Individual Reflections (Day 3)

The NTU flagship camp was a real eye-opener. After the Digital Painting session we had, I became more curious about what more we can do with photoshop, how can we further improve our skills? Professor Martin says that improvement in skills could only come after having more experience, so practice makes perfect!

Not only I learnt more about photoshop, I learnt how to be more independent, to rely less on my parents and my domestic helper. If being 3 days there could be so tiring without them, how would I last 1-2 years in a hostel? Living in the east, and most universities being in the west, I will most likely live in a hostel. This program has given me an insight into university life. Being with friends, doing work together, helping each other, it seems really nice.

 I enjoyed this camp a lot, as it has also given me a sneak peek into the type of courses and careers that I would want to pursue. Art is very important to me, but it may not be the things I want to do in the future. This camp has made me consider a career in graphic design, as I really enjoyed just sitting there for hours and working away, completing another (hopefully) great piece of art....

Individual Reflections (Day 2)

Today, we made a picture of ourselves as different characters. I did Two Face, Harvey Dent, from Batman. I was inspired by the his facial appearance that I wanted to draw it our. Although it was rather  crude, i felt so happy that I managed to even draw to look similar to him. It was a little unsettling to make make yourself into a disfigured half-zombie. It was also really fun, as we could use the tablet computers and photoshop to draw. It was so enjoyable that time flew super fast. I was even a tad bit disappointed when we were told to stop drawing.

Todays activities taught me to be very patient, I took 6 hours just to finish this picture. It was also a great chance for me to ask the professor about shadowing techniques and he shared his own experiences. He slowly guided us and taught us many useful techniques on Photoshop :D. It was not difficult and very simple to understand. Alot of the techniques he taught us could be used on other kind of projects, not those that could be used on a certain one only.

Although it was very tiring, I felt a great sense of accomplishment when I finally finished it. I was initially worried that I would screw up my final product, but I think it is the journey not the end that was important. After today, I felt that digital painting focuses a lot on making the drawing or picture seem realistic.When an image of an object is placed on an image of a background or something, we try to make the object look as natural as it can not being in its own picture. It relies quite heavily on shadowing techniques, to give the drawing a 3D feel. I felt that digital painting was very fun, as there was unlimitedness range of the colours, unlike physical paints. If we ever make a mistake, we can correct it easily by pressing the undo button, unlike in drawing in real life, where making a mistake could be troublesome to correct. There are also many pictures from the internet, where we can just "drag and drop". This could be a copyright concern though......

Although digital painting is good, there is something about drawing in real life that is still special, like feeling the pencil and graphite markings below your hand....and blending the shadows with your fingers..

Reflections (Day 1)

Pre-Camp

By using photoshop, I found it interesting that we can draw, and make it so realistic that we can draw costumes onto ourselves. 

First of all, I can learn how to use a tablet to draw on the computer. I have been wishing to learning to use one since i learnt that we could draw on photoshop. I also would like to learn how to blend in colors digitally, and how to make them look realistic. 

What is the difference between photoshop and traditional pen and paper?

What is a good brand for tablets?

Should we invest in getting photoshop?

Plenary Sessions

From the first (Earth Science) Plenery Session, I learnt that there are such things as “super-cycles” where the land sinks over a long period of time, then rises. By following this pattern, we can predict when would the land rise and fall, and earthquakes and tsunamis. This is important as we can plan out quick evacuation routes

From the second session, I learnt that 2D was much harder to do as they have to do it frame by frame. Although it is very labour intensive, and high in cost, I think that it is worth it, especially to me, an anime fan, as the visuals are spectacular. 

From the third session, I learnt that nano technology needs strong knowledge in the 3 fields of science, physics, chem, bio. I realize that we cant just do one subject, we must expand our horizons so that we have a wider skill set.