recently finished reading Macbeth in English Class. Once we were finished with Macbeth we were assigned to do a creative project. For our project we chose to make a playbill. This playbill would be pretty simple so that we would have time and room to add on some extra elements to make it more realistic and convincing.

I mostly did  the written elements while my partner Jasir did the artistic components. To make the cast list I looked for actors who were known for playing characters with similar personalities to those of the characters of Macbeth. One exception to this rule was casting Ian Mckellen as Macbeth. I chose to do this because he is an actor who is known for his spectacular portrayals of Macbeth. The summary of the play is pretty self explanatory, I just gave some background information about the show. I omitted any pieces of information that could ruin the ending of the show. The artwork for the Macbeth playbill came with great ease when picking the cover I wanted to in capture the true meaning of the play and what better way for the title to be the star of the play.

What I changed And Learned

Usually in past presentations,  I have made my slides “Boring” as Ms. Hull would say. But thanks to her constructive criticism I have tried using some new things such as different colored words to make the presentation more attractive , I highlighted important topics and included pictures. I also gave some of my sentences colored borders. Plus I Used Word Art. When presenting to my fellow group mates I took the following things they said into consideration. Hector told me that I should change the background color because it made the text harder to read. Caresten said that I should use less words. I changed both things and I think that the slide does look much better.

With the board game, Scotland's War, Me (Nasir), Tyler, and Jacob based the game in Macbeth on Act 5 scene 6 to Act 5 scene 8. What happens in those scenes is Macbeth and Macduff are having a war and so my group decided to make a board game based on that. On Macbeth team there you have doctors, archers, soldiers, and the 3 murderers. We added those characters on his team because his thanes left him to be on Macduff side so we decided to to add them since they were the only loyal characters left to Macbeth. We also added the three murderers because they had helped out Macbeth with killing people like Macduff family and Banquo. On the England side you have Macduff, Ross, Young siward, Malcolm, KIng Edward, Siward, and doctors. They are all on the England side because Malcolm couldn’t trust Macbeth so he went to England, Macduff wants revenge on Macbeth for killing his family, Ross felt as though he was not a good king so he went with Macduff team, and Young siward, Siward, and King Edward are helping Macduff killing Macbeth.

We also added chance cards as well so people can have some advantages and disadvantages. Some chance cards works really well with some players and don’t work well with other players. With the chances cards if Macbeth picks up with cards that have Lady Macbeth, the 3 witches, ghost banquo, 3 murderers, and Dunsinane (Macbeth Castle)  then he gets a advantage on the other team and for Macduff if someone picks up the card for Birnam Wood, doctors, and the bad witches then Macduff gets a advantage as well so it makes the game fair.

We decided to do a game board because we didn’t feel like doing a playbill and all the other options because they were boring so we decided to go with a fun game that can have people interested in the game. We had a little trouble on what to name the board game but everyone else had really good names for their board so we had to think hard about till we finally thought of the name of the board game, “Scotland’s War” which made it a good name for it since Macbeth and Macduff in the play were having a war. What made this board unique is that we made sure that every character and setting was right.We made sure  the game can be perfect and we made sure it was really based off the book because we didn’t want to change anything that happened in the book so we made sure exactly that everything was in place. Also of course the game has rules to them always like every other board so it can be fun and fair for everyone to play. So, with this board game it would be really great to try it out and if you do try it then we are pretty sure you’ll love the game a lot. So, that's how we made the game.

Our Macbeth Creative Project was a Playbill.  My group decided on a playbill because we could express our ideas about the play with it. The first thing you see when you look at the playbill is a bloody sword and a crown. We chose this as our logo due to the play being about a bloody fight to the crown. After this, you see the title “Thane of Cawdor”. This title was chosen since Macbeth got promoted to Thane of Cawdor in the beginning of the play. Once he got promoted it started his downward spiral into insanity.

Another very important part of this playbill is the color scheme. Macbeth is a very serious play and to represent that is why we chose red and black. Below this, you can see our list of characters and actors. I am not going to tell you why we chose each actor for each specific character but I will give you a quick summary. I chose Liam Neeson as Macbeth because of his voice. I believe his voice has a more serious tone to it. For the porter, I chose Jim Carrey because he can act like he's drunk anytime.

The next section of the playbill is the costumes. We decided to go for a  more modern vibe in our play so we added the car and suites to our play.The second to last part of our play was the stage. One of the ideas that we came up with was actually recreating the stage from the Globe theater. By have the stage shaped like the Globe's we add a layer of authenticity to the production.

Our final area of our playbill is the ad for the Incredibles 2. This explanation for it is fairly simple. If you are going to watch a play, it is safe to assume you are more likely to want to watch a movie. This is due to movies and plays being similar. This add would target people who are likely to watch movies.

In this presentation I learned a lot about how to make a slide appealing. I learned that having a good selection of colors and big text helps the reader see the information. Something else I learned through research was to keep fewer words on the slide and explain more. That is why I did what I did, I chose the colors black and yellow because they are opposites, black is a dark base color and the yellow is very bright and makes the words pop. I also chose to make the circle bleed off the page a little to catch the person's eye. My whole design of my slide was based around what I learned, I made sure I had few words but the words I did have stuck in your head and made you think about them.

For the Q2 Benchmark we had to come up with a creative project that will reflect on the book Macbeth book we are reading. Me(Vincent) and my partner Sam decided that we we going to recreate one of the Macbeth scenes Act I Scene III to be specific, and we went to Coxe park to film our short skit/// scene recreation. We had the help of our SAT Nat, and we also had the help of filming from Nickell.

We decided to film outside because we felt that the best thing to portray the actual scene had to be outside. We had our witches dress in ponchos and a hat because that's like the stereotypical way a witch would dress. For Macbeth and Banquo we dressed up as knights and later on with a crown, but overall everything was smooth and I feel we did everything to the best of our ability. One thing that you will also notice is that our acting is decent and that our scene it twisted to fit Macbeth into the office theme.

For our creative project, we chose to do a board game. By we, I mean David Forgrave, Hayden Myers, and myself. We started out with a simple design with the concept of the players starting at Birnam Wood and racing against friends to get to dunsinane and take over Macbeth. This connects with act 5 scene 4 when the English army  starts in birnam wood to hide themselves from macbeth as they make their way up to his castle. Up to four friends, playing either Macduff, Malcolm, Siward, or Young Siward would roll dice to see how far they go in the conquest against Macbeth. However, after planning this out, we realized that this board game was way too simple for our liking so we decided to add another interesting and creative component into our game.

We decided to add power cards into our game. What we wanted these cards do have is power up that you can use on yourself at any time to give yourself an advantage, but we also wanted to add power down cards that that could be used on any opponent that is in the lead, or just a friendly rivalry. These cards can be used at any time to give an opponent some sort of disadvantage.  We connected the cards to Macbeth by taking certain situations that happen in the book, and turning them into cards. For example, We took the scene when Lady Macbeth jumped out of the window, and turned it into a power down card that you can use on friends. There is a prince of cumberland card that will give a very good power to whoever owns it, but is able to be cursed by the dreaded “Macbeth” card. These cards are retrievable all over the map, on any yellow space.

For the board we didn’t want to have just one straight path going to dunsinane. Therefore, we added multiple paths that intertwine with each other so the players are able to land on opponents, while choosing their own route, and collecting cards independently. We decided to do this because we felt that one road was going to be mundane or boring. However, with multiple paths, there are some strategy aspects, and the game would become a little bit more interesting. When we designed our game we  wanted to have a party aspect to add to our game so it would look like a silly, cartoony kind of game, mixed in with things that happened all throughout Macbeth We decided to do this because we felt that one road was going to be mundane or boring. However, with multiple paths, there is some strategy implemented in the game.

In conclusion, we think that we designed the game that we wanted, and we have come out with a strong game that displays the ideas of Macbeth, while being able to give whoever is playing it excitement and a fun time with friends. We all worked very hard to design this game, and that hard work shows through in our final product. My entire group is very proud of our game, and we can’t wait to see what people think about it.

Each of the colors of the game pieces symbolizes 4 different things in the play. Red symbolizes the blood from Macduff’s wife and child, he will be the red player. Blue symbolizes Neptune’s water that couldn’t wash Macbeth’s hands after the murder of Duncan, he will be the blue player. Yellow symbolizes the crown for the Prince of Cumberland, Malcolm will be the yellow player. Last but not least, pink symbolizes all the perfumes of Arabia that couldn’t take away the smell of blood on Lady Macbeth’s hands, she will be the pink player.

We chose to use this name for our game because it relates to the theme. All of the characters are fighting their way to the top. The character closer to the finish line is the one closer to peace, which, everyone is dying to have at the moment. For each character, peace is different. For Malcolm, “peace” is vengeance for this father and to rule Scotland the correct way. Malcolm wants to restore peace for his people and carry on his father’s legacy. For Macbeth, “peace” means to be free from worry and anxiety. For Macduff, “peace” means justice/vengeance for his family and to have Macbeth wiped off of the face of the earth. For Lady Macbeth, “peace” is to be free from all of the guilt from accompanying murder and keeping the secrets of Macbeth’s murders to herself. As long as these four are cautious on their journey, they will be able to finally be at peace. So, who will be the one to get the peace that they so desperately want?

Final Artist’s Statement

The first project we were given this quarter was to do ten blind contour drawings. I did these in pencil on copy paper. It was really challenging for me to keep my eyes off the paper when I was drawing and really feel it out as far as spacing and texture. I had never done blind contour drawings so it was really strange getting used to it, but once I did, it was really fun. The second part of our first project was coloring in our blind contour drawings. I had a really good time with it, and I spent way longer than I should’ve filling everything in. I used colored pencil on certain paintings and marker on others. Both looked great but I liked the effect of the markers better. I used a lot of colors in every picture, but for each one, I liked to stick with a specific palette. One tiny annoyance with adding color to the drawings was that the pencil would smudge and mix with the color.

The second project we were given this quarter was to paint anything we wanted. I decided to paint a beachscape because I promised my classmate Thea that I would make her one to hang on her wall. My paint of choice was watercolor, and I got watercolor paper from home to use. I didn’t really use a reference. It took me about two class periods, and the only challenge I faced was trying to get the right color out of the murky watercolors in the pans. The third project we were given was to recreate a piece of art. I recreated two works by Henri Matisse, Goldfish and Portrait of Madame Matisse. I begun with Goldfish, and wanted to use oil pastels, but found that there weren’t many at school, so I worked on both projects at home. I really like the effect of the oil pastels in lieu of paint. My works are not exact copies of the paintings; I just kind of did a rough sketch and got to work. The only downside, in my opinion, to oil pastels is they can get very messing, and I did my best to try and make everything pretty clean.

Well the first thing I created was the blind contour and that was very interesting to do because I watched the video and did it with my not so good eye so they would out of whack and shape. The 2nd thing we did was the color pencil technique and I really liked this one because I really followed step by step and mixed and matched with the colors which turned out really well. I really liked the color because it showed me that I can tone two color pencils and make two colors as well as one color has a light side as well as a dark side. With the self portrait in week 5 and 6 I almost have my head shape down but not quite maybe one more crack at it and I can get the shape of my head correct. The fruit color pencil drawing looked really good and I think I got better the more I did it. Lastly for week 9 and the blind drawings that got my imagination going because I made a hand playing a trumpet,Hungry man,bumper cars,a fish eating a fish eating bait and lastly squidward as Captain magma.

In the second quarter of Senior Art I focused mainly on strengthening my abilities with color pencils and practiced new techniques. This time around, I kept all my pieces on standard letter paper (8.5 x 11) and exercised my skills using specific materials. In the studio I spent my time understanding colors, blending, shading, and highlighting. I find that I prefer working on canvases that allow me to make mistakes to learn from and correct. I would like people to know that it’s okay to not like my art, I’m not satisfied with every piece I produce but that doesn’t prevent me from putting it out. Art is subjective and everyone will have their own opinions, that’s completely fine with me. Lastly, I want to say that majority of these techniques are new to me, I know that my work isn’t the best; I’m not trying to be the best.

As I walked into quarter two I was more aware of the expectations of the class and I was able to excel my projects better this quarter. Throughout the time consuming projects we received I did struggle to work with some things however I was able to work through things each time and each  struggle made things easier for my next project. I learned how to have better time management and how to have more respect for my own artwork.

I have learned how to master time management by finishing all my projects on time and still being able to work on other homework assignments or class assignments I was behind in. If you don't have good time management you won't be successful in a independent class like art because you'll never be aware of how to use valuable in class time. I have also mastered to be very patient. Before I would get angry because some classmates finished before me but I noticed that good hard work takes time and I should be mindful of it.

I learned new color pencil techniques and shading techniques through this quarter as well. I enjoyed learning new techniques because it challenged me more to finish my projects. Even when I wanted to give up I didn't and I remained finishing strong.

Lesbian feminism emerged as a result of exclusion from the women’s liberation movement. Lesbianism was largely ignored because many believed that it would undermine the credibility of the movement by reintroducing sex into the feminist agenda and a lot of women preferred the sexual respite feminism granted and thought including lesbian feminism would eliminate said respite.

Betty Friedan founded the National Organization for Women in 1966. She also was a feminist who wasn’t all for the integration of lesbian feminism, though, her exclusion wasn’t entirely unfounded. Her concern, and that of other straight feminists, was that the first thing that would come to the minds of men would be “‘mannish’ or ‘man-hating’ lesbians” and that, consequently would “hinder the cause”. A lesbian agenda would compromise political power and image that feminists worked so hard to gain and create. However, she failed to realize, or perhaps care, that these so called “man-hating” lesbians were women, too, and they wanted and deserved the same things that every woman in the country was fighting for. All they wanted was to aid the cause.  Friedan, eventually, went so far as to refer to lesbian feminism as the “lavender menace”, which further infuriated lesbian feminists and practically lit the fire of persistence in the heart of movement.

In the ten-paragraph manifesto titled The Woman Identified Woman, written The Radicalesbians, a lesbian is defined as “the rage of all women condensed to the point of explosion...She...acts...to be a more complete and free human being than her society-,...cares to allow her...these needs and actions...bring her into painful conflict...until is in a state of continual war with everything around her, and usually herself.” This quote pretty much sums up the amount of strength that a lesbian has to have to simply be there self-a luxury every heterosexual doesn’t even acknowledge on a day-to-day basis. On top of this she must also battle the challenge of owning up to herself semi-acceptable identity as a woman. Everyday that this woman decides to show herself she shows the political and societal defiance of ten straight feminists. On May 1, 1970, at the “ Second Congress to Unite Women” lesbian activists rushed the stage, conspicuous in there objective to be heard. To their surprise, they were almost immediately joined by members of the audience who wished to aid in their cause.

Initially, the women’s liberation movement wasn’t an all-inclusive cause. The heterosexual feminists that dominated it, succeeded in being seen as the men they fought so hard to be venerated in relation to, in the way that they regarded lesbians as nothing more than a discredibility, because that wrongly placed and forced stigma/stereotype. However, after many protests and the cooperation of open, understanding minds, lesbian rights soon became, and continue to be, recognized as “‘a legitimate concern of feminism.”’