I have never used Premier Pro in my life. I also wasn’t there for the lesson as I was sick that day. I couldn’t attend school so I decided to download Premier Pro along with all the other adobe apps that cost me a bit of money but I didn’t care as I wanted to do my work.

I found a guide online that didn’t really help me use it so I decided to ditch the guide and do it on my own. I found that it was similar to iMovie. You select the files and put them in Premier Pro and simply add them into the editing bar. I then arranged the pictures together, cropped it and then shortened the amount of time that my video was being played. I wanted my video to be short. Not only that, the video should be short so I made the video 30 seconds, lessening the time on it.

I did not want to add the audio in and just wanted people who watch this video to focus on the video being played. I feel like the video should be silent allowing the work to speak for itself.

Overall, using premiere pro opened my eyes as to how it could be made professionally instead of iMovie. I wish to learn more about it in the future and improve on it.

The Unit 7 photography project is to make a booklet out of our own photos. At this stage, I made a booklet that was of the same theme: culture. I took pictures from trip week going to Oxford, Margate, London and even staying in Cambridge. I didn’t like taking pictures on my phone when I was younger.

I took them in my camera. I didn’t bring the hard disk with me so I looked through my photos in my phone and I found some pictures in them. They were already edited because I uploaded some of them on my Instagram. I took the photos and imported them to the computer. I’m so thankful for airdrop and iCloud. Without it, everyday would be a struggle as I don’t always bring a pen drive with me.

Making the booklet in the lesson was fairly easy as all of us were given a handout to follow. In the handout contained all the details and hacks to make the booklet and how we put the pictures in InDesign. I liked doing this. It felt therapeutic but when we were about to print, I was about to pull my hairs out because I didn’t know the settings but later on my tutor helped me through the process. I didn’t know what he was clicking and was baffled but it printed. The printer took so long to print and I had to be somewhere for lunch so I asked Ting to help me collect my printed booklet while I went out. She told me she would but she didn’t so I collected it myself. When I got to the printer, some of my pictures were printed halfway so I didn’t paste it on the sketchbook. I wanted to reprint it but there was a class going on. By the time I went back to go print again when the class was over, the file was deleted. I did however take a screenshot of my work so in a way it wasn’t a total loss.

I liked the way I presented it and I also liked my photos but something didn’t sit right with me when I used my own photos in my phone. It felt like I was cheating. Overall, the class was very useful. I will learn how to print my own booklet when I have the time to sit down and learn about it. I will do justice and make the booklet better

For Moving Images, I drafted a storyboard for my final design. I took about 10 minutes drawing the entire draft out which was quite rewarding despite my horrendous drawing but then I was reassured that the draft was supposed to be horrendous but is still visible. I then eventually drew out the scenes on my iPad using the app Procreate in more detail and with colour. I struggled with this at first because there was so much to draw and I added bookshelves with detailed books in them. This gave me a major headache so I decided to discard it and replace it with a classroom which made for a really nice transition to the next scene.

In class, I felt really groggy and unproductive so I did not do as much in there, only drawing 5 drawings. During my free time, I drew more and the drawing process went smoothly as I could layer my drawings up and even copy and paste them to the next slide. I could even drag the colour to the area I wanted and the colour will fill the entire area easily. Once I was done with this, I moved onto Premiere Pro to create a short film.

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Photography: I only had pictures from the UK so I decided to edit pictures from Trip Week. I took lots of pictures so it was very useful for this class. We were supposed to edit one photo but I got carried away and edited 7 photos. I didn’t really know how to edit in photoshop before but after this lesson, I actually know what I’m doing. I never really understood photoshop before but this lesson really brought it full circle for me. The handout that was given on how to use photoshop was really useful. I followed through it religiously.

Overall, both classes taught me something. I learnt that I should plan my time wisely. Not only that I learnt how to edit in Photoshop. I am really say that I couldn’t try out Lightroom as Lightroom is a better app to edit photos however, I’m still glad as I at least learnt how to edit.

7th May: This has been a great experience. For someone who lasted anything pattern on them, I like making patterns and enjoy seeing them now.

I was a little sceptical when the project first started as I thought my designs were going to be awful. Back then, my use of photoshop skill was so limited that I only knew how to edit pictures. Now it has become pretty vast and I can finally say I am now confident in using photoshop. Not only Photoshop, I have gained confidence in my drawings skills using different medias and techniques. The tutors have taught me how to be confident in my work and be more affirmative with my designs. I want confident before as I often hated my work. Of course there were a few mishaps along the way but I learnt from them and it made me more aware of what I was doing wrong before. I’ve corrected my past wrongdoings and learnt the correct way of doing things.

One of the things that helped me greatly were the workshops that were given in the first 4 units of this course. Although they weren’t all that great, it helped me a lot as I continued to push and strive harder when I saw all the work that I’ve done in the previous sketchbook. It made me hopeful as I saw the end of this project. All the artist research and primary research that I’ve done heavily influenced my work. I made a pattern by drawing it out and then scanning it into my work like how Holly Fulton does with her fashion designs.

Shibori was an interesting lesson. I learnt how to make patterns other than photoshop which was something fresh. I also learnt that staring into the computer these past few months made my eyesight worse but it’s all worth it as my skills have improved.

Other than that, I really loved the fact that I could create things from the top of my mind and add it to my designs thinking about world problems and make them marketable as the whole world knows we are on the past to destruction.

Overall, I’m really happy with how this unit turned out. Of course there were bumpy roads and often I would cry because I thought I couldn’t do it but in the end, I felt with a positive attitude, I can do anything I set my mind to.

I titled my design board New Heights as I wanted to target issues we have in our society today by taking a step further to help solve those problems and raise awareness.

There are 4 parts to my design. I wanted to create something special for the LGBTQ+ community. I have friends who are not being accepted by their own families just because of their sexual orientation and they don’t feel welcome in society. Some of them have a partner but are too scared to actually see the light of day where lots of discrimination happens. My country, Malaysia is a country that is homophobic. As a result, many people are too scared to come out as they fear being harassed by the public. Not everyone has the luxury of a loving and supportive family. So that is why I created a rainbow themed luggage for them with birds on them. This is to symbolise freedom where they don’t have to hide who they are on the inside and be free and proud of who they are. I wanted New Heights to be a family towards people who are neglected and give them a platform to be proud, loud and queer.

Often I hear introverts and simplistic people have no personality whatsoever. That is completely false. These people simply like minimalistic things. It doesn’t mean that they don’t have personalities. If it sparks joy for them, it works. I added pops of colour like blue, white and red, black to the passport holders so that they can experiment with colour but it doesn’t stray too far away from their comfort zone. I even made a black and white themed luggage tag for those who do not like colour at all. This would be right up their alley.

I created luggage tags which are colourful for the bright and bubbly people out there. It caters to their personality. These people make the world a better place to live in as they brighten our days when it is dull. To give thanks to all those people, I wanted to create something fun for them as a means of appreciation.

Lastly, I wanted to raise awareness to other creatures other than humans. I believe that we should not be greedy. We must share this world with other animals. I wanted to raise awareness for the animals in particular birds. Birds are losing their habitats along with other animals. On my pattern, is a hornbill which is an endangered bird in North West Malaysia. I drew the hornbill dead with its tongue out to impact people. I even used the colours red and black to signify blood and death. With the loss of habitat, more birds are being extinct. Not only that, global warming will take place further. We only have less than 50 years before everything is irreversible. We must take action now to prolong life on Earth for future generations to come.

30th April: We learnt how to edit our patterns onto our own product. In my case, I learnt how to edit my patterns onto luggage tags, passport holders and luggages.

To design a pattern, I must first have a pattern which I have. I designed many patterns over the many weeks we had in this project. First, I had to find a product on the internet which is white. I then clicked on Images, Tools and finally I clicked Large sized images so that it’s not pixilated when I edit my patterns on it.

The most important part of this process is to find white images with shadows on it so that it is easier to edit the images on. A top tip is to look at the image size when choosing the picture from the internet. An even better tip is to find a product with a logo on it so that it looks more believable. Once chosen, download it and drag it to the Photoshop icon at the dock.

Next, click on image and Image Size. Change the width and height so that it becomes 20×20. Change the resolution to 300. Then, move the pattern onto the picture and change the opacity of the pattern so that the product can be seen. Hold the command and T (transform) button along with the shift key to move. To remove the pink lines that help adjust a picture, click untick snap. This enables me to move my pattern easier.

When outlining my product with the polygonal lasso tool, always hold down alt and shift. To soften the harsh edges, I clicked right on my mouse, selected feather and typed in 2 pixels. Once I’m happy with that, I held down the command and J key to create a new layer. I then deleted the old layer with the pattern and multiplied it so that it looks realistic.

If there were no shadows in the product, I used the polygonal lasso tool and selected the areas where they’re should have been a shadow. A colour tool was then used as I selected the colour of the shadow. I never used black as it will appear fake in my designs. Once done, I then selected a soft brush to apply the shadow on. Next, I created a new layer with Command J just to be safe and then used a rubber with gentle opacity to run the harsh edges.

March 18-22: Trip week is a week where we gather primary sources for our projects at hand focusing on different topics which relates to our work. I felt like I got a lot from it for my Unit 5 topic, Birds and their parts.

March 18: We went to Oxford. I was in group 2 so I went to explore Oxford first. I brought my camera along with me which was very useful as I took over 300 pictures in that 1 hour we went exploring. I barely got any pictures of birds. The only birds I saw were the pigeons which can be found everywhere in the UK so I didn’t really bother taking pictures of them but it did relate to my Unit 7 topic about culture. I took pictures of the Moat and Bailey. It was a shame I couldn’t go up on it as Veronika and I ran out of time. I learnt about it in history books and in class so it was very fascinating to see one up and close. I took pictures of people and places.

We then went to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford which was very much related to my topic. I drew about 4 drawings of birds, and even drew a dodo skeleton. Unfortunately, time was not on my side as there was much to see so I whipped out my camera and took pictures of all of them for inspiration. I would then draw them in the sketchbooks we were given. I was quite disappointed with myself for not timing it all right because I didn’t want to draw more later on. The drawings I made in the museum turned out quite nicely as I experimented with different medias and techniques taught in previous lessons.

March 19: We received 2 talks from 2 different people in the industry. The first speaker was a graphic illustrator that takes inspiration from street art. It was inspiring to see how he made a name for himself in the tough industry without any proper education on the arts. I was so impressed by the fact that he worked with Adidas on a shoe. I love Adidas shoes and their designs so if I had the chance, I would love to see his designs.

The next speaker was Holly Fulton who came VERY prepared. I aspire to have her work ethic. She had plans, designs, sketches, a presentation and she even brought 2 garments from her fashion show. I didn’t know that we would have to do an artist research based on her and didn’t take notes which was quite a shame but I managed to retain some information on her based on memory. She is very successful in her work. She has made it through in life though her designs which she hand draws. This baffled me as most companies have started drawing out their designs digitally. I guess this is why she is successful. She also incorporates jewellery into her work which wasn’t common back then but is now very common. I have to admit, even though I like listening to talks and found her very interesting with what she made of her life, I became very sleepy in the middle of the talk but managed to stay awake long enough until she finished. I guess it was my body telling I wasn’t interested in fashion and I was too sleepy from the previous day.

March 20: We went to Margate in Kent to visit the Contemporary Museum but before we entered the museum, we went sightseeing as we took pictures and drew out our primary research. The beach I thought was extremely dirty as I saw dark murky waters and garbage in it but I took pictures anyway for my Unit 7 topic. I saw a flock of small tiny birds who were learning how to fly together and I found it extremely fascinating and whipped out my camera. I set my camera to fast shutter speed as I didn’t want it to be blurry. I took my pictures of the birds and their wing shapes when they are airborne. Other than the bench, I went to the cafes to get the ambience of the place as well as venture deep into the housing areas and shops. It was interesting to see such vibrancy in Kent compared to the other parts of the UK.

We then went to the contemporary museum. I found many aesthetically pleasing things in there. For example, the spinning wheel and the disco ball which reflected the light away through its mirrors. There was even a piano which played music automatically however, none of them related to my topic. I then went to the gift shop and it was a miracle I found birds on postcards and I jumped with joy. I took pictures of the postcards as I didn’t want to waste money on buying it. I went back to Cambridge quite content that day.

March 21：We went to Kettles Yard. There wasn’t anything in there that was related to my topic but I found the trip enjoyable as I got to take pictures for different Units of my project and future projects as I can draw inspiration from the pictures. I spent hours in there admiring the house and the artwork in there. I did find the gift shop to be quite useless in terms of space and marketing. Before people go into the house, the gift shop can already be seen. Obviously, people will go into the gift shop first instead of going to the house which is quite annoying but that is just my opinion.

March 22: I sat in the bus for 2 and a half hours which made my bum really sure but the trip there was worth it as I saw many things that sparked my interest. I love history and learning about it made me burst into joy. It was a shame we could only spend 2-3 hours in there. The V&A is huge so I didn’t get to go to all of the exhibitions. Just the ones related to my topic and the ones that really interested me. At first I found nothing that was bird related and I lost all hope in finding it. I know the gift shop had lots of birds but I didn’t want to see them anymore as there were lots at the Margate Contemporary. There were 20 minutes left to the trip when I decided to explore another side of the V&A which I haven’t been. I was mesmerised by the architecture of the place and took lots of pictures of the stairs and the art work. I eventually went up the stairs and there it was. I was greeted by bird silverware. I was so excited about this. I took lots of pictures of the silverware.

Overall, it was a great trip even though it was mentally and physically exhausting. I got many pictures and drawings.

25th April: We learnt how to do Shibori which was originated in Japan.

I always wondered how the Japanese made patterns using natural dye (indigo). Now I know how. First, I added the indigo to a warm water bath and added salt in it. Then, I grabbed a piece of cotton fabric and iron it to perfection with no creases. After that, I folded the cotton in two halves, ironing the halves as I went along. Next, I made a triangle shape and folded it backwards and forwards, ironing it as we go along. Once done with that, I clamped the 2 hexagonal resist shapes onto the cotton fabric and dipped the clamp into the water bath for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, I took the clamp out and rinsed it with cold water and dried it out on the drying rack.

I went to Japan for a student exchange program and my Japanese host gave me a handkerchief made from Shibori. I regret not asking her how it was done as I just admired its beauty. After knowing the process of how it’s done, I have a deeper respect for the Japanese. The Shibori pattern I made was not a professional one but it looked pretty good for a beginner and I was quite proud of myself for getting all the steps right. There was one thing I disliked about it though. It was that the colour was a bit too light for my liking. The colour of the Shibori looked faded and washed. I think this was due to adding to much water in the water bath. I concluded this because I saw Group 2’s shibori and the colour turned out a rich dark blue unlike Group 1’s.

My only regret is that I could not use the Shibori pattern into my design board as I want a clean background that will not hinder my patterns and designs. I can’t use Shibori for my designs as well because it does not relate to my theme: Birds and their parts. It is a shame that I can’t add it to my design board but I am fortunate enough to be able to have the experience of doing Shibori. I hope to do it again someday for another project. Shibori is fun and I thank the Japanese for that.

Following the design of my first maquette, I decided to improve the impact by making it 3D looking by using cones instead of cardboard. I made lots of cones of different sizes and painted them grey.

I realised when I did this, I wasn’t hitting/bombing anything. So, I used chicken wire and mod rock to build up a hilly land with slopes. I painted it the mod rock, super glued fake leaves and rocks to it to make it feel more like land. While waiting for that to dray, I decided to infuse tissue paper and cotton balls into acrylic paint mixed with water. I then left them to dry overnight. The reason I did this was because I know there are micro plastics in acrylic paint so the paint paint in the cotton as well as the tissue paper will harden overnight. After I did this, I punctured 4 holes with pliers on each side of my mod rock/ chicken wire and laced the rope into the holes so that it looks like a corset. I then tied it onto a mannequin and left it there for 2 days.

I came back to work on it after 2 days. I used the cotton to make missile explosions that look like mushrooms onto the mud rock. Once I was done with that I punctured the mud rock with wire so that it will look like debris is falling everywhere just like my maquette but instead of using paper, I used the cotton as well as the tissue paper that was infused with acrylic paint. At this stage I did not want to use the cones anymore as they were giving me complications. The cones were a hindrance as they were too big and they just couldn’t do the job right. I called CC right after and attached the “corset” onto her. Then it struck me. I still wanted an impact so I used the cones (which I still kept) and fitted them onto her hands as she pointed towards the mushroom explosion. Not only that, she pointed everywhere which indicated that the missiles came from everywhere; unpredictable.

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Evaluation: Overall I feel pretty satisfied with my Unit 6 work. I haven’t been the most productive and efficient but at least I managed to get the job done as I gathered weeks and weeks of research. I learnt a lot through making a body sculpture. I was afraid I wasn’t going to do this justice. This was mostly because I was not confident in my work. I often stuttered and got confused with what I was doing but in the end, I got myself together and worked it out. I wanted to show meaning through my sculpture.

I wanted people to think for themselves instead of me telling what it is. What I picture it to be is what warfare is like. CC here is smiling as she holds the two missiles in her hands. CC is the commander, a leader of a party. She enjoys war because it allows her to test new weapons however, in doing so, she is ruining the nature of the greenery; of the land of the Earth, the inhabitants living in them. She is not thinking about the consequences on how it will affect mother nature and the people living in it.

I want people to be able to think for themselves without having to explain anything. After all, art is a free movement with different opinions. There is no right or wrong. I feel like my drawing skills with different techniques and medias have improved over time with lots of practice, hard work, dedication and lots and lots of tears. I thought I wouldn’t be able to improve but I do se some slight improvements to the. I plan on improving further. This is only just the beginning of what I can do as I’m only scratching the surface. I learnt that I can do both primary and secondary research with dedication. It is reassuring to know that I will go to any lengths to conduct the research no matter the cost.

I have also concluded that I need to do more collage work as I am weak in them and so not enjoy it one bit. I will do collages more often from now on so that I will like it in the future and hopefully, I will improve someday.

I have done lots of primary research prior to this project. I have visited the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Museum of Zoology, FitzWilliam Museum and the Sedgewick Mueseum of Earth Sciences. So, when we were tasked to go out to conduct a primary research so that we can draw 20 pictures from it, I was baffled because I didn’t know where else to go so I pulled out trusty old Google to help me. I then found a perfect museum to go to; Duxford Imperial War Museum.

The trip there was very far. Not to mention I literally heard my bank account crying and cursing at me. The total cost to go there, buy the ticket and come back was a total of 80 pounds. The Uber ride there was not worth it however, the Museum itself was breathtaking. There were so many sights to see and there was so little time. I only had 3 hours before I had to get back for registration for the next class. I went to the AirSpace exhibition, the Air and Sea Exhibition, Battle of the Britain, American Air Museum and finally the Land Warfare to take picture.

I took many pictures from the trip and gained really useful information along the way. I even took pictures of the information in case I forgot. It was breathtaking. The museum was humongous. It was a shame I had limited time. I could only go to the places that sparked interest to my project. I love history so this really broke my heart but at least I got some pictures. I took more than 20 pictures. I actually have hundreds of pictures from the museum as I kept snapping photos left and right. I took close ups of wheels, cannons, guns, hilts, swords and so many more.

When I was done, I called the Uber driver who was kind enough to give me his number. When I first got in his car, he told me the Museum didn’t attract lots of customers so I wouldn’t be able to get a ride back to Cambridge. I panicked a little but he was kind enough to help me get back which brought me a HUGE relief. I got back and printed lots of contact sheets from both FitzWilliam and the Imperial War Museum. I then drew 20 drawings using different medias and techniques.

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Overall, I was extremely happy with the trip although it was a shame I couldn’t go in some of the exhibitions. There’s always a next time. I was also pleased with the fact that some of my drawings have developed for the better and I found new ways to create my A5 drawings although I didn’t do them very well. There’s always room for improvement as I try harder. After all, I have gotten better at my drawings which I stated were really bad last time.