Easy as ABC

We've finished yet another project for Computer Graphics! And this is perhaps the first this whole class I've been genuinely proud of...plus, it looks better on paper than on the screen. That's never happened to me. :)

Higher Res (and proper format)

We call this project (Computer Graphics II's most infamous) the "Font Design project" because, if you can tell, everything in this image is made of letters.

Our examples are absolutely beautiful...I remember last year I had one (that ended up going to Fine Arts Festival) hanging over my computer, and Christine and I would stare at it and play look-for-the-letter when we were at a loss for ideas in class. They tended to be designs like this or this or this but made of letters (and not henna on immodest ladies, either). There were countless other kinds, but Google Images isn't being very helpful (and searching "[various word] design") is proving to be VERY addicting and "oooooh lets go follow this link instead of being productive".

Regardless, I went this way with the project because!

1. Cursive is way easier than print on this project (it connects very artistically)...yet the spindly cursive works better for the designs like the second example
2. I fail at abstractism and this is the closest I could get...I like my rough drafts, and this kind of organic create-as-you-go project doesn't really like those
3. I like colors (as you can undoubtedly tell)

When we first started, Gehl went around as he does and really liked mine because "it's like six designs instead of just one" and something else and something else that he couldn't seem to put into words that ended up as "no one's EVER done ANYTHING for this project like THIS! :DDDD". So...that's pretty cool. :) I like being apparently creative. It's almost as good as when I get that artistic rush that makes me dance in my seat.

The worst part was trying to get the drops looking fluid. I'm not sure how I could have done much better though, so I'm cool with it.

And when I was done with the flat layers, I wanted to add something. I decided it was missing a shadow, so I spent a period and a half figuring out a way to grab each drop as one layer (I was working in Adobe Illustrator, which is very different and certainly not my favorite program) and add a drop shadow. Eventually, I ended up liking it with each letter given a drop shadow, which took me about five, ten minutes tops. C'est la vie....

To wrap it up, this put me in a much better mood than Justice League Crosses the Delaware EVER had. And I'm even on better terms with Illustrator...Christine can attest that Illustrator is not my friend.

"ABC can be found by Jackson 5"

Home

Well, I'm finally over at missalainius.blogspot.com! It's much more comfortable here. :)


ALSO

I have a bit of plea- could someone tell Grandma and Granddad and aunt Karin that I would love an invite to their blogs?

Thank you kindly!

(Why yes, this was a short entry. But I don't really have much to say today...)

"Home" can be found by Michael Buble

Fix You

I've always been irked by the mistake I made forever ago with having this blog at the web address "Missalainus". Miss-Al-ay-nus has no punny effect at all....it neither relates to the slighly uncommon but nonetheless quite wonderful English word, nor the quite uncommon but nonetheless slighly wonderful American girl.

But I figured out how to fix it yesterday. :)

Now, I'm going to fix it SATURDAY. So please be aware....all your links to this blog or in your favorites will lead to nothingness unless you change it to missaliainius.blogspot.com quickly!

(um...."editor"'s note. I wrote this YESTERDAY (and then realized all the links were corrupt to missalianius) so I edited the above blurb, but everything else is remaining as written. So please read all "yesterday"s from here on out as "monday the 13th", it makes for a much cleaner read. <3)

WHY YES I DID HAVE OTHER REASONS FOR POSTING TODAY.

Yesterday was my birthday!! It was fantastic!

I went to see Ghost Town with a few friends....a very funny and excellent movie. I highly reccomend it...it was very clean for being PG-13 (cleaner than my high school ever gets!) and very funny. I have one friend, Jenessa, who has told about seven of her friends one short scene and still cannot get through describing it without crying of laughter. (It wasn't really that funny of a scene, but....) Also quite unexpectedly cute and well-done with characters that almost all developed through the course of the movie and plot-points that carried well and had good themes.

Michelle, a friend of mine who works at Nova 8 Cinemas (and got me in for free!) said that they've had to refund LOTS of tickets for Ghost Town because people walk in thinking it's a scary movie. Guys. Don't be fools. At least look at a promotional poster before you decide the word ghost=scary.

After that, Mom and I were going to head out to get ingredients for lasagna, but that ended up not happening...because we went to the petstore to get me a replacement fish! See, I got a goldfish named Finnigan when I was asked to Homecoming and when I was putting him in his new tank this morning, he died. So, since I was promised a fish a long time ago anyway, AND yesterday was my birthday, Mom decided it was a good time to get one. We talked to this very smart petstore man who helped us pick out a beautiful Fancy Goldfish who I've named Fernando and a snail "companion" (read "maid") named Chiquiquita, as well as some plants, appropriate food, and a bubbler to keep Fernando from suffocating when he goes up for oxygen.

It took awhile to set them up, but Fernando and Chiquiquita fill up the tank ever so nicely, and it looks and sounds lovely. I may be a nerd, but I LOVE the rumbling sound of the bubbler, and going to sleep to it is absolutely heavenly. Waking up to it, however....let's just say it'll keep me from falling back asleep. However, I'm supposed to feed Fernando three times a day, and his water is already clouding, so I have improvements to make, such as not giving him as much food. ;) Also, the petstore guy said that fancy goldfish like frozen peas and orange wedges; you heard me right! You better believe it, 'cause my friend Killian had a goldfish she won and kept for several years who ate cheerios as voraciously as Papaya...but that's a blog entry for another day.

After that, we had no time for homemade lasagna, so we went to Luigi's House for dinner and dessert. My lasagna was absolutely fantastic, but I was way too full to finish (seconds for tonight! (note: actually....no...lunch for Mom and Dad.)) and their chocolate cheesecake has liquor in it, and it was too late to go buy some more. We're going to get more later! I also got to open my gifts...besides the shoes my friend Christine bought me (there's a lovely story behind them I'll tell someday), and Fernando, I suppose, Mom and Dad bought me a BEAUTIFUL (and on sale) pearl necklace. It's absolutely stunning...I'm just a not allowed to wear it to school. But that's cool....it'll make it even more special. I also got an adooooorable (and much needed) bag from Mark and Em with an iTunes card! I'm so excited to pick out my music. :)

I realize the majority of this post was about my birthday, but knowing me and my tendancy to skip over important days and events, I think I'll keep the title "fix you", as without my thrill in fixing that little domain name, I probably never would have gotten around to this.

"Fix You" can be found by Coldplay

If I Go Crazy, Will You still Call Me Superman?

Sooooooo we had another project for Computer Graphics finished awhile ago.
I would have posted it way long ago, but I kept forgetting it to resize it to make Imageshack happy.
(Again. If you REALLY want to submit yourself to the image, click it.)

Higher Res Here

Background information on the prompt! There are these two art competitions going around, so we got to choose which one (or both!) to participate in. One was Reflections, which the contest theme was "WOW". Reflections is a competition that children are encouraged to participate in all schooling years, usually getting the most participation from Elementary School kids because it's HIGHLY SUGGESTED to participate. This is honestly the first year I've been involved in it. Reflections always requires an artist statement, which are fun for me anyway. :)

The second art competition presented the challenge of modernizing a masterpiece. I don't remember much at all about who's presenting this part of the deal, but they didn't require anything but a modernized masterpiece....examples would be (these are some done in our class) Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper" with McDonalds food on the table, Vincent van Gough's "Starry Night" with Chicago, Piet Mondrian's "Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue" with iPods...the list is endless. Origianlly, I was going to do Cassius Coolidge's "Bold Bluff" with Dungeons and Dragons...which I soon realized I knew NOTHING about and thus wouldn't work...but option two, playing the Wii, would require me to pretty much redraw the entire thing, which I didn't have time for...and playing Monopoly grew to be irritating and really stupid looking, not to mention the modernization elements were tiny details that just looked...well...stupid.

So, I somehow figured I should do Emanuel Leutze's "Washington Crossing the Delaware" and the Justice League. Honestly, the thing I'm MOST proud of with this project is the alterations I did on the painting itself, getting rid of that GARISH color and moving oars and whatnot around.

I spent days and days looking for images of all the heroes in suitable poses, (Poor Vixen is a combination of three different Vixens...she's probably the coolest hero on that boat after Superman and Batman, and she has the most depressing limit of images!) and had WAY not enough time to work on the elements of blending them into the image.

They look SO SHOPPED. It makes me cry a little. The only ones who look sucessfully integrated are Black Lighting, Hawkgirl (who looks like a creeper staring at the viewer, doing NOTHING to help the struggling crew), and Black Canary, who looks all emo with the discoloration underpainting gave her.

UNDERPAINTING OH GOSH. If I could redo this project, I would in a heart beat, starting after I found all those images and cut out the heroes. I wouldn't waste my time finding them all again, but I made the mistake of underpainting them all individually RIGHT AFTER I put the picture in its place on the boat, instead of doing it all at once. Thus, when I saved, it sealed in the horrible curse I laid upon my heroes. WHAT IS THIS UNDERPAINTING BUISINESS, you may ask. "Underpainting" is a photoshop filter that takes the image and applies an effect to mimick a canvas. Thus, it was supposed to blend the heroes into the true canvas they're on, but I was on way too high a resolution (who would have thought such a thing was possible?) and so the canvassing pixels were way off base and did naught but blur the images.

WHAT IS WITH THESE EMO DARK HUES, you may ask. Well, it was all part of the process in blending the image into the canvas, which was dark and blue from me transforming it away from that ew yellow color. But it did nothing for me, again, but make everything emo. Except for Superman, who I kept saturated for effect but ended up just looking sloppy.

OH GOSH ALAINA, IS THERE ANYTHING YOU LIKE, you may ask. Yeah, actually. I'm quite pleased with The Thing, The Hulk, and Spiderman I stuck in the background in place of horses. :) I also really like my artist statement (did you forget from above already? We had to have one for Reflections). Gehl decided to make the statement required for all students, as to not make anyone choose the Modernize Masterpiece one over the "Wow" one on the pretense of "cool no artist statement". So I wrote mine just on the piece, and then realized I should probably merge it into "Wow"-acceptable so that it could be double-entered.

Do I think this peice is gonna win me anything? PSH no. The artist statement, however, I'm pretty dang fond of. :)

---
Centuries ago, Emanuel Leutze immortalized Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River during the American Revolution with his oil painting, Washington Crossing the Delaware. To those of the still young country, this painting represented the finest of American heroes. They exemplified the American spirit of bravery, of resisting oppression, and of patriotism. Additionally with the awe-inspiring men, the events of crossing the frozen Delaware river in the middle of the night to bring to pass a crucial step towards Independence for America, the painting and all its subjects were all worthy of a wow.

In our modern times, though we still honor and revere President Washington and his fine men, the idea of what is worthy of a wow has changed. Superpowers, saving the world, and flashy costumes now gain the attention of the mesmerized peoples. Likewise, the idea of bravery, resistance against oppression, and patriotism has often skewed to these modern American heroes of less historical accuracy.

I feel I have been successful in capturing this drift in the American view of heroism and “the wow factor” by placing “The Justice League of America” in the place of the original American heroes. These new reincarnations of heroism still hold fast to these same traits of hard work, resistance against oppression, bravery, and even patriotism, and are as much ideals of these positive traits to Americans of today as President Washington was to the Americans of the 1850’s. The view of a hero has changed in a way that when observed brings one a “wow factor”. And these American heroes alone, whether they be historical or fantastical, uphold the values of bravery, resistance against oppression, and patriotism and deserve for themselves a resounding wow.

---

For your information, after this project I really, really get why people like comic books so much. I had to read about the characters in search of images and WOW are they ever interesting. This project has freelz changed my look on super heroes...I'm seeing them all over the school a lot more than I used to. On T-shirts, backpacks, notebooks (why yes, I AM in High School), and the craziest part? I can name them all now.

"Kryptonite" can be found by 3 Doors Down.

Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now!

I'm finally answering that tagging you gave me, Mom.

1. Where was I 10 years ago?

I was a first-grader, and had just moved into our new house. I was best-friends with Leah Jennings and Timmy Matthews from church, and Brittany Metallo and Killian Ross from Indian Plains Elementary School. My teacher was Mrs. Saul and she had a big thing for apples. Every time we did a good thing, we got an apple to put on our chart and a three-apple-day awarded you a treat or sticker or toy at the end of the day. I almost always got a 5 apple day and ALWAYS chose a Tootsie Roll. Mrs. Saul also really liked writing and I wrote upwards of twenty stories that year, including "Batty and Spotty (Get Lost!)" which won the Young Author's award that year and was preformed hilariously by the WVHS drama club. (As a high schooler, I can promise that's one of the VERY FEW things club members actually do. Well, that and fundraising.) I had short hair, no glasses, and buck-teeth.

2. What's on my to do list today?

Do Homework and go to mutual. The rest is really just on my "to dream of doing" list. We're making "Boo Blocks" tonight. :)


3. What if I was a billionaire?

I'd go to college! :D
I'd buy Adobe Flash Animation Program or perhaps hire someone to find me what really is the best in animation programs if that's not.
I'd buy everything for my Lion King collection.
I'd buy a heifer or two to donate...or a thousand. :)
I'd go on a cruise, go to France, go to Canada, or do all three.
I'd plan my future.
I'd go Christmas Shopping!


4. Places I have lived:

1. Naperville, Illinois
2. Aurora, Illinois.

OH YEAH BABY, I'M LIVING IT UP.


5. Snacks I like:

You kidding? I'm a Hendricks girl! You'd be hard pressed to find a snack we don't like.
I'd probably put anything with chocolate or cheese (seperate, thank you very much...unless it's cheesecake!) on the list though.


6. Three bad habits:

1 - Having ridiculous lists of productive things and then getting too distracted to actually do anything about it.

2 - Forgetfulness

3 - Procrastination

----

WHAT WHY AREN'T MY WORDS ALL COLORFUL?
Welll.....they could be. But then I would never do my homework, see, as that question about the to-do list reminded me I do NOT have all hours to do it today.
(However, that means there may be more typos, as coloring at the end also serves as a lovely form of proof-reading.)

And with that, the actual post-with-a-purpose I had for today is being put off, yet again. :)
"Mama I'm a Big Girl Now!" can be found on the Hairspray Soundtrack