My Mentor

1.My mentor is Ms. Martin because she relates most to the theme of my capstone. I feel as though she will help me progress, and give me new and improved ideas to enhance the development of my project.  

The Topic

2.For this project I’m going to create a fitness girls only fitness bootcamp. By doing this project I would like to learn the physical aspect of fitness. I would like to thoroughly examen the reasoning for poor eating habits in teen girls, and I would like to understand the differences in body types, and metabolism between men and women. 

 The GOAL

3. For the record, this project came to mind by my strong passion for health and fitness. I wanted to create a way to include all of my passions and beliefs by doing a single project instead of doing two or three, so I figured the only way to fit everything in was to do a Bootcamp. For my presentation I would be presenting my work through  visuals, and video clips. The bootcamp will require one to analyze and recall exercise and fitness tips  but only accommodated to girls. I will site and reflect upon research, and give evidence that would be used to back up my thoughts and opinions.    

1. The product will demonstrate that I have met my goals due to my fully accomplished work, and my thorough explanations, and materials, and progress that would be shown throughout the bootcamp. 

Bibliography:

"15 Best Fat-Burning Foods | Women's Health Magazine." Womenshealthmag.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. This website gives a quick list of foods that are entitled to 

re-shaping your body, and creating long lasting muscle tone. 

Abramason, Edward. Body Intelligence. New York: Mcgraw-Hill, 2005. Print. A book that gives dieting advice based on statistics, and psychological analysis. 

""Baseless Claims' It's Harder for Women to Lose Weight." NHS Choices. N.p., n.d. Web. This website gives a past, present, and future analysis of Women and weight loss. 

"Build Muscle to Lose Fat â   Fat vs Muscle Diagram." Build Muscle to Lose Fat â   Fat vs Muscle Diagram. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. This shows a picture of fat and muscle, and underneath the picture it explains the benefits of gaining muscle, and how it can be achieved. 

"Calorie Counter." Realistic? N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. Shows a clear picture of body fat percentage. How a woman with muscle tone can be a size 2, and so can a woman without muscle tone. (when body fat is replaced by muscle=changes appearance) 

Myers, Christi. "Weight Loss for Women: Why It's Harder, and What Scientists Are Doing to Help." Abc13. N.p., n.d. Web. Christi Myers talks of genetics, and certain hormones that women contain that slows down weight loss. 

Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. This website gives a scientific explanation on how our taste buds react to foods that are high in fat. It also gives an overview of our mental health, and how that plays such an significant role. 

"Reference Guide to Strength Training." SparkPeople. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. This website goes into a more statistical view of strength training. It explains the percentage of fat loss, in correlation to performance, how this could benefit, and the after effect. 

Savard, Marie. Apples & Pears. New York: Atria, 2005. Print. Explains the unique body shapes in women, and how they are formed. This book supposedly gives a woman a whole new relationship with her body, and how she can re-create herself, to better herself. 

Silverman, Robyn J.A. Good Girls Don't Get Fat. N.p.: Harlequin, 2010. Print. States the issues of girls and weight obsessions. This book focuses on psychological aspects of the issue, and how it leads to self-esteem problems. 

"Strength Training: Key to Building Muscle & Losing Fat | StrongLifts StrongLifts." StrongLifts RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. This website is about strength training; building muscle, and increasing fitness. No other way to describe it. 

"Strength Training." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 Dec. 2013. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. Goes through the History of strength training, and its principles. Explains periodization and how it benefits long term and short term. 

"Weight Loss." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 Dec. 2013. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. Wikipedia gives a detailed overview of what weight loss is, and how it can be achieved. It also goes into the industry of weight loss and how businesses make their money through overweight customers. 

"What Burns More Calories: Cardio, Intervals, or Weight Training? | Nerd Fitness." Nerd Fitness. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. What burns the most calories in the least amount of time; cardio, intervals, or strength training? This is the essential question for this article. Along with answering the question the author goes into the science of dieting, and fat loss. 

"Why Is It Harder for Women to Lose Weight?" LIVESTRONG.COM. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. This website goes more into statistics of why its harder for women to lose weight. It thoroughly explains percentages, used from real analysis.

I did my 10% project on thermal energy, which is just another term for heat. My project thoroughly explains the meaning of the word “heat,” and shows examples of how it is present in our everyday lives.

My point of divergence is about the killing of George Washington during the battle of Princeton, and the thought of us  losing the revolution, and the reminiscing on how that would have conflicted with the future of us as a country.

The future that I envisioned, was that most of the land in the Midwest would most likely be all Britain’s including the thirteen colonies, and Mexico would have taken over Texas because there was no Mexican American war, and the Midwest would have been shared between England, Mexico, and Great Britain, which is located in the UK.  I also said that because of Great Britain’s harsh laws on freedom of speech  when it came to the civil rights movement the rulers of Britain will terminate the proceedings. I also mentioned the Native Americans and how they will just become a part of Britain’s society.

         Overall, I thought this project was a very good learning experience, but overall I think the most difficult part was creating your own history and your own future of something you made up in your mind because there were so many events that occurred in history that could have been an extent to what could have happened but finding them deep within the context was very difficult.

Link to project: click here

April 9-13

Abstraction Emotion - any size (not smaller then 8-11”)

Choose an emotion and create a painting/drawing/collage/photograph

         Abstract emotion is when you are making an art piece out of colors that are reflected on your mood. In my painting I used a lot of darks, and some really bright colors. I chose to do it that way because I just felt that having it look all dark would make me feel a little down, so to make myself happy I added some bright colors.

         Throughout this project I did have some mishabs but I learned to teach myself how to reinvent, and make it into something more natural. So at first I was planning on doing all white and black and so I got a big brush, and I got some water, but as I dipped my brush in the water then into the paint then onto my paper the color appeared gray, and watery. At that point I told myself what I had planned wasn’t going to work. So instead I just continued to undercoat everything in a damp gray. Then I started taking my colors, and this time I didn’t use water I dried my brush and started dabbing, and I continued doing that with every color, so that everything will begin to clash together.

         Overall I did enjoy this project even though the process was a little hectic, but at the end I realized I honestly did really liked my painting.

April 16-20

Abstraction Motion - any size (not smaller then 8-11”)

Choose an motion and create a painting/drawing/collage/photograph

         Abstract motion is when one looks at a drawing, and by looking at it, it sort of looks like a movement, or it can look as if its actually moving. In this project I looked up on the internet and found an orange picture that looked as if it was moving because of the different shades of orange, and I took the photo and I attempted to do the same thing.

         I knew that this project was going to be different than the last because we were dealing with different types of shading, and different textures of lights and darks. When first beginning the project I had to think to myself if I should add water or not because I figured if I add water I didn’t want it to start dripping and such like it did last time, or I said to myself just paint the paper dry, but I figured if I did that it wouldn’t of had that motion effect. So I decided that I was going to paint it dry first with a whole bunch of shades of orange, and then on top of the painting I will coat it with water, so that it would smear and look sort of like a moving light.

         As a result I liked this project. It honestly wasn’t one of my favorites, but it was enjoyable. I personally thought I did ok on this project it didn’t necessarily look the way I wanted it to but I believe it was worth the challenge. 

 April 23-27

Abstract 

Your choice of medium and size

For my medium size Abstract I did a type of design resulting in circles, and spirals. The colors I used for this project were all shades of green. I chose green because I just thought it was a really nice color, that I wanted to experiment with.

         I decided to get green paint and on the side I had a little bit of white. I put a little bit of green on my brush because I didn’t want the green to be too dark, then I began making swirls with my brush. I eventually began using the white so that it would have a lighter tone. I then used a little blue and I embedded it inside the green swirls, so that it would kind of have a nice green and blue mix. I then added some white outlines, and added some blues.

         I really enjoyed this project because I felt as though I was free to do whatever I want, and I thought I did fairly well on this project. At the end I was very happy with what I accomplished.  

April/May 30-4

Observation Drawing - Close up drawing

            I started my project with the mother because I figured if I get the posistion and just of the big figure it would be easier to put together the whole picture with all the little details. I first sketched the drawing as good as I can, and then I outlined it with a sarker shade. Once I did the mother I began to do the ears. For some reason the ears were the most difficult part. I think it was because in the picture it was so complex with the design I just gave up on perfection and made it look as good as I can. I then worked on the eye. I made sure it had the perfect distance between the head and the eye. I then began to work on bambi. The only hardship I had with drawing bambi was when I had to make him look like as if he was laying down. I believe making his body positioned on the ground as if he was sort laying against his mother was difficult.

            Overall I was very happy with my work. I thought I did as best as I could, and I think my hard work paid off, and I was very happy how my picture turned out.  

 Observation  drawing: Landscape

For my landscape drawing I decided to draw a park that I found off the internet. In this project, I only used pencil. I used pencil because I thought it would seem more natural if it came from an actual sketch, and then proceed with shading.

            I started with the bottom half of the picture because I figured if I get the shape of the pathway and the bushes it would create the general shape for the whole picture. So then I positioned the pathway as if it were going into a city type thing, as you can see in the picture I made everything narrow so it looks like an actual parkway, because if you were to look at a parkway it would start of big and then everything would sort of cave in. After I finished the bottom half of my paper I began adding things such as bushes and trees and city buildings.

             As a result I’m not necessarily proud of how it turned out but I think it’s a pretty ok picture. I thought this project was more difficult their others because drawing a landscape requires a lot of analyzing, and figuring out when and where to shade. Overall I’m content with the outcome of my project.   

Mini self-portrait:

For this quarter we were assigned to do a mini self-portrait. Meaning we all had to take one picture of ourselves and draw our bodies, and faces with detail onto paper. This taught me a lot about positioning a picture onto a piece of paper, and analyzing and drawing shapes and face structures and applying it on to another artist based object.

At first, when I began to draw I sort of sketched out a few things with my eraser just to get myself started. I figured that by doing this it would make the rest of the process of drawing the picture a lot easier, also this way, I was able to position the picture in the right form on the paper. Then after I finished doing that, I took my pencil and began tracing over the lines in which the eraser already made. After I finished doing this I already began to see the outlining shape of my face. So then I started to draw my hair. Drawing the hair was a little difficult for me because I wanted my hair to actually look natural, I didn’t want my hair to look Juvenile. So I began drawing my hairline, and my cheekbones, and the rest of my face. I then drew my neck and a little bit of my arm. After that I began to draw my eyes. My eyes were surprisingly easy. I colored my eye in very dark with pencil, and then left one part of it white, because in the picture my eyeball was placed in that very spot, so I wanted to make that part become more noticed. Then after that I began to draw my other eye, and my forehead wrinkles, my lips, and my nose. Drawing my nose I have to say was probably the hardest part of that whole portrait. I think it was because my face was sort of tilted, and so I guess drawing my nose was a little bit of a challenge for me.

Overall doing this project was a little difficult but not too much, I had some struggle, but I believe by doing this project I have learned some techniques and skills that will help me in the future.

LARGE self-portrait:

For this assignment we had to make the same picture, except it had to be in larger contents. Everything in the picture had to be positioned and coordinated with the last picture that we drew. In this assignment we were given the choice of pencil or charcoal. I chose to do both because I pretty much did the whole thing in pencil but I wanted to make some things darker and lighter, so it was pretty cool to add that effect.

When I began this project, I first put my picture into Photoshop and put it on 24X36 and by doing this the picture in Photoshop was the same size as my canvas. So by doing that it really helped with the positioning of the project. I began the portrait by doing my hair first, and drawing the shape, and outline of that. I then began to draw the structure of my face, after I did that I drew a line vertically, and horizontally. I did this because it is way I can position the eyes, mouth, eyebrows etc.  I then began my eyes, and my eyebrows. After that I focused a lot on my hair. The shape of my hair I believe was good, but making hair look like hair was a little difficult, but I believe I succeeded. I then began to draw my lips, and a little part of my arm, and my neck, and then when it was finally finished I stepped back and looked at my drawing and I was pleased.

In conclusion, this project taught me a lot of techniques I could use when doing large projects. Some parts of this, I was a little unsure, but overall I believe I did a good job on this project.

Shade (4)  

         For this assignment we had to pencil shade four figures; one was a shading where it was dark on the top and then as you get towards the bottom of the paper the tone got lighter, another was when the shade began from the sides of the paper. It started off dark and got light as it hit towards the center, the third picture that I made was a shading that was made into two triangles and from each corner the shade was dark then as I traveled down the shading went into a lighter tone. The last one I did was a shading of a rectangle with a circle embedded inside. I shaded the rectangle first, and then the circle.

            When I started this project the first thing I did was create a boundary or a border for all my pictures just to give myself an idea of where to begin shading. I then took my pencil and I would start off dark and make my way down to lighter tones. I did this because I figured it would be easier to go from dark to light, than from light to dark. I think the hardest part about this project was I think figuring out which shade should come next to meet the last tone which is white, so I guess figuring out a tone leading into white I think was a little complicated.

            Overall this project taught me a lot about tones, and the different shades in which a pencil is able to produce. I believe I did a fairly well job on this project.

Texture (3)

         For this assignment we were conducted to make 3 drawings. Drawing #1 was to create scales, so I decided that I was going to do a snake, another drawing we had to do was make water, I made an ocean with a reflecting sun, and last, we had to make realistic hair.

            The first project I did was the snake. The snake wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be, because as I watched the tutorial on how to make the snake scales it turned out to be a quite an easy process. in order to make snake scales, and make them  neat, and blend in together, I was initiated to draw evenly spaced lines down the snakes spine, and in between those lines I created a type of oval shape, which created snake scales. The other project I did was the sun reflecting onto the water. To do this I first created a horizon. Then I began lightly shading the ocean with my pencil leaving a little space of white to show the reflection of the sun. The last one that I did was the hair. The hair was fairly difficult for me I think because how to make realistic hair you have to really study your dark and light shadings, because when your making starands of hair there are some parts that are dark and light which makes hair look natural on paper. To make the hair I used my pencil and I lightly did the outline of some ones hair on google and I then began to do the dark areas first and then I began the light areas, and then later into the project I began connecting the front of the hair to the back.

            I believe this project was a huge challenge for me, but I’m happy with my pictures. I think overall I did a job well done.

Point Perspective   

         For point perspective we were all given an assignment in which we had to look out the art room window and draw simultaneously the buildings and objects that we saw.

            I began this project by first drawing two lines that cross each other and with those lines I was able to make the picture that I observed outside the window, making it look realistic. In the picture I drew every object in which a human eye could catch. I drew buildings, the street lights the horizon, the other little buildings in the background etc. I have to say the hardest part about this project was positioning the scene onto paper.

            Overall I think I did a fantastic job drawing this scenery, this was also a little of challenge but I was able to push through, and get it to look alive, and realistic, as if your standing 22^nd street.

What went well?

I think what went well was the group contribution towards the project. I also liked how our group were doing things on time checking in with each other. I think overall our communication was very good, and when doing a group a project I believe that’s very important.

I think what didn’t go well was the fact that we had so many websites that it was hard to figure out what information should be included in what. It was very hard to narrow it down.

What would you do differently next time?

            If I could do one thing differently I guess I would’ve organized the websites better, and learned how to professionally do an info graphic to make it more decorative.

 Be Concise: I think our project was concise

 Be Visual: Our visual I believe was good, it included the information that it needed and the requirements that were needed.

 Be Smarter: I think we could’ve added more information or could’ve been more detailed and specific in certain areas.

 Be Transparent: It was obvious that our project had a good overview of information that we found.

 Be Different: Our project wasn’t necessarily different or unique but it was nice, neat, and straight the point.

 Be Accurate: We used Sources that were reliable, sufficient, and to the point. We mainly based our sources on articles.

Be Attractive: Our info graphic included pictures that related to our description.

 Be Varied: We used a variety of pictures.

 Be Gracious: having graciousness throughout this project wasn’t presented as much as we could’ve.

 Be Creative: The info graphic could’ve been a little more creative. I believe we could’ve added more wording, more color throughout the project.

 Which of these areas did you excel in?

I believe we excelled in making our project concise, and making it with a variety of pictures.

 Which were not so well represented?

         I think our creativity wasn’t shown in this particular project, but overall our project I believe is well developed and straight to the point.

 Why do you think some elements of design were easier or harder to include in the end product?

         I think some elements of design were harder to include in the end product because we weren’t necessarily use to working with info-graphics, so creating something different I guess was a little more challenging.

5 photos:

I chose these 5 photos because I thought they were the best out of all of the 200 photos. I thought my lighting was good, my angle was good, I thought where I took the picture made it more admirable.

Clear object:

  This was the same assignment as last quarter accept this clear object had to be bigger than the last. For this clear object I chose to do a clear vase because I wanted to mix it up a bit to see what I was cable of doing.

I thought the vase was harder than the regular glass because making the actual vase shape was difficult, because a vase shape is awkward. The outline is straight but yet there’s that little curve that I always got wrong. Also the vase had two circles at the bottom of it so I tried to separate one circle from the other so it didn’t look like 2 random circles in a vase. To make the picture come alive I also tried to add white in the picture so it would look like the sun is reflecting on the object, and would make it look like actual glass.

From my current work I believe the last clear object was easier, because I didn’t have to outline the exotic shape of a vase. But overall I am still proud of my work.

Edit Photos:

I chose to edit these photos because I thought out of all of my photos these were the ones that needed work. The pictures that I took were wonderful, but some of them were to dark to even see that it was a photo so I decided to put them into photo booth and see what I could do.

 As I edited the photos I realized there were a lot you could work with, but I pretty much just focused on making the photos look like actual pictures. And on some I just changed the format of the photo, which I realized was enough to make it look like the way I wanted it to.

From my current experience of working with photo shop, I believe I was ok with it, but now I realized that you can do a lot more on photo shop than just changing the size of the photo. The hardest part about this assignment was figuring out how I should make the photo, because there were so many things I could do with the picture.

The ocean:

I chose to draw the ocean because I like the way the blues would go from lights to darks and darks to lights. It looked like a fun challenge that I was really excited to do.

 Throughout this project I used pastels, because I figured that it would be easier to blend the colors and create nice fades. But as you can see for the top layer of the ocean I chose to do a dark blue that would separate the surface of the water from the bottom of the ocean. To separate both of the blues I added white to the top layer to make it look like the reflection from the sun, and the bottom I just did a plane, simple light blue, which I blended with a little bit of green. As I was going along doing this project instead of just doing a stroke and rubbing all the colors together, I pretty much treated the pastel as a marker and began filling in any white spots as much as I could. And for the bottom of the paper and for the white I used a technique called cross checks I believe its called which would make the picture look a little uneven so it would look more realistic.

         From my current work I believe my progress has grown. I believe I have learned a lot more about fading objects, and blending colors together. The most challenging part about this project was making the ocean look real. I really wanted the ocean to pop out of the picture, which was a very difficult thing to do.

 Nightfall. The night was dark and timid, like one that is illustrated in the children’s books, when the witch glides across the aphotic sky. It was silent, not a sound was made. It was 4am. I had just came from the scorch ring demons that live below. I am defined as a 12 year old boy; living in Syracuse, New York, with a wealthy mother of two, and a dad who has more affairs than Bill Clinton, but little do they know. I am not what I perceive to be. I full not only the world, but also myself, into pretending to be something far beyond my reach. I lie my way into the human race, I walk amongst them, I praise their flag, I go to school, I eat and breathe in their presence, but is that enough?

They’re not like us. The greatest aspect about the mortal world is that they contain a wondrous gift called, feelings. We don’t feel, emotions are only a state of mind. Where I’m from, feelings are forbidden. The boss of our colony believes feelings are a way of human nature. To eliminate one from feelings, at five years, we remove the hearts from every child. It’s a horrible dark thing to encounter. You can hear the scream and anguish from the child to the highest peak of the venomous forest. The dark clouds hover the world as the scream gets louder, they enjoy the sound of pain and agony, it’s the blood which keeps them alive. I felt the pain of the little girl.  I felt the knife as it drove through her hepatic vein, and the pulmonary artery. I felt the cry, I felt the intrigued sadness, I felt the anger, and the hatred.

Myself. Being me, is not something I want. I’m a monster. I’m the one your parents say to watch out for, I’m the one your friends say never to go out with. I’m the one that can fool the world. I’m the one that can make you drown in your own blood. I’m the one you should never trust. I’m the one you shall never love.

The Moon. After the human form of me caressed my body, I sent out for my bed. The only place where safety is a promise. I crept through the window of my cluttered room. My mortal parents are asleep. I hear their dreams, their thoughts, and their fears relating to their long run down days at the office. I hear my brother, crying, and sweating with terror. I cant read his dreams, his mind is controlled by someone much more powerful than I. Oh, how scared the poor fella must be. The dream is dangerous, its a poison, its a defining characterized image of the world I am embarrassed to say I’m apart of. I decide to leave Tim at his dream if any disturbance, could kill him instantly. So I slipped on my pajamas, and stared at the moon, the moon stared back. Its lucent light gleamed where my heart should be, but wasn’t. The light didn’t hurt. It was soft, and elegant, it touches my body with such grace, and respect. If only nights like this could last forever, no pain, no sorrow, no suffering, only the light, and the noise of nightfall.

It’s Saturday. Tim was already awake. I heard him downstairs talking about the new Forge game coming out today. I also heard the words “no,” and “you already have 36 games you don’t even play with,” and my parents characterizing Tim as “Spoiled.” I began to block out the conversation, and focused on getting dressed. Even though its been two years I’ve been part of this earth world. I am still not used to the need of a “shower.” A shower is defined as water particles falling down from a faucet like object which hovers over a something called a “bath tub,” and while your in the shower, you use a substance known as soap, which is stuff that supposedly makes you smell good.

I dried myself. The feeling of dryness releases the tension on my false coating. As I dressed my body with jeans and a T-shirt I sat there on the edge of my bed, staring at my frame. I can’t help but stare. It’s amazing how I can look like this; so beautiful so innocent, so human, while underneath I look like a sloppy joe.

The Mirror. Mirrors aren’t true, their lies through a 2 inch piece of glass. Mirrors are expected to define our existence, by glancing at the reflection of a person that should be but isn’t. They fool us. We’re not what they want us to be; we’re the exact opposite. I’m not what the mirror sees, I’m much worse.

My home. I live nowhere. The world contains nothing. It’s crowded with emptiness, but filled with the sadness of corrupted souls. The world of Sheferous has no life, no meaning, and no defiance. It’s made of arousing fires, causing the atmospheres to look sluggy and gray, killing everything in its path. Volcanoes erupt, oozing out the deathly substances of lava. The living, do not live hear. The kind and generous do not live here. The love and the caring do not live here. I live here.      

The outer layer of ourselves. We are feared by many, due to our misleading appearance. We are naked, clothes are forbidden. Our ears are angled upright, our fingers are clawed, our skin is pink and wrinkled, like a shaved chi Wawa. I am sent to earth as a spy, my world wants to destroy and conquer. I pretend to be an orphan, in which my parents adopted 10 months ago. I have been going back and forth from Sheferous to earth, feeding my colony the updates, and information about the world that will soon be theirs.

Who am I? Hello my name is Gretty, I am a boy who is 4,000 years old, and I was sent to earth to stalk the lives of billions of people. As a disguise, I wear a body suit, which slowly and painfully transforms me into a human. Who would’ve guessed it?

The Good Life. I walk in unison with my family. Holding hands, side by side, buying ice cream, biking along the river, fishing with my dad, my mother congratulating me on my excellence. Tim and I jumping, rolling, skating, screaming, doodling, watching, laughing, enjoying, going, and never stopping.  This is my world. I live here.

Fading into darkness. As night casted over, I slipped out of bed, getting ready to go to the world that initially runs through my blood. I went out into the night; blackness was showing its true colors. I stood in the middle of the street; I closed my eyes and imagined the fire, the smoke, and the lifeless zone. I opened my eyes when I heard, deaths scream. I was here, but god knows I didn’t want to be. After living hear for so long, this world still gives me the creeps. I shivered and shaked in terror as Henderous (leader of the colony) called my name.  His voice was in full command. You could hear death parting from his lips.

“GRETTY!” Henderous thundered.

“Yes, Sir,” I said, as the words trembled through my mouth.

“GIVE ME THE REPORT OF THE HUMANS!”

I told him about how they have a something called “The holidays” coming up in a month, and within the series of events called the holidays there would be a huge ceremony called “New Years.” I explained to him that new years is a holiday in which earth celebrates a new decade. He then decided, he would strike them on that very date, January 1st. As he spoke of the torturous language of death, I felt my body drop to the floor. I felt my mind spin from one direction, to the other. I felt my knees weaken. I felt my teeth chatter. I felt the thought of, a land so precious, and so well respected, crumble down, and transforming into a world where staying alive is never a promise.

New Years. Chaos erupted. People; Burning, running, gliding, yelling, crying, saving, praying, hoping for an end of the pain, and the sorrows. Buildings; crashing, slamming, jamming, creating a fog of dust. Fire; flaming, boiling, dancing to the sound of ending lives. Henderous; roaring, towering, defeating, smashing, creating a world where death is a sport, not an action. The creatures far and below; biting, fighting, killing kids, mothers, sons, cousins, grandparents, pets, anything living. ME; watching, despairing, hurting, standing, nowhere, nothing, empty, souless, mindless, heartless, this was the end.

As we sat down as a group, our conversation focused on changes we would like to see concerning voting. We all agreed that we would like to see the voting age be lowered to at least age 16, making it possible for teens to vote.  We believe that if 16 and 17 year olds vote a wider majority of issues involving young people will be addressed.

  The main goal of our project is to convince the public that more teens should be allowed to vote. In order for an individual to create and sustain change is to have a voice in the change process. Voting is the only way to make a difference all the times.

  After  completing this project my understanding of the electoral process has improved dramatically. I now understand how much decision making, and preparation  that goes in to election day and voting. Learning all the information that I have about voting, I still believe America is a democracy, because everyone has the opportunity to take part in the decision making process, but the problem is the government adding new voting requirements.   

 In this unit I learned that there are so many different reasons why people come out and vote. The overall reason was to effect change in their community. I also learned that the process in which will allow people to vote can effect voter turnout.  Having Tuesday as a voting day , opening the polls at 7:00am and closing at 8:00pm limits the amount of people that can vote. Some people work all day and cannot find time to vote.

 To create a message to reach out to a national audience, we thought it would be best to create a video, and print ads, to show what we are trying to persuade people to do. In the video and print ads we thought to use slogans, and pictures, and the thoughts, and opinions, from real teenagers to make our ideas and points come alive.   

1.     What motivated you to come out and vote?

My daughter. Just setting out a good example, for her, and her generation. I also came out because it seems as if its my right as a U.S. citizen to do so.

2.     what would you like to see changed in our political system?

I would like to see them find a valuable candidate to run against Mayor Nutter. I want to have choices of people that would be willing to run this city in a demanding, organized, sufficient way. I want someone to take control and recognize the poor, struggling areas of Philadelphia.

3.     Do you vote in every Election?

Yes I do, even though sometimes I’m not sure who I’m voting for.

4.     What changes do you hope to see in Philadelphia as a result of this election?

As a result of this election I hope that more funding comes into Philadelphia, to create systems that would help create more jobs. After this election, I hope to see new businesses created, that would also help promote new jobs.

5.     Are you always sure of who you are going to be voting for when you walk into the booth or are you still deliberating?

If it’s a major election, I know exactly who I’m voting for, but for general elections I am sometimes undecided. Mostly, because I am unfamiliar with the people running, such as councilman.

Lady #2:

1.     What motivated you to come out and vote?

I just wanted to make sure my voice was heard, because one vote can change everything. Every vote counts.

2.     what would you like to see changed in our political system?

I want to see actual people of the United States to have a say, in political decisions. Also, I want to see people having a true representation of politics in political parties.

3.      What changes do you hope to see in Philadelphia as a result of this election?

Well as of now, economy is a huge issue, especially in Philadelphia. In this city there are so many people that are unemployed, which is a problem. So what I want to see happen is for Philadelphia to get more jobs for people.

4.     Where have you encountered the highest amount of ad campaigning? Radio, T.V. print, internet other.

Television, definitely television. T.V. is one of the main assets to persuading a person to vote, due to campaigning commercials, and ads. They are always visible on the screen.

5.     Do you vote every election?

I try to, but sometimes small elections I don’t take much importance to, but big elections, I am always there, guaranteed.

Lady #3

1.     What motivated you to come out and vote?

I vote because it is my right, and a privilege to do so, as an African American woman of the U.S. Back in the 60’s people have sacrificed so much so that we can vote, and I refuse to let all that hard work go to waste. By voting I feel like I am paying back my respects to the people back in the day, that couldn’t.

2.     What would you like to see changed in our political system?

Well, in the begging, before elections even start, I hate the fact that candidates think it would give them more power to explicitly say negative comments about the people running against them. I think that’s fake, and rude. So I think what should change is the way candidates persuade people to vote for them.

3.     Do you vote every election?

Yes I do. I do it because 1. I work here. And two I think that every person should be involved in political affairs. We are the people, and it’s the only opportunity we’ve got to say what we want, how we want things to run, its all up to us, for once we have the power.

4.     Where have you encountered the highest amount of ad campaigning? Radio, T.V. print, internet other.

T.V., CNN, the news.

5.     Are you always sure of who you are going to be voting for when you walk into the booth or are you still deliberating?

Most of the time I am, and if I’m not, once I get to the booth I have a pretty good idea of who I’m rutting for

1.     What motivated you to come out and vote?

I feel like its my duty to do so, and my privilege because back when I was a kid, African Americans weren’t given the equal rights to vote, and so to honor my ancestors, and my history, I vote. 

2.     What would you like to see changed in our political system?

I would like an end to the mud slinging. Which is when candidates say bad, hurtful things to one another, in order to get elected. I just think that brings a whole bunch ciaos for nothing.

3.     Do you vote every election?

Yes I do, I never miss an election.

4.     What was the most memorable campaign ad that you have encountered?

I thought the most memorable campaign ad was during the presidential election of Obama. Seeing an African American on a screen, running as a candidate to be president I thought was a miracle. Personally, I didn’t even know African Americans were even allowed to run for president to tell you the truth. I just never thought it could happen.

5.     What impact do you feel your vote will have on the election? Did you learn about voting in school? If yes. Did that impact your willingness to vote today.

I vote mostly because of self-motivation, but I also vote to make a change for future generations to come. I vote because it is the only way my voice can be heard, and its only through a push of a button. No I did not learn how to vote when I was in school. 

When starting this project I first watched Emma, to give myself some sort of starting position because there was so many places where I could’ve started, that all of a sudden I became lost. So, I first started with the head, and started to make my way down, and from there I started drawing the feet, the hands, the butt, and the legs. After the shape of the body was on paper, I started making the details, which was the structure of the face, neckline, the lips, the eyes, and the curving of the bust area. Then came the colors. I chose purple because I thought it would go well with the orange and I also just think that purple is a pretty color, which is why I merged light purple and dark purple onto the picture. I also chose the color blue, because I think blue is a fun color, and it is usually incorporated in all of my pictures. Doing this project I learned that when drawing a body, lightly draw the general shape first, and then start making curves, and edges, and neat patterns that would make the picture seem more real.

This assignment made me grow more as an artist, because before this project when drawing body’s I just drew what I saw, which would make my pictures look un-neat and juvenile, but I have learned to analyze whom drawing, and from which angle I am drawing from, then to go into the shape, the curves, and the edges etc. This technique will definitely help me in the future. 

We were assigned this project to learn how to draw glass objects, from the perspective of a human eye. This gave us an understanding of how what makes glass, glass. The shaping of the lines, the reflection, where the light catches the different areas on the glass, and where to draw the shadows to make the glass come to life. The most difficult part of this assignment was to figure out how to make glass, look like glass, on paper. Different areas of the glass had different shadings, and it was hard to determine where to put that on the drawing. Besides that, when my work was going well, I feel as though I accomplished way more than I would’ve thought, and I feel proud of the time and effort I put into it. My favorite part about my work is the shading. I did good on combining light and dark shadings and merging them onto the picture. 

At first when I began the drawing, I drew crosses to make the circles. I did this because Emma told us that it would make our circles much neater than they usually are. Then after I drew the circles I started to draw the general shape of the glass. Doing these steps in this order made it easier to get an understanding of how the glass should be shaped in all areas. Then I began to shade. When I began to shade I started to do it really light and then I used the eraser to make the clearness of the glass, but as I was doing that I realized that not all of the glass is light. There are some dark, light, and white places, hitting the glass in all different areas. After realizing that, I erased the light shadings, and I turned my light shading into a dark shading, and when I found a place in the picture where there was some lightness included I took the eraser, and started canceling out the dark areas. Doing this project I figured that when having a light shading, then having to draw a dark one, seems more difficult to me. I prefer drawing a dark shading first, then start adding the lightness. 

Doing this project I believe I have grown into a better artist, because I’ve learned a lot of new techniques that would help me improve my drawings in the future. Before this project, it would take me 5 minutes to draw a perfect circle. Now it takes me no more than 5 seconds. Doing this project I also got a lot better at shading and analyzing objects, which would be a technique that would be most useful to me, in this art class.