What's Natural Can Feel Impossible

Philosopher: Plato (appearance vs reality)

Claim: What feels natural for others, can feel impossible for someone else.

 Analog

Digital

Research

Newspaper styles in the 1800s and how they were oriented. Choosing similar style of fonts to use for headlines and body texts.

Reflection

The goal of this project was to create an illustration and then design it as a newspaper cover. The philosopher and concept that was chosen for this design was Plato and appearance vs reality. The claim that was made was one related to social anxiety which is a very personal topic for myself and I know is something that has become rather common in today’s society. It is a mental and personal struggle that can sometimes be hard for others who don’t struggle to understand. The main illustration was kept in a very simple and graphic style. It portrays the silhouettes of people talking with clean speech bubbles. Then there is one silhouette in the middle which is much smaller and looks as if they are hiding or trying not to draw attention to themselves. When they speak, their speech bubble is not clean and is instead a bunch of scribbled and messy lines. This is meant to symbolize how something that comes so easily for others like talking, can instead come out as a struggle or mess for others. Personally, as someone who has struggled with social anxiety, this was a very personal topic and subject I wanted to portray. Although I am contempt and comfortable with being quiet, talking is such a common and, in a lot of cases, a necessary form of communication. It is frustrating to see something so common come so naturally to others, while for some unknown reason, talking causes an anxious and stressful feeling for myself. A lot of people wish they did not struggle with this or at least knew the reason for these feelings happening in the first place. I think this illustration is clear and straightforward. The text boxes around it were written in a way to relate to the message. Overall the image was very simple and the text and message is simple yet straightforward.

Wolf Spirit

 Analog

Digital

Notes and Rough Drafts

 

Reflection:

The subject of this illustration that I chose was a self portrait with my spirit animal. The image portrays a portrait of me and next to me, the spirit of a wolf glowing bright as well as my eyes glowing as well and we are both surrounded by mist and smoke for more spiritual effects. The analog version is a pencil only drawing mainly focusing on line work, especially with the hair and the spiritual effects around the figure of myself. When translating the work to a digital version, I decided to go for a style that portrayed more surrealism. Something unusual, fictional, and something relating to the fantasy genre. With digital, more colors were used due to not being limited to just a pencil and there was more rendering done as well. Digital painting also assisted more with the portrayal of surrealism as it helped the spirit of the wolf have a much more supernatural appearance with it being one solid color with lower opacity for a spirit look, as well as bright and glowing effects. The idea for this illustration was because when I personally think of spirit animals, I picture an actual spirit with a person as if they were their guardian. That idea opened many ideas for a surreal image of something supernatural and fantasy based. As for the wolf, although wolves tend to stay in packs and I consider myself more independent, wolves are actually pretty independent as well except when it comes to their pack, which are the ones they are closest to and loyal to. I tend to stay close to the ones i am close to such as friends and family and look out for them the same way wolves look out for their own packs. Overall, this was a very spiritual illustration and portrayal of a concept with a fantasy twist.

ART 325 A F Illustration: Favorite 2D Artwork

 

FLAGShip Korea Journal Entries: Day 9 (05/20/2025)

 Day nine and the final day of our trip to Korea was another great day and we all made sure to enjoy it to the fullest. We started our day meeting in the lobby and we then took a bus to Haneul Park. I initially thought it was just a park but it contained many educational facts and research on eco-friendly methods for the environment including creating sources of energy and how to handle waste in more environmentally friendly ways. It was a nice park to take a walk in but also quite an educational spot. After the tour of the park, we got back on the bus and went to our farewell lunch. We all had different kinds of chicken depending on our preferences and we grilled the meat ourselves in front of us. It was definitely a very filling and satisfying lunch. After lunch, we were all let go for free time and had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted. There was a certain cafe nearby called Flippers that I still wanted to try so I went straight there after we got back. They had these fluffy pancakes with cream and fruit that I have always wanted to try. Those pancakes did not disappoint and were just as good as I thought they would be. It may be the last day of our FlagSHIP trip but I am still spending an extra week here to visit family. But as far as this FlagSHIP goes, I have enjoyed every second of being here and would definitely love to come back again in the future.

FLAGShip Korea Journal Entries: Day 8 (05/19/2025)

 Day eight felt like a pretty simple day but still had interesting and new sites for us to see. We all got up and took the subway to a place known as Hallyu K-Star Road. It was a long street that was lined up with statues of cartoon bears that had designs inspired by Kpop stars and idols. It felt very immersive in including the constantly growing global sensation that is Kpop. Once we saw all the bears, we took a bus to COEX. Right before we stepped into the COEX mall, we saw a big statue of two hands in the very popular Gangnam Style dance move. Again, it felt very cool to see something Kpop related be remembered with a captivating landmark. After we took pictures of in front of the statue, we all entered the mall and were then given free time. I spent most of it just wandering around and the mall itself felt like a giant maze. I didn't want to spend too much but spent a little on arcade games. For lunch, I had KFC which was surprisingly very busy and packed with many people. Overall, the mall had a nice atmosphere with a cool library in the middle which I have seen all over social media and I am glad that I finally got to see it in person. We then left to go back to the hotel and after resting, I went out to dinner. I had dinner at 1993 which is a restaurant that was across from our hotel. I had pizza and fried dumplings and they were very good and filling. Overall, it was a fun but also chill kind of day. 

FLAGShip Korea Journal Entries: Day 7 (05/18/2025)

 Day seven was personally to me definitely one of the most exciting days of this trip. On this day, we had to wake up earlier than we have been to talk about the day and get to the Hanbok rental shop. We all arrived at the shop and immediately started putting our bags away, getting our sizes, and picking out what hanboks we wanted to wear. I chose a dark purple skirt with a lighter top. Once we were all changed, we left the shop and headed to Changdeokgung palace and the secret gardens. The palace was beautiful with long trails and many beautiful sites. Wearing those hanboks made us all take so many pictures of not just the sceneries, but mainly ourselves. I think. that is the most pictures I have ever taken of myself. The gardens were also very beautiful and the day also had great weather to go with it. Once we spent a few hours there, we returned to the shop and returned our hanboks. Afterwards, we all left to grab lunch and I ate a place called Chimps Burger and got an order of chili cheese fries. After lunch, we headed to Bukchon Hanok Village for a tour. Due to it being a residential area, there were people and many signs telling others to be quiet. The village was beautiful and had many great sites but also felt like a pretty big hike. Overall, this is was probably one of my favorite days of this trip.

FLAGShip Korea Journal Entries: Day 6 (05/17/2025)

 Day six of this trip was full of mainly shopping. We all went to Myeongdong which had streets full of shops and places to eat as well as an underground shopping center. I first went and browse around the underground shopping center and found many nice shops and Kpop related merchandise. There were many Kpop stores which is what excited me a lot. I did not expect to buy much but there were many things that caught my eye so I decided to have a lot of fun while I was there. I purchased some Kpop merchandise as well as a few clothing items. After shopping for a bit, I had lunch at McDonalds which was nice to eat something I was familiar with, but also interesting to see how different it was in Korea. After shopping, we headed for Seoul Tower which is personally a place that I have always wanted to see if I ever came to Korea. The bus ride was a bit long and rough but it still got us there in the best way. We had to take a bit of a hike but we eventually reached the tower which was very lively and had a great view. We went up the tower which had much more in it than I expected. Not only a breath taking view, but also a few shops and a cafe to get something to eat. After the tower, I was feeling very tired and just went straight back to the hotel. Overall, this was a very fun day of shopping and site seeing at a prominent landmark in Seoul.