Presentation

Over the past few days I learned about presentation. We learned several presentation tips, including  speaking loudly but not yelling, speaking slowly and clearly, smiling and making eye contact, being succinct, being engaging, and not pacing. 

Then we watched presentations by Bill Gates, Bjorn Lomberg, and Jamie Oliver. Bill had amazing eye contact, Bjorn had great facial expressions, and Jamie had fantastic posture. All of these were great presentations and I gave them very good scores.

Finally, we presented our sketchbook blog posts to the class. Most people were nervous, but since I enjoy performing in plays, I was not scared at all. I had a very loud voice and was excited about my work. I spoke fast but had a good attitude, and my teacher gave me a 9. I was very glad to do that presentation and it taught me quite a bit.

Maddie's Amazing Art!- The Sketchbook

This week we were asked to use our sketchbooks for the first time. We were supposed to illustrate what graphic design means to us. Now, to me, graphic design is about creativity, artistic expression, and creating something recognizable. And what's more recognizable than the world's most famous feline herself, Hello Kitty?

My sketchbook drawing.

Now, when I was first deciding what to draw, I looked up "logo" and looked through the results. The Hello Kitty logo was the first that caught my eye, and with my love of Japanese media such as Hello Kitty, I couldn't resist. So I recreated the Hello Kitty logo to the best of my ability, and decided if I did the Hello Kitty logo, I need to draw Hello Kitty herself. But then a thought came to mind- since graphic design is about creativity and artistic expression, why not make her an artist? 

So I sketched Kitty in a smock and beret, painting a picture. (The picture she is painting is a still life of three apples, because it's said Kitty weighs the same as 3 apples, and the apple is a symbol of the Hello Kitty franchise.) However, I was dissatisfied with the amount of empty space around Kitty, so I decided to draw other works of art that she had presumably made. The first thing I did was a parody of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, quite possibly the most famous painting in the world; however, instead of a woman, I drew a cat. (Hello Kitty probably has never seen an adult human in her life, since her world is populated by anthropomorphic animals, so I'd assume she'd use one of her own kind as the subject for her painting.) The rest of the artwork she has made are parodies of famous pieces of art starring her and her friends: a parody of Sandro Botticelli's The Birth Of Venus with Kitty as Venus and Tuxedo Sam, Chococat and Keroppi as the people surrounding her; a parody of the Greek Discus Thrower statue with Kitty as the discus thrower; a parody of Grant Wood's American Gothic with Kitty as the farmer's wife and Dear Daniel (her love interest) as the farmer; and a parody of Edvard Munch's The Scream starring Kitty as the person in the foreground with the shocked expression. I finished it off with a sign saying "Kitty's art studio: A place to get creative!"

I personally love this artwork and how well it drives home the message of creativity. That's what graphic design is about, after all. So go out there! Make your masterpiece! And don't be afraid to get creative!

My Favorite and Least Favorite Colors

My favorite color is green. In the famous words of Paige the Notebook from the popular Web series Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, green is not a creative color. But to me, the color green represents beauty, nature, and purity. It awakens childhood memories of playing in the woods under the canopy of emerald leaves, or trekking through the jungle during our vacations in Hawaii and Jamaica. It also reminds me of the earth element, which I associate myself with, and my favorite gemstones, emerald and peridot (the latter being my birthstone). Many foods are also green, and my favorite green foods are pears, white grapes, sugar snap peas, and watermelon. I also have green eyes, so that may be why I like the color green so much. Who knows?

My least favorite color is brown. Brown is a color that always struck me as dull. Maybe it's because plants usually turn brown when they die. Maybe it's because when the leaves turn brown, that means winter is coming, and that's a bad thing because I cannot stand the cold. Maybe it's because rotten things are usually brown, maybe it's because my mother's house is full of dull colors and I just got bored of them, maybe it's because brown is the color of dirt and filth, or maybe it's because brown is such a dull color compared to other colors. That's not to say I don't like brown. Brown can look good in certain situations, and being someone with brown hair I am obligated to say so. Still, of all the colors, brown is my least favorite.

Maddie's Amazing Art!- Adobe Illustrator

What I created for the shape project.

This week we learned about shapes, colors, and how to use Adobe Illustrator. The first thing we did in Illustrator was create shapes. First, we were taught about color theory. We learned that, for example, green makes us think of freshness and is used for a lot of cleaning products as a result. Red, on the other hand, is eye-catching and gets people's attention. For my shape project, I went with a yellow-green color scheme, giving it a bright and sunny look reminiscent of citrus fruits. I overlapped my shapes together in a zigzag, linear fashion. And, in the end, it did end up looking very appealing.

This graphic design I created is the cat's meow!

After that, we were encouraged to be creative and make a picture with Illustrator using the shape-creating and shaper tools. I decided to make a cat, as cats are my second-favorite animals (second only to snakes) and my favorite thing to draw. I was debating with myself over what color to make the cat, but I finally decided on a black cat. Instead of going for a realistic approach (which I often do when drawing cats), I decided to do a more simplified and cute design reminiscent of the Japanese kawaii art style. I used a half-circle for the body, triangles for the nose and ears, paintbrush lines for the eyes, regular lines for the whiskers, ellipses for the legs, and several combined shapes for the tail. After that, I created a background for the cat, involving a green rectangle for the grass, a dark blue rectangle for the sky, a white circle with a smaller blue circle on top for the moon, and multiple stars using the star tool. I am rather proud of my cat, as it looks appealing and very adorable. I am very glad that we got to learn how to use Adobe Illustrator, because so far I am loving it.