Looking Back...

     In Digital Media I have learned a lot. I learned how to edit photos, make generative art, (before I didn't even know what it was), how to make a website and a blog, how to make a mashup video, how to calculate resolution and megapixels, and how to make a 3D model. So you could say I learned quite a few things. Overall I have improved all of my skills. I re-learned, so to speak, how to use Photoshop. We used an online program just like it and it dawned on me that I already knew how to do all of this stuff, I just needed to be reminded. 

     Throughout this course I have accomplished a lot. I accomplished making things that I thought I couldn't make. I have also acquired some new skills. Some of those skills will help me in the real world. They will help me get high up in the job world, or so I hope. As I move forward in the field of graphic design, I hope to let people see my artwork. I also want people to see how my work has grown since high school. I want to pursue my career in graphic design even further. I want to be the best I can be. I want to be a famous graphic designer that everyone knows and everyone wants to hire. 

     Taking this course has taught me a lot of useful things. I learned that I can get things in when I have a deadline. I also learned that I can take criticism. Although I don't like it, like most people, it gives me the opposite side of my work. When someone doesn't like my work, I listen to them and then I may or may not change my artwork. Criticism helps me create better art. On the other hand, when it comes to giving criticism I sometimes can't do it. When I want to tell people they could change something, I chicken out and don't tell them. But since this course, I have gotten better. 

     My problem-solving skills have gotten better too. All throughout this course I have had to create and think of my projects. Every single one of my projects have been thought through a lot. It took me most of the week to get my projects right. Taking this course has helped me so much. It helped me added to my portfolio, which is always good. Overall this was one of my favorite classes that I took this semester. (Usually all my art classes are my favorite). I plan on continuing using my website and my blog. Like I said multiple times before, it is a good way to get my artwork out in the world. 

Michigan

This is my favorite team. Michigan. I love them. They might be bad sometimes but I still love them. I try to watch every game they have, whatever sport it might be. Recently they have been in the March madness and they have been doing amazing. The made it to the final four and that hasn't happened since 1993, which is impressive. In my opinion I think they're doing good. And they are going to the final game!!!! They won their game tonight! I'm so excited now I can't wait to see what happens.

Entrance to the Grand Canal

This is my favorite painting. It's at the Toledo Museum of Art. It's by Paul Signac and it's called Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice. Every time I go to the museum I have to see go see it. I love it so much. I love all the colors and the way he made this piece. The way he makes his pieces are very time consuming and it definitely pays off. He was inspired by George Seurat. From him he got his pointillist style, which is a lot of little dots that make a big picture. I love this picture so much it makes me happy every time I see it. Paul Signac is also is my favorite artist too, so it makes sense that this is my favorite painting. lol. 

123D Catch

http://www.123dapp.com/obj-Catch/Bear-2/1323928

 

This project was difficult for me. I had a tough time trying to get a 3D model. It took me a few tries before I got it right. First I took 40 pictures of my bear. I went around my bear from the side view and then more from the top. After that I loaded them to the 123D Catch website and it stitched them together for me. When they were done doing that, I got rid of all the things I didn't need, like the room pieces that were there. I tried to get a majority of the newspaper, but every time I tried, it would get rid of the bear's head. I don't want that lol.

Blog Logos

These are my two logos. I like making things like this. This is the stuff that I want to do when I get out of college. First I drew what I wanted in my sketchbook and did a whole bunch of different designs. The bottom one was my first one. I drew each of the letters, as you can see, and the little bowl that's next to it. Below that I typed the whole name of my blog. I like this one because it's simple, and simple is good for logos, you don't want a lot going on in one image. The top one was the second one I made. I figured I could spell it out instead of abbreviating it like the first one. (A bit of contrast) I hand drew these letters too. I combined the U as one big one to unify all the words. I feel like if it was two U's it would have made the logo feel separate. The last thing I added was the abbreviated my blog name. Both of these logos go together. Each one has a piece of the other one. They belong together.

The Avengers

The Avengers. I love this movie. I think I might be obsessed, and I say that a lot. I have so many things that are Avengers. I have 2 folders, pencils, reusable water bottle, mug, a poster and the movie. That's a lot of stuff. I have seen the movie so many, it sometimes say the lines with the characters. The first time I saw it, I didn't know that there was an extra scene at the end of the credits. I didn't know until my boyfriend showed me. At first I didn't believe him. I was then proved wrong by him when he showed me. I just couldn't believe that lol. The first time I saw it in the theaters and I didn't stay long enough after the credits to see it. I didn't think there would be anything else to show. And just writing this post makes me want to watch it!!

Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars is a show that me and my mom watch. We love it. We got started on it because one of the people who star in it was in another show that we like. They made only 3 seasons and then stopped after that because the ratings weren't very good. But I still watch it all the time. Recently there is talk about making a Veronica Mars movie. I am very excited about this. The director went on a website called Kickstarter. This website lets people ask other people to fund their projects or whatever they want to do. This was a last ditch effort for them. They either had to do this or forget about it. The director proposed this to Warner Bros. (who still owns the show) and they said they would do it as long as there was enough fans behind the idea. If you want to check it out (and I think you should!) here is the link to it: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-movie-project They already reached their goal so the movie will be made this summer and released in 2014, I'm so excited I can't wait!!

Generative Art: Flame

Of the 3 online programs, this one is my favorite. I love all the colors you could choose from and how you could choose the background to white or black. The first image is supposed to be the emotion of happiness. The bright colors and the spark like thing in the corner bring energy to the picture. The second image is supposed to be sadness or depression. The monotone color brings not much brightness to it, which makes it have less happy feelings. Picking these 2 images was hard. Before picking these 2, I made around 16 different images. I wanted to see what Flame could do and make. Out of all of the images I made, these 2 were the ones that said the most emotions, without really talking. lol.

Generative Art: Scribbler Too

Well here they are, the two images from Scribbler Too. In Scribbler Too, I did like all the color choices you could pick from, but I didn't really like how if the picture was in the way of the drop down menus, you couldn't see where the mouse was. The top one took me a long time to do. It was based off of a picture I took in Minnesota. It was in the Mall of America in their lego store. I choose this picture because it was interesting and cool. I think I made a good rendition of the tiger. Trying to pick different shades of gray was difficult. Sometimes I would have to test it out first to see if it was the right shade. The second image is supposed to be some sort of explosion of colors, kind of like fireworks. I don't know if I like it as much as the first one. The second image also had to have a sense of volume, which I think this does, but it might be to simple. But other then that, I like everything that I did with Scribbler Too.

Generative Art: Scribbler

When I first looked at Scribbler, I decided it looked interesting. This morning when I decided to start this project I was excited to see what I was going to make. I made a whole bunch of images and saved them. I tried a whole bunch of techniques to see which ones I liked. After a while I noticed that you could add color. So then I made more images and added color. There where a lot of colors to choose from so I didn't know where to start. I ended up picking my favorite colors to add to my images. After all the images I had made I had the daunting task of picking two that I liked and wanted to post. I picked these two images because in a way they are different. One has curls and swirls and the other has straight lines and that's it. The colors are similar because each one contains my favorite color. I really like these images because they are interesting to me and the second one looks like some sort of bridge structure.

Harry Potter

Harry Potter is my FAVORITE. I have seen all the movies and read all the books. I saw all the movies first and then I read the books. And of course they made much more sense. I am really really obsessed with Harry Potter. I re-read all the books all the time, which I am currently doing right now. I am on the second book. Also my mom bought Harry Potter Scene It: The Complete Cinematic Journey. Me, and my parents played it during spring break. I knew every single answer, that's how much I know about it. lol. I love Harry Potter, I talk about it all the time. Sometimes I think everyone I know gets tired of me talking about it. I feel like they want to hit me and yell shut up. But Harry Potter is awesome. Most people aren't surprised when they see me reading it.

Video Mashup

The clips that I choose are from when I went to Seattle in 2011. They fit my song because they go along with the tempo, it's not to fast or to slow. Making this video was a little bit of a challenge for me. I didn't know what to do at first. I had no ideas in my head. I thought a lot about it for a long time. I then remembered that I had these videos that I had taken and I thought that would be cool to do. I then put parts of all the videos I had in iMovie and played around with the volume. I turned the volume of the actual clip down really low so all you can hear is the song that I made. Then after that I added transitions in between each one so it would flow together more easy. Then after that I looked at it all together and saw that it was good and I saved it. I think I was successful because I did everything that was asked and I tried my best. If I could change two things about my mashup they would be the song and the content. I would change my song because I think there needs to be a better song in there, preferably one that I didn't make. I think it needs something with lyrics too. And I would also change the content I have. I like the videos I have now but I think something more exciting would be better. It would fit my song a better too. The most difficult thing about this project was trying to get videos that would fit my song that I made. The videos I have now fit my song good enough but I'm sure there are better suited videos out there that fit my song better. From this project I learned all the things that I forgot when I learned it during senior year of high school. I made a graduation video then using iMovie and since then I had forgotten mostly everything. I learned that you can have songs, transitions, parts of whole clips and many more things.

The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory is one of my favorite shows. I watch it every Thursday (well the new ones). It is very funny. I have all of the 5 seasons at home. Well really they're my family's not mine, but still I have them at home. I watch them whenever I'm home. I do homework while watching it or other stuff that I want to do that doesn't involve school. It provides background noise. I can get a lot done if I put this on, I usually watch the whole season in a matter of one night. lol. That's how wrapped up I get into them. And it's gotten to the point where I know what line is coming next in certain episodes. It's a little sad and on the line of being obsessive. 

The Day in the Life of Baby Ironman

This project was fun to think of. It was challenging at first because I had no idea what to do. My first idea was to do a day in the life of me or my shoes or something like that. But I thought everyone did that. So then I thought of my Ironman bobble head, and thought that's a great idea. To put this presentation together was a long process. I had to keep switching the theme because I didn't know which one to pick but I picked this one. lol. Then I put each picture on a slide. Some of my pictures went on the slide just fine but others I had to redo. Some of my pictures I had to go back into iPhoto and change the size of the picture. Google would only take pictures that were 2000 x 2000 or smaller, so I had to change a few. After I had all the pictures in, I added the text to describe what he was doing and I arranged the pictures in the center or wherever I wanted them. After that I saved it and I published it!!

Starbucks

I don't normally like going to Starbucks because I don't like coffee. I love the smell of it just not the taste of it. At the beginning of the semester, I started to go to Starbucks, just because I could. I would start to get smoothies and things like that; anything but coffee. But one time one of my friends let me try her drink. It was amazing. It was Passion Tea Lemonade with Raspberry syrup. Ever since then I've been obsessed to say the least. Every Tuesday and Thursday I leave a little early for class and I get one of these. It makes me happy every time I get one. It makes my day better. 

Chipotle

At least once a week my dad gets a text like this..... "Chipotle?" Or more than once a week. Depending on how much I want it. I sometimes have to pay for, which I don't like but I do it anyway because I love it. I love Chipotle. I'm addicted to it. I can't help it. This is one of my favorite places to eat. Like my blog title "Burrito Bowl and Guacamole", this is a favorite. Every time I eat it I always want more, but I know I shouldn't because that would be bad... I don't want to get fat. 

Bernd and Hilla Becher Inspired Grid

This project made me happy. It took a really long time. I had to edit every photo, adjust the contrast and crop to the correct size. It was very time consuming, but it was worth it. I did a project like this in high school in my Computer Graphic Design class. It was the same exact assignment, but we used photoshop instead. This project was more fun than the other one because I actually knew what I was doing. Each photo I opened it, then I went to the levels and adjusted the contrast of white and black. Then after that I had to crop it with the right dimensions. After that I had copy and paste the image of the ring to my final one. After I had all of the photos I had to space them out by using a spacer that was an image that was 100 by 100, and I moved it around so I could move each picture to the right place. The final thing I did was flatten the image so every individual picture became one big picture.

Animoto Video

Make your own photo slideshow at Animoto.

In my video, I used 14 of my pictures. For the background I picked the inked one, I really like that one. I didn't add any captions because every time I did it took some of my photos away. I wanted to use most of my photos so I didn't add the captions. I had a title at first but then I took it away because I didn't like how it looked. It looked better without it. I did kind of want captions because they did look cool but I wanted to use more pictures then it would let me, so I opted out. I made sure I previewed my video each time I changed something, just to make sure it looked good.

UT train tracks edited

DSCN2252_edited, a photo by Katy Rice 2013 on Flickr.

Out of all the 20 pictures I took, this one is by far my favorite. I love the angle. First to edit this image I played around with all of the different tools. After I found out what I liked I did about 5 things. First I set the contrast to 50. Then I set the vibrance of the picture to 100. After that I sharpened the picture to 200. Then after that I made a blur. Instead of just a regular blur, I made a focal blur which was a horizontal one. I moved it around until I liked the position it was in. The last thing I did was I went to the color boost tool and set that to 27.

The Beginning

My blog "burrito bowl and guacamole" is everything that I love. The title comes from Chipotle, one of my favorite places to eat. I always get a burrito bowl and guacamole. This blog will help me show you what I love. It will consist of everything that I love, from art to food to pictures of places and anything in between. Every time I see something I love, I will post it on here and let everyone see it. This blog will let me be myself and you guys will hopefully get to see that. My blog will consist of my art and other people's art and I will explain the art work. Anybody who sees this will get to go inside of the artist's head and maybe understand why they did what they did. Everything I post on here will be something I love and I want to share it will you. My blog will be exciting and filled with things I love to eat, places I love to go, and everything I love to draw. It will also consist of my favorite artist's pieces and I will explain their art on here. Hopefully, my blog will be entertaining and informational, and I hope you enjoy it!!