Last Class

I am sort of sad this evening, I had my last Graphic Design II class today. It was the critique session for our final project, which was to create a Graphic Design Resume Portfolio package. I am sad because it is my last class for the term. It has been an intense 2 years, lots of classes, lots of art, lots of learning for me. Some parts I have stressed over, others I didn't enjoy but for the most part I really did enjoy my classes and I certainly learned a lot.

Above is an image of the cover of my finished booklet. The one above isn't actually a final finished project. The cover is the same, but the insides of the one above had some changes and corrections made. So no pictures of the inside at this point, I may take some later - or then again I may not, I haven't decided. We took about a month to put these together though I had the basic booklet design concept from the beginning. I went through many cover designs before settling on this one. I actually tried to make a logo of my initials for the umpteenth time, no one other than me like that effort so I gave it up early. The letters of my name just don't seem work well together, I think the problem is the K. Anyway birds are sort of my thing so I pulled in this image from my Narrative Story piece. Every bit of this booklet was reviewed and gone over many times. I spent the most time trying to get a business card that my instructor liked. I managed it in the end but that went down to the wire. I really am not good at designing small things, like logos or business cards. I had much less trouble getting the page layout set.

Am I totally finished with school? I don't know, there are a couple of classes that I didn't take that I would have liked to, Advanced Drawing, Illustration II, Watercolor painting, and they are having a print seminar in the fall where you have class time but the student decides the focus of study. I would love to do that and do more Intaglio printing. Also I didn't take an Adobe Flash class, which I would have sort of like to have taken. But so far I haven't signed up for anything in the Fall, we will see how the summer goes.

I don't have any other art work for this week. I am debating whether to go into construction details for the booklet, maybe I will make that the subject of a later blog though I learned how to do the Coptic binding method on a blog set up for creating altered books. Click on the link to view the instructions. You can't see my binding because I covered it over with the blue paper, but it is really a nice neat binding that I can think of all sorts of uses for.

I did get some good news this week, one of my pieces that I entered into the student show received 2nd place, and another piece received an Honorable mention. I am thrilled needless to say. I think the 2nd place award is for the Fall Mandala, and the Honorable mention for my Narrative Story. I would have liked it to be the other way around but I am still happy. For those in the Boston area you can visit the Canton Campus and view the Student show on Sunday May 23, when Massasoit has it's second Art Festival. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. rain or shine. There are a couple of other art shows to view, some printing demonstrations, and a classic car show. I will be there helping out in some way or other still to be determined and would love to say hi to anyone who can come.

To make up for the lack of art work I have some flower photos to share, I took these last week at Stony Brook.

Lily of the Valley, Winter cress and Celandine are the three different plants. None are native to MA. but were introduced by settlers.   The Lily of the Valley image is slightly under exposed but I rather like the contrasts between the leaves in sun and the shadowed areas which is lost when I lighten the image, so I left it as is. Photos have been cropped but otherwise not altered.

That is it for this post. Per usual comments welcomed. Not sure how regular  new posts will be in the future but I am not giving up the blog so please don't stop visiting as I transition to another phase in my life.