BLOG Welcome to my Blog - Updates About My Life and Artwork
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BLOG Welcome to my Blog - Updates About My Life and Artwork
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The most recent project we have done so far in VAM Academy is a "Who Am I" Collage, which is a piece consisting of all the things that represent you as a person/individual. I had many things that I chose to put on my collage that represent who I am, like the Henna and the bangles. I put those things on to represent my culture, my mom owns a henna shop and bangles are part of my cultural celebrations. I am also Muslim, and the language spoken in Islam is Arabic. So there are some areas on this collage where I wrote my name in Arabic, such as near the right side and in the empty space of the black heart. There are also white dangling flowers on the top left corner of the collage, those flowers are called "Baby Breaths." That flower is most associated with people who are dreamy, and childish. Hence why I put the little quote "Dream A Little Dream" on top of the flowers.
I wanted the paths to represent how I'm still looking for mine. I've put those paths further in the background because I don't usually like to discuss it that much. Just behind the cut out picture of me there's a little old map, nowhere specific, I wanted to put that there to represent how I like to travel. It's further behind everything else because I've honestly never left the country. Although, that doesn't mean I don't love to travel and see new things. The reason they the background is so colorful is because that's who I am, colorful, but you can also see some black splatters all over the colors because as much as I love the color my favorite "shade" is black. That brings me to the thing that I put the most emphasis on, the heart.
I've used this little symbol every time I write my name on a test or anywhere in general since middle school. I find it represents my personality as a whole, one part of the heart is colored and the other is not. I'm a spontaneous and conflicted person when it comes to making decisions, because I honestly appreciate everything, that's why there's a rift down the heart. Many people think that the heart is broken but I like to think of it as more of a puzzle piece, the two sides fit together like yin and yang. I can be edgy and angered but I can also be easy-going and down to earth. I love children shows and watch them a lot but I also watch shows like "Friends," or "Supernatural." There are darker sides and lighter sides to me, and I'm sure there's something like this symbol in everybody. That was something that I had put emphasis on, because it was important to my personality and since this is a "Who Am I" project the heart is the biggest thing on the collage. There is also balance in this as well, the top and the bottom parts of my collage are equal. Like how both sides have two bangles, and one little quote. There is definitely texture and variety in this collage as well. At first while I was making this collage I had no idea what I was going to do, since I've never made a collage before. I started messy, with throwing watercolors on the blank paper but that mixed together and made everything look brown. So I can fairly say that the hardest part of this collage was the background, because there was a lot of ways I decided to do the background before I finally settled with colorful streaks across the paper. It was also hard to figure out what was going to go where on the collage, but I eventually decided what I should actually put onto the collage. There was also the Henna that I did, my mom made a Henna cone out of orange acrylic paint and gave it to me. I decided I would go around the heart in pretty simple designs and there was a part at the top where the bangles got in the way. I went over the bottoms of the bangles and that actually ended up looking great and it was a success. I'm very happy with how this project turned out, despite my worries. Thanks for reading! If you want to see a bigger picture of my collage visit:
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Hello again! I haven't posted in a while but that is because I was working hard on the new photography assignment that we've got. Just a bit of an update, we haven't gone to Big Hill Springs yet because of the weather, but I really hope the clouds'll clear and we get to go. I really want to test out my camera on the natural world, (not my camera I don't have one, the school's camera). I've always used my phone to take pictures and now I've learned quite a lot about using a camera, which relates to my SMART goal to learn as much as I can about photography. Some things that I've learned about using a camera is how to adjust the aperture, and how to change from automatic and manual. The coolest trick I learned is how to take a picture of an object in motion, and making it look like it's in motion IN the picture! I think panning is super cool, especially after you see the picture. I learned about shutter speed as well and had no idea there was different KINDS of shutter speed, that was also fun to learn about. All of this information became very helpful in our most recent assignment that I just handed in where we focused on elements of Natural Lighting and Studio Lighting. It was a lot of fun! We had to take pictures of classmates modeling in these types of lights, then go into photoshop and edit those pictures. Honestly, the reason why learning photography and everything about it is my SMART goal, is because I am horrible when it comes to understanding technology and technological terms in general. I still need help understanding what to fix and set on my camera when a picture doesn't look the way I want it to. But of course, I'm still learning, and there was a lot of fun parts to this as well. My favorite photo session was when I was taking pictures in the natural lighting. Currently I feel like nothing can really go wrong with natural light and I just love the way those specific pictures turned out. We had to hand in 6 pictures of natural lighting and I made 2 of them black and white photos. Here are some examples of what I handed in for Natural Light: We also worked on studio lighting, and that was fun too since the people modeling were wearing costumes, I believe my pictures turned out looking really cool. I've never done studio lighting before and I thought taking them as well as editing them, was a very interesting and fun process. But, nevertheless, taking all 12 of these photos was a fun process and I really hope we can do it again sometime! Here are some examples of my Studio Lighting photos: Click on the button and scroll to the bottom of the page to enjoy a slideshow of all the natural and studio lighting photos I took!
Thanks for reading! Hello again, so this is my second post so far and it's basically an update about how my SMART Goals are going, personal and academic. So today I went to the Empty Bowl Festival that is dedicated to helping the food bank. My mom and I have been participating in this event for a couple years now, and the weather is always horrid but the response is always great! We get tons of people getting henna. Usually I just tag along with my mom to do the activities and try all the free soup, but for my personal goal I did henna alongside my mom helping her get through a line of people and it was a lot of fun. I believe that this SMART Goal was indeed smart, because it's fun and I love it when I get to display my art skills- which makes me committed to the goal. My bowl/platter painting went on a silent auction so people were bidding for it- for a couple of hours. There was a lot of other painted bowls and they were in a separate room being sold for $20-$30, but the bigger bowls that took more effort were in the silent auction room. At the end of the event (which was 11:00am-3:00pm), the volunteers told me my bowl sold for $115! I believe the full 6hrs that I spent painting that was totally worth it and it was also for a good cause. Of course we've started photography in V.A.M Academy and we've been assigned our cameras, but the upsetting thing was that as soon as I got my camera it's battery was completely drained. So I had to share with a friend, which was fine but it would've been great if I could've used my own camera for when Mr. Grey was showing us all the cameras features. But hey, at least I now know where the battery compartment and SD card are located now ;)
Anyway, we learned about how to use a camera and how to change and play with the settings, as well as how to set the quality. We also learned different techniques on getting great pictures as well. Since we've only had on class I can't say we've learned how those tricks and features actually make the photo we take LOOK. Mr. Grey was planning to have a practical lesson on Friday but it was raining. I'm really excited to get practical with my camera and play around with it outside! (when it isn't gloomy for once). More updates to come ~ thanks for reading Hi there! Welcome to my first ever Blog post. This post is going to be about my two S.M.A.R.T Goals from now until around January 31st 2019. For this Academy I'm really keen on improving my photography skills, I love taking photos but have never really used an actual camera. I also really want to learn how to properly edit photos and maybe even gain some photoshopping skills. Personally I want to focus on somehow spreading my art skills and sharing it with people in this city by volunteering, participating in art related shows etc... S: Anything relating to technology in anyway art or not is always foreign to me. Sometimes the camera and technology settings seem to complex to understand. I want to mainly learn how to work a professional camera- such as setting the shutter speed, aperture, and how to work the basic features on a camera. I am looking at volunteering to do some henna art at the empty bowls festival for the food bank on September 22nd. I already painted a platter for them as well to help raise funds for the people who are hungry and in need, I'm pretty excited! I'm also going to partake in the Festival of Lights to do henna with my mom- which is the whole month of December. Those are just the places I know I'm volunteering/participating in and I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for other events or shows I can spread my love of art to. M: I will feel like I've completed this goal when I finally become comfortable with using a camera and not just my phone, when I can name all the features on a camera and what they do, and when I learn how to professionally edit photos. I have a lot of fun taking pictures and I know I take good pictures, but I wish I knew more about the tools that can take a picture to another level.
I will feel like I've completed my personal goal when I've volunteered and participated in as many events as I can, it's pretty convenient for me because my mom is a henna artist and I go with her sometimes, doing henna and designs on other people is a lot of fun and sometimes I take my paintings and sell them at the events we go to. A: My Academy goal I feel will be easy enough to accomplish my goal because I've had the amazing opportunity to be in academy. I will try learn as much as I can while Mr. Grey is teaching us all about cameras and editing. I will also learn as much as I can at home too, since my brother has an actual camera (which he doesn't take pictures with because he's a videographer), and he has the full editing technology on his iMac computer. My personal goal is achievable as well because I can go with my mom to events and fundraisers (which I don't usually do because it's her job), and I will help her spread the beauty of henna art. I will also try to bring my paintings so I can display and hopefully sell them. R: This academy goal does seem worthwhile because I get to learn about something that I've wanted to learn about for a long time. I enjoy taking pictures and want to expand my knowledge and achieve a good understanding of what looks good while editing. Like I've mentioned before, I never usually go with my mom to her events, shows and/or fundraisers. So I think this is a good opportunity to go out into the field and find out a bit more about what it would be like to be a business, trying to sell paintings and spread the beauty of henna. T: I will be able to achieve both of these goals by January 31st. The photography unit is taking place sometime between September 18 - 21. The Festival of Lights is the whole month of December (though of course we won't be there for ALL of it), and the Empty Bowl Festival is taking place September 22nd. I will update this blog on any recent events or places I've managed to partake in, thanks for reading! |
Blog DescriptionHi there! Thanks for stopping by. This is my Blog and I'm going to be posting here about my VAM experience as well as my life and improvement as an artist. Hope you enjoy! Dua JunaidI am a 17-year-old girl who's passionate about art and anything that has to do with art. I really love drawing, painting, photography etc... |