Part 1
I’m running out of class work to show off, so here’s pictures of a prop I made for a costume last year. I cosplay (“costume play”, where people make costumes and dress up as anime and video game characters) at conventions throughout the year. I have been making costumes for almost 5 years now, and am finally at a point where I’m confident I can make a lot of things and still have a good challenge. This particular prop and costume is from the show RWBY. This is the first large scale prop I’ve ever tried to make, and I’d say it was a fairly huge success.
I used craft board, a lot of time and patience, and a pretty solid pattern to create all of these scythe’s pieces. I then glued them together with tacky glue, stuck them into a hockey stick, and painted with spray paint, acrylic and even shoe polish!
Part 2
For a good majority of the semester, I had 0% desire to study abroad. At all. Absolutely none. I was honestly (and still sort of am) sick and tired of having people shove it down my throat. But I’ve been talking with some of my new friends about it, and I think I might actually try for a summer visit. I’m shooting for Japan after my sophomore year, but I would also enjoy visiting Africa or Eastern Europe. My main concern has been, and always will be money. I’m already spending so much time and effort to come all the way to Texas for college, and it feels (and just might) complicate things to try to study abroad at the moment.
This is a page of my final for Graphic Novels. We are required to make a minimum of 5 pages (including a cover page) that tell a narrative through comic form. My comic is about me playing the new Pokemon game, because I am a giant nerd and really like Pokemon. I’ve had a lot of random thoughts about what the world of Pokemon would be like if it was the “real world”. In this page, I discuss the feared “tall grass”, which is grass in the game where wild Pokemon will jump out and attack you. I wondered how tall this “tall” grass actually was, because I am literally almost 6 feet tall and young children stand in it like it is nothing.
I only drew two pictures for all of my 5 pages by hand, and after lining them and creating multiple versions of the same picture with slightly different facial expressions and arm movements all within the drawing program Sai. I then inserted them into Photoshop, created panels, put in background images, text boxes and texts to create the actual comic.
Part 1
Dream Spring Semester Schedule and some talk about my 4(? 3? 3.5?) year plan
- Presentational Speaking
- Intro to Communication
- Honors American Experience
- Beginning Tap
- Communication Theory
- Interpersonal Communication//
- //Gender Communication
- //Basic Fencing
Next year, I am changing majors from PhotoCommunications to Communication. I feel that what I want to do will be better addressed and tended to within the Communication department, and I will gain a lot of skills and experience for the field I want to go into. Having taken Photography this first semester has definitely given me something to take with me however, and I will put what I’ve learned to good use in my other classes. I am also excited to be taking Beginning Tap and Basic Fencing! I’m looking forward to a class that switches gears and will keep me physically active.
My focus is going to be in Media Arts and Broadcast Journalism, so I will taking a lot of classes focused on film theory and documentary analysis. One class I am excited to take is Communication and Popular Culture, because we will be required to volunteer at South By Southwest over Spring Break and I’m already hoping to do that this year. I love volunteering at conventions and this is a definite way to gain experience working in the field I want to go into, as well as a nice thing to put on my resume.
Part 2
Time Tracker ver. 2
I definitely spend a lot more time during the day sleeping. A lot more. I’ve been forced to stay up late, either in my dorm room or in any number of labs in the Fine Arts building to complete my pre-finals projects going on. I’ve been trying to spend time with my friends, usually taking a break from work to get dinner or watch a quick movie, then its right back to work. (I definitely declined a trip to a night club the other day, because no matter how good of friends we are, I would never subject myself to that). Schoolwork is definitely taking up the majority of my time, and I haven’t gotten to play many video games. That makes me sad.
For our last class, all of us brought in something we had made during this semester in one of our classes or as a hobby. I brought in a picture of my dog I took during my visit home I printed for my Photo I final project. The picture was of her outside on my deck while our back door was closed, and all of the splotches, dog prints and scratches were extremely visible. I really liked the picture, but I feel like I could have raised the contrast a lot more while printing. It was a hard scene to even photograph and for some reason, none of the pictures I took in my house would read as correctly exposed. But with everything I managed to do, I think it turned out to be a fairly successful picture and a good addition to my final project.
I didn’t scan the picture, and I haven’t gotten it back from my teacher either, but here’s another picture of her I took with my phone. She looks like a little potato.
I’ve had the chance this semester to study sequence and sequential art in my Honors class (Graphic Novels with Hollis, MW 2-3pm) and it honestly has made watching Memento a bit easier time than I’m sure others have had. It reminded me of Watchmen, a neo-noir graphic novel with the dark themes and nonlinear narrative that Memento has to offer. However, the structure is a lot more defined in Memento and you quickly realize that the interspersing of black and white to color scenes are meant to show the difference in time.
The black and white scenes are chronologically first, and shown in that order. The color scenes come after chronologically and are shown in reverse, which was unclear to the audience until the final black and white scene in which Teddy explains it all. After that last black and white scene, the last color scene occurs (in time) exactly after. Leonard begins looking for John G for now the third time, and will eventually kill Teddy, who had been helping him find search for a John G all along. The movie was put together this way to mimic what it’s like to have anterograde amnesia (anterograde amnesia isn’t as common as retrograde – being unable to recall memories before the incident causing the amnesia- and doesn’t even come up as word in my computer’s dictionary). Leonard’s reality of searching for his wife’s “killer” is no different between the timelines, and will never stray from that path. He will always be looking for John G, and no matter how many times he finds him, will be looking for him again.
Part 1
Visual Studies I
My greatest strengths are definitely my proficiency in Adobe programs (Photoshop, Lightroom, etc)
For greater success, I need to do a lot more of everything. (see below)
Photography I
My greatest strength is my ability to choose pictures that have a similar style and theme.
For greater success, I need to spend more time in the printing phase and not rush through the process.
//
My computer skills include a lot of basic functions (using browsers, changing settings on my machine to how I like, keeping my computer from crashing), as well as various programs (Most of the Adobe Creative Suite, all of the Microsoft Office programs, independent drawing programs, torrent clients, etc.).
I am also fairly versed in HTML and CSS, but need to brush up on them and practice some more in my free time.
My greatest strengths as a researcher/writer include: I have actually had a lot of experience with writing and researching in high school, and whether or not I graduated hinged on whether I could write a 8 to 10 page, independent research thesis on the topic of our choice. If I remember correctly, I got an A- and was very happy with the outcome of my paper. I am definitely confident in my writing ability and have had a lot of practice with writing throughout high school. However, I definitely need to work on the actual act of writing. Time ends up running away from me, and despite working better under pressure, should probably stop procrastinating so badly.
I learn best & accomplish most when I am in a very specific type of mood, whether that be a creative one or a “let’s do every assignment 5 days early” mood. These times are rare, and definitely hurt me when I have a lot on my plate and am not feeling particularly creative but productive when I have an art assignment due.
Ways I Can Improve In Visual Studies
- Talk to my professors when I don’t understand something.
- Actually do my homework.
- Participate more in class.
- Pay more attention to what is going on in class.
- Take
good better notes.
Part 2
This is a picture of one of my 3D collages for Visual Studies. We were required to do 3 2D collages, and 2 3D collages. I have never done collaging before, especially not in the 3rd dimension. When I was being critiqued, my professors said they liked my idea with the increase of heights with these pieces, but felt it was limited to the page because I had to make it 3D. I agree, and feel that this could be improved by being presented in a different way than pasted on paper.
Credit for images taken online :
3D box image – MadLibbs on DeviantArt
2D gun image – 基 on pixiv.net
Both 2D girls – the manga Hirunaka no Ryuusei (Daytime Shooting Star)
Jose Jones Castillo/ JJ / 29 (??) / Austin, TX / Photographer and Employee at Rooster Teeth Productions
website / youtube/ tumblr
I’ve been a fan of Rooster Teeth Productions for a few years now, and it’s basically my dream to work there. The company has been creating live-action shorts, live podcasts, animated shows, and various other projects since 2003. They are even working on their first feature length film, Lazer Team. All of these different projects have something to do with video games (their first animated series was made in Halo, they have an entire podcast dedicated to video games, and constantly report the latest and greatest video game news). I first learned about JJ’s photographic work by hearing about him; he was the editor in charge of a show dedicated to building mini-games in the game Minecraft (it just screams Inception doesn’t it? A game in a game, but we must go deeper) As he started to work on more projects in the company, directing and producing some recent live action shorts as well as the company’s weekly content update (dubbed the RT Recap), I found a lot of his photographic and film work online. He uses digital and 35mm cameras, black and white and color. No matter the medium, his work is always high quality and beautiful. I also love seeing just how much he is able to do as an independent filmmaker, and it inspires me to see just what I can do even as a freshman in college.
smoke on the water (posted on tumblr)
jj – 35mm (posted on tumblr)
my fav business card – 35mm (posted on tumblr)
rockers vs mods – falcon & mikaela (video posted on his website)
