I find the evolution of media enthralling. One of the things I find absolutely fascinating is history, and I find particular interest in the American Revolutionary War, which took place during the mid-to-late eighteenth century. Media back then was so different compared to now. Newspapers were the main source of news, being printed on printing presses; pamphlets, like Common Sense by Thomas Paine, were printed and passed around as a way to speak opinions and persuade people to join the revolution; and messages couldn’t be sent instantaneously, so people, like Paul Revere on his famous midnight ride, had to do so in person.
Another part of media I enjoy are movies and television series. Some of my favorite genres include fantasy, historical, and horror, and some of my favorite shows include Doctor Who (BBC), Supernatural (CW), and The Defenders shows, like Jessica Jones and Iron Fist (Netflix), but I do watch and enjoy a lot more as well. Some of my favorite films include the Pirates of the Caribbean films (except for the fourth one, which doesn’t exist) and the Marvel Cinematic Universe films (with special mention to Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Thor: Ragnarok, and the Captain America films). I like to watch these because some help offer an escape from our world, while others offer commentary on humanity and society through a fictional narrative. As an artist, I’m constantly inspired by them and I like to draw some of the characters in my free time, as exampled below.
Digital painting of Danny Rand from “Iron Fist” by me.
This course has a focus on photography. I’m a little familiar with photography, but not a great deal. I took a traditional photography class back in high school, so I got to work with film and development in a dark room. I mainly use a digital camera to take photographs, and when I take pictures, it’s usually places I’m visiting, or pictures of my beautiful lizards. I enjoy photographs that capture the moments and let me remember some good times I’ve had. A few days ago, one of my lizards sadly passed away (may my Little One rest in peace), and I have been looking at pictures of him, remembering good times I had with him, and seeing his cute face again. I also like to look back on photos I’ve taken in other places because I don’t travel often, and looking at these pictures help me remember when I had and it’s almost like taking a little trip back to those places.
Photograph of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by me.
Photoshop has been a big part of my life for around a decade. I love going into the program and playing around, using photographs to make fanart graphics, fansite headers (as well as coding themes for them), and other things. Since it’s been a nice hobby of mine, I decided to take digital media classes at school to expand my experience and to gain a degree. One of the projects I did last semester was an artist’s book. I called my book “My Japan,” as my mother was in Japan at the time visiting her mother and I missed her very much. For the book, I decided to use a mixture of photographs I had taken when I visited Japan in 2015, and drawings. Below is one of the pages I did that really showcased that. The photograph was taken at Todai-ji, the big Buddha temple in Nara, Japan, and I had decided to keep the environment of the photograph, but replace the subject with a cartoon version I had drawn in Illustrator. I then put the two elements together and added some text in Photoshop.
Page 3 of my artist’s book, “My Japan.”
Thank you for reading and please stay tuned for my posts for projects 1-3 for this class later this semester!
You can find me on a couple social media sites, but I don’t post on them often: Twitter | Instagram | Trakt.tv
Featured image is “Writing the Declaration of Independence” by JLG Ferris. Wikimedia Commons.
New Media & Social Change 