An Update On Things!

Since school has started I have not been crocheting at all. I have been either too tired on the max, or working on homework. Since I am taking 16 credits and working, when I get time to sit and relax, that is all I do. I really need t get motivated to work on project, because there's so many things I want to make. And then there's some things I NEED to make for Christmas presents. :D which by the way is creeping up too fast on us. School has been super crazy, and I haven't had a lot of time to do anything but school. I really lucked out on the teachers that I got this term. From seeing what other friends have been doing in their classes, I think the work load would have been so overwhelming if I had their teachers. I thank God that he made it happen this way.

ALSO.....
I looked at what I need and want to take next term, winter 2013!!! And it comes up to 16 credits and going to reduce my hours of work, so that I can have more time to do homework. Next term, I am hoping to get into Color Photography! I think that would be so great! So be praying that I get it. I got the last spot in B&W film photography, and that was a close one!


 *NEWS*
If you haven't already seen, I started my own business. I have been working on getting another blog page up for that. I will hopefully have that up soon, and have all my information there and available. This is very exciting for me, and would love as much support as I can get. I would greatly appreciate it!

B&W Photography - Tabletop/ Point of View Project

In my black and white photography class, we were given the assignment to photograph things as they are, but to move around them, taking shots from different angles. I do not have the photos back, so I will update this one when I do :)

Narrative - GIF Project

In my Narrative and Communication Design class we were assigned to create a GIF, about how to do something. The assignment was : "What can you teach someone in 15 frames? We'll be exploring basic motion principles through simple animation where you will teach all of us how to do something. Besides learning about motion we'll hopefully be learning new skills and more about each other." So I decided to do one on how to make a lyric plate. I make these plates with bible verses and lyrics on them. I thought it would be a good easy tutorial. These are the photos I used to create my GIF:

And here is my final GIF :)

Typography - Alphabet

In my Typography class we have been designing a typeface. :) Honestly it kind of sucks.... but its kind of fun? Maybe...

Assignment

With the aid of FontStruct, design a modular typeface inspired by a historical model. Scan
through old type specimens and closely examine them. FontStruct comes with the limitation that it can only build the letterforms with modular blocks. It is not expected, or desired, that your final typeface be an exact replica. They should feature traits of your source material, like weight, contrast, proportions and emotion.
You may choose any genre you like, from the early humanist serifs, to wild west wood type, to geometric sans serifs. The result can be a hybrid of styles, but be careful not to make a frankenstein. Always remember that type is meant to be read. Complex designs bring more opportunities for distraction. Try to pull from older sources, rather than only contemporary designers.

Process Outline

• Moodboards (2 options)

Fill at least one 8.5" × 11" page with images of inspirational typeface specimens (at least 5).
Also list five keywords that describe the direction (e.g. chunky, airy, soft, hyper, quiet...).

• Sketches (3 options)

Study your inspiration, and sketch, sketch, sketch the possibilities! Bring all variations, but
present your three strongest ideas. Each should be on a separate 8.5" × 11" page, showing your
base glyphs(nobae), as well as one whole word. Pen or pencil only.

• Rough Alphabet

Black and white printouts of all glyphs. The x-height should be between 6-15 units high.

• Final Speciman 

Present your work on a poster. All glyphs must appear somewhere on the poster. Look back to
the specimens for examples and inspiration.




Here are my 2 Moodboards:

Here are my 3 sketches of my directions I could have gone off of:

 My printout of my rough alphabet:

Here's also the letter I had the most trouble with:

And lastly my process of my final layout of the alphabet and examples of words and sentences:

B&W Photography - Prints

This week on Tuesday (the 9th) we made an actual print of our negatives. It was exciting! I chose to do a print of a negative of a little girl I babysit. The process is essentially the same as making the RC Contact  sheets, except the parts with the enlarger. For this process you will need an easel (holds the paper) and wont need the plexiglass/glass.

1. First you need to pick the picture you want to print. Then take that negative and line it up in the negative holder emulsion side down (idk what the official name is) in the head of the enlarger, use Dust Off and spray it with the air, to get dust off. And place it back in the enlarger, and secure it (lifts up and down with turning a knob or lever)

2. Turn the white light off , and after the negative is all set, you put the easel with just a plain white piece of paper in it under the enlarger. This way you can fit the image to the paper, by lifting the head up and down. Then focusing it by look, then using a looking magnifying glass thing (idk what it is) you look through it and make sure the texture you see is like sand paper. (details)

 3. Have the timer set at 3 seconds. Then get your paper out, and place it in the easel. The shiny side of the RC  Paper is the emulsion side, this should be up.

4. Again, we do a test sheet to find the exposure time that is best (this can be on strips or little squares to conserve paper). The lens is at a 5.6 or 8 fstop to start with. And start with a 2-3.5 contrast filter. The filter ranges from 00-5. 00 being the least contrast in black and white, and 5 being the most. To do the test sheet we cover all but one strip of the paper, expose it for 3 seconds and move to the next. This will give us a sheet to compare exposures with.

5. Just like for the RC Contact sheets, we have to develop the RC Paper. In the dark room there is a large (long) sink that holds 4 tubs. The first one is Developer (that is already mixed for us), the second is Acid Stop Bath, the third is the Fix, and fourth is the wash (running cool water). These all have about a half inch of each liquid.

6. For the RC paper you place the exposed sheet in the Developer tub, and agitate for  2 minutes. We do this by lifting the corners so the developer flows over the sheet constantly.

7. When the 2 minutes are up, you take wood tongs with rubber ends and lift the sheet out and let it drip. and place it in the Acid Stop Bath for 30 seconds.

8. Again, lift the sheet out with a separate pair of tongs, let it drip and place it in the Fix tub for 3 minutes, and agitate. At this point, if you were alone you could turn on a white light and look at it, but since we do this with lots of people we have to go out of the room to see which exposure is right.

9. After the 3 minutes, lift with yet another pair of tongs and place in the wash for 15 minutes. When it's done being washed (with test ones we just rinse them for 30 seconds) you can go out into white light and pick the exposure that is best.

10. When you have picked which exposure is right. ( increments of 5 seconds, 5, 10, 15....) You may have to change the exposure/ fstop/ filter, but after doing a couple test sheets you should be able to pick one. Then you make a final one with the exposure you picked, following the same steps again :)

This is my first final print I made :) It does have some glare from the lights in the hall, and it was still wet. :P

First test sheet ^

Ended up too dark

Another test sheet

And yet another :P

B&W Photography - RC Contact Sheets

SO, in the last post about my photography class, I went over the process of developing the film. Now, we move on and do more things with it. But before that, I had to make contact sheets of the film, which we did that Thursday (the 4th) . This entails cutting it into 5 frame long strips and putting it in a sleeve made for just that.
Once we did that we were all set to make RC Contact Sheets. For that we use Ilford RC pearl paper. It is light sensitive, you can't expose it to any white light unless you're making a pring, only red or amber. In the darkroom at PSU we have an amber safe-light in the main area, and 2 red lights in the smaller rooms for developing film.
When using the enlarger to make RC Contact Sheets, all you have to do is adjust the height, and fine focus. You only need the white light to make the negatives positive.
 1. First have your Contact sheet ready, and place it below the enlarger and frame it in the light projecting down from the enlarger.
2. Fine focus so the light surrounding the sheet is a hard line, not fuzzy.
 3.Turn the light off, and have the timer set at 5 seconds. Then your paper out, and place it under the contact sheet. The shiny side of the RC  Paper is the emulsion side, this should be up. Also, the film should be placed so that the emulsion side is also down, both emulsion should be facing each other. We also place a piece of plexiglass or glass over the 2 sheets to press the film down (it curls).
4. We do a test sheet to find the exposure time that is best. The lens is at a 5.6 or 8 fstop. To do the test sheet we cover all but one strip on the contact sheet, expose it for 5 seconds and move to the next. this will give us a sheet to compare exposures with. The sprokets of the film should be barely visable on the RC Paper when its developed. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
5. Now we have to develop the RC Paper. In the dark room there is a large (long) sink that holds 4 tubs. The first one is Developer (that is already mixed for us), the second is Acid Stop Bath, the third is the Fix, and fourth is the wash (running cool water). These all have about a half inch of each liquid.
6. For the RC paper you place the exposed sheet in the Developer tub, and agitate for  2 minutes. We do this by lifting the corners so the developer flows over the sheet constantly.
7. When the 2 minutes are up, you take wood tongs with rubber ends and lift the sheet out and let it drip. and place it in the Acid Stop Bath for 30 seconds.
8. Again, lift the sheet out with a separate pair of tongs, let it drip and place it in the Fix tub for 3 minutes, and agitate. At this point, if you were alone you could turn on a white light and look at it, but since we do this with lots of people we have to go out of the room to see which exposure is right.
9. After the 3 minutes, lift with yet another pair of tongs and place in the wash for 15 minutes. When it's done being washed (with test ones we just rinse them for 30 seconds) you can go out into white light and pick the exposure that is best.
10. When you have picked which exposure is right. ( increments of 5 seconds, 5, 10, 15....) The one that you can barely see the sprocket holes of the film on. Then you make a final one with the exposure you picked, following the same steps again :)

This is what my Final Contact Sheet looks like :) (sorry if it's blurry I took the picture with my phone)

Typography - Design Exercise

In class yesterday (the 10th) we did an in-class exercise. It was very challenging but very fun :) There were a lot of restrictions; we had to design 4 pages of the same information:
(Title)
Thinking With Type
(Author)
Ellen Lupton
(header)
A critical guide for designers, writers, editors, & students
(publisher)
Princeton Architectural Press, New York
(what's new in this edition)
Second revised and expanded edition
More principles, examples, exercises, type crimes, fonts, factoids and fun
(another odd bit)
A design handbook

The restrictions changed for each page:

Page 1
All the same size text, font, weight. No all caps, color changes, underlines or boxes.
Page 2
Same restrictions as page one, but you may use two fonts, weight changes and all caps.
Page 3
Same restrictions as page two, but you may now change sizes.
Page 4
Anything goes!

Here is what I came up with for each :) I hope you like them!

Pages 1 and 2

Pages 3 and 4