Week Fifteen

Here is an excerpt from my webpage:

Assignment- We had to continue improving our iWeb pages.  After the necessary work was done, we uploaded our webpages to the internet.

Craft-  We used iWeb in an attempt to finish our webpages.  iWeb allows images and text to be manipulated and changed to our liking.  We had to include past art and comic work.  On Wednesday, we added hyperlinks to our individual webpages.  On our blogs, we also added a visual image as a link to our Visual Communications websites.

Composition- My comic slideshow had an annoying reflection that distorted the bottom of my images.  It was pretty annoying, so I changed it.  I still have to incorporate my other artwork onto my website.  I also switched the order of how viewers of my website see my page; the About Me section is now first and the Visual Communications page is second.  A link at the bottom of the About Me section now has a link to my blog.

Concept- The concept for this project is to make a webpage that includes all of our artwork over the course of the semester in an easy to read style.  Our websites reflect the individuality and creativity of each person in this class.

Week Fourteen

Click here to see my work

Week Thirteen

Assignment- Using iWeb, we had to setup a webpage that so far features a Visual Communications page and an About Us page.  During class on Monday, the class critiqued each other's webpages and offered suggestions to improve them.  A photo album section was also added.

Craft- The iWeb program is what we're using to design our websites.  With this program, we are able to choose templates to fit our concept and experiment with different fonts and colors.  My webpage has two different templates so this week I will fix that mistake and have one fluid background.  I also need to include more in the About Me section.  Instead of choosing one of my two already existing templates, I plan on picking out a new one.

Composition- I included pictures of past projects that I worked on in Art class.  The templates I chose were simple with dark purple fonts.  I added pictures of myself for the About Me section and looked for images online for the Visual Communications page.

Concept- We had to choose template themes and keep our ideas consistent.  The webpages will be manipulated so they will have our own individual blueprints.  The pages are supposed to be pleasing to the eye so using pictures is a priority.  With this design concept in mind, we must also make sure our use of images and our writing is clear to viewers of our sites.

Week Twelve

Assignment- Finish up comic strip using Comic Life program.  Final touches were completed during class and printed out for Wednesday.

Craft- I continued using Photoshop for some of my images.  My severed hand picture needed some reworking so I focused mainly on making it look more decapitated and gnarled.  Also, although I want my images to appear dark (because the story is not exactly the most uplifting), many turned out darker than I had anticipated.  To fix this, I lightened them just a bit.  After I finished photoshopping, I put the images back into Comic Life to be printed out.

Composition- The images that I have are still the same ones that I photographed a few weeks ago.  I have since been using Photoshop to alter the images into comic form.  After the images are satisfactory,  I put them into Comic Life and use that program's functions (such as using different panels, backgrounds, and fonts) until my work is completed.

Concept- I wish to have a clear, readable, and understandable comic that will relay my story's message.

Week Eleven

Assignment-  We had to put our images from Photoshop into a program called Comic Life in preparation for our critiques on Monday.  We continued improving our comics with major help from classmates' observations and critiques.  Those who did not receive a 4/4 on critiques are still working to try and improve their comics.

Craft- One of the most common critiques I received was that my colors were kind of not so good ("REALLY bad" says a fellow critiquer) and so I spent most of my time trying to improve the overall clarity of the pictures while reworking the color schemes.  I followed the advice from classmates and tried my best to improve my work.

Composition- My layers were a bit mixed up.  I forgot to switch the background layer into the front, so I went back and fixed that up.  I also desaturated the images and multiplied.  The results indicated that this technique was much better than my original composition (when I did not follow these steps).  The pictures are a little darker but crisper; the extra brightness from my original images is now gone.

Concept- I tried making my images more clear so readers would understand my comic a bit better.  I hope that my newest reworking on the pictures will improve my comic in the eyes of future readers.

Week Ten

Assignment- We had to have our comics printed out on Monday.  Then we went to the art room and split into small groups for critiques.  

Craft- We have been using Photoshop in order to continue manipulating our images. We're still focusing on the coloring aspect to make our images appear to be more "comic-like." Using the advice from the critiques, we are still in the process of bettering our images for the final version of the comic strip.  On Wednesday, we started using the program "Comic Life."  This program allows us to create speech bubbles, lay out our images in comic form, and play around with title fonts and sizes.

Composition- Comic Life allows for us to try out new styles and techniques for our images.  One of the best features of this program is the function that allows us to drag panels anyway and any shape we want it to be.  We're also able to change background color and play around with details.  On Wednesday, we started the process of creating our comics in an actual comic program.

Concept- My comic concept remains the same, although some slight alterations in form were made.  

Week Nine

Assignment- Print 10-12 pages of our comic story on separate sheets of paper.

Craft- We had to take pictures for our comic story. The pictures had to illustrate our story and convey meaning without words.

Composition-We will be photoshopping the images soon but as of right now, all we have are digital pictures. We will be adding two to three colors to our images in Photoshop over the weekend.

Concept- We continued making our stories but had to make some adjustments in order for them to make more sense. The newest draft will be better in both composition and craft.