Portfolio

I wanted my portfolio to have a simple and elegant feel to it. Yet I wanted to incorporate fun and interesting colors to showcase my personality. I choose to do everything by hand and not use a templet; I was able to put what bring my idea in my head to life! It was a frustrating yet satisfying assignment. I enjoyed being able to organize my work and assignments. I added a few effects to the cover and about me page to “spice” things up however I kept the pages with work on the simple since I wanted the work to be the main center of attention. I really like a sense of balance and cohesion in my life and I wanted to recreate and express that in this portfolio by adding a pink strip that is repeated and used throughout the portfolio to feature brief descriptions to help tie the entire portfolio together. In addition, the leaf background is used to again add a sense of cohesion. I added hyperlinks to my table of contents so that viewers would be able to negotiate with ease throughout the document. I also added interactive buttons to add a fun and interactive element for viewers as well. I figured flipping through countless pages could be boring so adding something to involve the viewers would bring the excitement level up. I choose to use basic arrows as my navigation to keep it simple, professional, and not take away from the work. I hardest part of this assignment was learning how to add in buttons and how to actually download this document. I would watch countless tutorials to figure out how to have the pdf viewable and still interactive. I would say those hours were worth it since I love how it turned out!

Hours to complete: 6

Hours watching tutorials: 2.5 haha

Photoshop Tutorials

Photoshop Tutorials: 

For these photoshop tutorials, I remember looking up tutorials and searching Adobe’s help page to find out how to navigate and choose the best color themes for assignments. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rAiQXe6eG0 

I used these tutorials also to figure out how to save the themes I found using Adobe color wheel to my Creative Cloud. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLTKNRFXfEE 

 I used tutorials to figure out how to work certain tools as well. Within the software itself, I was also about to follow step by step tutorials on how to use certain tools that I found cool and helpful. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpU5vg2fvOM 

InDesign Tutorials

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHDy_nEvgd4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82uq5_HixKY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YL2QSai9Ng

These are all the tutorials I watched. I watched the beginners video prior to the business card assignment. While working on my business cards, I would have questions on how to do and or add certain things so I utilize the web and found tutorials on how to add more pages and formating pictures.

Business Cards

For my business cards, I wanted something that was sleek and elegant. I wanted a professional feel yet still try and keep the cards interesting but not over the top. As I started working on the assignment, I did it over a number of days and I mainly used my sketches as a rough draft/ basic guide. My final business cards have a lot of differences from what I originally planned for but I think they turned out a lot better. I added a funny slogan that I think everyone can relate to at the moment. I also altered my logo in illustrator to a more palatable color that I  thought would best suit all of the business cards. The slogan is placed in different locations depending on the business card layout. In the first business card, the background is dark grey with a black outline and there’s a pink line design that was created to help tie in the curves from the font that is used for the name; ultimately to achieve the goal of cohesive. The “L.Cordier” has a drop & inner shadow and outer glow (the shade is used from the mauve in the logo). In business card number two, the L has a directional feather added and the “Cordier” has a drop & inner shadow in addition to a basic feather. I created a “polka dot” shape to help make the card more interesting. The information is framed with a double-lined text frame and two scrolls that make the card look fancy and help tell the eyes where to look. In the business card three, I added a gradient that goes from left to right with a white diamond border, on the back of the bard the gradient changes and goes from right to left. The “L” has an outer and inner glow. The logo is placed on the back of the card to serve as a backdrop for the information, a light opacity was added. The “est.1999”  was lightened so that it would not take away from the main information. The white dots were added for guides for the eyes. I am happy with the way the cards turned out I would use the designs in the future in real life. I exported the pictures as pngs and with a 300 resolution.  Overall this assignment took me a total of 5.5 hours.

Somewhere

I decided to place myself on a beautiful beach in Thailand. I have never been but I would love to go to one day. With COVID-19, a lot of things have changed and one of those things is not being able to go to the beaches anymore. I wish I could be at a Thailand beach or even any beach right now. As the flight prices are tempting, I am requesting the urge to go. I used the cloning tool a lot in this assignment. In the original photo, there was another girl standing there, so I wanted to blend the background seamlessly so you couldn’t tell. Our body was the position in two different ways, so that also played a part in why I choose to clone the areas. If I were to do the selection and mask, the entire body area would be cropped from the photo leaving me with a blank canvas. I used the selection and mask tool for adding myself to the photo but also adding the water over my legs so it would look like I was in the water. I used the blurred tool on the edges to help eliminate any harsh lines that might’ve appeared. I also used the brush tool on soft round with light opacity to blend more the elements together as well. I incorporated my tag logo in the bottom left corner of the photo. I ended up using a photo I took when I went to the beach on spring break since I can't currently go to the beach. This assignment took me about 4 hours to complete.

Inspirational Blog Post

I think it would be hard to photoshop myself into this picture because I feel like, I would want to photoshop myself in the open space by the sink but to look at the camera or away from the camera would be hard to position by myself there.

This photo inspired me because I think I would want to photoshop myself somewhere with a celebrity since I think that would be cool. I am not sure if I want to go on the more serious route as if I and the celebrity or friends or more so that I photobombed the celebrity.

I think this photo is funny since its such an awkward photo without the photoshop hand in the picture.

I like this photo because this is actually something that I would want to try and doesn't look too complicate so perhaps I wouldn't mess it up.

Autoscopy

Below: The original photo and different images I used in the new version.

For this self-portrait project involving autoscopy, I wanted to involve my interest in stars and butterflies. I incorporated butterflies into the background and as part of my “tattoos”. In real like I would never get any tattoos so this image shows a version of myself in an alternate universe where I do have tattoos. I have tattoos on my face, neck, and arm. In the original picture, there are no stars in the background just a dark greyish sky so I incorporated a fun star background, which I wish I saw in person at the time of the original picture but sadly did not. I always added a purple alien to tie into the star background. My pants are a brighter and more vibrance blue and they also have an L pattern on them. This same L pattern can be found on my shoes too, which I changed to a yellowish coloring. My shirt has a phrase on it in the new photo, saying, Love. The Love is created using clip masking with a blue and white stripe pattern that is similar to my pants. The alien is also branded with my L from the L pattern as well as my logo tag; there is also a rough pastel filter placed on the aline as well. I added a bars and tones overlay since I thought it would add more cool and interesting colors to the picture. I blurred the edges and entire parts of some aspects like the butterflies, L pattern, and tattoos to try and emulate a more natural look. The layer blending I choose was pass-over and dissolve, again to try and give the image a natural look without altering the saturated and vibrant coloring. It took me a total of 7.5 hours to complete this assignment.

BW to Color

For the black and white to color photoshop assignment, I was initially excited about it since I like choosing the fun and appealing color themes. I choose a base color of coral pink. I thought it would “pop” every well. The pink was inspired by my nail color in the original picture. I liked all of the pinky tones and the colors that looked very visually appealing. I chose to do the themes, square, complementary, and triad. I colored objects that were completely random, there was no deeper meaning behind them. My favorite item to color would have to be my pants. I thought it was cool adding colors to different lines/pockets. I would definitely buy jeans that looked like that, so that was cool being able to design and utilize photoshop in that way. I wish I had an iPad and a pen to be able to achieve the details that I use I could’ve. The hardest challenge was trying to color small objects since it was difficult and time-consuming trying to maneuver around on a laptop. I added a heart in the sunglasses shades just to add something fun and different. 

Total Hours to complete: 4.5 hr

Tag Print

Artist Statement:
I created this tag print using my logo from the previous project. Following the tutorial on how to add different layers and effects like adding and editing the paths was the hardest part. I am not sure if I fully understand the meaning or the explanation on why I did half of the things, such has to have the path in "make-work path". Through all of the confusion, I came up with this tag print as my final project. It was required to add scratches and spray, however, if given more freedom I would've like to add more of an abstract feel by adding different variations of shapes, lines, and even possible some flowers to feminize it. I adding brush strokes in an octagon -sorta pattern to give the tag more dimension. I choose to add a variation of bright and dark colors to showcase both the dark sky and the bright stars that the libra constellations are found in. In addition, I choose colors based upon Easter time since that is coming soon. Overall, this was a very complicated process but I think that is mainly to not having in-person classes and only having an instruction page to follow. I think it would be beneficial to have followed along with a screen recording and a sound over. This project, in combination with all the three components,
took me about 3.5 hours to complete.

Self Portrait Project

"Different Is Okay"

Artist Statment:

I am titled this self-portrait, “Different Is Okay”. I was inspired by cubism art. In a lot of cubism portraits, there are lots of different shapes and distorted body parts. I wanted to send the message that being different is okay because I am very passionate about advocating for people with disabilities. I’ve worked with people from ages 3-22 years old all having some sort of disability, either being cerebral palsy, autism, down-syndrome, etc. Sometimes when people have a disability it can affect their physical appearance, so that is where my inspiration came from.  I wanted to show myself in two ways.

 The hardest challenge I faced was trying to manipulate hair-like texture and color. I wanted to keep the color scheme simple and not too overwhelming to create a piece that was tranquil, appealing to the eyes, all while sending a powerful message. I choose to do the side of my face because it contributes to the notation that people “have two sides to them” and are “two-faced”. I liked creating the abstract version of my face. I was really fun, I choose a variety of shapes and overlapped them. I thought that enlarge the facial features would stand out and be more recognizable. 

I added “glows” to the faces to represent that everyone has a special glow to them. That one’s personality can shine/radiate through and that beauty can come from within. The “rays of light” represent the attention that needs to be brought to individuality in regards to differentiation. The rays cast a light onto the faces, as society needs to “wake up” and accept and embrace differences within people, especially our disabled community.

Drafting: 1 hour

Execution: 4 hours

Logo Project

 Artist Statment:

My logo represents me by including symbols that represent the Libra zodiac sign. I am a Libra and I feel like that characterizes my personality and perspective in a “nutshell”. I recreated the constellation that is associated with Libras as well as the libra cryptocurrency symbol which represents how I am driven and passionate in my work. I choose to add colors that I thought were my favorite to represent myself but also appealing to the eye. I wanted the colors to compliment each other and not have too many harsh contrasts. Libras are known for balance, so I also wanted to replicate that into my color choices as well. The logo planning process in regards to creating the design took about thirty-five minutes to draw a variety of different designs, fifteen minutes to stretch three samples of the initial design, and a little over one hour to add color to the final logo. Overall the project took about two hours.

Gradient Project

Artist Statement:

I was inspired by my cat, Fury, so I choose to recreate a picture of him. I didn’t realize how hard it would be to try and recreate his fur pattern. I originally thought it would be a good “object” to recreate because of the natural gradients his fur has. This project took me about 3 hours to complete. It was very frustrating to try and recreate the lines to certain colors and even trying to find similar colors to his fur. I found that even using the eyedropper tool, the color wasn’t as vibrant or true as I would’ve liked it. I originally choose my cat with one eye since I thought he would be an easier choice. Although it turned out that the eye was the easiest part. I enjoyed making the ears, the gradient mesh seemed to work better in my favor for that part as well. I liked how using the gradient mesh tool looked on the ears, mouth, and nose. However, I would’ve liked to use a different tool may be the “traditional” gradient tool to better emulate the fur patterns and for a less stressful process. I believe it would’ve made the picture look smoother and more cohesive as well.

Calligram Project

It Get's Wild

Concept Statment:

It Gets Wild is inspired by the words of “Wild  Nights - Wild Nights!” by Emily Dickinson and by the famous painting The Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt van Rijn and also The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh.

Inspiration:

Artist Statment:

The inspiration for It Gets Wild came originally from the words of “Wild Nights - Wild Nights!” by Dickinson which is viewed as a “romantic and permissions” poem, I did not want to take the obvious appearance of doing a heart. When I read the poem I imagine that two lovers are on a boat from the content of words and phrases like, “port”, “compass”, “rowing”, and “Ah- the- sea!” The poem is titled “Wild Nights”, and a wild night at sea immediately makes me think of The Storm on the Sea of Galilee by van Rijn. It was from there that I decided to use the words of Dickinson in collaboration with attempting to recreate van Rijn’s painting but I wanted to involve an aspect that made it seem that the picture was "alive”. I attempted to recreate the technique Vincent van Gogh used in The Starry Night to have peace become vibrant and to life. It Gets Wild took about five hours to create. In my original design, I  wanted the background and certain aspects to resemble the style of van Gogh’s Starry Night. I wanted to emulate the brush stroke through words to create the appearance of multiple layered strokes. However, I was only able to achieve that in the section that represents light. When I attempted to manipulate that technique when building the ship, the overall product wasn’t as sharp, crisp, and precise looking as I would’ve liked it. For the ship, I decided to use a variety of large and small font sizes depending on the amount of detail I wanted in that specific area. It was important for me to involve and encourage some type of movement within the piece which I was able to do through the same of the sails and the wave. I want the piece to feel as lively as the original.