Week 1 Reflection

 

Senior project week 1 reflection 

I learned quite a bit this week. I got off to a bit of a slow start because I was waiting for my printer to arrive, but because of that delay I was also able to get organized and work on my concentration paper, painting, and ceramics and build up an inventory. It was really nice to start most of my mornings by painting, and I am really enjoying being able to spend more time with my mom and my sister Cope, who is back from college for a bit. I have already learned a lot about printing, even though I just started today. I had a lot of details to investigate after I had initially set up the printer. Some of these, which I included in my blog this evening, were questions such as: Is the scanner better to use than uploading a photo from my phone? Is it best to export the photo right from my camera roll or upload to photoshop to make adjustments first? What paper size works best and what type/texture of paper should I use? Do I put the side of the paper I want the print to be on face down or face up in the paper tray? I really don’t know very much about printers, so this will definitely be a learning experience, and a long process. However, that doesn’t frustrate me, because I am so excited to just keep experimenting and trying new ways to make prints. I have wanted to make my own prints for a really, really long time, so it’s exciting that I was able to save up for my own printer and that I’m making prints now. Even if they’re not the best quality yet, I’m still making them, and that is so very exciting to me! Everything has gone pretty smoothly so far, and the only challenges have probably been the delay of the printer and figuring out which platform to set my website up on. There are so many! I ended up choosing Squarespace, but I have to figure out how to manage the cost of the domain name and the monthly payment to use the platform. This week has felt like more of a setting up period. I’ve done a lot of work leading up to this goal of making art prints, and this week I can really get into it and spend time with the details. Tomorrow I will be going to the library to set up a little display as part of my concentration demonstration, and it’s been very cool to merge both of these projects together and connect the different aspects of each of them. I’m also planning to reach out to some local stores this week, now that I have prints I can keep experimenting with and actually show. I’m also going to meet with Courtney Minnehan, who is in charge of art at AEMS and runs her own sticker business, which is something I would potentially want to do at some point. I’m very excited for this week. I have been wanting to do this for probably about two years, but never really pulled the trigger. So, here we go! I can’t wait to see what week two of senior project will hold.