Culminating Blog Reflection
My Senior project days are coming to a close as everything is starting to wrap up, this experience certainly as fun and stressful one, well most of the stress was in the paper, and preparing a presentation. The most enjoyable part of senior project, as it involved stepping outside of my comfort zone and finding someone to teach me a skill. This project brought out the best and worse in me as it required you to stay on top of your work, and doing that can be very stressful, both components of this project required certain attention to detail for example in the writing portion you had to focus on format and grammar, in the mentoring part you had to be able to learn a completely new skill which for in my case was drawing
During this project i gained a new array of skills drawing being one of them of course, drawing but i also learned how to be better prepared for tasks, and learning to not rush things and to pay attention to detail, which was repeated over and over by my mentor during my time spent with him.
The time spent with my mentor was a valuable experience as i got to see a deeper opinion in drawing as you kind of start to care about what you have drawn like its a part of you, its quite amazing being able to bring to life something that you thought up in your head, and putting it down on paper. There were some challenges faced when i was working with my mentor one being me being to eager to learn and rushing through things, and paying little attention to detail, but as time progressed i was able to correct my mistakes and make it perfect. Some other challenges were the paper part of interfering with parts of the mentor, another was sticking to our set schedule which didn't go too well.
Doing this project helped me alot and although it was a great learning experience i would not do it again mostly because it is very time consuming, like i stated before it does bring out the best and worst in you, and this it did because i was able to learn from my mistakes which is a great skill i could apply later on. This project also helped me change my perspective in my career choice, before this i was set on being an animator but now after this that has changed because from hearing my mentor it is hard to get a long term job. So i all this project has helped me realize a lot of things i did not know about myself and it is an experience i sure wont forget
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Day 11 April 27
Today was our final time meeting each other and the main focus of this meeting was dedicated to saying goodbye and thank you for the time spent working with one another, it was fun learning from my mentor he had taught me so many things about drawing that i didnt know, and taught me that patience is key in making cartoons and drawings etc. We finished by finalizing my work with hands, and other components that needed a little bit of fixing. This mentoring was a great experience as i not only gained new knowledge but i also gained a new friend and someone to go to for advise. My mentor enjoyed this experience as it was nice to teach another your skills he said. So this mentoring was a joyful experience
Time 1Hr
Today was our final time meeting each other and the main focus of this meeting was dedicated to saying goodbye and thank you for the time spent working with one another, it was fun learning from my mentor he had taught me so many things about drawing that i didnt know, and taught me that patience is key in making cartoons and drawings etc. We finished by finalizing my work with hands, and other components that needed a little bit of fixing. This mentoring was a great experience as i not only gained new knowledge but i also gained a new friend and someone to go to for advise. My mentor enjoyed this experience as it was nice to teach another your skills he said. So this mentoring was a joyful experience
Time 1Hr
Day 10 April 20th
Our second to last meeting was dedicated to making hands! because i make the least realistic looking hands, my mentor agrees to an extent. To improve in this area my mentor game me advise to look at my own hands before starting a hand, and to make a mental image as i pointed out earlier in my blog posts that i am good at drawing when i copy an object from a distant. So it took a bit to get it near perfect and my mentor complimented on me for being a fast learner.
Time 1hr
Our second to last meeting was dedicated to making hands! because i make the least realistic looking hands, my mentor agrees to an extent. To improve in this area my mentor game me advise to look at my own hands before starting a hand, and to make a mental image as i pointed out earlier in my blog posts that i am good at drawing when i copy an object from a distant. So it took a bit to get it near perfect and my mentor complimented on me for being a fast learner.
Time 1hr
Day 9 April 13
We continued from where we left off last week in doing better human faces and facial expressions. Last week we mostly focused on the facial expression part of the problem this meeting we are focusing on the face, my main problem with this is not being symmetrical especially the eyes and the ears like for example one eye is way above the other and the other is sizes bigger. My mentor helped me with this by reminding of what we did at the beginning of our lessons, with shapes and figures for example when he taught me how to make shapes symmetrical with squares and circles. We are getting closer to finishing up our mentoring sessions and we will get to work on hands next time as it is my last area where i am deficient in.
Time 2Hrs
We continued from where we left off last week in doing better human faces and facial expressions. Last week we mostly focused on the facial expression part of the problem this meeting we are focusing on the face, my main problem with this is not being symmetrical especially the eyes and the ears like for example one eye is way above the other and the other is sizes bigger. My mentor helped me with this by reminding of what we did at the beginning of our lessons, with shapes and figures for example when he taught me how to make shapes symmetrical with squares and circles. We are getting closer to finishing up our mentoring sessions and we will get to work on hands next time as it is my last area where i am deficient in.
Time 2Hrs
Day 8 April 6
We continued refining my cartoon drawing, there is an area in which i need major improvement in and that is in the human face and its expression. My main problem with drawing human faces ranges from being non symmetrical to looking flat out unhuman, if its not the nose its the eyes, and dont get me started on them mouth, then the other issue with my cartoon faces is the inability for me to add realistic looking expressions. So my mentor got to work on assessing this issue, so he first showed me on adding expressions, he explained to me that adding some sort of lines can help in bringing out the emotion of the character, or drawing. This was kinda helpful but i felt i needed a more in depth explanation.
Time logged 2hrs
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Day 6 April 2
We met again and we started to focus more on what i mainly wanted to learn which was making cartoon looking drawings, and he says that this is much easier as it is not as realistic or complicated as realistic looking drawings, so he tells me to draw my best cartoon looking object, so i draw a cartoon cow which came out in his opinion very well, of course that cow came out looking good because that was a cow i drew all the time during my italian class and after countless drawings out of boredom i master drawing that cow during class, so he told me to draw a cartoon looking person kind of like that sticker with the boy peeing on multiple team logos, this one on the other hand cane out looking horrible as it seems like a dis figured human thing. So my mentor then showed me how he does his cartoon drawings, which are second nature for him as he worked a small amount of time with pixar, he does point out that i am really good at drawing things when i look at them, but when it comes down to thinking of them i am not that good
Time logged 4hrs
Day 5 March 29th
Nothing like starting out spring break with your mentor and i don't mean that sarcastically, today's session was rather short as it was a kind of late meeting. We did our basic routine of me showing me the sketches that i have done through the week, and he says he is impressed by the improvements ive made. Today was different as today was purely dedicated to me watching him draw as he explained how the process goes he first imagines it in his head and then does a rough sketch of his idea it usually is a rough outline of the body figure or drawing then he slowly adds detail to it, after adding the detail he bolds the drawing towards the end when everything is looking perfect, he says that its key to make the drawing pop out and that this is the last step in his drawing process.
Time logged 2hrs
Nothing like starting out spring break with your mentor and i don't mean that sarcastically, today's session was rather short as it was a kind of late meeting. We did our basic routine of me showing me the sketches that i have done through the week, and he says he is impressed by the improvements ive made. Today was different as today was purely dedicated to me watching him draw as he explained how the process goes he first imagines it in his head and then does a rough sketch of his idea it usually is a rough outline of the body figure or drawing then he slowly adds detail to it, after adding the detail he bolds the drawing towards the end when everything is looking perfect, he says that its key to make the drawing pop out and that this is the last step in his drawing process.
Time logged 2hrs
Day 4 March 23rd
We were unable to meet on friday due to my mentor being busy, but it didnt really affect our set schedule too much. We have now gotten more into drawing i have started to graduate from stick figures to sub par looking people, he says i have improved slightly since we last met' he still thinks that i am rushing through it all and being very sloppy with me drawings, and looking at them he does have a point. Today i got to watch him sketch out a woman for his work it is amazing seeing how much detail he can put into a drawing looking at this is kinda depressing because comparing to his realistic looking woman and compare it to my ugly looking drawing they are universes apart, but my mentor re assures me that i takes time and practice to get to where his drawing abilities are. So through the day i was drawing improved stick figures, and with his help i was able to make them decent looking.
Time logged 4hrs
We were unable to meet on friday due to my mentor being busy, but it didnt really affect our set schedule too much. We have now gotten more into drawing i have started to graduate from stick figures to sub par looking people, he says i have improved slightly since we last met' he still thinks that i am rushing through it all and being very sloppy with me drawings, and looking at them he does have a point. Today i got to watch him sketch out a woman for his work it is amazing seeing how much detail he can put into a drawing looking at this is kinda depressing because comparing to his realistic looking woman and compare it to my ugly looking drawing they are universes apart, but my mentor re assures me that i takes time and practice to get to where his drawing abilities are. So through the day i was drawing improved stick figures, and with his help i was able to make them decent looking.
Time logged 4hrs
3rd day March 16
We have agreed to meet every Saturday, after school on fridays, and on minimum days, and during spring break we will do the core of our workload. We continued from where we left off last time we met i continued with the basis of drawing, this time we also studied some of my mentors drawings, and he had me analyze them he also taught me how important it is to be neat in your drawings, he told me write lightly with the pencil so if you make a mistake it is easier to erase, because i tend to write very boldly with my pencil and since i mess up multiple times my "drawings" look messy. I also received a sketch pad from my mentor in which he told me to practice my drawing so i could practice when we were not meeting up.
Time logged 3hrs
Day 2 March 9th
This time we met on a Saturday and got started on the basis of drawing, we started with the basic shapes like making a straight line and circles, this was rather frustrating due to the constant errors and corrections from my mentor which by no means are not helpful but when something irritates you everything starts irritating you, my mentor showed me how he starts out his drawings he says most to get the most out of your drawings is that to have a clear head and only focus on what you are drawing, and it kinda worked for me, my mentor thinks that i am trying to rush things, and tells me to slow down a bit, and take things slow and to pay attention to detail. Time flew by during this session as i learned many things relating to the basis of drawing.
Hours logged 5hr
This time we met on a Saturday and got started on the basis of drawing, we started with the basic shapes like making a straight line and circles, this was rather frustrating due to the constant errors and corrections from my mentor which by no means are not helpful but when something irritates you everything starts irritating you, my mentor showed me how he starts out his drawings he says most to get the most out of your drawings is that to have a clear head and only focus on what you are drawing, and it kinda worked for me, my mentor thinks that i am trying to rush things, and tells me to slow down a bit, and take things slow and to pay attention to detail. Time flew by during this session as i learned many things relating to the basis of drawing.
Hours logged 5hr
Day 1 March 1st 2013
Thus begins the work with my mentor. I met my mentor through my cousin who is a good friend of his, my mentors name is Manfredo Mendez and he runs an online graphic design business in which he draws and people purchase his work. We met in the afternoon at his home, and we discussed what we would be doing over the months to come i told him about the main focus of senior project and the role he would be playing in it. We got things started out by him showing me his various sketches many of them work related, he also told me that he once worked for pixar which i found amazing. Todays mentoring session was basically a breaking the ice meeting so we could get to know each other better and begin work on the mentor part of senior project.
Time logged: 1hr
Thus begins the work with my mentor. I met my mentor through my cousin who is a good friend of his, my mentors name is Manfredo Mendez and he runs an online graphic design business in which he draws and people purchase his work. We met in the afternoon at his home, and we discussed what we would be doing over the months to come i told him about the main focus of senior project and the role he would be playing in it. We got things started out by him showing me his various sketches many of them work related, he also told me that he once worked for pixar which i found amazing. Todays mentoring session was basically a breaking the ice meeting so we could get to know each other better and begin work on the mentor part of senior project.
Time logged: 1hr
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