Art
My art portion of this first project was kind of rocky. I started off with the thought of making a replica of H.H. Holmes "murder castle," but I slowly realized that the reality of that was not very likely. An idea later sparked in my mind of creating a product from his blueprints. So, Mr. Grandi and I decided it would be cool for me to create a collage. I thought this would be an interesting approach on the event because I ended up including different aspects of it, such as victims and tools he used to murder these victims. I found different pictures that I wanted to include and I edited them on my computer. I changed different things like the saturation, contrast, sharpness and things like that to make the pictures look older, faded, or change the color for the purposes of the end product. I constantly had to print and reprint pictures to get the right sizes and edits done. This part was actually a lot of fun because when things didn't print as I wanted them to I would tweak the picture, print it again, and just keep continuing the process until I liked how it looked. I played around with the different pictures overlapping them and moving things around until I liked the way everything fit. With the help of Mr. Grandi I ended up making a background for my collage which was the actual blueprints, and then putting Holmes himself on top of those blueprints. From there, I included various different pictures on top of the background in different areas, shapes, and even repeated some of the image for effect. I used mod podge to overlap things, and then I used shellack overtop of all the images to give the piece some color and texture. I ended up really liking my product and the process I took with it, but I do wish I would have taken a little bit more time with the process because I think if I did it would have turned out even better than it did, but I do really like how it turned out.
As you can see, a lot went into the process of making this collage. It involved a lot of thinking, discussing, cutting and changes! This was the beginning of the process where I was still figuring it all out and kind of experimenting with all of my pieces.
This is the finished product. The color on top is the material I mentioned earlier, shellack. I do want to add more color and texture to the piece, but this is how it ended up looking! As you can see there are different pictures placed o top of the blueprints that make the piece.
If you want to check out the individual pictures I used to make my piece, they are all connected to the button below. This way you can see the original picture and how I changed everything with color, size, etc.
Touch-Ups:
Mr. Grandi wanted me to spend a little more time with my piece and throw in some color and more texture to it. So I decided to use different colored paints, like red, blue, and yellow to add color. I watered down the paints and brushed them on and even used a sponge to get more texture. Below is the finished piece after my touch-ups.
English
My English portion also took a different turn than expected. I was going to read a novel about Holmes and go from there, but after talking to Mr. Ward we discussed creating a brochure on how to intrigue people to come to Chicago's World Fair, which was how Holmes had the opportunity to murder so many people. The World Fair populated so many people and Holmes then hosted people at his hotel during the months of the fair. I made a brochure mainly getting people to come to the fair, but I also added sections in regards to the hotel to slickly get people there as well. I had to revise my brochure to make the structure more appealing and the set up of my words. My end brochure has a couple details that need tweaked, but overall the information in the brochure and the style looks good. I researched how to make a brochure and how to write a good one, and I also researched a lot about the World Fair, Chicago, and Holmes' hotel. Researching the actual construction of a brochure really helped me develop a good one and showed me a different writing style that I never really explored.
Touch-Ups:
My brochure didn't need too much fixing, but there were a few minor errors in my piece. Mr. Ward asked me to keeo the font all the same, which I actually did not realize was even different, but I changed that for stylistic purposes. I also changed the placement of some words due to creasing in the hard copy. Below is the version with the touch-ups.
Social Studies
For Social Studies I decided to make a website article from the point of view of why people make bad decisions. After speaking with Mr. Wimmer we talked about when people get angry and the reasons that fuel their anger. In the summer time it is statistically proven that people have higher anger levels. I took this and wrote an article for 5 ways to "keep yourself cool in the summer." I used a play on words because in the summer people are typically hot, but this article is how to keep your temper cooled. I researched different things to do to calm ones mind when angry and put together this article of tips; such as sleep, dieting, and writing. This looks at the topic on a psychological level which was an interesting approach because originally I was going to take a historical/societal level until Mr. Wimmer suggested this route. This product turned out pretty good, but I am looking to make some changes to the look of it and add more facts.