her by, so I might be making a picture or 2 (or 10) of her.  Originally, I wanted to make a rotoscope or zine of her, but as I am home for the summer, I no longer have access to Photoshop and I am pulling my hair out over gimp. 

Here's a picture of my baby.  All she needs is a good home and a family who love her.  She's good with other dogs, likes peanut butter and long naps and likes nothing better that licking and headbutting her owners.  She's having some trouble with slippery floors and open backed stairs, but we're working on it slowly but surely.  She's thunder friendly and one of the sweetest dogs you will ever meet. 

I plan to keep making posts as often as possible this summer - blogging about my art/sketches/ideas (maybe some more YouTube tutorials/time lapses) and possibly with some lessons/observations since I'll be tutoring my cousin all summer.  Check back for more updates, comment and follow my page and have a great day!

ARE316 FINAL

1. The most significant show and tell in my opinion was Hali's Coding Academy show and tell.  I have no experience whatsoever in coding and it was not really offered at my high school.  I feel as though this is something vital that we need to learn in this day and age and it helped me understand the idea of "digital literacy" better.  The sites Hali provided seemed fun and easy to use and I plan to explore them and try to learn from them over the summer.  I have seen so many of my former teachers assigned courses that they have no idea how to teach, so I hope that in becoming more fluent in digital literacy, I might be able to better prepare myself for anything to come.  I believe that it could be fun to try to do a coding project in the classroom and after exploring these sites more, I hope I will have a better understanding of the limitations of coding and the possibilities of what we can do with it.  I believe knowing how to code is necessary for children today and it is better for them to learn it earlier rather than later.  I wish that I was taught a little about it in my required computer science classes in middle school instead of merely learning how to type faster.

2. Two readings that I think were important to this course were Gill 2009 and Kellner & Share 2005.  In Gill's essay he wrote:  "Games Generation workers rarely even think of reading a manual.  They'll just play with the software, hitting every key if necessary, until they figure it out."  This quote really made me evaluate what I wanted my teaching style to be like.  I realized that my lessons were too instructional based and did not contain enough free thinking and exploration for students to discover solutions on their own.  It also made me look at my own life and my stubborn refusal to look at instructions or manuals when I try to fix things or put them back together.  I also have to say that I loved this reading's positive look at how video games effect children's digital literacy.  Everything in the news always seems to discuss how violent video games are and how violent our children are becoming as a result of this exposure.  For Gill to actually say that scholars believe video games skills and abilities can transfer to other computer skills, I couldn't be happier.  This brings me back to this idea of skill acquired knowledge that I want my future classrooms to based around instead of lectures and demos.  This reading inspired me to make my 3D prosthetic project based on a design I saw in Assassin's Creed.  I modeled my design off of the hidden blade worn by Ezio Auditore in AC2 because I liked the sturdy design and I thought that it had the potential to be a very sleek and elegant design.  I also thought that the arm attachment offered more control than a finger attachment and the user would be able to put more pressure on it that one tiny little finger.

The second reading, Kellner & Share 2005, was equally important in its message to us as future educators.  In the reading it said, "Further, a student-centered, bottom-up approach is necessary for a standpoint analysis to come from the student's own culture, knowledge, and experiences."  I have seen this concept in effect in this course since day one.  All of the projects were centered around us coming up with our own solutions and working off of our past experiences.  Most projects were left very open ended for this particular reason as well.  This course was not about a professor lecturing us for hours on end.  Instead it focused on the students and how we can improve as artists, students, and future educators.  I have always worked off of my own knowledge, culture and experiences in this course - as evident in all of my projects and designs.  As said previously, I designed my prosthetic based on my favorite video game and I also designed my 3D lesson plan (the 3D CO2 race cars) based on a lesson I was taught in my middle school woodshop class.  My videos featured my roommates and their phone/technology addictions, my love for oil pastels (which I use in the majority of my artwork), and an awesome Irish Dance video since that is the culture I most strongly connect to and identify with.  For my last project, I helped come up with the kiosk design - which was based off of my Girl Scout Silver Award project (2 posts down if you haven't read about it already) and my experiences as flier designer and PR person for my dance/art/music team, FOCUS.  My final lesson plan, as said in other posts as well, was created because of all of the problems I see in my own community and my desire to fix them.  I think that by using this student-based approach, it helped us become more engaged in the class and its curriculum and I cannot wait to create more projects, videos, and lesson plans like the ones I made in this class.  This reading stressed students' need to desconstruct media and learn how to create their own and I hope I have become better able to do so as a result of this course.

3.  I absolutely loved every project we did in this class, so it's impossible for me to pick a favorite.  I loved working collaboratively in a group and think of ways to improve campus life for the community.  I also enjoyed learning about and using 3D printers and I think they are the coolest things ever.  I hope to take a digital design and fabrication course in the future here just so I can learn more.  However, if I had to choose the most influential project, it would have to be the video cluster.  That project introduced me to the laid-back atmosphere in this class, which was the complete opposite of the graphic design course I took last semester.  That class had such specific instructions that when I first walked in this class, I felt lost.  I went from having no options and no say in the projects we did to having free reign in everything we did in this class.  The first project cluster helped me get used to this kind of class format again and helped me make decisions for myself instead of blindly following the instructor's suggestions and decisions.  The videos also made me realize how much talent the people on Youtube really have since it took so many tries for me to make the least awkward video possible.  I never knew it would be so hard to talk to a camera until I made my instructional 10 minute video.  Looking back, there are so many things I would have done differently in that and my documentary.  I would have made them more eye-catching and attention grabbing if I could.  I would also change the formats around so they told a story more clearly.  I follow a few teachers who make instructional art videos on youtube for their students and everyone else, and I watched AP Calculus and Chemistry videos religiously when preparing for my exams.  I found them to be a great help in bridging the gap between classroom learning and my time at home.  These videos are essential in today's society as a way to take learning outside of the classroom and make it a continuous project.  This skill is definitely one I should work on for the future as it could help me in my career and just my overall sense of confidence.  For being such a horrible instructional video, I never imagined it would get so many comments and views on youtube.   While my Irish dance video only has 82 views to date, my oil pastel tutorial has 1,069 views and 21 likes.  I even received one comment giving me advice on other brands of oil pastels to try.  I think this is a great way for artists to connect to one another and give each other support and advice, so I hope to use my channel more for these types of tutorials (and maybe a few dance videos) in the future.

One final update on my Tinkercad 3D printing prosthetic

I know I finished my Tinkercad project a long time ago, but I still want to give you one final update.  Since I have to move out of my room tomorrow, I'm afraid my final project is already at my house, probably in storage.  So sadly, all I can show you is my final design:

https://tinkercad.com/things/bwhxApZD3iR

As you can see, I made the base of the design taller to better accommodate pens and eventually, I got rid of the rods altogether since they weren't printing out properly.  Instead, I used metal rods of about the same size that I took from an old car set my brother had.  I attached it to my arm with velcro wraps that I bought in A.C.Moore and I took the spring from my pen and attached it to the switch.  Sadly, I still needed to make adjustments for it to work properly, but it printed out in this awesome bright red color, so I can't be too disappointed in the way it turned out.

I could have printed it out a final time, but instead of that, I asked my little brother, who's a high school junior, what he wanted me to print for him.  I showed him Thingiverse and eventually, after hours of looking, he decided he wanted this:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:22115

A Squirrel Guardian that he only picked because it had a cool name and he hoped it would bring him luck on his AP exams.  So despite my confusion, I printed it anyway.  Surprisingly, it turned out far better than I could have possibly imagined.  We had it printed in his favorite color: blue, and it stands at about 3 inches high.  Here's a picture of the finished product- the perfect guardian squirrel:

Lesson Plan Possibilities- Turning Plans into Realities

So I've been thinking about ways my lesson plan described previously could extend outward and actually effect the community and I think I've found a possible solution.  I think that since it is supposed to be taught at the high school level, it would be a perfect way to get any boy scouts or girl scouts to start thinking about their Eagle Project/Gold/Silver Award Projects.  Sadly, I never received my Gold Award due to some unforeseen circumstances in my troop during my senior year, but I did manage to get my silver and bronze awards.   For my silver award project, my troop and I updated and redesigned part of Bower Park:
http://pleasantvalley-ny.gov/community/parks/bower-park/

I was responsible for mapping out the entire park and trails and the rest of my troop made trail signs and a kiosk for the map and information about the trails.  I lived near this park for years and never even knew it existed until we started this project.  It helped me look at my community with a more critical eye of how we can make the most out of what we already have.  The park when we first visited was spacious enough and had plenty of trails, but they were hard to follow and left hikers confused on what direction to go.  After plenty of town hall meetings and setbacks, we were finally able to make our vision a reality and our project brought attention to the park.  Though it is highly unlikely my student's projects will ever come to fruition, I still want to open up the conversation of how to make the community better and maybe someday, we can make that happen.

Lesson Plan Background

So today I posted my final lesson plan for the class (Hooray!) For my lesson, I decided to do a 3D digital design project in which students choose a space within their community they think needs improvements and then redesign it to better serve their community.

My initial inspiration for this project came from a recent trip back home (30 minutes away).  I went to the Poughkeepsie Galleria and then went to the Christmas Tree Shop in the South Hills Mall Plaza.  I have so many fond memories of the South Hills Mall, but now it resembles something closer to a ghost town.  The parking lot for it is almost as big as the mall itself, yet there are lots that have not been filled in 10 years or more.  Whenever I visit the plaza, I always think of what that parking lot could be changed into - like a park or a garden for the community.  I think of the same thing when I pass this one site on my way home from Red Oaks Mill.  It used to be a lawn and garden center, like Adams, and every Christmas they would put a giant inflatable snowman on top of the roof so you could see it from the road as you passed by.  It's probably been abandoned for at least 10 years now and through the years, I've watched the building collapse and all of the other businesses in that area seemed to disappear along with it. The overgrown lot is still for sale, but no one wants it.  I would love to see something done with it and I believe this is a growing problem in cities around the world, not just here.

Finally Wrapping Things Up

I'm so glad to be finally done with that group project!  I wish we did it earlier in the semester, but my group managed to finish strong and come up with a great idea and a fantastic presentation.  I also have to say that I grew to like my role in the project as well.  I started out thinking Research Director was just a filler role with little importance, but I think the work I did really helped shape our project.  I experimented with the kiosk in the welcome center to get an idea of how it worked, and that changed our orientation of the Corkboard from a vertical plane to an inclined one.  I also did my own "user testing" experiments on my roommates.  They gave me a lot of useful feedback, but were mainly disappointed that the project was not intended for actual use.  Looking around now, I really do wish we could have something, if not a kiosk than at least an app to tell us what's going on.  I passed two concerts/festivals at my school in the past week and not one of my friends knew about them ahead of time.
As the PR person and newly elected Art Coordinator of FOCUS (my awesome club), I realize the difficulty in advertising for an event.  I designed the FOCUS posters seen across campus and tried to make them as eye-catching and colorful as possible.  Sadly, as seen in our video presentation, that was not enough to make them noticeable.  The wind kept blowing and tearing our fliers and it curled them up so no one could read them.  Also, some sorority kept putting their fliers over ours.  Our app/kiosk would stop those incidents and interferences from happening altogether, which is why I believe it is so necessary.  My team ended up going door to door handing out fliers and we even stood outside of Oscars the night before our show to pass out more.  Luckily, our show was a success and it had a great turnout, but think of how easy it would have been if we could just send a jpeg to the SA and they could put it up on the Corkboard.  An app/kiosk like that would make our lives so much easier, and I could focus on making the flier look pretty instead of trying to jam as much information as possible on it.

Overall, I'm glad that this was our final project.  I liked working in a group and I am so thankful I was put in an excellent group with amazing people.  I am generally a quiet person, so I'm glad I wasn't paired with someone loud and bossy who would drown out me and my ideas.  I did try to speak up more with this project and I think that became easier as I got to know everyone in the group.  This was a great opportunity to see how the graphic design BFA students work and I loved seeing how they could push our ideas into physical designs.

Videofreex Curator Experience

I just helped curate the Dorsky's Videofreex exhibit last Thursday with two other students from my class.  We were in charge of collecting and reviewing video submissions for the "Elements" theme of the week.  A few important questions were raised during our time down in the museum.  For one thing, are we as curators actively deciding what should and should not go into the exhibit?  If the video meets all other guidelines, who are we to question the artist's message and say it doesn't fit the theme or our narrow definition of what art is?

We came across one video in particular that caused a lot of discussion.  It was a video of a male and female student sitting on a bed.  There were large reflective balls of various sizes in the background and the boy was wearing a bandana covering his mouth and nose.  The girl was holding a cat and the boy was talking to it and stroking it with what we believe was a fake dagger or knife.  At first, the video started out okay, he was just waving the knife in the air.  The others questioned if it fit the theme, but again, who are we to argue with their vision?  What if the mirrored balls symbolized water and the boy's personality was the fire aspect of the video?  That was my original plan for my own elements video - to have different dancers and dances represent different elements in their speed and personality. I was ready to put the video into the exhibit, but then we saw the boy press the dagger to the cat's neck.  Immediately, we deleted the video and took it off of the list of accepted entries.  As soon as the video suggested cruelty to animals, or just cruelty in general, I think the curator does have the ability to step in and take it out.  Of course, the artist could have created a provocative video intended to shock the audience, but I feel as if this was not the case.  I think this experience was very helpful and let us engage in a dialogue about the curator's role and how much power they should be allowed to have.  This also relates to the material we just covered in my Art of the Later 20th Century class.  We just had a lesson on Fred Wilson and discussed the artist as a curator.  Essentially, it's the same as what we did for this class.  Instead of using art/sculptures/tools made by others, we also have our own creations submitted for the exhibit.  This creates a bias towards videos created by people in our own class as those automatically get added to the exhibit with little critique or questioning.  If that video had been a submission from our own class, there's a good change it would have been included, or at least considered more.  Just something to think about next time I have the power to decide what counts as art and what should be included in a exhibit open to the community. 

Kickstarter Research

Just found a very interesting kickstarter project that fits well with the class curriculum.  It's a delta 3D printer called Tiko that's cheap ($179 per unit) and unibody.  This means that it is easy to assemble, manufacture, and according to the website, almost impossible to misalign.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tiko3d/tiko-the-unibody-3d-printer?ref=category_popular

I looked at their kickstarter video to see what they did and how it can help my group with our video presentation.  For one thing, it's short and to the point at only one minute and forty-nine seconds.  It starts off by introducing their team of innovators and then it gets into how regular 3D printers are faulty, time consuming, and fall short of our expectations.  They used words like "heavy," "overcomplicated," and "unreliable" and put the words on the screen to emphasize their point.  Then they introduced their design as the answer to all of our problems showing a video of it in the process of printing out an object.  Next, they compared other printer frames with multiple pieces to unsteady lego sets.  Once they got the comparison out of the way, they went into specifics about the printer, like automated shut off, wireless connectivity, cloud-based software, the max volume it can print and other special features.   At the end of the video, they sum up their goals of having everyone be able to own a 3D printer and say that's why they kept the price so low.  The commercial ends with "Imagine what you could build. Back us today and let's find out."

I think this commercial set up could definitely work with my group's project proposal.  We're designing an interactive kiosk that could replace bulletin boards on campus.  I agree we should start the video by stating the problem.  We could show pictures that I took of the either too cluttered or too empty boards around campus and maybe throw in some statistics from my poll.  After that, we should offer up our solution to the problem and then go into details about what it can do.  I'm worried the design students in my group are trying to make the video more complicated than it needs to be, but we'll see.  I wanted to make a website, but can't really argue with them since it's their part of the project and they're the ones with the digital skills.  I'm hoping my group can come to some sort of agreement on the video tomorrow (Monday) and hopefully start storyboarding so we're ready to film on Thursday.

Update on 3D printed prosthetic

So here's the updated version of my original Tinkercad design:

https://www.tinkercad.com/things/bwhxApZD3iR-3d-hidden-blade-prosthetic-revised/edit

I went in and remeasured everything, making the base a little higher and longer so pens can fit in it.  I also changed the size of the horseshoes since before they were too small to print and made them bigger.  I decided not to print out the rod altogether, instead borrowing the metal rod to one of my brother's old car sets.  I also went to Michaels and bought some Velcro that's smaller than the bands I was originally going to use.  As a result, I had to change the hole sizes in my actual base design and at this point, I'm just hoping everything fits together.  I have an hour until class and the 3D printing lab just sent me an email saying that I can come pick up my design.  Let's hope everything actually fits together and works this time (fingers crossed).

I'll put out another update once I have my design completed, put together, and hopefully working.

Sculptris Design

So here's my final Sculptris design.  Funny enough, I spent forever trying to make a head, then I got frustrated so I took the grab tool (which I hadn't used before) and I just slashed it through the guy's head.  It formed these cool tentacle things, so I made more of them and turned my original design into an octopus/squid thing.  I used the paint bump tool and a tiny brush size to make the bumpy texture that covers the thing's body.

DIY Prosthetic Project

So for my next project,  I am in the process of creating a 3D printed DIY prosthetic. After drawing  with my feet and mouth for my Spring break homework, I realized how vital control and pressure are to prosthesis designed to help amputees produce art.  I also realized that working with ones' arm is the most logical solution because it would still possess some fine motor skills even if the hand or some fingers were missing.

When designing, you have to think about the universality of your design.  Are you making an attachment for an already existing prosthetic?  Will your design only work with one specific pen/paintbrush/etc., and how can you generalize your design?  Since I decided to create a prosthetic that could hold a pen or pencil, I knew I would have to create a very general design that could fit multiple brands.  My design also had to give the user easy access to the drawing tools so they could quickly replace them.   I decided to make a device that attached to the wrist that way it was useable no matter how many fingers the person had.




 My design was loosely inspired by the hidden blade seen in Assassin's Creed.  For my research, on top of making cardboard models, I also watched tons of Youtube videos on hidden blade construction.  Initially, I wanted to make a spring loaded design that would make a pen or pencil pop out, but later I simplified it to just a pen/pencil holder.

 

My initial inspiration

cardboard model

I built my design on Tinkercad off of a hidden blade design I found on Thingiverse called "Hidden Blade!" by Theprintrbotmaker.  Here's what it looks like at the moment:

My Project 

I just printed out my initial Tinkercad design and am now in the process of making adjustments.   I'm going to attach it to my arm with Velcro and the small tab on the back will (hopefully) be able to hold the pen in place as I apply pressure to it while drawing.  The top of the device (the thing with the orange hole) will slide across the top of the device and I will glue it into place.  I took a spring out of a click pen and will use that to hold the tab in place.  Then, when the pen dies, the person just needs to press on the tab, lifting it from its previous position of blocking the hole and allowing the pen to slide out.

Right now, a lot of the parts I created are too small to print out properly, so I'm in the process of making them bigger and trying to get the back to actually work.

Spring Break Challenge

So for my next project which focuses on creating DIY prosthetics using a 3D printer, I decided to challenge myself to create a drawing without using my arms.  Instead, I used my feet and occasionally my mouth to hold a pen to draw a picture.  What I discovered during my research was that my feet cramp fairly easily which makes it hard for me to draw for long periods of time without becoming fatigued.  Also, it was very difficult to vary different kinds of pressure and lines.  It was almost impossible to make straight or accurate lines as well.  Another issue I had was how to sit and work on the drawing.  I found that clamping it onto a drawing pad made the process much easier and propping it up with pillows while I was seated on the couch was easier than working on the floor.  I also found it interesting that one foot was not easier to work with than the other, so I was able to switch off easily.  Though my drawing is incomplete, it still took hours and hours to do.  Overall, this was definitely more challenging than I thought it would be and if I had to do this over again, I probably would have picked an easier material to work with, like oil pastels, and I also would have worked larger so the little mistakes and inconsistencies wouldn't show up as much.

One awesome video and two mediocre ones

Here are my completed videos for my class' first project cluster.  I'm so relieved that they are all finally done!

This is my awesome Irish Dance video complete with explosions from DatMrRyan's channel:

This is my documentary on media addiction:

And last but not least, this is my awkward attempt at an oil pastel demo.  Enjoy!

My Process

Just a few of my pages researching ideas for the video projects.  Here you can see the mess that is my thinking process and my attempt at storyboarding the documentary.  Most of these pages are just research for the Elements video - different dance steps, dubstep music, etc.  

Elements Update and how Pinterest ruined everything

So I mentioned in the last post that I wanted to use an awesome dubstep song in my video and make it a remix of different Irish step dancers who represent each element.

Well now I have a different idea so I'm scrapping all of that.  I think the main reason behind the switch would have to be my obsession with Pinterest.  I got so caught up pinning tons of different dancers and song ideas that I felt lost in the project.  I felt like I was just an editor and not a creator of a video, so I wanted to take the project in a more personal direction.

For myself that meant me dancing, even though I am extremely self-conscious and shy, and to make it even more challenging, it will be an acapella piece (like this one).  Irish step Hard Shoe isn't my forte, as I have a lot of trouble getting a firm and steady set of taps and bangs.  I think due to the loud nature of the filming, I will do it in Smiley, that way the residents of my dorm don't kill me.  I could also play with the lighting more in Smiley, especially if I bring my own lamp and film in the night.

The most challenging part of the process for me will be layering since I have almost no experience using iMovie outside of my class.  I want different dance steps to go with different elements and I think if I repeat and layer them, I could get a nice rhythm going.  One of the biggest inspirations for me at this stage is the first Irish step dance song I ever heard - Riverdance's "Reel Around the Sun":

Elements Dubstep Initial Idea

Now that my documentary is finishing up (Connected Documentary)
I thought I might start working on my Elements VideofreeX project.  My original idea for this video was inspired by Lindsey Stirling's "Elements" music video and TapTronic's many Irish step/dubstep dance videos.

Since we had a discussion about copyright and free use, I got permission from AP3HAUS on youtube to use his Gaelic Storm Dubstep video.  I also decided early on that I wanted to remix different youtube dance videos and put them in my project.  For example, this one girl I found definitely looks like she's dancing on AIR, while this next guy's performance is more grounded and powerful, making me think of FIRE.  I think a compilation of dancers would be make a cool video, especially after discovering this fan-made video featuring Lindsey and TapTronic together:

Instructional Video Project Research

While I'm working on my documentary project, I have also been thinking about my instructional video that has to be under 10 minutes long.  Right now I am leaning towards making it on art, specifically working with oil pastels since I've heard a lot of negative criticism of them from professors at school.  I have been watching and critiquing videos to see how others approach this topic.

Recently I found this video on youtube:

Though it was a somewhat decent tutorial, there were several things wrong with the video.  One of the most distracting elements of the video for me was the setting.  You can hear airplanes, birds and wind which all distract from the artist's voice.  He also filmed under a tree, so the sun hitting the paper also causes a distraction since it is constantly moving around.  Overall, I give the artist a lot of credit for having such smooth blending with cray-pas oil pastels which are cheaply made and hard to work with.

I think my documentary will be broken up into different sections and I will have more vocabulary words/descriptions on screen.  I have a lot of different brands of oil pastel, so I might talk about differences between brands as well.  I find that a lot of the time, teachers dismiss them because they think I will use a cheap, waxy pastel that will look terrible.

Watching Movies (As Research)

So I've been researching documentaries for my upcoming project, and by researching, I mean watching a LOT of videos (my netflix account is expiring soon).  Here are some, just to name a few:

Secrets: The Turin Shroud
Mystery Files: Pope Joan
Ancients Behaving Badly: Caligula
Ancients Behaving Badly: Cleopatra
Ancients Behaving Badly: Nero
The Most Evil Men in History: Caligula
Discovery: Royal Deaths and Diseases
Nat. Geo.: Finding Anastasia

Out of all of these, The Ancients Behaving Badly series was probably my favorite, just because of the graphic animations it included.  It has a feeling of nostalgia about it since the animation style is similar to the one used in "Blackwater Gospel".  (I used that video as inspiration for my rotoscope design last year for my Design Color class.)  Here's the video for reference, it's creepy, but beautifully put together:

In the Ancients Behaving Badly series, I liked how they put the subject of their documentary on a scale to compare his/her behavior to other famous psychopathic killers and rulers from history.  I found it much more enjoyable than the other documentary on Caligula that I watched, which included too many shots of statues and did not give the viewer a sense of his environment like the Ancients series did.  In that series, the reporter actually visited the ruins of the palace Caligula was held captive in and we get to see the underground passageways he took right before he was murdered.  Granted, the two documentaries were meant to serve different purposes.  The Most Evil Men in History was created to be a brief summary of Caligula's life and the atrocities he committed.  The Ancients Behaving Badly documentary, on the other hand, provided an in depth look at evidence implying Caligula's mental health and possible causes of his madness.  All in all, I think I have to do some more research before choosing a topic for my documentary.

Intro to ARE 316

I took graphic design last semester, so I understand a little about Illustrator, how to make a rotoscope, and I love anything to do with video games.  I usually play on my PC, but also use Wii, WiiU, 3DS, and older consoles like Gamecube and Nintendo64.

I am currently scared of using Apple Computers, Photoshop, Indesign, and just audio editing in general.  Photoshop and Indesign were a part of the curriculum last semester for me, but I basically learned nothing about them.  Since I use a PC laptop at home, I don't like working with Macs in general.

The Struggle

An example of Rotoscoping: