Q3_ArtistStatement_Garcia

Artist Statement

Through out this quarter we used the basics from the last two quarters and made better art pieces. Since in the last two quarters we had worked on perfecting our shading and drawing object more real with out using the original black lines since there are no black lines lining everything. We had to make a Color wheel which demonstrated the use of colors and what can be done with only the colors blue, red, and yellow. We also had to make two self portrait to develop our detailing in drawings. As well we also had to make a perspective drawing which opens our eyes to nature and fixing our outer detail drawing. This quarter truly shows our artistic abilities and shows if we were able to capture everything we learned from the videos and from what Ms. Hull taught us due to the fact that we were given more responsibility with out work and more freedom to make it our own. 


During the time that it took me to make my self portrait I learned more about capturing the human body. While I was drawing I noticed more about the features on my face and body than I would on a regular basis looking in the mirror. I started off by drawing the basic features on the human face and thought I was done. I did not realize that it didn't look like me and I had drawn some other average person. Thats when I had to really analyze my face to capture specific details and make the drawing more me. Thats where shading comes for skin tone and to capture lighting. This had to be my favorite art piece since it was challenging and I'm proud with what turned out. This is something I would like to practice another time to master it and hopefully then learn to get into more detail such as hair or eyes. 




Below are my drawings ​

Self Portrait
Screen Shot 2012-04-14 at 12.01.31 AM
Screen Shot 2012-04-14 at 12.01.31 AM
​Perspective 
Screen Shot 2012-04-14 at 12.02.14 AM
Screen Shot 2012-04-14 at 12.02.14 AM
​Texture Hair-
Screen Shot 2012-04-14 at 12.02.59 AM
Screen Shot 2012-04-14 at 12.02.59 AM
​Texture Water
Screen Shot 2012-04-14 at 12.03.56 AM
Screen Shot 2012-04-14 at 12.03.56 AM
​Texture Scale- 
IMAG0822
IMAG0822
​Shade
IMAG0823
IMAG0823

Qaswa's Q3 Art work

    This quarter was bit difficult than the previous one because it mainly included the realistic things like drawing self portrait, hairs, water and scales. I made self portrait and mistake in my face shape in smaller one but in larger one, i tried to make it correct.

SMALL SELF PORTRAIT 

P1080806



LARGE SELF PORTRAIT

P1080789       


For texture, it was very hard to focus in drawing the realistic hairs and water because they all are based on the shading which makes them look real. 
  P1080793   

     
Drawing water is the most difficult i believe because layers of water are difficult to make but i tried to show that by shading.

  P1080794    

         
    Scales is the easy to draw if we know some of the basic points to draw that.

  P1080809       


SHADING:

 P1080808      



   P1080807       



2 POINT PERSPECTIVE: I made different 2pp shapes,name,dice, room and building by following the general rules of drawing 2 point perspective.

 P1080805        


ROOM:

  P1080803

DICE:

 P1080804    


LAST NAME:

  P1080799    


Building:

 P1080796

Water cycle:

  P1080795



        
ALL MY ART WORK FOR THIS QUARTER :)


    

  


























P1080814
P1080814

Shade, 12x18” each (4)

Shading was fun and easy. We learned shading before, so I could do it very easily. I found that shading was most relaxing and not as stressful. I tried to have fun. I followed the guidelines, from a website Mr. hull gave us. I picked the four I liked the most, shading was interesting because I use shading for almost every picture.
photo 2
photo 2
photo 1
photo 1
photo 3
photo 3
IMAG0052
IMAG0052

Sabrina Stewart-McDonald_Q3

I think I work best in pencil; I am getting better at shading and when I work with other things, such as the water color paints, I feel like I do not have as much control. I was most proud of my hair drawing because I believe it looks very well and almost realistic; I love the way the shading turned out. At first I didn't think I could do it, but once I tried it and tried the shading in it, I found that I could make it work. 

Self-Portrait: I like the shading in the picture, but it doesn't really look too much like me. I showed my mom and she said it looks like me when I was younger, so that makes me think that I see myself as younger than I really look. I really like the eyes, also. Each time I draw eyes, I think they get more and more realistic looking. I also practice drawing them in my spare time.
Self-ProtraitQ3
Self-ProtraitQ3
Eyes
Eyes
Color Wheel: I really like color and was excited when I saw one of the projects was a color wheel, but one of the things I worried about was the fact we had to use watercolor paints, which I have little to no experience with. I kinda dove into it headfirst to see what would come out and though the paint bled a bit, I believe it came out quite well. I didn't think I would be able to mix the colors, but in the end I was quite good at it.
IMG_20120412_134054
IMG_20120412_134054
Texture Drawings: A main aspect of the texture drawings is shading, so I felt good about putting my shading abilities to the test to see how things would end up. I think I did quite well with the hair, but I think the water drawing could use some improvement. I see it as something I will try to work on more in the future to try to improve my shading abilities even more.
TextureHairQ3
TextureHairQ3
TextureWaterQ3
TextureWaterQ3
2-Point Perspective: I haven't done two point perspective in a while, so I felt challenged attempting to do one. In the end, I feel like it turned out well, but I felt like I couldn't really add too much detail to it because every time I tried to, it looked a little strange. I will continue to practice doing them and in the future I hope to attempt a project like this again and be able to add detail to it (to the point where the detail will follow the perspective).
IMG_20120412_125341
IMG_20120412_125341
IMG_20120413_174020
IMG_20120413_174020
Shading Practice: I liked the shading practices because they gave me an idea of what level I was on when it came to shading. I'm not very advanced and I could obviously use more practice, but I feel like I get the general idea of how to shade and how to blend.
IMG_20120413_212438
IMG_20120413_212438
The following are just leisure drawings that I have done during this quarter.
IMG_20120413_213325
IMG_20120413_213325
IMG_20120413_212930
IMG_20120413_212930
IMG_20120413_213026
IMG_20120413_213026

Artist Statement Q3 - Breeanna Noi

During this quarter, we focused more on realistic artwork. 

I worked on my self portrait that didn't quite end up looking like me because I chose features of my face from different pictures. So my self portrait looks good TO me, but it doesn't look LIKE me. 

The next piece of art was the 2 point perspective that is shown to be very rough. I'm not very good at drawing landscapes so when I get frustrated with drawing specific detail of a sky or of the ground, I just turn everything into a rough shadow of the entire landscape. 

Afterwards, I worked on my color wheel using the primary colors of water colors. It was fun because I felt like I was back in elementary school using my general knowledge of colors to match it up to the color wheel. 

As for the textures and drawing hair, I'm not too experienced at drawing realistic looking features. My features look cartoonized in a way. However, I looked at an image of a braid and I tried my best to show a realistic sketch. My strokes were hidden from my over-shading so it isn't how I wanted it to turn out. 

My other pieces are various works of art I've worked on during the quarter. The girl's back and her hair is something that is the most realistic I'll get in a picture. My "Batman" looking image was something simple that I wanted to try out, so I did. Lastily, I drew Stewie as a nerd because Stewie has always been a challenge for me to draw. His head was either too round or too oblong, but with this sketch, I'm finally content with Stewie's head. 




IMG930
IMG930
IMG922
IMG922
IMG913
IMG913
IMG926
IMG926
IMG929
IMG929
IMG928
IMG928
IMG927
IMG927

Quarter 3_Artist Statement

Below are all my drawing and artist statements for each one:

​Point Perspective-
100MEDIA95IMAG0513
100MEDIA95IMAG0513
 Creating this assignment began by making sure that I knew where my foreground, background, and vanishing points coexisted. Once I did that this entitled me to be able to create the scenery through a school building. I added specific details such as lockers as well to add to the display. Through out this project it was challenging to create the different objects so that the correspond with the lines and seem three dimensional. 
​​Hair/Texture-
100MEDIA95IMAG0512
100MEDIA95IMAG0512
 For hair and texture not only did I focus on texture aspects, but features for people as we'll. While doing this the only material that I used was a pencil. I noticed that when doing hair the features of the face and details were very determining as to how it would look. Another reason that I focus on both aspects is because it helped me create more skills. Making hair in general consisted of detailed line strokes. Overall this topic is something that I am open to getting better at in terms of my technique. 
​Large Self Portrait
100MEDIA95IMAG0508
100MEDIA95IMAG0508
 Within this picture, is just a large blown up view of my smaller self portrait. I decide to draw from the same picture of myself. This was all in attempts to conquer and capture important details. I felt as if the arms could face had more structure and detail to it. Although my main focus was to work on facial details and becoming more precise with shapes. In the future I would work on the arm details more and possibly add more shading. 
​Small Self Portrait- 
100MEDIA95IMAG0507
100MEDIA95IMAG0507
When drawing myself, it was a very difficult assignment. In fact it didn't even seem like it was a portrait of myself. I still don't feel like this picture does either. Self portraits take a lot of practice, so I am not discouraged. The details and shapes are noted to be some of the most important parts of creating these ties of images. I noticed that the hair in this picture did look a like to the was my hair was in the original picture. 
​Texture Water-
Screen Shot 2012-04-13 at 11.54.19 PM
Screen Shot 2012-04-13 at 11.54.19 PM
Drawing this was pretty difficult. The shading made it hard to capture in terms of making it 3d. The water popped out after I figured it out so that I could find the water within the paper. After erasing after a while it became easier to create water, since it is clear. When doing this the water image then appeared making me content with what I had. 
​Shading-
Photo on 4-14-12 at 1.53 AM
Photo on 4-14-12 at 1.53 AM
Shading was difficult. In order to capture the correct amount of color and scales to it is what made this so intense. In the beginning this is what stood out to me. After erasing some of the shades it looked more like the image that I was trying to portray. 
​Scales-
Photo on 4-14-12 at 2.52 AM
Photo on 4-14-12 at 2.52 AM
Making this fish was actually very entertaining. It didn't consist of doing much, but making the shapes and scales. The scales seemed difficult to draw at first when starting off from the end, but afterwards they just got easier to depict throughout the drawing. I feel like my drawing looks exactly like the one shown in the example as well. The only materials that I used for this specific assignment was a pencil. I oddly noticed that this assignment had no shading to it, but just consisted of shapes. 




​Journal-

1. Projects I have completed:

  • Self Portrait small
  • Self portrait large
  • texture
  • 2 point perspective
  • shade
2. I can't because you made your submission form for 9:15 instead of 11:59 p.m.

3. I did not complete the color wheel.

4. During this quarter I slacked off a bit. My work ethics consisted of just looking at the work and how I could get it done. I didn't really spend as much time as I could on each item, although I wish I could have. Overall, I was pretty good with trying new things out although trying to figure out how to draw my self portrait was the most time consuming. I think that I could have worked more on other assignments. Lastly, I think that I should have made my own deadlines for this quarter.

5. Next quarter my goal is to try abstract emotion because this is very interesting because I am not great with displaying my emotions or even trying to draw emotions. Another goal for next quarter is to work hard on my observation landscape assignment because I have trouble collecting real world scenarios and putting it on paper the way it looks. 

Danny Wirt- Q3 work

For this quarter in art class, we focused on shading, working with different colors and a little bit of prospectives. We were required to draw some self portraits, paint a color wheel, working on perspectives and shading. The use of the paint was a little difficult for me because i am not much of a painter. I did however put effort into trying to make it work and I am satisfied with the result. With my self portraits i don't feel as though i really captured what i look like, however it is all up to observation. The shading portion of this quarter I found to be fairly simple. I feel like shading has always been rather simple for me and i found the exercises to be quite fun. The two point perspective i found to be rather difficult. I find myself having difficulty with making buildings. I get the concept of how the windows look with the two point perspective, however, i feel i am not good at making lines work well to make buildings look real. It was a bit out of my comfort zone, but overall I am happy with my work. 
Photo on 4-12-12 at 1.28 PM-1
Photo on 4-12-12 at 1.28 PM-1
IMG_4897
IMG_4897
IMG_4898
IMG_4898
IMG_4899
IMG_4899
IMG_4900
IMG_4900
IMG_4901
IMG_4901

Goals for Conversation

​Some of my main goals are:

-talk about experiences 

-add more detail to stories 

-simply hold a conversation

-think of different/new questions to ask people 

-correctly use spanish grammar 

Some question could be: 

What do you like to do in your city?

 How is your family doing?

 What is your favorite type of food? etc...

Charles Norman Artist Statement

I opted out of art class in Q3, so I do not have any art to show. I used this band as a get myself together period. Sometimes I would do work, and other times I would take walks around the school. I using this period as like a free period, but I'm now ready to come back to class, and do some Art. Q4 I will not opt out of art class, I want to come to class to draw somethins, and complete all assignments.

Kimberly Cayamcela: Quarter 3 Art Work

-Self Portrait Drawings
-Color Wheel
-Hair 
-2 Point Perspective
-Shading

-This 3rd quarter I found some difficulties in my drawings. I thought it would be easy to draw myself since it is I, myself who is drawing. But, that wasn't the case. The first self portrait was not too bad nut not too good. I expected to be more realistic with my face. My second attempt improved a lot. The way in which I drew my nose looks more real and accurate than my first attempt. Also, the lips look more real. My shading has improved this quarter, I believe. I have learned different ways to make shading more realistic, such as rubbing it with an eraser and spitting on the paper and smothering it. This drawing resembles me quite well because my hair is almost always covering one side of my face. 
-I was not satisfied with my color wheel. But, it's not that bad. I was a little confused in mixing the colors together and making it blend in like a rainbow. 

-Like I said above, I have incorporated shading techniques now that I know of them. Usually when I draw, I just scribble over and over again to make it look like hair. Now, when drawing hair, I color in the hair as if I was coloring a picture with crayola and smear it. 

-I really enjoyed drawing my 2 point perspective because I'm naturally good at drawing buildings and such.     My favorite part was drawing the shadow.             

-The shading within the shapes was definitely not my strongest drawings. I tried to over and over again and the below pictures were the best I could do. I don't know why shading was difficult with drawing these shapes if I can do a good job when drawing hair. Perhaps I just need better eye sight and need to learn how to work with pencil more. 
Over all I see that I'm improving with my drawing little by little and hope to continue doing so next quarter! 






IMG_1513
IMG_1513
IMG_1541
IMG_1541
imagejpeg_0
imagejpeg_0
IMG_1510
IMG_1510
IMG_1533
IMG_1533
IMG_1534
IMG_1534
IMG_1536
IMG_1536

Español Tres- Proyecto de Conversación

For my fourth quarter, I have been given an assignment where I have to look use social media to communicate with a native Spanish speaker, in order to improve my own fluency in Spanish. For this, I will be using Livemocha, with the possibility of using Twitter as well to reach out to native speakers. Livemocha is quite an interesting outlet for learning Spanish. Using the website, I will be able to find a native Spanish speaker that wants to live English, making it a mutually beneficial relation. The three goals I have constructed for myself are below-

-How to know when to use accents when writing the language.
-Shortcuts to knowing how to use past and future tense and the differences between them.
-Terminology for architectural terms. Architectural ideas.

As well as having three goals from this project, I also have an essential question, which I am hopeful to find an answer to at the end of this project – By using social media, how can I, as a student benefit from using these social tools to communicate with native speakers understand the language?

El Secreto del Gato

​Hay una familia en la parque de Australia. Ha un papá, una mamá un hijo y una hija. La familia tiene una case grande. La familia tiene un gato. Es una gato grande. El gato es muy  impotante. el Gato tiene in secreto. El Mar Abuela, No esta contento. Abula va a destruir el mundo. Hay una problema. Es un problema grande.

El Secreto de la Leon

Hay una familia en la playa de Paris. Hay un papá y mamá. La familia tiene una casa pequeña. La familia tiene una leon. Es una leon grande. La leon es muy importante. La leon tiene un secreto. La leon esta triste. La leon llora. La leon le dice al papá, "El mar, mamacocha, no está contento. Mamacocha va a destruir el mundo. Hay un problema. Es un problema grande.
La leon le dice al papá. " Sube eiffel tower más alta con tu familia." La familia corre hacia eiffel tower más alta con la leon. La eiffel tower alta se leon Huillcacoto.

El Secreto del Elefante.

Hay una familiar en el hospital de Pluto. Hay un papa, un mama, Stewie, y tio, L familiar tiene une mochilla pequena. La familiar tiene una elefante. Es un elefante no grade. El Elefante es muy dramtica. El elefante tiene un secreto. El elefante es una mañoso. El Elefante reir el elefante le dice al cartero. “El huevos, BoogieMan, no esta contento. Crimson Chin va a comer el huevos.” Hay un problema. Es un problema grande.
El Elephant le dice al cartero "bebe la leche mas alta con tu familia" La familia bebe hacia la aqua no mas alta con el elephants. Leche mas alta se elephante Huillcacoto. 

El Secreto de la Nutria

Hay una familia en la el cento commercial de Filadelfia. Hay una papá, una mamá, un hijo, y una hija. La familia tiene una casa pequeña. La familia tiene una nutria. Es una nutria grande. La nutria es muy importante. La nutria tiene una secreto. La nutria está triste. La nutria llora. La nutria le dice al papá, "El mar, Mamacocha, no esta contento. Mamacocha va a destruir el mundo." Hay un problema. Es un problema grande. La nutria le dice al papá,"Sube una Cinnabon más alta con tu familia." La familia camina hacia la Cinnabon más alta con la nutria. La Cinnabon más alta se llama "Cinnabon".


Q3 ART PROJECTS

I didn't complete the small and large self-portrait. I completed the color wheel, also the texture picture, the point perspective and also the shade picture. The color wheel is done with the colors from light to dark because Primary Colors: Red, yellow and blue In traditional color theory (used in paint and pigments), primary colors are the 3 pigment colors that can not be mixed or formed by any combination of other colors. All other colors are derived from these 3 hues. Secondary Colors: Green, orange and purple. These are the colors formed by mixing the primary colors. Tertiary Colors: Yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green & yellow-green. These are the colors formed by mixing a primary and a secondary color. That's why the hue is a two-word name, such as blue-green, red-violet, and yellow-orange. The texture picture is done in my own creative way the way I seen the way it was supposed to be done was you had to be able to feel the texture. So I created a heart with different things from around my house that feel different and has different textures. It was really creative to. My perspective picture is based off of lines. The way I seen it was they had to connect and then turn into something so I turned it in to a lot of triangles I just though it was very creative. Next quarter I want to not wait to the last min and do my projects I will be sure to get all my work done on time and get it done rite. Next quarter I want to do more big art peaces then small ones. 
IMAG0423
IMAG0423
IMAG0421
IMAG0421
IMAG0424-1
IMAG0424-1
Screen Shot 2012-04-13 at 12.12.11 PM
Screen Shot 2012-04-13 at 12.12.11 PM

El Secreto de el lince

Hay una famila en el centro de filadelfia. Hay un papá, una mamá, un hijo, y una hija. La famila tiene una casa grande. La familia tiene un lince. Es un lince grande. El lince es muy importante. El lince tiene un secreto. El lince esta triste. El lince  llora. El lince le dice al papá, "El mar, Mamacoha, no esta contento. Mamacoha va a destruir el mundo." Hay un problema grande.

Q3 Art Journal By: Morgan Taylor

This quarter I dd only two of the projects that Ms. Hull assigned to the class, unfortunately the were both thrown out because I left them in the room on accident. The other 4 projects that were assigned I did not do because I regretfully used the class as a sort of study hall. I did benchmarks and homework when I should of been doing the artwork that was assigned. I talked to Ms. hull about what I did instead of trying to rush at the last minute to finish all of the work that I did not do. When I talked to Ms. Hull about my work ethic this quarter she explained to me how she sets us up for failure and that maybe too much freedom does not work with how I do things. One goal I have for myself this up coming quarter is to do all of my work and to have the same mind set as I did in the first quarter. I would like to get back to doing art well and having fun while doing it. I do not want to have another quarter like this, I have failed and learned. Next time I want to do a lot better.

Q3, Blog

This quarter in art, I feel as though I didn't do as good as I could had. I feel as though I kind of slacked off but still managed to get most of the things done. However, I will do much better nice quarter because of the weekly check-ins. If I would had put the effort in it this year I would had got everything done.

This quarter we had to create two self portraits, one small and one large. I wasn't able to do either of them, because I'm not capable of drawing faces. I did try to draw them though, but I failed and decided not to use them. The other assignments were: color wheel, texture, 2pt perspective, and shade. As you can see below in the picture below my drawings. I can say that I tried my hardest on all of them, but didn't really accomplish anything. 

I know that I'm actually bringing myself down but I'm just telling the truth. Next quarter I'll do much better as I said before. Anyways, here's all my work:
Photo on 4-12-12 at 8.32 PM
Photo on 4-12-12 at 8.32 PM
Photo on 4-12-12 at 8.33 PM
Photo on 4-12-12 at 8.33 PM
Screen Shot 2012-04-12 at 8.23.20 PM
Screen Shot 2012-04-12 at 8.23.20 PM
Screen Shot 2012-04-12 at 8.35.21 PM
Screen Shot 2012-04-12 at 8.35.21 PM
Screen Shot 2012-04-12 at 8.34.37 PM
Screen Shot 2012-04-12 at 8.34.37 PM
Screen Shot 2012-04-12 at 8.36.14 PM
Screen Shot 2012-04-12 at 8.36.14 PM
Screen Shot 2012-04-12 at 8.42.39 PM
Screen Shot 2012-04-12 at 8.42.39 PM

Q3 Art Journal

For the third quarter, instead of following the curriculum Ms. Hull designed, I wanted to paint one of the ceiling tiles in her room.  I decided to paint the Flying Spaghetti Monster since I'm a devout Pastafarian and I think His noodly presence would be a welcome addition to the art room.  Most art projects are supposed to take a week, but I'm still not done this one.  I'm very proud of it so far, though.  I found the picture "Touched by His Noodly Appendage" and used Photoshop to crop out everything but the FSM Himself.  Then I added a grid to the picture so that it was divided into 24 squares, or twelve columns and twelve rows.  I divided the ceiling tile the same way, so that I could more easily make the painting well-proportioned.  After a long time sketching, I realized I had miscounted the number of rows in the painting, so my sketch was too long.  However, since I need to paint over the sketch anyway, I can amend it once the background is done.  I've never done anything like this before, so I don't know how it will turn out.  I'm excited, though.  I'm really enjoying working on this.  So far I have the whole drawing sketched out and even with the measurement mistake I think it looks quite good.  When I finish I'm going to send a picture of it to the official website of Pastafarianism.

Pictures coming soon!

Quarter Three Work

​TEACHER ACTION GROUP LOGO

This quarter, I focused mostly on logo design. For the most part, designing a logo for Philadelphia's Teacher Action Group took up my time and energy. I started this project by following the concept that was given to me by the group. This consisted of the name of the group in bold font, Philadelphia is thin lettering underneath, colored backing, and sunburst rays shooting out of the text. I came up with the following design and several variations just in case:
TAG BASE DESIGN
TAG BASE DESIGN
​Eventually, I edited the design until I came up with this somewhat-final design:


Teacher Action Group Final
Teacher Action Group Final
Accompanying the design(s) I created based on The Teacher Action Group's guidelines, I designed two logos that I was inspired to create for the organization. I drew my inspiration from protest, considering that The Teacher Action Group is all about fighting for teacher rights and making sure that teachers' needs are met, and that they get the resources they require. My design is focused on the exclamation mark, which is easily the most renown symbol of reaction and energy, which are essential emotions for protest. 
I started by incorporating the name (Teacher Action Group) into the longer component of an exclamation mark, and then I added a smaller exclamation mark into the smaller component of the larger exclamation mark. After some editing, I didn't like the smaller exclamation mark in the larger exclamation mark, because it seemed a little too repetitive. I came up with the concept of illustrating the Philadelphia skyline into the smaller component of the exclamation mark. After playing around with that idea, I found a final design I felt content with.
Below are the final two designs that I came up with based on the exclamation mark concept. I created two logos instead of just one, because they both serve different purposes. The horizontal logo is geared more so towards branding on websites and banners, whereas the vertical design is geared towards apparel such as t-shirts.
TAG Philly Horizontal
TAG Philly Horizontal
TAG Philly Vertical
TAG Philly Vertical
Here is a picture of a t-shirt model that I photoshopped the vertical exclamation mark logo onto. I believe the design would be quite eye-catching, just enough so to intrigue people without being obnoxiously attention seeking.
Model TAG Vertical Philly
Model TAG Vertical Philly
Notes: 
  • I created these designs using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop.
  • The project is not completely finished just yet.






MS. RAMI'S LOGO


A couple weeks ago, I began to design a logo for a blog Ms. Rami will be using. I started by playing around with the lettering of her name, and came up with several concept sketches which are shown below:
Sketch1
Sketch1
photo copy
photo copy
After I sketched the concepts shown above, I started translating them to Adobe Illustrator and I came up with these two rough designs so far:
mramilogo2
mramilogo2
mramilogo1
mramilogo1
I really liked the concept of combining her initials to create a symbol. The two designs above will just be the beginning of this concept.
​Obviously, this project is ongoing, and will take a considerable amount of time to complete. Along with designing the branding of Ms. Rami's website, I will also be designing the layout of the site. I am really excited to be designing for Ms. Rami, and I can't wait to really start exploring more aspects of graphic design through application and self-learning.

Quarter 2 & 3 Artist Statement



I’m Not Starving, I’m Fasting While Drawing 

Every since I was 4, and I was watching Dragon Ball Z on the television, I’ve wanted to create scenes of action and stories on paper.

So it started with scribbles.

I would draw a dot on a page to represent Goku or Vegeta, Dragon Ball characters, and when I wanted them to move I drew a line to show where they flew and blasted each other a where they fought.

Then it evolved to me drawing square faces and bodies. I drew Goku the most and by the time I was in the seventh grade I could draw him in my sleep.

Then, when I was introduced to manga, I knew damn well I would be doing this as a living when I grow up.

Manga is Japanese graphic novels. They generally have more pages than American comic books, but lack color and all pages are in black in white except for the cover, special pages, and maybe the first few pages of the first chapter.

Shonen, which is boy in Japanese, is a genre of manga that include many scenes of fighting, usually with supernatural powers, among the characters (to appeal to a male audience). I want to draw Shonen manga because I enjoy drawing scenes in which characters fight with powers; I’ve been drawing it all my life.

So, with that said, what I have been working on recently (with much pain) is my manga “Converse!”Making a manga is hard work, like most things, and it takes dedication and endurance. But the final product is so worth it (I have mini celebrations upon finishing a page or two).

But no, seriously, it is very hard. A manga artist usually has a team of artist for the background, effects, action lines, shading, inking, but most importantly a professional manga artist has a producer to tell him if his story is going a stray or what to fix and how to just be a better manga artist.

However, I am alone. I am sad.

But enough of that, let’s get to the important stuff.

The Birth of Matthew

Matthew has black hair, light blue eyes, pale skin, and is generally a nice individual. His name comes from my little brother’s last name and he is the main character of my manga.

 CONVERSE_p2

The main character of any story, but specifically manga, must be relatable, attractive, memorable, and/or likable. If someone is going to read a book with pictures they’re going to want to look at something not…unappealing.

So I made Matthew and he gets positive criticism from my friends, avid readers of manga. So I knew I was off to a good start.

But, for my story, Matthew has to be sad to get his powers, so I came up with the story where his drunken father forces him to drive his in labor mom to the hospital. Being twelve and not a good driver Matthew and his mom get into a car accident and his mom dies, saving him by serving the car at the last minute.

His dad goes to jail and Matthew attends a boarding school; the rest of his family unable to claim him.

With a history like this Matthew is quite, and very cool headed. He’s seen some things, nothing really scares him, constant bullying has given him the ability to not give a f@!k about the insults flying his way, and he doesn’t mind being alone.

He does, however, fear since he didn’t cry at his mom’s funeral he’s emotionless and a “monster” so he cuts himself to invoke a reaction.

Which leads to Matthew’s quirks. He has a high pain threshold, he is a very fast runner, he owns a switchblade (for cutting), he’s passive assertive (“shut up, please.”), and he never smiles.

I like Matthew because he’s one of the coolest characters I have ever made, I can relate to him and he makes characters around him pop out. His hair is hard to draw, but drawing him fighting is so much more worth it. But moving on to the title.

Every Story Has One

I am a fan of single word titles for manga.

I am also a fan of exclamation points in the title of manga.

And in my head Matthew is never seen without a pair of Converses on. So…you know, out came the title.

CONVERSE_Cover 

…guess we can move on to the story.

Once Upon A Time…

First let me explain how people in manga get powers. It’s really cool yet simple at the same time.

When a person, in the universe of Converse, experiences an emotion to the fullest their soul overcharges and gives them unique powers. The only way for a person to get their powers is to know they have an overcharged soul; an OverSoul. An OverSoul gives a person heighten abilities in strength, speed, and supernatural powers.

 CONVERSE_p14

So, yeah.

The plot for Converse is simple: two organizations compete and fight over people with OverSouls. One group made to protect OverSouls and tech them to defend themselves are called the Souls(?!), and the other group who capture OverSouls and steals their souls are called the Reapers.

Matthew runs into a Reaper agent but is saved by the Souls, later on he learns the leaders of the Reapers and Souls are twin brothers. Matthew meets friends, gets his weapon, learns about his powers, and ultimately learns every person with a soul on Earth is in danger so he has to get strong enough to beat the Reapers’ leader because Matthew’s element is the only one that can defeat him.

There will be hardship, betrayal, love, comedy, death, but most importantly, the power of friendship.

Or, something like that.

Actually Drawing This Shiatsu

I know I love drawing, and I know I love drawing manga, but Jesus Christ, this is the most tedious, frustrating, agonizing, time consuming thing I have ever done.

Professional manga artist has, like, and eight man team plus a producer.

I have stolen lead pencils and friends who can’t be pleased.

CONVERSE_p15

CONVERSE_p16 

The cons to this business is that drawing a decent looking page takes much time. More importantly, coming up with a decent chapter, then drawing it takes a lot more time. For example, I spent an entire 65 minute free period working on Converse, and I only got a page done. Mind you, this is when I could find the right pose for one of the panels, but still.

I knew drawing would take long, I was ready to fight that battle, but the first chapter to a manga generally has to introduce the main character, explain the plot to some extent, and draw the reader in by being sweet, short, and interesting in a matter of 50 pages (Later chapters are 17-20 pages at a time after the intro).

Sweet Mary, mother of Lord, did this take forever.

I ran through 200 pages of storyboard before I finally landed on a beginning that 1) I’ve never seen before as an intro and 2) was so interesting I made my little brother, the Stone Face of Philadelphia say, “Wow.”.

Basically what I did was take the character who inspired the cover of Converse, a girl interested in film and photography, and have her make a documentary on how Matthew saved the world. Meaning, the intro actually starts at the end of the story, but through interviewing key characters of the story we learn the events that led to this through a collection of flashbacks. 

I know, it is awesome!

So I got to work immediately after finding the perfect intro and I ran into the time vs. drawing problem, after a week or so of drawing I have only 18 pages. 

The pros to drawing this hour eating monster is that I like when people read it and look at me and as “Are you updating soon?” I like when I finish a page I can’t believe I drew the scene. I like when I think about it, I turn my thoughts, a nonphysical, almost nonexistent thing into something everyone can see and feel.

When I first start a page, I draw the panel I’m going to work on. I don’t draw out all panels because…well I don’t know but I draw a panel translated from my storyboard and I add the characters inside with their actions and expressions. Then, I make sure to have enough space for the dialogue. If the person is talking they get a medium sized panel, depending on what they’re saying. If they person is screaming or calling out their super, awesome, KO move I give them a big panel and I may center them to leave room on the side for the words.

CONVERSE_Storyboard 

I’ve been told that I’m good at controlling space, so I rarely run into the problem of running out of space for speech bubbles. What I do have a problem with are hands and backgrounds.

The background I can avoid if I just make sure the scene isn’t zoomed out too much. However hands, I’ve worked my way from every body part and I’m now trying to master how to draw hands, which are very difficult to draw for some poses.

Then there is the bane of art career; the thing that will make sure I stay in accounting instead of drawing manga.

Drawing females. Oh, god.

 CONVERSE_p5

In manga, and even American graphic novels, women are usually portrayed with big breast, thin waist, big hips and that doesn’t really sit right with me, ya know? So I ignored the female’s body and tried to conquer the face but they all come out looking like dudes with wigs.

When I finally did get it down though, I had to draw the body and that came out looking like a guy’s body too. I was/am stuck of how to draw a female’s body without objectifying her at the same time. It’s possible, but I’m just not there yet.

Someone like me should be discouraged, drawing for 13 years now and I can’t draw hands. Well, I would be if it weren’t for my past work. When I look at my skill from just a year ago I see such an improvement that I can’t help but feel good about myself. I’m sure a year from now I’m going to have hands and boobs mastered.

Then there’s the issue with how I ink my manga, Professional manga artist use calligraphy pens to draw there manga to give it a fine, finished look to give the impression they drew it once perfectly.

“What? I can’t do that. I can’t even afford a calligraphy pen!” Says me. 

I don’t plan on introducing myself to inking until I’ve master the pencil. That also goes for coloring, because I have a two page spread for Converse in the first chapter that would be colored if I have the tools and skills. Coloring and inking will come later in my artist career; most likely in college.

In the Distant Future


I really do see myself doing this in the future, drawing manga and such, because this life makes me happy, it gives me purpose. 

The people who have done it before me inspire me and I'm really glad I started at such a young age. I mean, skateboarding is difficult, playing the guitar is challenging, but drawing comes naturally to me. Though, with the many years ahead of me, there is much space for improvement. 

I've never taken an art class outside of schol and I've pretty much just learned based off of what I've other manga I've read. Which is why I love manga as a storytelling medium, because I can share my idea and stories into chronological pictures and depict a plot, scenes, actions, dialogue, and anything else a story could tell. 

I love the art and the elements it's composed of. It's hard but in the end, like all good written novels, or capture movies the final product will be something everyone could enjoy.

El secreto de el ¡Cuy! por Sabian Rosales

Hay una familia en el castillo de Europa. Hay un papá, una mamá, un hijo, y una hija. La familia tiene un Cuy. Es un Cuy épico. El Cuy es muy importante. El Cuy tiene un secreto. El Cuy está triste. El Cuy llora. El Cuy le dice al papá, "El mar, mamacocha, no está contento. Mamacocha va a destruir el mundo." Hay un problema. Es un problema grande.

El Cuy le dice al papá, "Sube los Nubes más alta con tu familia." La familia camina hacia los Nubes más alta con El Cuy. Los Nubes más alta se llama Huillcacoto.