Author: Katherine

Barbara Shop

I had many ideas of what to do before this one, but none came out quite as well. I would have a flicker of insight, but a combination of problems would usually deter me from continuing. These road blocks included difficulty with angles, lack of simplicity, and absence of creativity. When I thought about the swirls on my perfume housing, inspiration struck.

Since barber poles are usually red and blue, the pink gives it a “feminine” feel, hence the name Barbara. A difficulty I encountered was that I didn’t have a single piece of white paper large enough to draw on; instead I used multiple pieces of paper laid on top of each other. I had to take the picture from a couple feet up otherwise the angle would be off and the 2D illusion would be ruined. I considered writing the words “Barber Shop” as a sign next to the pole, but I thought it would take away from the simplicity since so few of the given examples had wording on them.

Sketch 3: Sunday Sketches Assignment

Visual Note-taking

I visually represented my notes for Computer Science 171 class. I found this process of visual note taking to be quite helpful to learn material. I think it is effective because it forces you to ponder on the material for a longer amount of time. Given the nature of drawing and doodling, it typically takes longer to draw out a concept rather than to just state it. Spending more time with the material will increase your chances of absorbing the material. Plus, drawing out a concept will make you think about it differently because you will be focusing on expressing the most important elements, thus producing a different (and probably helpful) perspective.

Link to Sketch 2: Visual Note Taking Assignment

Sketch 1: Avatar

While I was originally planning on doing a pretty simple drawing for my avatar, after seeing the submissions already made, I decided to go out of my comfort zone with some pixel art.

My initial struggles included finding a program that would minimize the work needed. I took a picture I had already had and pixelated it, which didn’t work well at all. Then I found a pretty nifty program that would let you could compose pixel images. This meant, however, that I had to start from scratch. The lips were challenging, and I don’t think they look very realistic. Straight off I knew the eyes would probably be hard to get to look correct, so I drew sunglasses instead.

I chose to make it a gif because I thought it would be creative, and I like the retro look of the pixels. The flashing banner references our English class. I was originally planning on having the banners be the books we’re going to read in this class, but the difficulty in the execution was too great. The animation aspect and set up of the program made it difficult to incrementally change the gif. I had to first finish and decide that I liked everything about the face and background before I could move onto the books; if I saw something I didn’t like, I had to manually change each pixel meticulously so each slide matched.

Now I feel more confident that I could make more images styled in this way if I so chose. I quite enjoyed myself while making it, so that possibility is likely.

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