VOICES: MY CREATIVE JOURNEY
INTRODUCTION
For this assignment, we were to create a personal story that details an aspect of us, our lives, and our respective world views. Personally, I chose to do "My Creative Journey", because I wanted to show people my creative life and how it has affected me and the people around me. In addition, the story was to cover my past creative/artistic life, my current creative life, and my ambitions for my creative future.
MATERIALS
Hardware: MacPro
Software: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Spark
Other: Markers, Paper for drawing, Photographs from Internet and taken by myself
CREATIVE PROCESS
Audience: University/College students and professors who are interested in hearing my creative journey
Purpose of my Story: To inspire those who want to find their creative place in the world, and who need confidence in their creative skill and talent.
Why is my Story important to me: It is important to me because I want to share with the audience how I got to where I was today in terms of my creative path.
Expected Reaction: That the audience finds hope that my story can inspire them to keep working hard on their creative journeys and find the courage to try new things out.
Hook: Moving to Toronto in 2012 and the opportunities available to me compared to Montreal
Dramatic Elements: My time of self-doubt and not getting into second year at Algonquin College
Stylistic Elements: A combination of both drawings and photographs
Tone: Upbeat, confident, friendly with the viewing audience
Mood: Serious, laid-back, and happy
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
PAST
My earliest creative influences were Star Wars, The Muppets, Transformers, SpongeBob Squarepants and many Disney/Pixar animated films, particularity Toy Story and The Incredibles. They are important to me because they helped ignite my imagination ever since I viewed them, giving me a sense of humour, wonder, colour, and creativity that would inspire me to create my own characters and stories later in life through drawings.
An earliest memory of a creative accomplishment that I was proud of was when I did a collage of a man sucking food into his mouth like a vacuum, which I did in Grade 10 art class. I took pictures from a magazine to make the collage. Needless to say, my teacher and classmates loved it.
Some of the things that stood in the way of my creativity included my own self-doubt and even criticism. I worried that I might not be good one day, and that I would never succeed in life because of my perceived lack of talent in the creative world. So, in order to prevail against them, I decided to keep working hard no matter what tried to stop me and realize that criticism can be a good thing and help you move on in your skills.
My area of interest was astronomy, because I was interested in learning about celestial objects including planets, moons, galaxies, and stars.
What prepared me for my current area of interest was all of the times I drew back when I was a kid, creating my own characters, giving them a backstory/story arc and putting them in a setting. It was also my curiosity to learn about the world around me that helped prepare me for my current interest, as this gave me more knowledge if I wanted to get inspiration for my artwork.
The singular event that most affected my decision to pursue my current interest was when I went to visit the Corus Entertainment building one day after school, and I got to see all of the artwork Nelvana did for their animated projects. This experience inspired me to continue my passion for art and drawing, and to practice in order to better my skills.
The people that influenced/assisted me in pursuing my creative interests were my mother, who encouraged me to keep practicing drawing in order to become the best out there in the art industry, as well as some of my teachers from high school, who were very helpful in guiding me to the next step forward by telling me what I needed to do in order to succeed.
PRESENT
My interests have affected my life by being one of the primary motives to move to Toronto with my family, as there were not a lot of art schools to go to in Montreal, and I wanted to get into cartooning and illustration, and Toronto had a lot more to offer in terms of schools concerning my area of interest. Moreover, my interests have affected my friendships, as they have pulled me closer to people who are also in the art field and form friendships with them.
My creative and artistic philosophy is that many art forms can be accepted into the art world, and that it is important to try different forms and mediums of art, such as painting, cartooning, and even some mixed media as well.
My creative work represents my personal creative philosophy by showcasing different mediums and techniques that I have been willing to try out, and that I’m not afraid of going outside the box when necessary.
My time in school has challenged me creatively because there was not a lot of what I wanted to do (design characters, layouts, etc.) compared to what I did at Algonquin College. In other words, I mostly did things that were out of what I wanted to do (designing logos, learning Art Culture, etc.).
One of the times I enjoyed an epic win was in Art Culture, when I won first place in the Art Culture costume party. I was Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Shots, and I had three pictures of myself in Marilyn’s style, while the fourth one was cut out in order to show my face. People liked the idea, and the voted me at first place. It was important because it made me more confident when it came to feedback from peers.
A time when I had an epic fail in an assignment was when I got a low mark on an In-Class activity in Digital Media class. I was pretty distressed over my mark, but it helped to ensure that I would do better next time.
A work I am exceedingly proud of are a trio of paintings that depict hands holding onto one another, painted in different colours the style of Vincent Van Gogh. The reason I am proud of these paintings is because it is something I’ve done outside of cartoons, and I’ve done a lot of hard work to get these paintings as gorgeous as possible. With the help of my Grade 12 art teacher, I managed to have a lot of people like what I’ve done, and I am proud of my accomplishment.
The biggest highlight in the current pursuit of my interest is getting to know people in the Art and Design Foundation course. I am curious of what other people have to offer, and I want to both inspire and get inspired by other people around me in order to form connections in the art world.
FUTURE
In five years from now, I see myself as a successful illustrator and cartoonist, running my own business making TV shows, comic books, and even films for the public to enjoy. Hopefully, the audience will come to enjoy my work and give it praise for the artistry that goes into the work.
My next steps after finishing the Foundation Program are to apply to another college, such as Syn Studio in Montreal or Algonquin College (again) in Ottawa; somewhere where I can use my talents doing the things I actually want to do when it comes to designing my own characters and giving them backstories and arcs.
The important lesson I’ve learned is that it’s actually pretty good to study different areas of art and design, whether it be graphic design, painting, or even 3D Materials and Techniques, because it will strengthen your skills and make you more well-rounded in terms of different art formats.
If I had to give a student any advice, it would have to be to keep pursuing your passions and dreams even when there are going to be times when things are starting to become hard and you feel like giving up. You always have to do your best and work hard in order to achieve your goals.
If I could make a wish come true, it would have to be me being very successful in life, well-respected, and even have a family of my own.
PRODUCTION METHODS
For this assignment, I decided to go with the "My Creative Journey" story, because I wanted to tell the viewers how I got to where I was today, and I hoped that I might leave an impact on them as well.
STEP 1
After choosing my story, I went to work writing the script down. However, I soon realized that the script was not to write down answers to the questions the teacher provided us, but to go with my own flow on how I wanted to tell the story. So, I had to start over and write my story in my own way, and not give rote answers to the questions provided.
So, I decided to write my script using events that were prevalent in my life, such as when I l moved to Toronto and went to more art schools there compared to Montreal. In addition, I managed to give the script an introduction, beginning, middle, and end, and divided my life events into those categories.
STEP 2
After completing the script, I drew up some storyboards in order to visualize my story.
STEP 3
After completing the storyboards, I moved on to completing the final slides I was going to put in my story. For this process, I did a combination of both drawings and photos taken from both myself and the Internet. For the drawings, I used old ones I took from my high school art sketchbooks. Afterwards, I drew up new drawings, and then I scanned all of them onto my laptop. For the photos, I searched for photos across the Internet to visualize the schools and locations I went to in order to make them believable to the audience.
STEP 4
After gathering the slides, I moved on to putting them in order into Adobe Spark. Afterwards, I started recording the audio for the video on Adobe Spark. However, I was having trouble recording the audio due to microphone issues on my computer. Fortunately, I was able to record the sound from my phone, by downloading the Adobe Spark app. With that, I was able to record my video without any mishaps, though I had to re-record some parts along the way.
CONCLUSION
Throughout this assignment, I learned that it can be fun to put together a video to create a story using visuals and voice, almost as if I'm making my own movie. However, some elements were very stressful, such as trying to figure how my story was going to work, and trying to record my audio while dealing with microphone issues. Needless to say, I've managed to get a lot done on time, and I am looking forward to creating new projects like this.
