cgardnerarts102-004

[cgardnerarts102-004]

This week we put the finishing touches on our process books and uploaded them. I have to say, I'm glad to be done. This class has taught me that I am not a graphic designer and I never will be. And that's okay! Using InDesign was the best user friendly experience and for that I am thankful. As for Photoshop and Illustrator, they were unkind and complicated to use and filled me with frustration. Donna Smith made this class more enjoyable, as did Raina. Without the two of them, I would've gone crazy.

[cgardnerarts102-004]

This week we have been continuing to work on our process books. I have gotten a lot of progress done on mine and I am feeling pretty good about it. It is simplistic but I like it that way. Not to mention the fact that I am gaining experience with Indesign and feeling more comfortable as I go along. I did find it challenging to find things to say about each project without sounding redundant. While I'm not submitting this to the GD+I Program, I still want it to look decent. I have found it stressful near the end of the semester to balance four studio classes and dedicate enough time to each to be successful and that includes this class. I want to give enough time to my process book to make it look nice but also be conscious of all of my other classes and the work that needs to be done.

[cgardnerarts102-004]

This week we started our last project: the Process Book. It makes me a little nervous to see all of my projects in the same place. Are they good enough? Will my book be good enough? For this project we need to make 12 spreads that showcase our work and processes throughout this semester. I plan on putting in all 6 of the projects as well as a meet the artist page. I am not sure exactly what theme I'm going to do for mine because all of my projects are so different and there is no cohesive theme other than the fact that I did them all. After looking at the other student examples I feel inspired but also intimidated. I am not familiar with indesign and so doing designs that are so complex seems daunting. I think that it will be okay as soon as I start moving things into the program, but until then I am going to be overthinking all of the concepts for this project.

[cgardnerarts102-004]

This week we have been working on logos for movie characters. The movie that I chose was Coraline. Originally I wanted to make logos for Coraline herself and incorporate her iconic yellow rain jacket or her rain boots, but after working on my thumbnails I decided to actually do a logo for The Cat instead. He's my favorite character and all of the logos that I liked included him so it only made sense. The other character I chose was The Other Mother. I wanted to use her iconic spindly hands in the logo as well as the button because I think that is what most people think of when they think of "Coraline". This project has required us to experiment with the pen tool which has been a bit of a learning curve. Using anchor points to try and get the curves of the hand correct was a bit challenging but I eventually got it to a place that I like without too much of a pain. I have a long way to go with the pen tool but this project was a good way to start getting experience with it.

[cgardnerarts102-004]

For the poster project, I decided to take the opportunity to incorporate traditional art with digital. I painted this image in my sketchbook and then brought it into photoshop to adjust the colors and make it look a bit more like a poster. This is not the finished design. I still need to paint either a frame to put the text in or draw a chalkboard to also put the text in. I also had greenery incorporated in the original sketch and I'm thinking about adding that back in to give the image a bit more life. I do not like the type face that I have in this image and it will not be the final one, unless I go with the chalkboard imagery and in that case I will use a white font color and it will look better. This poster is going to be aimed at children and I imagine it would be displayed in a school library or something with a similar vibe, so it is not going to be obnoxiously in your face saying "VOTE!". It is more casual in the message to just start to put the idea in the kids' heads that being a part of something is important, and so is educating yourself.

[cgardnerarts102-004]

This week we are working on posters based on inspirational and political quotes. I felt inspired by the quote, "Let us pick up our books and pens. They are the most powerful weapons" - Malala Yousafza. I wanted to stick to the type of illustration that I feel more drawn towards which is very childlike, simple, and bright. For this project, I want to illustrate the poster almost in a children's book type of style and use bright colors and shapes to communicate the idea. I also want to use greenery and nature in the idea to symbolize the power of Mother Nature. Overall, I am very excited to use traditional art as my vessel for this project as it is what I am most comfortable with doing, and I think that it will be interesting to see it scanned and edited in photoshop to make a finalized poster. I want the poster to be strong and communicate a clear idea but stay true to my style.

[cgardnerarts102-004]

This week was an interesting challenge. I haven't used Photoshop in a long time or Illustrator. I think that Illustrator was a bit easier for me to use based on past experiences, as Photoshop just has so many things involved and I'm not very familiar with all the tools. The first project was pretty fun. It was enjoyable to come up with the six word stories and even though I had difficulty finding the right images to represent mine, I had a good time playing around with text and typefaces to communicate the stories properly. With the second project, I haven't been enjoying it quite as much. I find it frustrating that we aren't able to make patterns like in the top left composition. It feels very limiting that we can't but I understand that that isn't part of what this project is about. I noticed that I gravitate towards similar compositions and I want to do a fifth during our next class and try to do something that is different than what I've done so far. I also wish that I could do a composition of white letters on a black background as I think that would be more up my alley. During the first class meeting I was feeling very nervous that I wouldn't be able to keep up in this class because I am a slow learner and I don't retain information well just from listening but it seems like I might be getting the hang of it. After moving to the front of the classroom to hear better and see better, I feel more confident moving forward in this class.