Graphic Design & Printmaking 1-2

I feel like I learned a good deal in this class as I'd never really used any of the Adobe programs before. The class focused mostly on Illustrator which is good for lots of things that need to be resized without loss of resolution. Second semester was more about Photoshop and doing things like editing and manipulating photos. I liked the contrast between the 21st century computer programs and the 20th century skills like silkscreen printing.

DAY OF THE DEAD SKULL

I chose to show my paternal grandparents' lives through this particular project. They are of Swedish decent and were very important to me. There were many symbols that still have meaning in my life today: the cross for their belief in God, the flowers and vines for growth and gardening, as well as the heart nose for trying to be kind to people more often than not. The spiderweb symbolized them dying at an older age, and the stitches were for my grandmother's proficiency with sewing in general. Part of that generation that would rather repair things than just buy something new. They've been gone about thirty years now but I still miss them a lot.

Minimalist Story illustration

For this we had to create a snapshot of a story/movie/book/etc. we remembered from when we were younger. I absolutely loved Charlotte's Web as a middle schooler, even though the story was a little sad. We used Illustrator and lines, shapes, colors, etc. to create our illustration.

SPIRIT SHIRT

I created my spirit shirt for the MIT small learning academy. It is a special shirt for seniors only, and it celebrates the diamond anniversary of Millikan High School. It includes all of the seniors in MIT this year and since the other shirt had the word EVOLVE in a triangle I included the word 'evolved' since they will be graduating, and included a triangle instead of the period to hint at the original triangle shape of the words.

BINDER TABS

My tabs had the overall theme of all being Tim Burton movies (he's my favorite director) and each one had it's own individual theme. The Paperwork one was Edward Scissorhands, The Projects one was all about Beetlejuice, and the Warmups one was all about the Nightmare Before Christmas.

HOLIDAY CARD

I wrote mine to Mrs. Dies since she'd helped me so much when I was first learning to teach graphic design. She basically gave me all of her lessons the first year, and then I started making changes in the years since then. I do the same sort of project and teach the same sort of thing, but in my own way. I included a cup of coffee since she likes to drink coffee (as well as a gift card to Starbucks) as well as a surfboard next to a palm tree and a bit of sand and sun to top it off. I put a volleyball for the "O" in my last name since I enjoy volleyball and I know she enjoys being in the outdoors.

PHOTOSHOP COLORIZATION

I used an old photograph from World War II for this project. It was of the landing on Omaha Beach during D-Day. The original was completely black and white and I used both the quick selection tool and the magic wand tool. Sometimes it was easier to use the polygon selection tool since the selection I was trying to get was so detailed and the original tones of the picture were so similar it was hard for the computer to differentiate between them.

PHOTOSHOP RESTORATION

For this I used an old photograph that had significant damage to it, and using tools like the clone stamp, healing brush, and the spot healing tool. For some sections I used the selection tools and then cleaned up the space, unifying the colors (or tones, since it's black and white). I feel like I did a pretty good job overall, though there are a few areas that are out of focus (blurry/fuzzy) because of the healing brush.

HYBRID

I used several different images from some of the various nerdy franchises I like within the hybrid to make it (hopefully) funny. Darth Vader is inside the Tardis and is wearing a fez that Doctor Who wore, as well as the bottom part of his light saber being a sonic screwdriver. R2D2 is in the background, as is a weeping angel and the words "DON'T BLINK" to finish things off. There is a little bit over Vader's shoulder showing an outdoor scene with water and lightning to complete the sci-fi look.

WARHOL STYLE 9 FACES

We took a photo of ourselves and repeated it nine different times in an Andy Warhol inspired type of look. The color scheme was changed to make it more visually interesting and then we used filters to enhance the look of things even further.

DIGITAL COLLAGE

My digital collage was a conglomeration of many different aspects of my own life. It has hikers in it since I like hiking, the symbol of my favorite band out on the water (Oingo Boingo), a volleyball because I like to play, as well as my wife and I. It also includes a printmaking frame and a picture from one of my favorite movies, The Nightmare Before Christmas. The left hand with a pencil is because I'm a bit of an artist, and the quote is from John Muir (relates to the hiking). The hands clasped is for working together and the Rubik's Cube and the Star Wars logo are for my love of the culture of the 1980's.

ONE-COLOR

STENCIL PRINT

This was a one color print and we had the option to use spray paint or silkscreen to create our print. I tried both but the silkscreen one came out a bit better so that's the one you're seeing here. My subject was one of the weeping angels from the television show Doctor Who. It's done in a high contrast way showing either light (with the ink) and dark (with the paper/background). I did about four or five of these, and it seemed like things came out best when I only used the squeegee once or twice. More times than that per paper and it got a bit flooded.

Google Sites

Report abuse