AAST Junior Blogging

Another week already gone. Let’s review.
This week was alllll coding. It was a constant back and forth between feeling like I knew absolutely nothing and feeling like I was the World’s Biggest Genius, Sent By God Herself. It was quite the experience.
My website was.. Odd. It didn’t come out as well as I would’ve liked, but in my honest opinion, it’s not really done yet. It’s still just a baby, and I have to help it grow. I hope it’ll turn out halfway decent, since I pride myself on making things that look, at the very least, semi-decent.
I feel the stress starting to set in – The stress that comes with the end of the year. I can’t say I’m too sure why, though – I think I have most of my work under wraps, but I can’t be quite sure.
The final, speaking of, has me stumped. I haven’t read anything aside from short stories and friends’ works in years, so I don’t know what book I’d use. I have a big collection in my room, though, so I’m sure I can find something… If not, I can always just use a children’s book. I know most of my childhood favorites by heart, and I imagine a cover for a book like that would be lots of fun to design. Plenty of colors, plenty of things to look at – Maybe a bit complicated, though, huh?
If I do a novel, I could always make it simple shapes. Keep it basic, go for a minimalistic design with a pretty triadic color scheme. Yes, that sounds nice. I might do that. I could always do artwork for it and incorporate that into my design… I think that’s something I’m allowed to do, right? I could do it in an interesting way. Truthfully, I don’t know what it is I’m going to be doing yet. I’m still figuring it out, and just throwing words down for now. I hope it goes well, I really do.
Anyway, that was my week – Thanks for tuning in. I hope everyone had a good week as well.
That’s it everybody – Cheers. Tune in next time. For now, catch you on the flip side.

Another week gone by. Let’s review.
This week went by kind of awkwardly. Luckily, Friday turned out to be quite good!
Friday was the day most of the DC and ET majors (and probably a few others) were allowed to go on a field trip to Charleston to view two colleges and then walk around said city.
I have to say, it was really fun! The bus ride was relaxing, the colleges were nice, and the group I was in when walking around Charleston was a good one! Nothing felt too overwhelming or boring; It was juuust right.
Some of the signs in Charleston were really nice looking, and after being in DC for a while, I found I could really appreciate them. I took some pictures, but probably not as many as I would have liked.
Speaking of pictures – I got some really well composed shots! I hope to upload them to my laptop and edit them to look nicer over the weekend (provided I remember to).
There were a few things my group and I (Kayleigh, Juliana, Andrew, Ella, Jacob, and Bryson) probably would’ve liked to do, but… We really didn’t have enough money (I’m looking at you, aquarium). Regardless, we still had a lot of fun! Er, at least, I did. I hope they did too!
We got to sit around and talk at a pizza place that I’ve forgotten the name of – Giovanni’s..Pizzeria? Maybe? And eat a 28″ pizza, which we found we couldn’t finish. Luckily, we found a crowd of highschool boys who seemed more than happy to relieve us of the last two slices.
We got gelato and ice cream and I got two rings and a rose quartz sphere – Jacob got an obsidian obelisk. I got some funny socks! So, that’s a plus.
We had a lot of laughs, made a couple of funny stories, and saw lots of cool things. It was a good experience, and I appreciate the time I got to spend with some of the cool cats from my major. I hope they had as good a time as I did, and I hope they continue to have good weeks after this trip.
Well, that’s all from me – Thanks for tuning in. As always,
Catch you on the flip side.

Hey there. Haven’t done much on here in a while.

Not much has happened here in a while. Spring break came and went, projects are getting finished up.

I’ve been working on making some art for my website. I’m thinking of going for muted colors that tie in well together, or for perhaps a kind of old-sci-fi vibe. I’m really not great at the whole website stuff, but I’m trying my best. I feel like website making is something that’s easy to forget if you aren’t actively doing it. I think there’s gonna be a loooot of issues I’m gonna have to fix.. Ah well. I’ll get the hang of it again as I go through it.

I’m thinking I can do a sort of color filter over the images I put on my site so the colors end up matching, and if you click on the image itself the actual colors show up, or.. Something like that. Maybe I’ll just find a way to fit all the images on the page without the colors clashing. That’d be nice – I hope I can figure out how to do that.

I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to form all the pages, or make them work, or… Anything like that. I assume I know what email I’ll put in the contact area, but that’s about it.

It’s funny, the only thing I really know that’s reliable on the site so far is what appears to be a slideshow function I’ve set up on the home page. I don’t know how to make buttons using CSS or anything like that, but I’ve managed to make a slideshow. How about that?

None of this has really been posted yet, so I’ll probably upload this later.. I hope the code works right!!! Fingers crossed.  I just need to pull through, make the basics, and then spiffy it up, just like how I do my artwork. Simple enough, right? I believe in myself. I believe in the rest of the class, too! I hope they’re getting it done pretty easily.

Well, that’s it for now – I hope everyone is having a decent week, and continues having decent weeks.

That’s all. Thanks for tuning in. Catch you on the flip side.

The week went by pretty fast. I kinda don’t remember it…. Luckily, I got most of my work done!
Sooo much time went into finishing up my pieces for the art shows and the poster competition coming up. It gave me numerous headaches and lots of cases of sore shoulders, but in the end, I think it might’ve just been worth it. Here’s hoping, at least – I’m trying not to have high hopes when it comes to getting into Burroughs and Chapin.
The piece I ended up sort of scrapping (at least for the time being), the one I was going to put into Burroughs and Chapin originally, turned into my Earth Day at the Bay poster, which works out pretty smoothly for me! All I had to do was put some text over it and change some details – Softening edges, making the person I’d drawn seem more pleasant, lightening some colors, and putting an earth between their hands.
I still sort of want to finish the piece.. I think it’d look pretty interesting if I got around to finishing it. I think I had a meaning I wanted to give it, but I… Kinda forgot. Oh well.
Aside from that, we’re working on Dreamweaver, and it’s, uh.. Confusing, to say the least. I’m not very good at stuff like this. I hope, though, with a little practice, I’ll get better.
Speaking of Dreamweaver, I have nooo idea what I want to make my upcoming website look like. I’m sort of apprehensive for when I’ll have to start designing. I don’t know what sort of style I’d want to go for, what kind of color palette I’d want to use, fonts, pictures… I don’t even know how I’ll make my logo look good in it. I guess I’ll figure something out, though, right? Right.
I can’t think of much else to say. I got a lot done this week. I’d say I’m pretty proud of myself. Speaking of which, If things start going the way I plan, I might just be able to start making money off of my artwork!!! Wouldn’t that be something???
Anyway, that’s my week – I hope everyone else had a pretty decent week, too.
That’s it. Catch you on the flip side.

Another week gone by, hm? Let’s review.
This week was the slowest blur of things to happen to me. It was everything and nothing, all at once, and somehow, uniquely stressful.
We have to work on artist statements for the upcoming art show (The one that I’m unsure on how to spell the name of), and I have to say, I’m ridiculously anxious about it.

My train of thought goes something like this:

1. I can’t figure out which piece to use.
I. The piece I have solidly done I already put into Art Fields, which.. I don’t wanna push my luck with that, but it’s a good fallback, I guess.
II. The other piece I originally intended to put into this upcoming art show doesn’t feel like it’s…  Enough for me.
III. The piece I thought I was going to put into this show is an absolute MESS! It isn’t going anything like how I planned, and I have to say, I’m not exactly thrilled about it.

2. If I could pick a piece, I wouldn’t be sure what to say about it.
I. The artist statement is what really sells it, right? If I were to put in my original piece, I would have to make up a really wonderful backstory for it or something, but that could potentially get messy quick, so.. There’s a lot to consider there.
II. I have nothing to say about my second piece, which depicts an angel, unless I made it a discussion about how religion can affect people in a negative light if done in an insensitive manner, but that’s a risk, as it could show some sort of rudeness to a group of people, and that’s really not my goal at all.
III. For my third piece, I could make it about the environment, but that would require me to fully commit to this piece, which is a risk I’m really not willing to take.

All in all, I’m perturbed by this whole ordeal. It feels like its going belly up, which I knew would be a possibility – Art is totally unpredictable, and something I cannot do definitively. It’s one of the things I can do that I don’t have total control over and that I need to treat as an entity rather than, say, a usable skill. I knew that taking this into a line of effort that requires a me to fully commit to doing what I say I(‘m) going to/want to do would be stressful – I did it anyway, though. I hope it teaches me something, and that I can end up doing something amazing with what I learn via doing this sort of thing.

Well, that’s all from me – I hope everyone had a wonderful week, and as always, catch you on the flip side.

Alright, another week passed. Let’s go over it.
If I’m perfectly honest, I was working on my art on Friday and completely forgot to do this blog. On Saturday I was busy, so.. Looks like today is the day. Better late than never, right?
This week… Was mostly about coding. Now, I love coding. I love coding a lot. However, the coding I’m more familiar with is definitely not CS, which is one of the types we were focusing on.
HTML was a blast, but it lost me at some points – The more it tried to pair design with code, the more lost I felt.
I enjoy the technical aspect of coding. One, because it makes sense, and Two, because I’ve  been interacting with different types of coding (mainly python) since I was eight. The stuff that makes sense makes sense. The rest.. I need to work on.
Aside from that, the rest of my week was spent working on my art for the next upcoming art show, the one I don’t have an inkling of an idea how to spell. The project I’ve been doing is this angel, one that I sketched out a long time ago, but never fully completed. Truthfully.. I sort of hate it. Originally I had been super proud of it, but the more I force myself to work on it, the less… Well-made it becomes. The wings are a mess, the body lacks contrast I’m unsure on how to create, the details I’ll need to add are exhausting to even think about…
I think I’ll just put it aside for later, when I’m in the mood to create.
It’s not all bad, at least. The face looks pretty good, and the hair was pretty easy to do. The hands look… alright, I think, and.. I mean, that’s sort of it. At least I’m trying, right? The colors are pretty good, too.
The other entry I’d been working on, the one for Artfields, is finished. I think it looks alright, but I’m not too sure about the colors. The contrast is okay, but the colors feel so weird. I assume it’s because I’ve been looking at it for so long that it’s permanently burned into my retinas, but I can never be sure.
I get a lot of compliments on these pieces, though. I think that maybe they aren’t as bad as I might describe them to be, but because artists are their own worst critics, I’m always very harsh on how I grade my own work. I hope one day I can leave the idea of “perfect” behind and settle on “good enough”. Until then, I can keep improving.
Anyway, that was my week – I hope you guys had a good week, and you have more good weeks to come.
Catch you on the flip side.

This week has gone by at a snail’s pace, yet it feels like it isn’t over yet. What a curious plight.
Well, here’s how said week went by for me:
This week was largely spent on the project and catching up in my other subjects, but week’s blog will mostly be focusing on the work i spent on my typography project.
I finished up some animations in it, added more shapes to the beginning of the video, and added some more text. This isn’t my focusing point, though – I tried out a tutorial I may or may not have mentioned last blog (it escapes me), one that details moving text in a way that looks very fluid and just overall mesmerizing. The main issues I had with this tutorial is that one, it’s in French, and my French is rather rusty, and two, it required a 300-somewhat-dollar plug-in or something of the like that I do not have – This means I didn’t get the full effect, but I think it still looks pretty cool.
It took me two days – One to test the effect on some word on my computer at home, and another to duplicate the effect and move it into my final project. I also would like to say that picking a discernible color palette for the double layers was surprisingly challenging, considering I either couldn’t find the right shade, it was too close to some of the other colors, or it was too much of an eye-strain. I managed to figure it out eventually, but boy howdy, it wasn’t very fun.
I still don’t have any ideas for any of the art shows, which is.. distressing, but I think my creativity is coming back to me slowly. I can do little doodles now, and I’ve implemented a new system that I believe is VERY creative. It’s a point-based, INCREDIBLY biased system called the SEAT system – SEAT standing for Swag Every and Any Time. In it, every time a classmate does or says something cool, funny, or respectable by my standards, they earn one Swag Point. Swag Points are represented by fun little stickers, because everyone likes a really cool and good sticker.
There IS a counter to these stickers, called “bad”, “rude”, or “mean” boy or girl person stickers, which are represented by less good and cool stickers. I give these to people when they are mean to others or just being a non-swaggy person – This is not to punish them, but rather to remind them to do better next time.
Anyway, that’s my week. I hope everyone else had a wonderful and swag filled week.
And yes, swag IS just the funniest word maybe ever.

Catch you on the flip side.

This week was a very, very, very uneventful week.
This is because I got about two days into said week before coming down with the flu.
This means two things – One, I had several days on which to work on my project at home. Two, I did not have the energy to work on my project.
I was able to use one or two of the days editing my work, but overall, for most of the week, I was sat up on a couch, or in my bed, drinking water and wishing I were over the flu.
The nastiest part about the flu is definitely the sore throat. It makes communicating immensely difficult. It also sucks incredibly.
Another fun thing about the flu is the loss of balance – I could barely stand up without feeling like I was going to take a tumble.
Overall, it was a miserable set up. From what I’ve heard, though, It’s become more of a state-wide thing, which is a little bit concerning. Makes you wonder how things like that spread so fast. Maybe I’ll read up on it.
Regardless, before I got the flu, I managed to change my third block class to current events, and to go to an open house. Third block is pretty nifty, but the open house didn’t end up working out for me. I got dizzy before people even began to show up, and I had to leave. That event evolved to be the flu I had the next day. No fun at all.
Well, while the flu ruined most of the plans I had, I did still manage to get some of my work done. English was a subject I managed to whack out. Aside from English, I finished some of the aforementioned typography project.
I would like to say it’s coming along somewhat well. It’s not too terribly difficult, but it is a work that requires patience and timing (two things I am sadly not the best at – ironic for a musician), as well as a database of words from which to procure YouTube searches that produce adequate results (which is a surprisingly daunting task).
The upside of this project is that I’ve learned how to use After Effects, which is something I had wanted to do before but had never gotten around to really sitting down and doing. I still only vaguely know what I’m doing, but at least I’m achieving results.
Regardless, that was my week. I hope everyone else had a lovely week, and on that note, catch you on the flip side.

Well, as the week draws close, I draw this session of blogging closed. Let’s review the week.
This week was another in which we focused mostly on Photoshop. We (And by we, I mean the class) worked on continuing and finishing a project I had started and finished a while ago. Sadly, I decided to scrap my final version of my project and redo the coloring (not that I remember doing that, but I can’t find my work, so..). Either way, learning how to really use coloring layers will most likely prove to be immeasurably helpful.
Aside from that project, we began working on a flier for a band I’ve never heard of and should probably listen to so I actually know what it is that I’m creating an advertisement for – Gasoline Heart.
We also are working on our final project, this being the redesigning of a candy bar wrapper. Now, I’m pretty sure I’ll be doing a birthday bar of Hershy’s chocolate for my mother, but… Valentines day IS coming up, after all..
Now, while we have been working on getting through the book given to us on the topic of Photoshop and various projects, I’ve also been exploring various odds and ends. I’ve found a few very handsome fonts I intend to use in some way or another in the near future. Some could be used for some sort of themed card, or fake book cover, or… Something of the like. I’ve also made a couple of edits for my own personal humor. While it’s just for funnies, I hope it’s somewhat getting me somewhere in the realm of Photoshop.
We also had an open house on Tuesday! I came to the school at around five-ish to help out – There were quite a lot of people. I was surprised to see how many of the kids who came in looked like they were barely even twelve.
I remember one man came in who I talked to for a handful of minutes who used a good portion of Adobe Suite in his pass-time. He seemed to be quite interested.
Actually, quite a few kids seemed to be interested. I do hope they join.
Anyway, that wraps up the week. I hope you all had a good week, and I eagerly anticipate the oncoming winter break.
Catch you on the flip side.

Quite a lot of time has passed since the last post, huh? Let’s get into it.
Last week, we all went on Thanksgiving Break. I’m sure it was quite fun for most – Family, food, and relaxation!
For my break, I went to my Aunt and Uncle’s house. They made some delicious food, and I watched my cousins play video games. It was a pretty sweet deal.
Aside from Thanksgiving, though – In class, we’ve been working on holiday cards. I had recently spent a good portion of time creating a low-poly polar bear that I found conveniently timed for said cards. The other card I made was a pink rendition of Mt. Fuji, with “Happy Holidays!” (kind of) In Japanese. It came out a little darker than I would have liked, however. That’s alright, though – It doesn’t look too bad.
Outside of assignments, I’ve been trying to figure out Photoshop and Illustrator some more. I created a halfway decent sketch in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet. Of course, first I had to figure out how to turn on pen pressure…
Speaking of pen pressure and Photoshop.. The brushes in Photoshop are soooo strange. I’m unsure of how to make it blend better, and I can’t quite tell what settings do what. I’ll have to look more into it, but until then, I guess I’ll mess around with some of the already made brushes. Some of them are strange, and show some sort of graphic indicating how hard the brush is being used or something to that effect. There’s something similar for pencil “brushes,” in which it shows how dull the pencil is getting. This is confusing to me, though.. Wouldn’t you want a brush like that to not get duller?
Maybe that’s not the point of the graphic, but I can’t quite tell. If you click off of the brush and then come back, it resharpens. It’s interesting.
Of course, I’m sure this seems like a ridiculously foolish observation to someone more versatile with the program. That’s alright, though – I learn through observing, and this blog is what I’m using to track my own observations and thoughts.
Anyway, it was a decent week. I hope everyone else also had a good week. Catch you on the flip side.