Sun Rays Tutorial

•Using the Ellipse tool or L for a shortcut key, create a circle, for 

this tutorial it's 270px x 270px circle.

•Click and drag across the stage while holding the Shift key

[holding the shift key when creating objects constrains the height 

and width, thus resulting to a perfect circle] then release the mouse 

button when the circle when you're done.

•lets make it's fill to transparent, and stroke to black.

•From the stroke tab, make the stroke width to 50 or more, check 

the Dashed Line, then change the value of the 1st dash value as 

long as the lines are not intersecting each other, remember that less 

dash value means narrower rays. in this tutorial i used 8pt.

•Now click Object > Expand then check Stroke to make it's points editable.

•From the Tools menu, Click then hold to the Warp tool, a sub menu will appear, from there choose Pucker, Before using this tool, double click on the pucker icon and a new window will appear. From the Pucker tool Options, set the height and width to 260px, a slightly smaller circle than our circle object which is 270px, uncheck the details options and click OK.

•If you want to interactively change the radius of the circle, press Shift + Alt then Click + Hold your mouse button, make sure that the radius of the pucker tool will only affect the inner points. Press and hold the left mouse button.

History of Art

History of Street Art (Banksy)

•On his way to becoming an international icon, the subversive and secretive street artist Banksy  turned the art world upside-down.

•Banksy is a British artist—graffiti master, painter, activist, filmmaker and all-purpose provocateur—made it on the list of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2010. He supplied a picture of himself with a paper bag (recyclable, naturally) over his head. Most of his fans don’t really want to know who he is. But they do want to follow his graffiti art—or, “bombing” some might call his work—walls in Bristol, England, during the 1990s to the artist whose work commands hundreds of thousands of dollars in the auction houses of Britain and America. Today, he has “bombed” cities from Vienna to San Francisco, Barcelona to Paris and Detroit. And he has moved from graffiti on gritty urban walls to paint on canvas, conceptual sculpture and even film, which was nominated for an Academy Award.

 •Graffiti art’s modern history came from low origins. World War II seems to be the starting point of graffiti art.
•The word graffiti actually came from the Italian word ‘graffio’, which means ‘scratch’. It is interesting to know that graffiti has been around since the dawn of human civilization, when the prehistoric man learned how to make colored powder and created images. Ancient cavemen scrawled and painted images on the cave walls. Romans wrote on the walls of the buildings of their conquered cities. Ancient cities such as Pompeii has revealed graffiti, election slogans, and even obscene drawings. Graffiti was a popular propaganda medium during the World War II, both from the Nazis and anti-Nazi groups.                                                                    

•Today, graffiti art is now a respected and new art form, a rich medium with no restrictions and plenty of freedom to work with.
•Shepard Fairey (of Obey) and Banksy are both very popular street artists. They have  very similar art styles.  They are two undeniably influential urban talents, both with careers firmly rooted in outdoor art, both active for about the same periods of time, yet the makeup of the current markets for their respective work could not be more different.
•The images below are (top) my interpretation from the Obey project (bottom) done by Shepard Fairey.

•Then I did a polynomial project of an elephant head. I used different shades of grays and shapes to create a 3D looking image. Then, I combined the sun rays and the polynomial elephant to complete my project and give it a different touch, other than Banksy's and Shepard Fairey's but still keeping the look.

Strengths Based Leadership

A couple of weeks ago we took a timed test to see what our top five leadership strengths were. My top five strengths (in order from greatest to least) were Empathy, Developer, Adaptability, Includer, and Positivity. I find it a little funny because all five of these fall under the Relationship Building category.

1. Empathy- It is where you understand where someone is coming from, but you do not feel pity for them. Instead you can feel what they feel and in a sense be a great help to them. 
2. Developer- You see potential in everyone and wish good for them and try to help them. I think a Developer also involves traits of an Includer and Positivity. 
3. Adaptibility- I can adapt to any work environment or situation, or I "go with the flow". This is a great strength to have especially for a person who doesn't particularly like change. It is a very important strength to have for a Graphic Designer in or out of school.
4. Includer- An includer is someone who likes to bring everyone together and make each person feel like they have an important role in whatever project you are working on. An includer is also very accepting and does not care about race or gender, which I believe I am. 
5. Positivity- Someone who is positive hardly ever has something bad to say or can find the good things in any bad situation. This would be important if you were having a many difficulties in a group project and just needed some good positive feedback.

For the short amount of time I attended Mrs.Knight's activity, the most valuable thing I learned was how to work with people that have the same qualities as me, and the difference there is when you work with people with different strengths. Now that my strengths have been identified, i feel more confident in group projects and I feel like I have more to bring to the table. I realized I'm more of a help then I thought and I can help encourage others.