After a REALLY long time.....

 Many of you may have been wondering whether or not I have fallen off the face of the earth and consequently ended my blogging days. I am happy to report that this is not the case! For now, let's blame my writing hiatus on a major case of senioritus. (i.e., the diminishment of one's motivational and mental capacity for completion of required schoolwork and other activities due to intense academic activity). Yeah, that.
Today I want to talk about juice! That's right, the good stuff. :)
As you have probably heard at some point in your life, and doubtless have shrugged off on occasion, each adult person needs at least three cups of fruits and vegetables a day! We all have our excuses for not feeding ourselves well. I know, I know! I'm not trying to get on you about your eating habits All I want is to offer a little perspective. I have made these excuses myself and I am currently scrubbing them off! No more excusing myself! I am working to incorporate healthier eating habits into my long term dietary plan. (No, we are not going on a diet, actually.) Are you with me? 
Please allow me to confess my reasons for this madwoman quest. First, I am now six months pregnant and inflicted with a severely guilty conscience. If I do not eat my fruits and veggies, I CANNOT lie to my doctor! And then, (this has happened) she will go on to say how I am gaining unnecessary weight because I am snacking too much on the wrong things.
Ouch, no one likes being called a fatty. ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU KNOW YOU HAVE A BELLY! And yes, it still counts even if you pregnant. That conspicuous of a gut can make anyone feel like wearing an eskimo coat.
My other reason for trying this new quest for increasingly healthy eating is that I want to incorporate habits into my life NOW that I can teach my children LATER. That's right, throw five million carrots in the juicer with five million strawberries and no little munchkin can resist.
So far I have found this method to be highly cost effective as well as highly nutritious. If you compare the cost of one week's fruit for an adult, it comes to about $8. (give or take four dollars, depending on the market you use). Okay, now how much money are you spending on blended frappis at Starbucks and potato chips for snacking?
I promise not to judge you for your eating habits! Well....... maybe a little. The point is, I have found a fun and very experimental new way of making my eating even healthier. So, next time you grab a snack, think about the cost. Not just the money, but the payback you will get from your happy and healthy body. :)

DMF Book project

1. There are several skills that were very useful for me in creating this project. I found the Free Transform tool very helpful, because it allowed me to warp the body of my text and make it fit snugly. I also found the color levels to be helpful. I enjoyed using this tool and altering the shades of my photos, allowing me to make them unique and more striking.
2. I think that my choice to try and use my own photos best served me. Originally I had wanted to created a children's book. But when I realized that my schedule was not going to allow me to complete one, I resorted to flipping through my facebook photo library for ideas. While searching, I realized that I had multiple pictures of shoes. So, I am glad that I made the choice to compile photos and quotes about shoes, because it was fun and challenging.
3. I learned that production schedule can dictate what you produce. As I mentioned before, I would have LOVED to make a children's book, but I was way too busy. Having a deadline helped me work with what I had and try to make something fresh and unique with it. Overall, it was a very fun project.

DMF Poster assignment

1. The themes that I chose for this poster cam mostly from a variety of things I have seen recently in mass media; television, internet, etc. I decided that I wanted to try using text, as was suggested, as part of the overall image. In this poster the text is meant to suggest a kind of frenzy, but also a very imaginitive theme. I chose snow white because I recently saw a trailer for a new remake of the original movie. It was on my mind, so I decided to try and convert my thoughts into digital media.
2. For this project I really used the layers tool a lot more than I have before. I used it for every element of the poster. And I found myself doing things that had previously stumped me! For example, the two central panels of text were not solid at first, but then I began shuffling my layers around until I liked what I saw.
3. I used free transform and cloning to really warp this iconic image of a Disney princess. I felt like this would really catch people's attention. You see, in our minds snow white is perfect, innocent, virtuous. But I didn't want to put a stereotypical image of her on my poster. Otherwise it would be just like all of the others we typically see. I copied the image of her face and made it point in all different directions. I chose that image of her head in particular because she is not smiling and looks more nondescript and shocked than anything. I also used the outline of an apple instead of the traditional red apple with a bite missing. I wanted to imply things here, and not allow the audience to assume that she has or that she will do what they have been told (i.e, taking a bite). I also used text to show more of a modern, almost comic-book style image.

DMF Assignment Week #6 Portrature

Okay, I did not realize until a minute ago when I saved these images as JPEGs on my computer that somehow I mis-saved these ones like I did on week 4's photos. AH!!! Note to self, STOP DOING THAT! Well, I am sorry that there has been this mistake. For some reason they don't show up like this on school computers. Warren, if you are reading this, PLEASE help. Or make a helpful comment!

Anyways, this week's assignment was to take three pictures of someone with a story to tell and change them in Photoshop. Inspiration for this project came from a global movement of artists called INSIDEOUTPROJECT. During this lab the HUE/SATURATION and CURVES tools were emphasized. I used both tools on all three pieces.

1. I was excited when I learned about this global project. It introduced new ideas that I had never thought of and made me feel motivated to participate in something so creative, so public, so inspirational, and so darn easy and accessible. Now that I have completed this project, I am surprised at the simplicity of it. But at the same time, the simplicity is packed with layers of complexity; what is behind the expression? what is the story of this subject, or they also the artist? why does it mater to them? how extensive is there contribution? what message are they sending to the world with their photo?  The list goes on.
2. I am the subject for all three photos. I did it this way for the sake of time (thank you, midterms. I want my life back now, pleeeeeaaase.) At first I wanted to take pictures of different people. But I stil had a good experience working with my own pictures. I found myself increasingly conscious of how I was changing my appearance and how that appearance might be interpreted. I plan to use the same discression when editing other people's photos.
3. Can art change the world? Yes, it can. First, art is a very broad noun with countless meanings. But in the most general sense, art is a form of expression which portrays certain sentiments. Those sentiments, their message, be it benign or explicit, sad or joyful, pensieve or explosive, will reveal themselves to audiences in countless places. And the message of that artwork will speak, be it queitly or violently, to the audience. Sometimes words aren't enough. But if a picture is worth a thousand words, then I am certain that countless people will take something away from even the smallest image. So, yes. Art can change the world.

At last! I got the images from my school lab computer. Here they are!!

DMF Assignment Week #5 Photomontage

Last week's assignment was to combine four photos into one. I ended up doing five because I forgot it was only four! It is posted this week because I had a family emergency and had to miss my lab, which is where I usually complete these assignments.
When choosing pictures, I chose ones from my travels in high school. Obviously the finished product is very tampered. But the idea is that I began to play with new tools that help me to more effectively create and fabricate material. I really stretched my FREE TRANSFORM skills here as well as a new dimension to the tool; Perspective. This tool allowed me to warp the image I had selected and make it look even more realistic. Here is the finished product.
Enjoy. :)
p.s, that is an authentic swiss guard. Yes, he failed to arrest me for taking his picture.

1. The original images for this product are all selected from my personal photos, which I took when traveling in 2008 through Europe. The main picture is originally just me standing in front of stonehenge. Then, on one of the stones you may notice a transformed Easter Island head. That is from a picture I took of a statue in Germany, which was a replica of the originals. The swiss guard on the bottom left hand corner is from a picture I took on my trip to the Vatican City in Rome, Italy. The small version of myself in a chair is from a picture taken in Warwicke Castle, in England. And finally, the image of me on all fours making a very odd face is from a castle in Denmark. Originally I was kneeling on a marble floor beside a bronze statue of a lion, whose expression I am impersonating.
2. The most challenging part of this task was effectively arranging all the pieces. I think that if I had had more time than I would have created a more complex image. However, I am satisfied with the end product, though it is more humorous and exagerated than I anticipated.
3. The reality that I created with this image is that here, at a very iconic historical landmark, there are components that contest traditional expectations. Apparently you didn't know that there is a carving of an easter island head on one of the stonehenge stones? Well, there is! And now, thanks to me, you can see it. This image doesn't tell a sequential tale, but it is packed with implications. With the image of the guard, and me crouching on a rock, I wanted to create a feeling of mischief. Then, with me sitting in a chair making a very arrogant and mocking face, I wanted to give a feeling of spunk, and even rebellion to this piece. I wanted to push the boundaries of the picture as far as I could.

DMF Assignment, Week #4 Erasure

Hello to all!
This week in Digital Media Foundations we have been practicing erasing. That's right! The art of removing things from an image. It has been a very fun activity experimenting with the symbology and implications of the things removed from images. Unfortunately I had a harder time saving things this week. I have all my images, but they were not saved the way I want them to be. On the bright side, they still look interesting and almost odd.... But I hope you like them. It takes a lot more work than you might think. Enjoy!

DMF Assignment #3, Scratch Project

This week in DMF we have been working with Vector graphics and flat color. In these pieces I was working with a specific set of perameters; flat color, limited paletter, clear shapes. What I played with mostly on this assignment was underlying messages. I found that even with very geometric shapes and sharp colors, I can still create analytical pieces that are creative and constructive.
I hope you like them. :)

1. How are they different from working with continuous tones?
I found that these pieces were different becuase the flat color made everything much sharper. For example, the gradients are simpler and there is a lot less variation in color. Each piece has a distinct shade (and one background is gradient). Initially I thought that a limited palette would be, well, limiting! But I found that working within a distinctive palette made the graphics more striking. I discovered elements that might have otherwise been subtle, had I not stayed within those boundaries.
2. How did you choose which colors to work with?
I never had specific colors in mind. What I tried to do with each piece is to push myself by choosing a random color to start with and then maintaining that color as the hub of my palette. An example of this is my last piece, which says "Freedom has many shapes". The background is not a particularly attractive color. ( I referred to it earlier as vomit mustard.....). But when I started to envision my graphics, I chose the paler gold and black because I thought they looked complimentary. Now that I see my finished piece, I wouldn't change the colors. They have grown on me.
3. Did some color combinations work better than others?
Yes, several color combinations worked better than others. I found that after I chose an initial palette, that I had to be very selective about which colors I chose and where I applied them. One thing I found that helps with color combinations is brightness/contrast. I used this tool to manipulate the hues of these pieces, so that they would have a more unique and eye-catching effect.