Projects | Art305

podcast

Hello, my name is Jessica and I’m a visual storyteller.

Words are definitely necessary to make up a story, but I like to think that, as an artist, I work backwards. I am the creator of the images that inspire stories to flow out.

For me, artthink is instinctual. When I’m inspired by a song...an experience...a person...creative ideas immediately burst into my mind, which leads me to venture out in different avenues to carry out these visions.

Who or what will I choose to talk about in this piece? Where should texture ebb...and flow? To color or not to color? Will line serve me today...or tomorrow? Does this piece communicate a sense of harmony? Does it inspire stories in others?

Storytelling is a part of my personal experience in artmaking, but the experience of artseeing is really up to you, and something I intentionally invite you into. When you look at art, what story is it telling you? What tone or message does it convey? Why does it make you feel a certain way? That’s the beauty of art. It can be distinctly objective and varyingly subjective at the same time...

I somewhat enjoyed this project because it was easy and I was able to use a different program other than what I normally use (Premiere). I used iMovie to edit the video (on my iPad) but it was honestly pretty frustrating because there were very little customization features and settings available for me. I wanted to do so much more, so I think for the future, I will just stick with Premiere. Because I heard that some classmates had difficulty with audacity, I decided to opt out of using that program and just stuck with good ole iPhone's Voice Memos app. Also, another obstacle I bumped into was artblock. I was so uninspired when I wrote the script (I don't know why!). I absolutely hate when this happens!

Stop motion studio app review - 10/10

PROS

Can produce stop motion films – hence the name!
Onion skin option! REALLY useful.

FPS (frames per second) option (also really useful!!)
Can select individual frames to...

Edit audio
Paint directly on them
Copy/paste

Delete
Insert frames before/after
Add text
Add background images
Add shapes

Can record sounds directly on the app (voiceover audio)
Title page and credits options
Can insert audio and clips
Transition frame options
Aspect ratio options

Foreground design options
Filters
Video quality settings
Different play options
Different export options

CONS

Many features are available only after paying $4.99 BUT this is a ONE TIME FEE. HOW AMAZING IS THAT.
May be stressful for those who aren’t tech savvy because of the many features and settings this app has
Drains battery life pretty quickly

PHOTOSHOP POP ART POSTER PROJECT

I had a lot of fun in this group project! My group members were super easy to work with, everyone communicated respectfully, and we were all very organized in delegating roles and responsibilities. I typically do not like group projects, no explanation needed, but I think my members and I all shared that same sentiment and dread, which ultimately led to good work ethic and productivity.

I also really enjoyed using Slidesgo for this presentation. Slidesgo has so many different templates with different themes, colors, and designs (it's like Target but for presentation slides). It's an amazing resource for students and teachers. I'm excited to use this when I begin teaching!

Lastly, the teacher samples we created were, to me, the best part of this project. When we compiled everything at the end, it was nice to see the diversity in the designs of our posters, but also the topics we covered. I chose to make my pop art poster about the recent spike in Asian hate crimes since the pandemic began. I have to admit that before this, I had never made any kind of "artivism" because I struggle with finding value in my own voice on these topics. However, the process of making this poster was actually incredibly therapeutic. MY EMOTIONS WERE ALL OVER THE PLACE (sad and angry at some points...then overjoyed with all the cool effects) but the experience and product were well worth it.

WELCOME TO MS. JANG'S BITMOJI CLASS!

THIS PROJECT WAS SO FUN. I used Google slides for my Bitmoji classroom, but I felt very limited by the design options and features it had, so I tried my best to find elements that I could add to liven up the space. For this reason, I used GIPHY, which has so many different GIFs and GIF stickers you can use for free (a real game changer). I also wanted to make this space very personal to me (the purple Friends door, Calcifer in the fireplace, some artworks, BMO, etc.) in an interactive way to engage students as I introduce myself to them at the beginning of the year. As I come to know my students more, I will add more slides with resources (playlists with different music genres, meditation practice tips, art tools reviews, art tutorials, etc.) to help boost their learning and development in my classroom and their social emotional health. Overall, I can see this being a fun, organized, hassle-free tool for students to carry their learning from school to home!

CLICKABLES (left to right)

1. Art is Therapy sticker (article)

2. Calcifer (fire in fireplace)

3. Chihiro Ogino (girl above fireplace)

4. BMO (playlist)

5. Bob Ross sticker (ASMR)

6. "FREE" sticker (free drawing apps)

7. Steven Universe sticker (PSA on color)

8. Book shelf (9 books every artist should have)

tinkercad 3d model

Tinkercad is kind of disappointing. I admire that it's free and I'll admit it IS easy to use. However, while making my 3D model, I realized that there are a lot of missing settings and features that can make it more user friendly.

For instance, I had issues with having only one arrow to move objects (up and down). If there were arrows to move objects along the X and Y axis, this would vastly improve the program. Another improvement that can be made is a feature that allows plane editing (editing each face of a polygon by scaling, dragging lines/vertices, extruding).

I just didn't like that I was so limited with Tinkercad's settings and features. Maybe I've been spoiled by Maya. Aside from the usability though, I enjoyed this project! It took longer than I expected, but I just love how it came out.

The inspiration behind this 3D model is my dog, Juju! She's an 11 year old Chihuahua Shih-Tzu mix. I wouldn't say I have any real meaningful or deep connection with any animal, nor do I feel like I really identify with any, but I do have animals that I find fascinating (like octopus). However, I decided to go with Juju because I knew I'd enjoy this project 100x more if I were creating her.

I have modeled Juju in Maya before, but it just did NOT turn out well because it looked nothing like her. I spent much more time and effort on this model than the Maya one and tried to be as creative as possible with the shapes I was using in terms of which ones made the most natural curves, contours, forms, and holes.

Overall, I'm super proud of how this turned out and I'm impressed at the likeness, especially since I didn't use reference photos. I posted this on my IG story and got a lot of great feedback too!

PROCREATE ANIMATED SHORT FILM

I use Procreate pretty regularly for digital illustration, but I have never used it for animation. With their new animation assist tool/setting, I found that hand-drawn animation wasn't so bad actually. The way I learned 2D animation was through very traditional means (the lightbox, special animation paper, etc.) which honestly left a bad taste in my mouth. Digital animation is SO MUCH EASIER. That being said, animation is always challenging and TOUGH. Anytime I make an animation (stop motion, hand-drawn, 3D ESPECIALLY) I find myself getting extremely frustrated, but the end result makes all the blood, sweat, and tears so worth it.

I had a difficult time coming up with a story that I felt would be appropriate for such a short animation. Then, one day I literally was using the restroom when a spider crawled towards me. I went into super stealth mode, killed it, and did have a moment of deep contemplation where I wondered if the spider had any dependents and if I just killed the parent of some spider babies. The rest is fictional (the female spider scientist, the spider bro).

QUIZIZZ: stop motion trivia!

I absolutely love trivia and Quizizz was a great tool to streamline this process for me as an educator. I enjoyed how easy it was to create this assessment and loved the additional feature of showing memes at the end of students' responses (although I took it off for the sake of saving time). I think one feature that I did not like about Quizizz, though, is that you must enter a quiz code to take a quiz. I find that a bit cumbersome for people who just want to get "in and out" quickly and not have to mess with so many obstacles or roadblocks just to access a short assessment. Other than that, I liked how easy it was to customize my quiz (by adding pictures). Although I didn't use other question styles, I enjoyed the variety this platform offers (multiple choice, fill in the blank, poll, etc.). I also liked the music, graphics, and animations (but I can see them being distracting stimuli for some students like me). Overall, I can see this being an effective strategy to combine assessment and technology use and literacy in the classroom!

HOW TO STRETCH WATERCOLOR PAPER

(ON A BUDGET)

I wanted to do something more creative for this How-to video, so I decided to base it off of an experiment I did last spring with stretching watercolor paper.

I was teaching a semester long arts course and I planned two classes of watercolor painting. Because I understood that watercolor is pretty expensive, I wanted to make it as affordable as possible for my students. Thus began the search for cheap ways to stretch watercolor paper. The key was to compile a list of materials students would already have at home to make this possible. Cardboard, glue, rulers, scissors, staplers.

You might ask, "Why go through all the trouble to stretch paper? Is it even necessary?" YES. It prevents the paper from warping and creating those nasty ripples after you've painted on it and it's dried. This process is recommended for papers that are 140 lb or less (since the lower the weight, the thinner the paper and lower quality it is). One thing to note is watercolor paper gets pretty expensive after 140 lb, so I really tried to think of a way to make watercolor painting more accessible for people who are financially less fortunate.

I came up with this idea to use bi-corrugated cardboard as the main material for this makeshift watercolor art board. To make it more durable, I double-layered it and secured the two pieces with glue. Then, I set that aside to dry for a few hours (placing a bunch of heavy wood planks on top to make sure the pieces were pressed firmly to each other during the drying process). After, I tested the board's effectivity by stretching 140 lb paper on it and it worked beautifully (all 3-5 times).

Amazing. Never thought I could be this resourceful. And this is a mini demo of my process.