Semester 1 Review

What Did I Learn?

Technology

     Throughout the semester, I learned how to better use Illustrator so my patterns looked natural and connected together so when putting my pattern onto mockups and a digital layout of my box, it would all fit correctly and perfectly. I have learned so much in the technology department of e-Com. When I was a Freshmen, I could barely use Photoshop, and Premier Pro. I struggled so much, but i eventually learned how to use both of them efficiently. The next year when I was a Sophomore, I hated Illustrator because I didn't know anything. It was if I was starting over again in the learning process. I eventually learned the tools and shortcuts of Illustrator that I now use Illustrator whenever there's Graphic Design involved, even in my daily life. I used to do very small projects in Illustrator that would take a couple hours to about a day, but now I have done so many month long projects in and out of Illustrator that I have the stamina and attention span to dit down and do what I need to get done. My Sophomore year, we did many Photoshop tutorials, and then towards the end, I did a Vector portrait of my grandfather and many other vector portraits. The Photoshop tutorials took minutes, maybe a hour at most. The Vector Portrait took many weeks and hours to do. I had to stay after school to finish the project. I worked so hard and stayed after school so long that my muscles in my hands were sore. While I worked so much in Illustrator, I do need to go back and do some Photoshop work since those skills have been neglected for some time now. 

Collaboration and Communication

     In Graphic Design, I often asked my teacher and the people around me what they thought of my design once I was done. I'd get compliments as well as critiques. I did my best to fix my designs based on the critiques and see what worked best. Everyone around me had amazing ideas to share. In the past, I wasn't very open or vocal about anything. I was mostly introverted, and still introverted to this day. However, thanks to Video and other events outside of e-Com, I am able to fulfill any role needed and am ready to give my opinion or thoughts on something if need be. I am also more open about asking for critiques during random stages of the creating process. I have made great friends because of e-Com not just in the Graphic Design branch, but in the other branches as well. 

     Before I even entered high school, I was very communicative. I always told teachers when I would be absent and e-mail them when I was sick or gone unexpectedly. So, from a professional standpoint, I was communicative, but from a more casual standpoint, not so much. Once I get to know people, I become very open, but team projects were always something I didn't really like. Thanks to e-Com, I have had many opportunities to be open and communicate what needs to be done as well as goof around here and there.

Project Management

      In middle school and even sometimes to this day, I procrastinate quite often, however if I am away from distractions and given "free" time, then I get projects and other things done usually before the deadline. Going through the e-Com program, I have always completed projects and have been aware of deadlines. I have stayed after school for hours sometimes finishing a project. I try to use class time to my advantage and use as much of it as possible to work on a current project. One thing I wish to correct in the future, however, is to stay on task better and not get sidetracked by friends. 

Leadership

     I wouldn't consider myself a leader. In group projects, I fulfill any role that needs to be filled. However, if being a leader or director or head project person is the role that needs to be filled, I'll step up and be the leader. I do have many leadership qualities like listening to others as well as being able to take control of situations. 

1st Semester Review

"Nature Man"

   This project was one of the first Photoshop Projects I did in my Graphic Design class. This project was to Photoshop a man, image was provided, into anything we wanted. The rules were the face had to be visible and use adjustment layers. I don't remember how long this project took me to complete, but longer than I thought. Some challenges for this project were deciding what I wanted to do. Originally, I was going to do a horror type edit, but decided to do a galaxy/alien edit instead. I had a a difficult time gettin the suit right, but figured it out in the end. I learned how to use adjustment layers and opacity as well as the quick select tool. Some feedback I got was the lack of blending modes. I didn't use any, in fact, due to my nonexistent experience with blending modes. To this day, I do think this edit is one of my best. 

Photoshop Challenge 2

 This project was to find 5 photos or more, use a photoshop filter, adjustment layer, and a layer mask to create this edit. It took me a couple days, from what I remember, to complete it. I learned to use color balance/adjustment and how to layer photos together. Some challenges I faced were trying to make the gravestones look natural, getting the fox's orange color to stand out, but blend it, and for the statue/ghost thing in the background to be faint but noticeable. Some feedback I got was the gravestones looked a little distorted and the fox would look better if it had a shadow underneath it. I didn't make any changes to it since I turned it on to my teacher due to my satisfaction with my work. This project isn't my best work, but i do like the aesthetic it has. It's interesting.  

Pop Art 

 The last project will mention is my pop art project. It didn't take me that long to complete, but i did have a difficult time getting the subject's hair blue due to all the little strays that were too small to color. I learned how to change backgrounds and change the color of a specific object. The feedback was it looked a little choppy, and I have to agree. I had a difficult time with the quick select tool in this project. Also, I could have used a better color scheme. I finished the main part of the project and didn't know what to do for the background, so I just guessed as to what to do and hoped it looked good.  I already knew what I wanted to do when I put the photo in photoshop, but I was still learning the ropes of everything, and ended up with a decent piece of work. In my opinion, it's not bad, but not one of greater works. 

Time

 When I would finish a project, i would work on photoshopping celebrities into random characters from popular media. I stopped after awhile due to how bored i got after awhile. I then moved on to editing characters from the same movie on one photoshop document. I did do some more serious work as well, mostly doing edits for my parents. One was editing photos from their trip to Eureka Springs into a panorama collage like my Paris one. Another project was to put a photo label that my dad sent me to put on one of his friend's shirt in a photo. I think over time, the more serious the project, the better I performed and my skills improved as the year went on. Outside of class, i started an arts and crafts project where I used photoshop to create images of my friends' favorite tv/movie character or celebrity with their favorite quote. I did this for eight of my friends and will glue each image to a piece of watercolor paper with their favorite color painted onto the watercolor paper.  

One of the edits I made for my friend.
She loves video games!

This is another edit I made for a friend.
She and I are in marching band!

Eureka Springs. This is one of my better edits

Stand By Me is one of my favorite movies,
so I created this panama. 

Strengths and Weaknesses

 I have strong time and project management skills as well as communication. However I lack in leaderships skills. Graphics Design doesn't have a lot of the traditional "leadership" roles, so it's been a bit of an adaptation. However, I always ask other for advice, and ask the teacher for help when I can't figure out a solution to a problem. I do turn in projects on time and make sure I am doing what is necessary to be on track. 

Summary

 What I love most about Graphic Design is the projects and how many we do. However, back to blending modes, I'd do a project where it was just blending modes as the main focus. Overall, the takeaway I had of this semester is to enjoy the projects and to do it how you feel like doing it while completing all the requirements. A goal for next semester is to continue side projects as well as keep up with schoolwork, which wasn't a problem this semester. Overall, I had good projects and poor projects, but none of them were terribly bad.

Behance

Below is a link to my Behance where you can check out more projects I have done as well as some other cool projects done by others:
https://www.behance.net/katiebarry8d65

Multi-Exposure Panorama

   

     Going to Paris, France was one of the best trips I've ever had. The culture, language, food, architecture, people, and geography are all things I love. The photos I used in this collage were from the second level of the Eiffel Tower. 

     It was on a Sunday. Toby and my grandpa decided to visit Sainte-Chapelle, which is the most beautiful cathedral in my opinion. Then, we walked around a bit to visit the Luxemburg Garden, which is bigger than huge, and got some gelato at the best gelato place in Paris, Amorino. 

     We then decided to visit the Eiffel tower, and my grandpa and I got in line to climb up the stairs to the second level. We had to take two little breaks to catch our breath due to the amount of stairs there were.  When we reached the first level, we looked out at the view, but there was a fence blocking some of the scenery. 

     My grandpa and I continued up the stairs and finally reached the second level. There were hundreds of tourists looking out at the beautiful view of Paris. I was fortunate enough to capture some photos. The view was amazing! It reminded me of that scene of Ratatouille where Remy sees the beautiful view of Paris. 

      A few months later, school starts and I'm in Graphic Design. I've finished many projects and side projects and our ext project has to be a collage of photos we've taken. I decided to use the photos from the Eiffel tower because of the beautiful view. I did edit the original photos to give it more of an "old-timey" feel. I started putting it together by lining up the photos with the Seine river and go from there. I used the eraser tool probably one hundred times as well as many layer masks. Overall, I think I did Paris justice in capturing it's beauty and essence.  

Pop Art Design

The Process

     I started by selecting photos of my partner and chose the one I thought I could work with easily. I decided to use the primary colors for the subject and secondary colors for the background. I did put in some yellow arrows to add some normal shapes and to create more of a "pop art" feel. I was mostly inspired by Roy Lichtenstein, who used a lot of primary colors. I used a lot of color balance to change the colors of the subject aw well as some gradients for the background and for the glasses. I had a little trouble with the gradient tool due to my lack of experience with it, but i eventually figured it out.  I did have some trouble with the hair and glasses because the hair had little details that I couldn't include and with the glasses because i used a gradient on the glass part of them. Overall, I enjoyed this project, not my favorite, but one I enjoyed. 

The Project 

"Nature Man"

      This assignment was to Photoshop a man using either the provided photos or our own and edit him using the photos. The goal was to keep his face visible

The Process

Here is Alien Man. My edit of the challenge

     At the beginning, I was going to do a horror themed edit, but I didn't find any images I liked or thought would be interesting, so I ditched the idea, and decided to make it Outer Space-galaxy-star themed. I found a lot of different images of stars and planets as well as some alien themed photos as well and compiled all of them together and created Alien Man, at least that's what I titled it once I saved it. I didn't use the photos provided because they photos of mountains, trees, tree roots, hence the name of this blog, "Nature Man".  

      I used a lot of layer masks to edit all of this together. It wasn't difficult, but it was a lot of "rinse and repeat". Every photo I added had to be resized, erase the unwanted bits, make sure it looks "natural" etc. I I really enjoyed this project, and I highly recommend doing this challenge to anyone with basic photoshop skills. I used a lot of the skill from the previous lessons and incorporated them into this project. There were some days where all I wanted to do was work on this project. 

Finished Project

     I'm really happy with the way it came out. It is interesting and weird, but I think it works. I have shown some of my friends and they all seemed to like it. I did finish early because I came in during lunch to work on it because of how much fun I had working on it. Since I finished early, I had extra time to make another edit on a different photo. Same rules applied but it was whoever we found on Google. 

The Extra Edit

     This extra edit was especially fun because it is of a video game character from a game I like. The game is called Undertale and the character I chose is Undyne. I think . I did a pretty good job. I didn't do as much detail as my last edit. For example, I didn't edit the clothes, hair or background and instead, focused more on the facial features. Again, this edit was for fun, but I still think I did a decent job. I did forget to edit some things like the earrings, and forgot to add some eyeshadow and gills to the character, but I think it's still recognizable. 

Photoshop

What was the project?

The whole purpose of this project was to learn about photoshop, its tools and how to photoshop different items and people. 

                       Lesson One

     The first lesson was on content aware fill, which is deleting unwanted items out of a photo or backgr
ound. I had four different photos that I had to photoshop and it was simple and easy to do. I really enjoyed learning this simple trick and it will help me in the future. Originally, this photo to the left had many unnecessary items and blemishes, but thanks to Photoshop, I easily got rid of those unwanted blemishes and objects and made it what it is now.

Lesson Two

     Patch Tool is a variation of lesson one. I learned that Content Aware Fill won't always work fr getting rid of unwanted objects or items. The Patch Tool is a good substitute to get rid of bigger items such as t-shirt logos. I had a harder time making the shirt look more natural, but for the lesson, I did a good job.

       Lesson Three

     While getting rid of unwanted items is all good and an essential lesson in Photoshop, knowing how to make the rest look natural without the unwanted item is also necessary. That's what Clone Stamp and Healing Brush help you do. I thought I did a pretty good job on this. The goal of this project was to get rid of a clothing tag on the jacket near the arm and pocket of the right side of the photo. Overall I did a pretty good job, however I did make one, very little minuscule mistake near the pocket, but from afar, it isn't noticeable.  I did enjoy learning this skill and will need it in the future.

Lesson Four

The objective of this Photoshop lesson was to get rid of unwanted background items. Tis lesson was called Clone Stamp and Patch Tool. We used the clone stamp from the previous lesson as well as the patch tool from lesson two and combined them to erase a pole in the background. We used the clone stamp to get rid of the section near the guy's head as well as the entire pole, then used the patch tool to make the sky more natural. I enjoyed this lesson more than the previous lessons. This and lesson one are my top favorites. 

Lesson Five

Lesson Five was using the spot healing brush to get rid of blemishes and make the skin smoother. The photo was already in black and white and originally, the boy was covered in dirt and just had some blemishes here and there. Thanks to the spot healing brush, it was easy to get rid of the dirt spots and blemishes. This lesson was okay, I did enjoy it, but not one I'd want to do every week. 

Lesson Six

Out of all the lessons so far, this lesson was the most complicated and least liked by me. The goal was to make a collage out of three photos of a girl modeling. As you can see, I messed up on one of her faces. I had to go back to different sections of the lesson and repeat many things because I would make a mistake and have to delete a layer. This was the hardest out of all of them and took me many days, almost a week, to complete. This lesson was complicated and harder than the previous lessons so it makes sense as to the amount of time I had to spend on it, but that doesn't mean I enjoyed it. All in all, it was a good way to combine every skill previously learned as well as some new ones, but not one I'd do again.