PAOLA'S CORNER

Hey, welcome back. It’s been a while since I last updated you with this whole dreamweaver thing. So this week I have watched a bunch of senior masteries and let me tell you… WOW! They were incredible. It’s so amazing to see the progress that the seniors have made within this year and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for all of them. My favorite mastery had to be Tal’s Storytelling Through Photography. She really did tell a story with her pictures and she seemed very confident and ready when giving her presentation. It definitely got me thinking of what I want to do next year and I have come up with a couple of ideas. My main one being the differentiation of culture through art and graphic design. I really do find an interest in researching and coming up with pieces for this topic. I do wish though that I could do something funny and very ME for my mastery. Maybe photoshop myself into iconic photos in history, that’d be funny. Honestly I’d do anything as long as I didn’t have to take my own personal photography for it. That’s kinda my one weakness when it comes to the whole Digital Communications thing, I mean obviously other that that devil application called Dreamweaver. So anyway, this week we are also working on our final exam project which is our remake of a book cover. I chose a Dog’s Purpose because it is one of my favorite books, but it also has a very boring book cover which I think I could make more interesting. My initial idea was that I wanted to make the main idea of the cover about my dog and I and have it more personalized towards me, but then I got to thinking and thought maybe I should think of a broader idea that will capture more people’s attention then just my own. Stay tuned to see how that turns out and I’ll keep y’all updated on anything else that happens in my life. Until next time my dudes.

So I’m gonna start this off by saying, yes, I know this is late. I have finally got around to doing this to here it goes. So… we made websites. Let me tell you it is definitely not as easy as it seems. I don’t know anyone that would genuinely say that they enjoyed using dreamweaver, especially me. I HATE DREAMWEAVER and I hate coding. Like Ms. D said, it uses more of the right side of your brain, which is definitely not the side that I tend to use the most. So my portfolio does not have a ton of stuff compared to some other people, but the things that I do have are pieces that I’m very proud of. I hope that we start using more photoshop in this class. I would love to be able to add pieces that are really cool and unique to my website in order to help it stand out. I would love to be able to make cool effects in order to create movie posters, concert posters and cool photoshop add ins with my photos. Honestly I kinda am just avoiding using Dreamweaver more than anything because I don’t really understand it that well and it makes me feel really behind when it comes to the other students in our class. It’s not that I didn’t learn it correctly either, it’s just like my brain cannot grasp the whole coding thing, even as hard as I try to. I go back onto code academy to try and grasp the things on there as well to maybe help me remember how to code but it does not help what so ever. So it’s kinda just been me asking for help or entering code and waiting for Dreamweaver to tell me if I’m wrong or not. Well, thats it for today folks. Tune in next time to be up to date with my struggles with Dreamweaver.

The week of March 9th we created our HOPE logos. I created a somewhat geometric design, using the colors yellow and orange. I started off by making squares and rectangles and just combining and rotating them and then deleting a couple of sections where they intersected. When we first started Dreamweaver I hated it, I still do. I honestly do not see a use in it. I understand that as graphic designers we may have to create a website one day, but that’s why there’s Adobe Muse to make it easier. I hate coding so much, it’s very confusing for some reason and I really just don’t like it. I rather learn how to design and create more unique pieces for my portfolio in photoshop and illustrator. If I wanted to learn how to code and create a website, I would have joined Computer Science, but since it is a grade I guess I just have to suck it up and get it done so I don’t fail. That week, some people took the ACT. I didn’t, even though I thought I had signed up for it. That day I actually kind of enjoyed school. I sat in a classroom all day and finished all of my work and got to watch youtube videos all day. I did take the SAT later on that week. I was very scared going into the test room because I had not studied at all, but honestly I think I did very well. I’m not saying that I got a 1600 but I think I got a solid good score. I was most scared for the math section because I haven’t taken a math class since my freshman year, but it was probably the easiest part of the whole exam. Now, onto the serious stuff… COLLEGE!!! Well so far I’ve been looking at a lot of different scholarships for college. I’ve also been looking into many different schools that I’m looking into applying to. My first choice is obviously SCAD. I do have a couple more options too, I want to apply to Appalachian State University Institute of Art.

Okay, so last time I left off on me working on my kinetic typography project. This is stressing me out so much I literally think I’ve cried at least 10 times because of this project. Everything about the project is stressing me out, and when I say everything I mean that. Any time I look at anyone else’s project, it makes me feel so self conscious about mine. I love the song I chose, personally I think I chose the best song, cause I mean lets be honest Don’t Stop Believing is iconic. Other than that, the actual process of making the words in my video do cool effects and catch someones attention is such a difficult process. Nothing ever looks good enough, and when I finally get a great idea for something I can do; I never know how to actually do it. Onto something else, Art Fields and B&C Art Shows are coming out and I think I want to do something with the Save the Bees campaign. Maybe something just raising awareness with a graphic design. I’m probably going to enter the same thing into both shows because I’m kinda stuck on ideas right now. My goal was to make a cartoon looking version of all of Selena’s album covers in memory of her. Now, I really don’t know what I want to do. Everyday that I’m in this class I feel less and less like I want to be a graphic designer. I have no creativity and no ideas for any projects. I honestly don’t know what’s going on with me that I can’t think of anything , but it’s really stressing me out and I don’t know what to do about it. Hopefully, something will come to me soon so I can design something really cool and different.

So its the beginning of the new year, and yes I know my first blog for the year is already late, but let me tell you something. So much has been going on this year. First of all, Luna literally holds me captive and makes me work 6 days a week which is why I have no social life anymore which is so depressing. Also, this whole prom fiasco is going on and I’m still wondering if I’m even going, or if I’ll be able to find a dress or a date, so much. Okay, well all of that would have to be a completely separate blog so let’s not talk about that right now. On the other hand, I think my first semester grades turned out pretty good. I got all A’s and one B in AP US History, which I think is a big accomplishment considering that class is one of the hardest classes I think I’ve ever taken. We also chose our song for our kinetic typography project and of course I chose the best song of the century, Don’t Stop Believing by Journey. Although, I would have preferred to have the Glee version of the song instead of the Journey version, it will just have to do. This has been my favorite song since I was about 8 or 9 years old so I think that when choosing my song there was no doubt in my mind that I was gonna do Don’t Stop Believing. In After Effects I learned how to add in a sound-wave that syncs up to the song, it follows all the beats in the song and can change colors at the same time. Also, Jake taught me how to animate png images that I have created in the video. So, because of learning that, I have so many new animating ideas that I want to do for my video. Up to this point, all I’ve really done on my project is enter the song into after effects and add on a couple of lines.

This entire week, we have worked on creating an event poster in photoshop. We went over fading out pictures, creating layer masks, and using the precise tools to appeal to a customer. These tools will come in handy for me because my goal is recreate concert posters with a little bit more of my own touch. My favorite photography blogger would have to be Indy Blue, she produces videos and does her own free lancing photography of all the places that she travels to. I enjoy her work more than anyone else’s mainly because her photography almost never involves people, it almost always are of landscape or photos that show a lot of motion such as fireworks and cars on a road. Although, my favorite artist is Russell Powell who is based in California and is in charge of Pangaean Studios. His art is very different from any other artist that I have seen. He uses his hands as a canvas to paint on then transfers it onto bigger surface such as walls or sidewalks. Throughout this week, we have also been working on our candy bar projects. I have created 2 very different designs. My first design is inspired on the song “Good Goes Around” which is featured on the Cheerios commercial (It’s kinda weird, I know). The base of the bar is designed to look like a honey comb with a bee on it. The font I used for the words is also meant to look like the path of a bee. My second design is a remake of a Milky Way bar. It is designed to look like a galaxy filled with stars and the font used on it is the same font as the NASA logo. My favorite design of the two is definitely the one for the Good Goes Around Bar, it genuinely just makes me happy because the design is very bright and vibrant and just grabs my attention very quick.

Were finally back from Thanksgiving break and honestly I’m kinda glad, because a week is a long time to go without seeing everybody in the class. Break was good.. and bad at times. My ENTIRE family went to Disney, and if you know spanish families then you understand that there’s ALOT of us. Having to be around so many people kinda stressed me out a bit at times but all in all we had a great time and ended up going to Animal Kingdom and Pandora. There was one bump in the road that kinda turned my trip into a disaster though. My magic band that I had used for my hotel room and my debit card was linked up to somebody in the rooms next to mine. Which meant that everything that that person bought was charged onto my debit card and vise versa. That kinda made me go on a rampage to try to fix my card and get my money back and the people at the hotel were not helping what so ever.
Finally though, were finally back at school and today is winter formal. It’s about to be super fun and I’m so excited to see my best friends form my base school tonight. I have to rush home to get ready to do my hair and makeup cause I’m actually trying to look like a girl for once and look nice. Hopefully the night goes well.

P.S. Winter Formal was last night and let me tell you…. WOOOOO! That was so much fun, it was honestly a rager and everyone there was so nice and I met so many new people. Last night after formal I went to Taco Bell which was the highlight of my night. Then we went back to my house and Jaiden and Cassie spent the night. We talked about anything and everything.

This week we made are Christmas cards as well. I made a nutcracker with snowflakes in the background. I did get the idea of the nutcracker from a picture that I saw but I completely free handed it and drew and combined shapes myself and I really think it turned out well.

This week has weirdly really good. We finished are Fire House Chili Pepper Hot Sauce label final draft. I personally think that my design was really good , obviously if I were more experienced it illustrator and photoshop I could tweak some extra corrections but other than that it was good for my first real design. We also started experimenting with Photoshop and tutorials this week. I learned how to make create a text portrait poster and how to use the dispersion effect on photos. I created posters with every concert that I’ve been to with the text portrait poster and the dates that I went to the concerts. I really liked how those posters came out and I plan to print them out and frame them in my room because I like the whole aspect of them. I hated Photoshop the first day but now I am enjoying it a lot. Last Friday, a SCAD representative came to talk to the ET, DC, and Art major about the programs available at SCAD, and I’ve never been more in love in my life. I have dream’t of going to SCAD since I was about 11 and realizing that we only have one year left until college and until I will finally be able to apply and hopefully be accepted into SCAD genuinely makes me so happy. All I’ve been able to think about since that presentation has been going to the school and getting to study Animation and end up working for my dream company, Pixar. On from that, on Wednesday I went to my job shadowing with Kip Beech at Middle Child Photography. I absolutely loved it and loved getting to job shadow with him. He even asked me if to come to more photoshoots with him to learn some more about Photography and he asked me to be his intern for my senior year. First quarter ended last week and we got our report cards and I’m pretty proud of it, other than APUSH but I know I can bring my grade up this quarter. I also realized how much I love this major this week when Jeremy Alexander came in to record the DC promo video for this year. When we talked about what would happen if this major ended, I came to realization how much I love what I’m doing in photoshop and Illustrator, especially with the people in our class. Everyone is so supportive of each other and I don’t know what I would do in this class without them, especially my DC ‘gang’ (Jaiden, Marian, Ashley, Jake and Ella)- you guys are the bomb.

This week was better than any other week at AAST. Spirit week was this week and it was packed with so much fun but also stressful moment because of the end of the quarter. Throughout this whole week we had an assigned theme to dress up as for Spirit Week and by far my favorite day was Character day. First of all, because all of the DC gang got to dress up as Disney characters and I was able to accurately represent the most under appreciated and most relateable Disney character of all time, Kuzco from the Emperors New Groove. Which also happens to be my favorite movie of all time. Personally, I think my costume was prett good and original considering the fact that most people have not even seen the movie to begin with. Either way, all of us looked so cute with out costumes especially Marian because she was dressed as an alien from Toy Story and Ella because she was dressed as Mary Poppjns (which was also very original.) Other than Spirit Week, we also had the Fall Festival/ Trunk or Treat this week. It was actually really fun and I’m really glad I got to go and spend some time with the rest of the DC juniors and seniors. Everyone is so nice and they just make this class feel like one big family. We got to decorate Jared’s car for Trunk or Treat and it did look pretty darn cool if I do say so myself. Shoutout to THE Jake the Snake Dulson for letting us use his fog machine. We also started designing our hot sauce labels this week as well. I think mine are pretty good and I like the fact that we have the opportunity to design whatever we want for the label. I made a candy skull for mine to make my hot sauce label have some sort of Day of the Dead theme and be as colorful as possible. The quarter came to an end this week as well and I am pretty happy with my grades but I am going to definitely try and bring my APUSH grade up to at least a high B. Okay, the end. See you next week.

This week we went through chapters 11-13 in our Illustrator books. We went through the process of making color swatches, making our own stickers with our name and different designs that we’ve made through the weeks. We also learned how to use the pen tool and started vectoring, and even making color blends to show off shadows and highlights on an image. Throughout the week we worked on vectorizing the logo for Ocean Bay Middle School. Each one of us had to turn their png image that they had into a vector so that hey could print out their logo without their being pixels everywhere. Let me tell you one thing though, this is not as easy as it seems. I had to restart my logo AT LEAST 6-7 times because everytime that I thought that the logo looked good, something had to mess it up. Finally, on Friday I finished my logo within 20 minutes of starting it and it was very well done if i do say so myself. Other than D.C. my other classes are going fairly well. I guess I’m doing alright in my AP US History class but I definitely have to bring my grade up in that class. The good thing about it is that I really like US History and learning about past events. I wish I could say the same about Spanish. I am a native spanish speaker, spanish was my first language and I have never had a class or a teacher stress me out as bad as that class makes me. All the work is so unnecessarily extra I just can’t. My teacher try’s to correct my spanish when she said that I was allowed to use the Spanish i grew up with instead of the Spanish used in Spain because both types are realitively different. It’s whatever though, I’m over it and I just have to suck it up for another 12 weeks or so. Other than all of that, we started decorating our door this week for Breast Cancer Awareness and it looks SO cute. I think that we have a good shot of getting our title back for the DC major.