Self Symbol GIF Reflection

1. My self symbol concept was based around creativity. My idea was to be able to convey the fact that I am a naturally artistic person, who loves to think up things and translate them to paper, whether that be through a sketch or a story. I also wanted to convey that I never want to stop creating, and also the fact that while I am usually very quiet, in my head, I never shut up. 
I arrived at this idea after examining my thumbnails (pictured below) and realized that the ones I liked the most were the ones that involved the creatures and animals that I've made up. I actually struggled when thinking initially about this project, because I wasn't sure which aspect of my personality I wanted to convey. I generally don't like talking about myself, and quite a number of my thumbnails conveyed traits that I felt were  but I do enjoy sharing the things that I've created. 
The main character in my GIF is one of those things. The Flying Eggplant Eel takes its origin story from sixth grade. I saw a drawing that one of my friends had done and liked it so much that I created my own version of it, which is the creature that can be seen in the GIF. This image is able to relate to my concept because it depicts something that I've created. I also made it loop forever because I wanted it to convey the fact that I am constantly drawing these Flying Eggplant Eels, and definitely don't plan to stop any time soon!  


2. Here is my GIF- 

3. My original concept for this GIF, as I imagined it in my thumbnail sketches (closeup provided below) was to transform a curlicue into a Flying Eggplant Eel. However, after creating my post-it sequence (also pictured below) I realized that it would be better to have the GIF instead be of one being created, and have each specific frame be a different step in the drawing process. 
I also wanted to make it come to life and fly out of frame because I wanted to convey how real these creatures have become to me over time. Whenever I sketch one, I feel as if it does come alive on the page, and (as crazy as this may sound) has its own personality. I would absolutely love to have one actually come to life.

My thumbnails

A closeup of my thumbnail idea
for the GIF

My post-it sequence. I based
this off of the thumbnail
pictured above. 

After creating my post it sequence,
I started brainstorming further
about what else I could include. It
led to my decision to change my
original idea around a little. 

GIF homework

This is my GIF. The basic concept is the transition between the city to the country- I more or less took pictures of different moments during my trip from New York to my grandma's house in Massachusetts. 

Portrait Transformation Reflection

1. The concept behind my portrait transformation builds on the idea of my imagination. I read quite a lot, and some of my favorite books are ones that create different worlds and transport me to places that are so unlike the Earth we currently live on (examples of these include The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia). In recent years, I have found myself more frequently imagining what would happen if I wound up in one of the fictional universes from the books I read. In my transformation, I brought this to life by depicting myself looking into a mirror. Instead of myself being reflected in the mirror, however, the reflection is like my alter-ego- or what I think I would look like in, say, Narnia or Middle Earth. The girl in the mirror is surrounded by a tranquil green setting and is dressed in medieval/woodland garb. I'm more or less trying to convey is that I like to imagine myself in different places and living different lives.  


2. Portrait Title: Hopes Lost and Found (it's kind of a cheesy title, sorry). 

3. I am happy with the results. Figuring out what my concept was going to be proved to be much more of a challenge than I anticipated, and when I chose this idea, I wasn't sure if I would be able to make it work. By that I mean that I was uncertain if it was going to turn out the way that I pictured it in my head. But the final result came pretty close to the original idea I had, which was a relief. I actually really like how it came out! 
4. Photos! (All the photos used in this transformation are ones that I've taken. Yes, that includes the photo in the background of the wall) 

This is the photo I used in
the background of the "mirror".
I wanted to have a photo of some
sort of natural setting in the
background to juxtapose the city
where I live with the forest that
I always imagine myself in.

This is my "alter ego" who appears
in the mirror. I wanted her to look like
someone who you wouldn't typically see
in the world today- hence the cloak and
the flower crown. 

The final result

5. I used five layers in this project. The first one was the blue background that is meant to represent the wall on which the mirror is hanging. In order to achieve the textured effect that at least the walls in my apartment have, I used a oil paint filter. Next, I added in the picture frame, and used the free transform tool to make it larger and tilted (using the perspective free transform tool). I then used a combination of the eraser and magnetic lasso tools to cut out the details in the mirror's frame. The next layer was the photograph of the forest (as seen above on the left). I layered it behind the mirror frame, adjusting the size and perspective accordingly so that it looked like it fit. The next thing I did was use the magnetic lasso tool and a layer mask to transfer the image of the "woodsy" girl (as seen above on the right) into the image within the mirror. After doing all this, I made some image adjustments to the layers containing the girl and the forest so that they had similar lighting and color balances. This was in order to make it seem like one seamless image. To do this, I darkened both images, added a slightly greenish/bluish tinge, and used the spot healing tool to make the image of the girl look more like it was taken in natural lighting rather than under florescent lighting. The last and final layer contains the image of me in the foreground, with my back to the camera looking at the mirror. I used the magnetic lasso tool again on the actual image, and then copied and pasted it into another layer. I adjusted the lighting on this image a little bit as well, but kept the florescent lighting look. I wanted to convey the sense that the "me" in the foreground was stuck in the real world, while the girl in the mirror was in another world- in this sense, the woods. 

Photoshop Mini-lesson 4

This is my final result of our fourth mini-lesson in Photoshop. I decided to combine a picture of my father with a picture (that I found online) of Hobbiton, also known as The Shire.

Please note: This image is not to scale. Humans would be much shorter than depicted here.

Letter Project Reflection

1) When I was assigned my letter ("D"), I knew more or less instantly that I wanted to use a dragon as my concept. There was no real reason for the decision, other than the fact that I quite like dragons. I thought that perhaps I might come across another idea through the thumbnail sketches, but as I continued sketching, I realized that the dragon idea was the only one that significantly stuck out in my mind.
My process for this project began with the twenty thumbnails that we were required to complete. 

Initially, I wasn't sure that I would be able to come up with twenty different ideas for this design. However, I ended up with twenty-four. Five of those explored the concept of the dragon a little more in depth. I was trying to figure out how I could position the creature so that it looked the most like the letter I was trying to create. This part of the process was quite helpful, because it allowed me to experiment with different ideas. Eventually, I decided that I liked design # 24 the most (pictured to the right). This is the design that I had in mind while drawing my drafts (pictured below). 

 

I focused on two of my thumbnail sketches in the drafting process- Design # 2 and #24. The reason I chose to duplicate these particular designs was because I thought they most closely resembled the "D" shape. As can be seen above, I did diverge from my thumbnails a little, but I drew inspiration nonetheless from them. With these sketches, I tried to really capture the letter shape, but also try to draw a convincing dragon. I also tried experimenting with different color schemes, narrowing it down to two different color palettes- red/purple, and blue/green/purple.  This led me to my final draft. 

My final draft ended up being a fusion of the two sketches. As can be seen, I once again experimented with the position and shape of the dragon. I used the general shape of the dragon from the first sketch and the color scheme from the second. I also added in a background that I'd tried out in my sketches. My final turned out a lot better than I'd expected, given the fact that I was having second thoughts about my drafts after I'd completed them. This was relieving and gratifying. 

I received quite a bit of teacher and peer feedback during this process. It was an enormous help to hear other people's opinions, and hear suggestions about what I could do to make the final result feel more authentic. For instance, this drawing would probably not be shaded in properly if it weren't for the advice of my teacher and peers. 

2) To represent my concept visually in my design, I knew that I would have to orient the body of the dragon in such a way that it would exhibit a noticeable enough curve to pull of a "D" shape. In all the sketches apart from one, I used the tail of the dragon to achieve this. The tail of the dragon is a lot more flexible than the rest of its body. Although I could have done something like I did in thumbnail # 24, where the actual body of the dragon curved to form the "D" shape, I thought it would be more believable if I utilized the tail to do that. 

3) The most challenging aspect of this project was definitely trying to settle on the position of the dragon. I experimented a lot with how the dragon would be sitting- would it be sitting up, like in the final, or crouched, like in the draft? Would it be standing on anything? Should I draw it from the front, in profile, or a combination of the two? How should its tail be positioned? Where can the wings be positioned so that they are out of the way and don't distract from the rest of the drawing? How detailed should the dragon be? Should I make the tail two colors or one? Should the wings be a completely different color, or similar to the body and the tail? It was difficult for me to decide on any of these things, because I'm just naturally terrible at making decisions, but also because each different way I answered these questions, I wasn't necessarily completely happy with the result. The exception was my final draft. 

4) That being said, I am very satisfied with my final draft. I was worried that it wasn't going to come out looking the way I wanted it to, but I am pleased to say that it did! I love the dragon, and I think that the "D" shape is prominent enough to be discernible, but subtle enough to blend in with the design as a whole. To me, when I look at it, I see both a dragon and the letter "D", which, of course was the goal. 

5) If I were to change anything about the design, it would probably be to shift the entire dragon over a couple of centimeters. I made the mistake, when drafting my final, of drawing the wings last. I had colored in the whole dragon before I realized that I had very little room for the wings. I ended up having to draw them a lot smaller than I originally intended. Although I was relatively pleased by how they came out, they still look slightly cramped, and I find myself wishing that I had had the foresight when drafting to move the dragon over to the right just a little more. 

About the summer

Hi! My name is Ana Schlanzky and I am seventeen years old and a senior at Millennium High School. I am an avid reader and writer, enjoy drawing, sewing, listening to music, biking, being outside, watching movies, and taking photographs. I'm attempting to become a artist/writer/environmentalist. 

Summer 2015 photos

Towards the end of July, my parents and I drove to Flint, Michigan to visit my dad's family. While there, my aunt hosted two cookouts- one with my extended family and one with their friends and neighbors. The picture above is from the latter. This gathering was a very special one for me- it was wonderful to see my family again and spend time with them. It was slightly nostalgic as well- two members of my dad's family have passed away in the last year and a half, and we felt their absence. 

This is a picture of Lucifer Falls, which is part of Treman State Park in Ithaca, New York. Driving back from Michigan, my parents and I stopped at Ithaca in order to visit Cornell University. We had a day to explore Ithaca after that, so we met up with one of my mother's friends and went with her to this state park. We hiked up to this vista and were greeted with this view of the falls. It is an absolutely gorgeous park and reminded me quite a lot of Rivendell from Lord of the Rings. 

I spent three weeks at my grandparents's house in Becket, Massachusetts. This summer, my parents and I all read A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, which is about the author's walk on the Appalachian Trail. We all decided to drive to an access point to the Trail that is about 20 minutes away from my grandparents. We did three different day hikes on it, which was an absolutely incredible experience for all of us. It introduced us to a world that we had never explored before and it was definitely worth it!