Personal Sense of Home

When I think of home I think of a sense of comfort and safety. I believe that anywhere can feel like home if there is a personal connection to that area. I feel that if there is an area that I consider "home" I would also have to have some familiarity in the space and have put my own personal touches on it. Not only do I need to have a sense of comfort but I believe that a home isn't quite a home without those special memories that cause you to have emotional attachments to that space. I have moved from my house that I lived in for 16 years and I will always considered that my home no matter what because I had so many experiences and memories within that house. I loved all the aspects to it and because that's where I grew up, it is a little difficult to remember all the details to my adventures but I can always remember where something happened and how I felt at that moment. Having all my childhood experiences take place within that house will cause me to have such a strong connection to it for the rest of my life.

Every part of that house made it special to me. Not only did my house have the tallest ceilings which caused anyone to feel instantly in awe by the immense space that was in the entrance. I loved all the aspects to the house, expect for the fact that during the summer my house became incredibly hot and we tried everything to cool down. I had this play set in the backyard that my dad built when they first bought the house. It had a swing, a teeter-totter swing next to that and connected was a little tree house section that led to a slide. This play toy gave me endless amounts of joy when I would play on it. Whenever my friends came over, all we did was head straight to the backyard. My backyard wasn't incredibly large but we did have this section against the fence that was layers of rock then dirt and so on. While my mom gardened I was able to climb on those layers and have my own little adventures because when you are a child, everything becomes a possibility. It's the memories that will allow me to remember that house forever because of the fantastic experiences I had throughout my childhood growing up and to this day I still miss it.

Poster

I have gotten use to all of the different tools Illustrator offers. By completing this poster I have learned to use the scanner and how to place an image on not to copy and paste. By using a picture instead of a plain color I have accomplished creating an interesting background to the poster. I had to change the layout multiple times to accommodate for all of the different elements to the poster. I found a successful layout until I came to the realization that the oblique was not the shape I was assuming. I believe my poster came out very well explaining my growth as a designer through this class as well as having examples to prove my progression.

Sketch Journals

This was our first journal assignment and I enjoyed finding the subjects that I was going to be tracing. I did it in pencil to make sure that I didn't mess up but then came to the realization that any final project needs to be in pen. The believe that the arrangement of the figures allowed each drawing to stand out while still complimenting the others. I was able to learn to create clean one stroke lines. This assignment caused me to pay attention to detail as well.

Within this sketch I payed much of my attention to the landscape since it had the most vibrant colors as well as it took up most of the space. I wanted to create a sketch that looked as realistic as the original picture. I kept to the same color schemes and textures throughout the picture. I did end up using mainly one tool which limited my skills but I believe that the assignment came out successfully. In the future I will spend more time on the photo as a whole rather than each individual aspect, to make sure that there is harmony throughout the photo.

Looking at tessellations within nature caused me to realized that many patterns that make up fabrics and other designs come from these. This was a helpful introduction for our next in class assignment. I chose objects that I found the most interesting. I also looked for similar features within each one so when I merged them together, the design would be an original while still having a high quality.

When using the cross-hatch technique the light source is very important factor. Adding this feature in anywhere would not make sense within a design. This skill can create a great dramatization in a sketch but there needs to be a plan when creating this element. The more I work on this feature, the better I can use it within my designs.

By sketching in this fashion without using any guidelines can be difficult. When starting the sketch I created a slight outline of the chair by using the negative space sketching. I had to focus on the shapes around the chair and not just the chair itself. This caused me to have to observe the details that I normally would not focus on. By using this method, the chair tends to be more obvious due to the dark background.

This assignment really allowed me to take advantage of the detail pens we received in the beginning of the year. I learned to sketch this object by using correct dimensions. While drawing the different views, I had to position myself in a variety of angles that allowed me to view all the elements to the chair so I could depict each one.

This was my first introduction to drawing floor plans. When creating these designs I had to imagine as if I was looking straight down from the ceiling. I would draw a light line as my eye went around the edge of the room. It was a little difficult doing it on a napkin because of the texture. I made sure to create a correct representation of the room by measuring each piece.

This sketch put all of my two-point perspective skills to the test. I had to incorporate the horizontal line, right view point and left view point. Shadow and perception of the corner also had to be included within this sketch. By having circular objects in the corner I had to make sure I used the correct techniques to represent it properly. The corner was simple with multiple elements to it.

This assignment was one of the more difficult sketches I had to do. The most challenging part was creating the room in one-point perspective. I redid it many times until I was pleased with how it looked. Adding the other elements such as the window, door and couch was much easier since the perspective was correct. I feel that I added too much detail within the first sketch making both the drawings very similar looking. I could have added a much darker value in the second room sketch. This makes me realize that I needed more contrasting features.

I found this assignment very enjoyable because it was completely different than any other sketch I have done so far in the class. The medium I used was thin black paper. This causes a completely different outcome of the sketch. The black makes any color I used to be much more lively, in my opinion. As I was sketching I almost left it simply with only white, but then I realized that there would be a much greater affect if I incorporated color that related to the material of each section.

David Katsunai Lecture

This lecture was held by David Katsunai who assisted in designing the Amazon building in Seattle, WA. My home town is very close to Seattle, I am majoring in interior design and I started to use Amazon so this lecture interested me in more than one aspect. I was very amazed to find out how much of a difference can be created through just a simple change of the interior. I learned a great deal of facts that I can use when I start designing my own projects. It was great to find out that interior designers can have a great impact and that working with all of the other architects and major parts of the building can create the number one most efficient building. It gives me motivation and excitement to start working in this field.

Tessellation ID

The pictures I chose were found randomly by searching my topic but happened to come together very well. As I was manipulating them I was not thinking of how they would connect in the end, which I should be thinking of in the beginning. In the end I believe that the colors came together very well creating a complimentary color harmony. The tessellations shared a common pattern of dots in most of the pictures. I wanted to focus on pictures that had simple designs but still enough interest in each one to have enough strength alone but together create an even better picture. I was able to create the tessellations easily but there are some white spaces that did appear within some of the connections. I am now able to cut a picture but keep the important parts of it. My skills in Photoshop and InDesign increased greatly through this project.

Palouse Sketch PSD

I chose this image to work on because I was drawn to the large space that was taken up by the landscape and the colors popped out to me. I believed that I would be able to represent the texture of the farmland while still using techniques that I preferred. I put great detail into the landscape because it took up most of the picture and had a very vibrant color that I wanted to focus on. It was difficult for me to use the layers because there was a point where I go lost on which objects were on which layer. I spent a large amount of time focused on the landscape which in my opinion caused the architectural aspects to lack detail. I stuck with a specific tool that I was very familiar with which gave the best textural characteristics but limited me as well. I think that overall my picture came out very successfully.