All throughout quarter one we've been assigned to do blog posts, reflecting on what we did in class that week. Some of my posts are "unassigned," but they are still required and I still make use of them for their purpose. To me blog posts have actually been pretty helpful for my learning, being required to write about what you learned requires you to at least know what you learned first. These blog posts allow me to reflect on the week and add my perspective to it as well, which most classes don't ask for. My favorite part about these blog posts is the freedom we have when choosing what to write them about, as long the assigned ones are related to class. Having freedom makes the assignment less stressful because it broadens the horizons for things we can write about. It also makes it easier because I often have something on my mind after a week of class that I want to write about and with this freedom I can. Overall, blog posts have helped to summarize what I've been doing throughout the year and I personally like writing them. I have also noticed that my writing skills are improving, on the first one there were many mistakes that I had to fix but now I often only have a few.
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Quarter one is finally coming to an end and I am proud to say that I have actually learned something in scientific visualization. Usually in school classes will teach the same thing as the previous year, elaborating on it a tad bit more, but seeing as this is my first year in a digital art class, there was no previous year of information I could relearn. We learned about the history of digital careers, what parts make up a PC, copyright laws, the design process, and the elements and principles of design all in nine weeks. I enjoyed learning about the principles and elements of design the most because I actually got to use Photoshop for the first time. By the end of that week I got down most of the basics for Photoshop, but I still have more to go. Using Photoshop helped me visualize what I was doing by creating images that showed the elements of design instead of just writing about it. I hope we continue to use Photoshop in the future, and I'm pretty sure we will because it is a digital art class. This class was the only class this quarter that actually gave me lots of work to do, but I'm sure there will be even more work next quarter. All in all it has been a pretty good quarter and I look forward to having a great experience with digital art.
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This week in scientific visualization we learned about the design process and did an assignment in which we applied parts of the design process to make a comic strip. Last week we were assigned to make a character that we used for our comic strips this week. For these comic strips we also had to come up with something creative for our character to do that required the use of their skills. This is where I struggled on this assignment. Because the character I made was supposed to be representative of a completely average guy, anything special he did would make him no longer average. Taking that into note, I decided to make the comic about his most heroic day of his average life, that decision allowed me to start brainstorming what that could be. After a while of brainstorming I finally decided to use one idea, with that idea I began to create the comic strip. Creating the comic strip was actually a lot easier than I thought it'd be. Originally, I thought I'd be spending hours trying to draw my character in each slide. In reality though, because I was the one who made my character, drawing his form was natural to me. When I finished the comic strip I looked over it then turned it in and thought about how we were using the design process to do this assignment. This assignment helped me rationalize just how effective the design process actually is, and although we only used the start of it I still got a good idea of how it'd speed up the process for making a full work from start to finish.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools. Main Points
Last week in Scientific Visualization we were assigned to create a character from scratch. The moment I got this assignment I thought it'd be easy, especially because we were given four days to do it. When I actually attempted to draw a character, I couldn't get any ideas of what I wanted my character to be. Seeing as my character could have been just about anything, it was hard for me to narrow it down to just one idea for it. I came up with a solution for this problem though; because everyone else would have abstract characters with crazy powers and abilities, I decided to make mine an average guy. I made this decision to symbolize that not every character is a hero who came out of nowhere to save the world. I find it more interesting when the main character is an average guy because it makes it more realistic and more relatable for the audience. To make my character an average guy, I decided to just draw a simple man for my rough sketch, before refining the features in my final draft. This strategy actually worked very well for me, as it allowed me to get through the rough sketch faster which gave me more time to add details to my final draft. The only problem I encountered with this assignment was drawing an accurate human. Nobody is the best artist but we all like accurate drawings, my hunger for accuracy consumed most of my time working on this project until I finally decided it was taking too long and just moved on. Maybe in the future I'll be a better artist and accuracy will be natural for me, but for now it'll just have to be something that I have to accept - I am not the best artist.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public Schools. Main Points
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AuthorMy name is Andrew Prichard and the this is my first digital arts class, I look forward to a good year with lots of hard work. Archives
May 2021
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Last updated 5/14/21
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