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Last week I went to Art Attack which is a music concert hosted by SEE. I got to see Vince Staples and Lil Yatchy. Unfortunately I only have a performance of Vince Staples. It was great because Vince Staples is an up and coming rapper and he's very outspoken about issues in the black community. I loved the water visuals he had on stage because his latest album was called Big Fish Theory. Lil Yatchy put on a great show despite his head ache. Unfortunately I feel like he was only performing his greatest hits when his recently released album Lil Boat 2 had a lot of high energy songs that I think the crowd would've enjoyed even if they weren't familiar with his music. Nonetheless I still had a great time.

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Here are the completed painted pages.

Reflection...

1)              What was the most challenging aspect of completing your project, and why? (This might be technical aspects, time constraints, problems that arose, etc.—be honest, this is your space to reflect!)

The most challenging aspect of my project was learning and applying new techniques in a limited amount of time. I had never used photoshop before and it was challenging to teach myself. I wasn’t able to move as fast as I had expected which meant I fell behind following my timeline. Using an unfamiliar medium also caused me not to be satisfied with the amount of detail in my work.

2)              Looking at your learning agreement(s) on ELMS, how do you think you succeeded (or not) in completing your Learning Objectives? Which ones did you fulfill? Which ones did you not fulfill? Why?

I did successfully learn how to structure a comic, develop skills in photoshop, and further develop how to draw the human body. Every step of my project required me to apply all my learning objectives. I didn’t quite master photoshop but I did gain more experience. If I had more time I would’ve been able to successfully check that off on my list.

3)              What were the most helpful aspects of the (semi) weekly class meetings? What would you like to see added or subtracted for next year?

The most helpful aspects were getting critiques from my classmates. It was nice having people see the project develop overtime, so they could give relevant feedback. I would like to see more sharing of work and less on how to share. One class was pretty sufficient in teaching us how to properly critique.

4)              What part of the project were you most proud of? Why?

I was most proud with the final product. I had blended photoshop and water color pretty well so the colors and characters were really vibrant and sharp. I was most stressed about the neatness of the comic and having painted the frames gave me the control I needed. However, photoshop helped me with editing and adding more details that I didn’t have time to add by hand. Overall it was really nice in the end.

5)              What part of the project would you have changed if you could? Why?

I would have added more dialogue and frames to my project. I feel like I did the bare minimum and would have loved to have had more to present. If I was more confident in my work I would’ve printed the final pages to have a hard copy to display. I also didn’t produce art as frequently as I wanted which took away from a part of my overall project which was to release chapters every couple of weeks.

6)              If you had to offer advice to next year’s Capstone students, what would it be?

I would tell next year’s students to do a project that they had always wanted to do but never put in the time to try. Many artists this year were given the chance to work on projects they always wanted to delve in. However, it’s important that they set attainable goals. Personally, when I started to fall behind it started to deter me from working at all. I became easily frustrated and wanted to scrap the whole project. Stay true to yourself and do what’s realistic.

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Welcome to the Interspace. Chapter One. Ivy and Zora meet.

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Process Binder 4/20/18 I'm almost done with coloring all the pages!

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Process Binder 4/6/18

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We’re celebrating Women’s History Month with behind-the-scenes art of some of our most iconic and powerful women characters - beginning with The Legend of Korra! “I am certainly proud to add Korra to the pantheon of TV characters, which is perpetually sorely lacking in multifaceted female characters who aren’t sidekicks, subordinates or mere trophies for male characters.“ -Bryan Konietzko, co-creator.

Listen to Bryan and co-creator Michael Dante DiMartino on the Nick Animation Podcast! 

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This Saturday I went to Town Danceboutique in DC. Every Friday night they have a drag show where drag queens get to perform for about an hour. This queen was just one of many performances we saw that night. Dressed as Beyoncé, she performed Love on Top.

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On Wednesday I went to see Lady Bird at the Hoff Theater in Stamp. It’s a coming of age film about a 17 year old girl growing up in Sacramento California. Coming into the movie I didn’t know what to expect because I hadn’t looked into it. After seeing it I was thoroughly impressed by the film. It was very funny, relatable, and tapped into the crowds emotions. The acting was great and so was the story line. Every character was so unique and personable. One of my favorite characters was the nun who was friends with lady bird. She was that structured adult that everyone needs in their life yet she was kind and easy going. One of my favorite scenes was when the nun confronted Lady Bird about vandalizing her car with “Just Married to Jesus”. The nun laughed about it and commended Lady Bird for her creativity. I would recommend everyone check out this film.

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For this week’s process binder I’ve got one of my colored sketches. Also Here are some of the black and white sketches for the next chapter. I teamed up with Yeamah Rainsbury for the First Look presentations and these were her comments.

1. I really love the motivation behind your project. I remember in class, you mentioned how black people aren't represented well in comics. I think its great that you want to create a comic that empowers an underrepresented group of people, and portray them in a positive light. Today's media usually portrays black people to be loud, ghetto, violent, and more, and this unfortunately contributes to the negative stereotype about black people.                                                           2. I really love the backstory of your comic. I think it is definitely interesting and will keep readers/viewers intrigued. I also love how you have designed your characters. They are designed very well and I am interested to see how the story evolves, along with how the characters interact. 3. Developing the visual backgrounds in each of your frames a little more will help bring the comic to life. When I saw your current progress during your First Look Presentation, I felt that the backgrounds didn't have as much detail compared to the characters themselves. I think it would be nice to develop the background a little more so that it stands out and is distinguishable, but doesn't necessarily take away from the characters(unless that is your intent). 4. How do you intend to present your comic? After ArtsFest and the Academic Showcase, would you like to do more with your comic? Have you considered developing it into a series, or possibly publishing it somewhere so those beyond the UMD community can enjoy it too? What message do you hope to get across through your comics?

To address Yeamah’s questions I’m not sure how I want to present my project yet. I originally wanted to have my laptop showing my comic on my Tumblr and available for people to scroll through. In addition to that I would have a couple pages printed.

I did want to continue my comic even after I submit my work for Arts Fest. I know I won’t have a final product for Arts Fest, just a portion of what I want. I hope in the future to have a whole book with several chapters. So I have considered making it into a series. I want to keep creating until I’m burnt out. The whole project will be posted online on my Tumblr so anyone who follows me will have access to my comic even after Arts Fest.

Overall I just hope that my comic helps show Black women in a positive light, highlighting their strength and adding to the spectrum of what it means to be Black. 

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Plans for this semester

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Sketches for the upcoming project.

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This Wednesday I attended Kyle Kogut’s exhibition False Monarchy. Because it was opening night they also had a performance to go along with the art where a band played eerie music to go with the theme. It wasn’t my favorite exhibit, I thought that the art wasn’t really exciting. However, it was my first time visiting the Stamp gallery so it was a nice change to see an individual gallery versus the large ones I usually go to. 

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This weekend I went to the Glenstone Museum in Potomac Maryland. The museum had a central building that displayed contemporary art while the surrounding property was a sculpture garden. The art on display inside the museum was all created by Roni Horn. Her exhibition was ending this month, so my friend and I tried to catch the end of it. She had several lovely pieces. One of my favorite was her collection of pictures of the Thames along with the footnotes scattered in the photograph. Unfortunately photography wasn’t allowed inside the museum, so I only have photos from the sculpture garden. My favorite sculpture was one called Smug by Tony Smith. It was cool because from different perspectives, the nature of the sculpture changed.

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On Friday my younger sister had a dance performance with her after school program. They performed a Bollywood dance. To go along with the dance, the girls were dressed in traditional Indian garb. Their instructor was also Indian and had experience in various dance forms. Here’s a screenshot from a video of the dance performance.

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This weekend I went to the Hirshhorn in Washington DC. I saw a variety of art, including the exhibit Trace by Ai Wei Wei. That was the exhibit I was particularly interested in because it was made completely out of legos. There were various  activists and political leaders, all shown in an array of colors and forms. It was an interesting use of legos, one of my favorite toys from my childhood. However I didn’t get a picture in that exhibit.

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Recently I got to sit in on a radio show held by a UMD student named Ericka. Her show was called “Pass the Aux” and was played over WMUC. This particular show on Friday was subtitled “Serendipity”. On the show, serendipitous occurrences were discussed and how they hold significance in the world. In addition to the talking segment, Ericka played a variety of songs. Overall the show lasted for an hour and I enjoyed the experience of being behind the scenes.

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Here is a low quality video of my time at a 21 Savage concert this weekend. Several different rap artist performed along with 21. It was an exciting night!