Blog 5: Reflections

1. I think a significant accomplishment looking at my midterm and final would be making a meaningful art piece. I don't think I've ever got as much emotion out of anything I've made since high school out of my artworks in general. I built on a piece's meaning as I go, so by the time I'm done I've put in more meaning and messages than I started out with because something caught my attention, or an online picture search went a different direction, which I'm perfectly fine with. It lead to pleasant surprises

2 Generally, extracting and clipping images using a magic wand or the cutout tools as used in quiz 2. Or using the clipping mask like in quiz 4, which I had a difficult time on.. Before I took the class, I usually hand extract images using the eraser tool. I ended up using both in the final (cutting out images in the gray/black death image and the end-of-the-world red image, subtle use of clipping mask in the end of the world image). I'm not exactly a master at clipping masks, but I have been able to make it neater.

3.  I was able to make a more meaningful work in the final over the midterm. Other than show of technique, I just was able to show deeper meaning in the final than the midterm in choice of images and choice of techniques. Each image from the final and the midterm went together, as I wanted to keep the same big idea and same themes, but I executed them differently, as scenes that are happening in time rather than just a collection of meaningful pictures and symbols. In the "death picture", it shows someone dying at some time in their life, willingly or not, in a dead forest with skulls, inspired by a story and a photo of a skull in the Aokigahara forest, while the "end of the world" picture was inspired by watching different sci-fi, end-all scenario anime in my lifetime that has an image or symbolism much like what I made.