Katherine E. Hatton

A real-life inspired love story that I used as part of my interactive website project. Simple drawings but it took a lot longer than expected. Still, I really enjoyed the outcome :)

A picture I took a while ago while I was doing my photo essay project. I was fooling around with camera settings and was finally able to use “ghost-writing” properly! I used the flashlight on my iPod with a camera exposure of 30 secs to capture this photograph. The writing was the hardest part, but I enjoy the looseness of the letters and how open they are. I want to try to play with this kind of photography more over the summer if I can. 

Another pattern I made just for fun. I used hexagons once again to create a layered look with some depth. I decided to play with various shades of blue to create a nice monotone colour scheme. 

For whatever reason, trying to upload patterns is a battle. Every photo export comes out blurry regardless of resolution but I did manage to produce one that seems to work! Since my first pattern did not work as well as I would have liked I decided to redo it and created this gem. I used an analogous colour scheme to create an aesthetically pleasing composition and layered four hexagons on top of one another to create the illusion of stacked boxes. As for deciding on a layout, this hexagon row was the most successful. I think the breathing space in between each shape gives a nice look to the composition and makes it seem more open and welcoming.

Project 1!! This photo essay was done based on the idea of “Beauty Stigmas in Today’s Society.” This project took me a while to complete, but it was well worth the time and effort. A big thank-you to all my friends who helped me with this, I couldn't have done it without you! It had an important message that needed to be said, and I hope it got through.

My data visualization project! This project, I admit, was put on the back burner because of rotoscoping. However, I did learn some interesting things about myself while finishing this poster. The biggest learning experience for me was physically seeing how I spent my days, most of which consists of doing homework. I realize that there are many improvements to be made to this poster and I would like to try data visualization again, in a different matter. But for the time being, I enjoy seeing how ‘busy’ my life is. 

My Stop Motion! This was my first time experimenting with stop motion animation and I think it was a success. The first part features white and black circles rippling on the page. The second part uses uneven triangles with a subtle colour texture, which also ripples. Suddenly the triangles and ripples break into an explosion of squares that fly off the page. My last part (and favorite) features a collision of wave-like shapes and an explosion of colour and random abstract shapes that are born from the centre and spread out and across the page. The animation ends with the paper falling apart revealing the white background. My main goal was to try several unexpected changes (mostly in colour, shapes, and unpredictable motion). The only problem I had with this animation was the blue background. I think I will try something else with it, or get rid of it all together.

Rotoscope project! In my opinion, this is my crowning achievement this year. Animation is the industry I REALLY want to go into and so I went all out on this project, as a personal goal. I decided to choose J.K. Rowling’s Commencement speech at Harvard University about the benefits of failure. This speech resonated with me on a personal level. I wanted to experiment with different styles, hence why each section of the video is different from the next. I admit, this was a challenge and I made it harder that intended, but again, it was a personal goal.  I am really proud with how this turned out. I hope my message of benefiting from failure and picking yourself up again is clear and evident.

I finally am able to put this on! This project was due a few weeks ago but it’s never too late to discuss. After reading the article, and going through several ideas and discussions with my peers, I was able to come up with the idea of a name tag and a coffee cup. What I got from the blog post was a sense of frustration and struggle with names. Your name is a part of your identity, and as such it can be somewhat insulting when people mispronounce, or misspell the name. I wanted to communicate the idea of names and the struggle behind them and did so by using a misspelling of his name and a name tag with his proper name. I used a few techniques to help create this piece. The first was using 16-bit colour which created the interesting texture of the wooden table-top. I changed my approach to drawing with this illustration as well. Normally, I would draw something in Photoshop, but I worked with illustrator’s pen tool (which was really frustrating after a while). I also experimented with different styles as well and used a “sketchy” look (mainly on the shadows on the cup). I used some techniques from last semester (Typography anyone?) to create the type. And lastly, the background was a combination of strokes, variations in colour saturation, and blending.

After reading the article, this picture stood out the most to me, as it did with many other readers, I imagine. The whole theme I gathered from the article was that someone was being singled-out by society for expressing an inappropriate comment. In my opinion, this is something that happens far more than we let on. Anyway, the world suddenly turned its back against this one woman and she was alone and seemingly segregated from everyone else. One single Twitter comment caused a gigantic uproar and she was cast aside as being a ‘racist’ bully. This picture represents the idea of being shunned by portraying one bird being ostracized by dozens of others. It’s ironic that the dark theme of segregation is in stark contrast with the bright colours of this illustration, something I found visually interesting. Personally, I think darker colours would have made the message more powerful, but perhaps the bright colours represent hope for Justine? Justine was more or less able to get her life back together again. Maybe not in the way she had hoped, but it is stable nonetheless. The style is very simple, being that the blue birds represent the Twitter symbol, and also represent people; the single bird is Justine, and every other bird is society reacting to her words. All in all, I think the simplicity of the illustration adds an interesting perspective to this article in that we don’t get caught up in the details of the visual. Rather we take the words and match them to the pictures and come up with the themes found within. The simplicity works, because it doesn’t take away from the article. On the other hand, the bright colours, in my opinion, distract the reader. I found this article to be very depressing and these colours just don’t match that impression.

Overall, I would say this was a very well made and well thought out item. Nothing is out of place, out of the ordinary, or unnecessary. This bag lived up to its name, and I’m sad to see it go.

Pattern I did for the journal prompt this week. I had several patterns in mind, and will hopefully get to upload them as independent work as I finished them. In the meantime, this was the one that came out the most successful after many frustrating attempts with sizing. The pattern uses complimentary colours to create a nice contrast and draw your attention. I also used hexagons as my shape and placed them in such a way to resemble a flower.

So today’s class was all about being quick, and getting to the core of an idea. I chose to do a piece based on the question, “How many steps in a day?” I wanted to keep my piece colourful but simple. As you can tell I used shoes, boots, and footprints to portray the idea of wandering.

http://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/20140724-flight-risk/

As I mentioned above, the background and figure are in contrast, something I did on purpose. I wanted the figure to stand out, and I did this by colour contrasting with complimentary colours and sizing. The figure takes up over half of the height of the video size, but only one third of the width. However, even with the difference in vertical and horizontal height, the subject still takes up a significant portion of the the video, once again to bring attention to her. By placing the figure in the centre, I am creating a balance between the left and right sides of the canvas.I wanted the feeling of this composition to be friendly and secure. The bright colours are welcoming, and the equal weight balance on both sides gives off an impression of safety because nothing is off-balance or jarring.

Prompt #5. Photoshop Tennis. The ever-famous A and K duo is back! We sent each other photos of our previous trips and had a blast with editing. As you can tell we got a lot more. . .open with ideas during the process. My theme was the four seasons while Ashlee's was winter. So overall, we weren't that far off from each other. What can I say, great minds think alike. The first few photos were edited purely with colour and opacity. Then some crazy stuff went down and a wild corgi appeared. And then Christmas trees. Then Frozen. And then hats and leaves. Needless to say, we both had a blast. This is certainly something I would be willing to do again.