Term Project

Term Project Reflection

1. What skills that you acquired over the course of the term have been most helpful to you when it came to the book project?

The skills that helped me most for this project are just an overall knowledge of Photoshop. Before this term, I had never before used this program. Now I feel like I know the tools really well and can use them competently. I created my ENTIRE book in Photoshop. Once I learned how each tool worked I could make any ideas I had into a reality. Sometime I think I may not have used the most efficient way possible but I still got the results I wanted eventually. Another gem of knowledge I gained from this class was the use of a limited palette. I use limited colors for pretty much every project I do now and I think it has really improved my work.

2. When you look back at your choice of book format (art, trade, children’s, etc.) and your specific subject, what design choices did you make along the way that best served your overall plan?

I don’t exactly know how to classify my book but I do know that it wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. I chose to create all of my characters to look cartoon-like in order to serve this purpose. I felt that using real photographs would make the book look more serious than I was going for. I also used a playful, bubbly font on each page. The majority of the colors in the book are bright and fun.

P.S. I added the disclaimer on the back cover after realizing that my creepy guy looked a taaaaad bit like Professor Arellano….I promise this was not intentional and I don’t find him creepy at all!

4. What do you plan to do with your book (sell it, gift it, burn it, etc.)?

I plan to make thousands of copies of my book so that this essential how-to guide can be shared throughout world! Okay, not really. I don’t have any big plans for my stellar book. In reality, it’s probably going to get lost in my dorm room. Maybe I’ll find it as I’m packing up to go home after spring term. I shall then peruse it and reminisce about the good ol’ days spent in DMF 201.

Book Dummy

Book Proposal (sorta)

“How to Become a Superhero; and Other Useless Schemes”

First of all, I have no idea how to write a book proposal so I’m just going to wing it… So for this project, I ran through a lot of ideas…some not so good. But the one I think I can really run with is what I’m going to base my book on. The title (tentatively) will be “How to Become a Superhero; and Other Useless Schemes.” Each of the eight pages will feature a different how-to guide. A couple ideas I have in mind, besides how to become a superhero, are how to become a mime and how to become a nerd. I plan to create this book using an InDesign template. I’m intending to either create all of my images in Photoshop or hand draw them and scan them into the program. I want the book to look sort of elementary. I plan on using a font that looks handwritten. I’m also thinking about making the pages look as if they came from a lined notebook. At this point, I’m not entirely sure about the dimensions but I’m not going to do anything too crazy. I feel like this book would be marketable to people around my age with a sense of humor. And honestly, who doesn’t want to learn how to become a superhero?

Poster Project

One of the tools a used a bunch in this project was the eye dropper tool. I wanted to keep a flat palette in both posters, so using the eye dropper was a big help. It made it so I could easily match colors so I could stick to the same ones.

I think font type played a bigger role in my Quack Attack poster than the other one. For the main title I used a blocky type font. I chose that one because I wanted a font that resembled the type used on letterman’s jackets. This “movie” is about a flag-football team so I wanted to use text that conveyed the sports theme.

I really like dorky, not-very-well-known-bands so I decided that was the kind of band I wanted “Chapstick Revenge” to be. I wanted the poster to come across that way. I found a picture of four random people on Google, who became my band members, since it’s a smallish band. I wanted the Quack Attack poster to come off comically. My friends really do have a flag-football team and they take themselves pretty damn seriously. So yeah, this poster might be making fun of them just a little. I think between the massive rubber duck and super cliché slogan, I accomplished my mission.

Photo Project

"Friend"....Trenton getting ready to dominate a game of pool. Oooh yeah.

Photo Project Reflective Essay

As you can probably tell from the angle of my ‘other’ picture, I didn’t ask permission. This dude was just chillin’ by a bus stop on Ashland Street. I put my camera by my side and took a picture all sneaky like as I walked by. He had headphones on and was really in the zone working on something so I didn’t want to interrupt him in order to introduce myself.

"Self-Portrait"....me+mustache. yum.

I only made one adjustment to my ‘other’ photo. I really like the angle of this picture so I didn’t crop it at all. I upped the vibrancy a little just to make his stellar purple shirt stand out a little more. Other than that, I left the image alone.

 "Other".... the man with red headphones.

I took my camera on a run with me one morning and ended up taking the majority of my alphabet pictures that day. It was relatively early in the morning and the lighting was pretty good for most of the pictures. So adjusted the brightness on the sidewalk photos such as the 'I' and the 'X' because they were really washed out. Other than that I pretty much left the pictures as is.

Type Project

Type Project Reflective Essay

                I chose all my letters at random. I chose them simply for their shape. I didn’t have any connection to the letters. When choosing the letters I just thought about what I could do with the shape of each letter.

                In the majority of my compositions I rasterized the letters. I found that this made it easier for me to manipulate them the way I wanted. The only problem I found with this approach was that once I had rasterized a letter I was stuck with whichever font I had first chosen. I think by rastersizing the letters, the compositions were more about the overall visual effect instead of the actual letters.

                My favorite composition was the one with the dandelions…by far. It was the first project I did and definitely think it turned out the best. I like it better than the others because it depicts a scene even though everything is made out of v’s. I also like this one because I think the colors work really well together. I knew it was finished because I kept trying to add things to it and it just looked worse and worse. So I finally stopped trying to ruin it and let it be.

Toy Project

Paco the Dinosaur!

Reflective Essay

With Paco, I started creating him by first coloring his skin. After I had the basics covered I moved on to his face and other additional features like the spikes. I think this was a good approach. The only disadvantage I encountered was when I decided to change his skin color and had to work around all the other features.

At first, I used the eyedropper tool to sample colors off the Internet. Eventually I decided the colors just weren’t doin’ it for me, and ended up using the bright green color that was already in Photoshop’s toolbox. I used other Photoshop colors that worked for me for the other features in my toy also.

       My motivation behind this project was mainly just to have fun with it and learn more about Photoshop tools. I didn’t model my toy off a real person or try to make a political statement (obviously…). I thought making a baby dinosaur would be fun and would look simply fabulous sitting in my dorm room. (: