I don’t think there is a number of hours that would be too much to spend on practicing. Unless it is detrimental to your health, or you aren’t spending those hours wisely, every hour helps. Less than 3 outside hours a week would probably not be enough to create sophisticated work. I think I spent around 5 hours a week working on my maps, including class time. This was not enough time to create the best work I could have. I feel like I spent more time trying to get the maps done than perfecting them, which is unfortunate.

Sophisticated work is something that has layers of intrigue. It uses extra elements such as color and type to convey a meaning instead of just using them for aesthetics. I tried to use colors that would influence how my maps would be read or what the context of the map was. I used pinks and blues on my cat poster to show the playfulness and brightness of the subject. My types were used to separate data elements and to encourage readability.

Some of the feedback I got was to add more icons and to make the buildings on my St. Edward’s map more interesting. These tips helped me a lot. I had originally decided to only use words on the Tony Pierce map, but adding the icons made it easier to understand what the graphics were talking about.

At first I had a lot of difficulty with these maps. I didn’t know what subject I wanted to do. I also had a hard time choosing colors. The mind map was difficult at first just because I needed to do a lot of research. I wasn’t entirely excited about my subject and once I changed it from getting a cat to assigning a breed to a person, it got a lot easier to make. The Tony Pierce map was the hardest for me, mostly because I’m not very interested in data. Mining the bills for information to put into a poster just wasn’t very fun, but when I actually had all the data put together, it got easier. It was fun to design the maps themselves, gathering information is just not my strong suit.

I always do a lot of outside class work. I spent this semester doing a lot of watercolor painting and started wood burning. I am also very interested in hand lettering right now so I spent a lot of time working on that as well. I haven’t gotten to spend as much time on outside projects as much as I want though.

My life outside school has been pretty good. I am stressed about paying for college and getting scholarships, which has probably impacted the amount of time I spent working on school work, but overall school itself was my main stressor.

To me a good classroom is one where the students push each other to be better. Everyone interacts and tries to give good feedback. Everyone should be comfortable with each other and feel like they can count on each other. Classmates should appreciate each other as well. I feel like I got along with my classmates pretty well. I tried to give good feedback but I’m not always confident in my critiques. I felt comfortable with my classmates as well. As I started to get to know everyone better, I felt more connected with everyone and their work.

Overall this semester went pretty well. I feel like I could have done better on my maps if I had spent more time on them and I could have done more outside work if I had spent my school time more wisely.