Digital self Portrait

Ariel Russell Digital Self Portrait Reflection

The title of this assignment was called Digital Self Portrait. Using Illustrator we had to cut out our silhouette using a pen tool. The first step was to take a picture that shows your silhouette perfectly. Then cut it out using illustrator. We were required to include a background and a sentence of anything from a lyric or a quote.

I cropped my picture by just including my head. For the first image I chose Live Laugh Love as my text and the second picture I used Keep Looking Forward as my text. The background on the first silhouette I drew grass and a sun. I also made flowers. The background on the second silhouette I used different shades of gray and black and stars placed in different areas.

I believe the way I cropped my image does create and interesting composition. On both pictures the background works well with the text I chose. The backgrounds enhances the texts because its interesting and catches your eyes. Also it shows the skills I learned in illustrator.

I don’t think I did this assignment very well because illustrator was new to me and I didn’t understand it very well. I like the backgrounds best on my self-portraits. I learned how to use the pen tool better as well as create shapes and different backgrounds. I learned a lot about design/composition. 

Follow Your Dreams PSA

This assignment was to make a public service announcement. The PSA had to be on an issue that I real. You had to use 3 statistics, a call to action which is a phone number or website for more info. It also must include a song and images. The video had to me 30 seconds to 1 minute long.

My PSA is about high school dropouts. The first statistic I chose was: Every year 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the US alone. That’s 26 seconds or 6,000 a day. The second Statistic: Recent dropouts will earn $200,000 less than high school graduates, and over $800,000 less than college graduates in their lives. The third statistic is; In the US 65% of convicts are dropouts. Lack of education is one of the strongest predictors of criminal activity. I took pictures of my nephew acting as different jobs that require you staying in school. I used two songs, the first one is Sky’s The Limit by Notorious B.I.G. and the second song is Successful by Drake.

I feel this is an important issue because a lot of my friends are dropping out of high school. The side I supported is that I know a lot of people bring other peoples dreams down. So it may cause people to lose hope which is a reason why they dropout. The first song Sky’s The Limit says that you can do anything you set your mind to. The second song is Successful, because I know a lot of people want to become successful but they go the wrong way to try to accomplish it. The images show that you should give up or let people bring you down.

Looking at the rubric I believe my video meets all the standards. I believe the best part of my PSA is the images I took of my nephew. I need improvement on the titles in the video so that it is clearer to see. A skill I learned how important a PSA is. I learned is that I am able to make a change with images and a song.

Our most recent project was to make a digital video. You had to tell the story as if it was happening right now or if it was a book. It had to be in detail and make sense. My story is about a King and a Queen giving birth to an amazing child that grew an early taste for art and fashion. I used pictures from the internet as well as pictures from my childhood. I hope you enjoy my digital story!!

This was a funny graphic design project. We had to chose something in history and digitally put ourselves in the picture. We had options to choose old shows or chose something more serious like Martin Luther King. I chose one of my favorite shows Fresh Prince Of Bel-Aire. It was a good show that showed families at its best.

This project was very cool. We had to chose a song that we like and incorporate lyrics in 3 different slides. With the lyrics we have to put in pictures that relates to the lyrics. My song was House Of Cards by Madina Lake. I chose the song because its a powerful song with a strong meaning behind the lyrics.