Nicole’s Capstone

Explaining layers

https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648913423333212160/explaining-layers

Journals

Journal 1 https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648745889115045888/journal-1

Journal 2 https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648749429087715328/journal-2

Journal 3 https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648751645874896896/goals-for-this-week-finish-drawing-the-line-art

Journal 4 https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648753241593675776/goals-for-this-week-add-base-colours-to-the

Journal 5 https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648754591247286272/goals-for-this-week-finish-drawing

Journal 6 https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648755959011901440/goals-for-this-week-finish-shading-rome-and-add-a

Journal 7 https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648774115311976449/journal-7

Journal 8 https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648775367329497088/journal-8

Final journal https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648843186788302849/final-journal-reflection

Video Journals

Video journal 2 https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648750204192014336/video-journal-2

Video journal 3 https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648751586973270016/video-journal-3

Video journal 5 https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648756329227436032/video-journal-5

Video journal 6 https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648840119342841856/video-journal-6

Video journal 7 https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648843269879529472/video-journal-7

Video journal 8 https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648847951458926592/video-journal-8

Artifacts

https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648747595076894720

https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648747720058732544/china

https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648747793746411520/rome

https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648749481684320256/image-draft

https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648754712677695488/line-art

https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648754803211665408/base-colours

https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648754885998903296/japan-section-final

https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648756005539332096/rome-section-final

https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648840170788012032/china-section-final

https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648841270915104768/capstone-final

https://nicolescapstone.tumblr.com/post/648751800298651648/mosaic-drawing

Bibliography

My capstone challenged me to go outside my comfort zone artistically speaking. When doing my capstone, I had to draw in art styles I’ve rarely used before as well as draw a variety of different subject matters. For example, the Japan section of my design required me to draw in a flat colour style and the Rome section of my design required me to draw and shade complex buildings. In my everyday life, I mostly stick to the same subjects and art styles. Doing this capstone taught me new art skills and also showed me the limits of my current artistic talent. I’ve learned that in order to grow as an artist, I need to add more variety into my art. Thus, the biggest impact my capstone project has had on me was making me realize my shortcomings as an artist.

This project was highly relevant to my future career path as I hope to go into graphic design. Some of the design elements I utilized while drawing (such as the flat colour art style I used for Japan) are quite similar to the kind of work I’d do as a graphic designer. Although I’ve done graphic design in the past, I’ve never done it on such a large scale. My project is also relevant to the school as I created the design for Ms. Clayton to put on her door. When creating my design, I kept in mind the coursework Ms. Clayton teaches as well as her own personal requests. Ideally, once the design is up, it’ll impact the school by giving a visual aid to Ms. Clayton’s lessons. I hope that my design can serve as an introduction Ms. Clayton’s courses as well as generate interest in ancient civilizations.

I demonstrated communication by frequently communicating with Ms. Clayton throughout the design process to ensure that the design was following her personal vision. I also communicated with my design team to receive feedback on my design. At each stage of my design, I took the time to communicate with others about the work I did and the direction I was planning on following. Creative thinking was heavily used as I had to find ways to incorporate all the different images into one design. For example, I used creative thinking when deciding what backgrounds to use for each section. In order to create my backgrounds I had to take my ideas and figure out how to draw them in an aesthetic manner such as when I redrew ancient chinese artwork in my own art style. Critical thinking came in handy when I had to figure out how to draw my designs efficiently. Especially when drawing Rome, I had to come up with shortcuts to speed up my drawing process. Utilizing procreate features to duplicate parts of my design so I didn’t have to draw everything by hand and creating a mosaic brush were some of the ways I thought critically. I used social awareness when communicating with my design team. I had to be accepting of other people’s feedback even if I didn’t agree. Once I put aside my own biases, I was able to see the value of other people’s feedback. Cultural awareness was used when choosing the images for my design. Because the theme is “iconic images”, I had to choose images that were globally well known not just ones that I recognized. Finally, personal awareness was needed to keep myself on track. I had to be able to balance my capstone as well as school work and extracurriculars. Having a timeline helped me figure out what I needed to do by what time.

A frequent difficulty I encountered was the five layer limit on my canvas. This project required me to draw very differently from how I normally do. Usually, when I’m faced with a challenging artwork, I compensate by increasing the number of layers so I can go back and change any elements. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do that with my capstone. I solved this problem by frequently duplicating my canvas. I would duplicate my canvas before starting a challenging part so that if I messed up, I would have a copy of the original to go back to. Though this approach did solve my problem, if I did this project again I’d like to try drawing each element and section separately instead. One of my friends suggested I do so earlier on but I chose not to because I was worried it’d be hard to check the harmony of all the elements together. As my capstone progressed, however, I found it harder to manage the five layer limit. Looking back, I could’ve just drawn all my images separately and frequently imported them back onto my main canvas to check the harmony.

Adhikari, S. (2019, November 20). Top 10 Marvelous Types of Ancient Chinese Art. Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.ancienthistorylists.com/china-history/top-10-marvelous-ancient-chinese-art/

W. (2021, April 14). Augustus. Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus

Colosseum. (2020, September 24). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Colosseum

Jarus, O. (2016, November 29). Terracotta Warriors: An Army for the Afterlife. Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.livescience.com/25510-terracotta-warriors.html

Julius Caesar. (2020, December 11). Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Julius-Caesar-Roman-ruler

Mandal, D. (2020, January 24). Roman Gladiators: Origins and History of the Ancient Fighters. Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.realmofhistory.com/2020/01/03/12-facts-ancient-roman-gladiators/

W. (2021, March 12). Military history of Japan. Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Japan

W. (2021, April 11). Pantheon, Rome. Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon,_Rome

W. (2021, March 18). Qin Shi Huang. Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang

Sages, C. G. (1970, January 01). The Great Walls of China, a chronological database of Depictions and Descriptions. Retrieved April 10, 2021, from http://anewchronology.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-great-wall-of-china-chronological.html

Shinto Shrines. (2021). Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2059.html

Goals for this week: Figure out how to connect the three sections and fix any small details.

Accomplishments: After testing out the road idea, I’ve decided that it’s not a good fit with my design. When looking at my design, I felt like the area where Rome and China met actually looked just fine as it was. I added some more mountains in the background but other than that I left it untouched. The mountains in the China section background worked as a natural border between the two sections. I tried mimicking that result with the Japan Rome border. Last week, I experimented with extending the waves of the Japan section into the Rome area. I was quite satisfied with the result so I’ve decided that that’s how I want to separate my sections. There was some empty space between Mt. Fuji and the top of the canvas. Rather than filling in the space with more art, I decided to just colour it in with an off white colour. I also ended up colouring in the drawing of the wolf with Romulus and Remus. Originally, I left it white because I felt like the Rome section already looked quite busy. However, I showed the design to my friends and they said it stood out too much as it was the only uncoloured piece on my design. The reference image I used for the wolf was of a mosaic however I chose to colour it in with flat colours. Because the background is a mosaic, I felt that colouring it with flat colours would make the image stand out more. In addition, in the China section I had a dragon that I left unshaded as the reference image I used had a flat art style. When showing the design to my friend Mia, she pointed out that the dragon stood out too much because of its different art style. Therefore I decided to shade in the dragon too. The rest of my week was just spent cleaning up tiny details like unconnected lines or maybe a spot that I forgot to colour. Ms. Clayton didn’t have any additional requests so I didn’t have to adjust anything about my design.

Challenges I faced: The border between Rome and Japan didn’t look as naturally cohesive as the one between China and Rome. I considered drawing something on the border but decided that adding extra elements this late in the game would be a poor idea. I duplicated my canvas just to be safe and did some experimenting on the original. In the end, I decided that extending the waves into the Rome section looked the best.

What I learned: I learned that when doing large designs, it’s a good idea to step away from the canvas and take a break. After staring at the same design for weeks, I ended up missing some of the small details. Asking other people for feedback helped me notice the tiny things that I would’ve missed otherwise. For example, I didn’t notice how out of place the uncoloured wolf looked until my friends pointed it out. I do have a design team but the benefits of asking outside people for feedback is that they’re looking at my design with fresh eyes.

Goals for this week: Finish drawing China

Accomplishments: After about two weeks, I finished doing the shading and background for China. I’d say China was probably the easiest section to finish because its the most similar to my art style and the great wall of china takes up most of the section. Having the great wall running through the section gave me a focal point to center the rest of images around. For that reason, I chose to shade the great wall first. I ended up going with a heavier shading style - similar to Rome - which I followed through with the rest of my drawings. Although the China section also had a huge building, shading it wasn’t as hard as shading the roman buildings because the art style I used was more similar to my usual art style. The art style I used for Rome was a more realistic one whereas the one I used for China was what Ms. Rodland calls a “loose brushstroke” style. I had some slight difficulties getting the background to match with the rest of the section. While drawing the background, I was facetiming my friend Mia. Her constant feedback made it easier for me to adjust the background.

Challenges I faced: The biggest challenge for this section was getting the background to match my images. My problem was that when drawing the background, I tried too hard to copy the art style of my reference images. In the reference images, the line art is quite heavy. This made my background look awkward because I did very thin line art for my images. After thinning out the line art the background looked considerably better.

What I learned: I learned that I shouldn’t try to stick too closely to the art styles of my reference images. Even though I’m trying to emulate the art styles of each civilization, I need to keep in mind that what’s most important is the overall harmony of my design.

Goals for this week: Finish shading Rome and add a background

Accomplishments: I finished shading my Roman images and added a background. I ended up using the full three weeks because of how much shading I needed to do. The one bright side of doing this section is that I’m very familiar with this kind of art style. When I was preparing my portfolio for art school applications, I had to do a lot of figure drawings similar to the roman statues. I asked Ms. Clayton sent me some Roman mosaic art she liked to use as reference for the background. After experimenting a bit with the background, I decided just to do a simple mosaic background. Trying to do anything more complex would make the drawing too messy looking. I sent the design to Ms. Clayton to see if there was anything she wanted to change. She was satisfied with the design so I won’t have to change anything before starting China.

Challenges I faced: Although I’m used to drawing realistic humans, I’m not used to drawing realistic buildings. In addition, there aren’t any photos of the undamaged colosseum and pantheon that I can use for reference. As a result, I had to use numerous sketches and paintings of the buildings to figure out the shading. Deciding how to draw the background was also a challenge. I wanted to add roman symbols into the background but it ended up making the background too cluttered. I ended up just doing straight lines for the background.

What I learned: My main subjects when drawing are people and flowers. I very rarely draw complex buildings even as backgrounds. Drawing the roman buildings was a challenge but it improved my skill as an artist. I had to do the shading while keeping in mind the perspective and angle of the building. For example, the colosseum is a circle shape so can’t shade the same amount for the edges of the buildings as I do for the middle of the building.

Plans for next week: I plan to spend the next two weeks drawing China.