As I finish the school year, I look back at how far I've come over these past two years.  I have developed a lot, mostly in progression of being able to put my skills to use, and showing my knowledge of the GLOS and benchmarks in my work.  I feel that I have shown and proven my use of the six GLOS in my evidence and portfolio, and have learned much in the fields of integrated technology through Biology, History, Physics, English 1 & 2, and Hawaiian History.  What can I say?  Even though the path was tough and challenging, it was worth it, and overall, fun.
Farewell, Menemac Core.  It's been fun.
- Z

Website Portfolio:
http://www.wix.com/thatzachary117/thatzachary117

1. What piece of writing did you like best in my portfolio and why?   Project Icarus Journal #3 - It gave an insight into your mind that I never knew existed.  You are a very quiet person who I rarely see expressing yourself - I was very impressed with your style of writing and deep thinking.  It shows that you have passion and when you find the things that turn you on, you are able to throw in a lot of your energies into pursuing your passions.
2. What did you like about my portfolio and sharing and what would you like to see me improve on?  I loved the creative writing; the deep thinking that went into expressing yourself; your style of presentation - the art was very impressive.  I loved the way that you were able to demonstrate the GLOS objectives; how you met them; and be able to demonstrate to me in a visual way, what you have learned and how you are able to apply it in your schooling.  The only thing that I would like you to work on is to be able to support and give stronger evidence on why you take a certain position on argument/position papers.
3. Which of the writing traits (ideas, organization, voice, word choice) do you feel was most successful for me? It was great to see how you are able to communicate your ideas (ideas), using descriptive words (word choice) to enhance your writings.  
4. Which of the traits of writing would you like me to improve on in the coming semester?  I would like to see you work a little more on your organization of ideas..you have great ideas but it would be nice to organize it a little better to give a clearer overall picture of what you are trying to communicate.

This, I believe (Draft)

 Zachary Chock

I had begun going to school on the Kahala side of the island, from Wilson Elementary school, to Niu Valley Intermediate.  After changing my attitude about school from my C-grades and trying harder, I was expecting this school life to be easy, nice, and outgoing, I was wrong.  Although it was a high ranked school, the problem was not with the educational standards, but more with the student body themselves. 

            There were many attending the Middle school, but even with Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians, there were no racial problems or discrimination.  The teens looked nice on the outside, but really, they were defensive and offensive on the inside.  I was a humble, patient pre teen, but as I walked on campus, there always seemed to be kids giving me stares and treating me differently than they would to others.  They would not relent in pushing me around, or talking down about me to my face. 

            There were these school kids, a few misbehaving boys who did not score popular among the class.  They treated people with disrespect, regardless of who they were.  Despite this, they liked to target me for some reason, which I did not concur until later in the final year.  One of them liked to pick on me especially, and I was unsure of the motivation behind these attacks, which annoyed me to the bone.  He was in my class, and decided to take some of my things, proceeding to rub them inside his rear end, through his pants.  I only escalated the situations, as to the students who had come with me from Elementary had a bone to pick with me, since I was known for being the only tattletale on campus both in Elementary and in this new region.  The few who had liked to especially pick on me were dealing with a new threat, since I was going around to teachers every time, asking for help to stand against the bullies. 

            During my 9 years of school on the Kahala side, much of the behaviors of the Caucasian children and teachers had rubbed off on me, and I became similar to a Mainlander, as my father described it sometimes – serious, literal, rushing to get to work.  Thinking about this, I questioned if the kids who picked on me did what they did because I acted differently and not “Local” to everyone who expected it.  I assumed that I was outcast because I was so kind, or so polite.  The students would not have any sympathy for me, except for a few friends, who I barely had throughout my three years at the school.  The few boys did not stop at me.  They went to pick on the special education students as well as the ones who had a mind that was easily broken.

            When I finally left the school in May of 2010 and ventured to Moanalua High School, I hoped there would be no one who bothered me like those kids.  Unfortunately, there was this male, BC, who liked to pick on me because I revealed that I did not do any sports/judo, and that I had hardly any friends due to being a gamer.  He purposely bumped into me at every chance I got, mocked me, yelled at me at any point when he felt like it if a teacher was not around, and even tried to break my video camera and the Mac keyboard I had signed out during our work of KC3 in the library.  It seems that I was expecting too much.

I had changed my ways when I had a project that almost jumped me with the deadline, but I had not kept from telling on other people if they did something to me.  I stopped that when I reached High school, and I am glad I did, since BC would have become like the others who I had dealt with earlier.  I think if you have an issue with someone on your hands who pushes you around and disrespects you, treating you like dirt, you should ask for help, no matter what others think of you – you are only doing the right thing, and keeping yourself from further insult.  This, I believe.

Project Icarus Journal #4

With Art being back in my time as well as a part of my favorite things to do, I decided that, using my new skill, I will be making a tutorial on how to draw Manga and Anime, as well as a short comparison of American and Japanese comics and art styles, with a short breakdown on it.  I would do a powerpoint of construction, materials, process, and finally, electronic publishing, for the beginner, like me.  I thought of this as a way to open a new art style up to my viewers, as well as show them what they can explore in digital and traditional art using a pen and paper, or a tablet and computer.

Project Icarus Journal #3

            Upon entering Art 1, and being back in the art field after about three years without an art class, I was somewhat decent at drawing and constructing a human form or sketching, but I had lost some of my former touch.  Soon after the Sophomore year began, I began to watch animation and drawing guides on Youtube, as well as view art on an Art Community sharing website called DeviantArt.

            Getting back to drawing was akin to getting used to an entirely new and different style of doing something, as I had not touched upon realism or artistic skill for a while.  The idea of returning to drawing was built around my favorite hobby to sketch and use my father’s printing paper to practice my skill of drawing planets, space scenes, ships, and surrealistic images.  Although everyone was impressed by my work, I strove to do better than the last picture in detail and style, improvising as I went about drafting and redoing works.  I turned to books to fuel my imagination of images in which I could base upon and create, but soon I turned to scenery.

            As I went along, I had looked at Manga, comics Japanese in origin, as well as Anime, which is animation from Japan, with high interest.  The style and originality was so unique, so different, and extremely expressive, in stark contrast to what we westerners had developed over here, in our media.  Never before did I actually attempt to draw these amazing strips of art, because I had assumed I could not do it – even drawing American comics were a challenge to me, as I was accustomed to drawing photorealistic “Goth” sketches – detailed pictures made of short lines that gave definition to the piece.

            Alongside Project Icarus, the Physics Comic was assigned, giving us the challenge of constructing a comic strip that addressed an audience and worked like the Sunday Funnies in the newspaper.  From that point, I added a new style of art to my skill: Anime and Manga – where I had only been observant of the arts, I had called upon it to myself to try something different, as our options were to rip from the internet characters to use, or to create them from scratch.  Inspired by an Anime series I had watched, the Melancholy of Haurhi Suzumiya, and many others, I began to seek books on how to draw Manga, as well as actual manga screenshots and fanmade art from DeviantArt, so that I could begin to try out this new technique of illustrating and creating my drawings.                Soon, I was carried away by the fire of passion that drew me (pun intended) closer to becoming a Mangaka: an artist who draws Manga, as well as people who draw Manga-styled works.  Even when the comic was finished, I spent free time in class doodling out characters, or practicing difficult aesthetics of a Manga character such as the hair, eyes, or body frame overall.  I also began to use my previous “Goth” style, combined with my realism and Manga style to make and conceive out of my mind, characters, art pieces, digital paintings, and even landscapes, that I was unable to blueprint before.  I had a DeviantArt account from a year earlier, that I had only used for prototype digital artwork and paintings, but now, with my comic and some other work from this brief period of drawing, I colored it and uploaded it onto the web.  Soon, I may even make videos and tutorials for my artwork, and post it in the near future.  I have a newfound passion for a work that I used to do, and now, it is resurfacing and reconstructing itself in my hobbies faster than it had when I had first begun.

Icarus Journal # 2

            As I looked at the books of Manga creation from libraries, computers, and artists on DeviantArt, I began to have a larger understanding on how to build and create my comics/characters based off of it.  With the sources wealthy of information, I begun to practice some techniques with the skill and drawings put into my physics comic.

            Trying out to do manga is hard, due to the amount of effort put into each frame, or character piece.  The challenge is tough, having to create a near-human form, rather than the traditional westerner cartoon style that can easily be made faster.  According to my books, the process involved drafting, inking, and eventual tracing/line definition, to prepare for scanning and coloring.  After scanning, the artist would use programs like Photoshop, or Manga Studio, to color and define the picture before adding text bubbles.             

            The entire process is difficult, which involves a lot of time on the clock, to perfect and practice the drawing skill to create sharp, smooth, or defined edges for the actual line art.  After this, publishing can be done, with funds, or links to publishing companies, to format and print the final product for production.

- Z

Sources - 

Manga Studio (Website)

DeviantArt

Mangaka America (Book)

Journal # 1 -
Passion:
-My passion would be photoshop - manga - to do art in hand (I've never done manga before), and, perhaps to use my favorite program, Photoshop to compliment it.
Resources:
-Photoshop, actual anime and manga, to base it off of the style, and to color it in photoshop, giving it in an authentic feel and look to the style/work.  Use of Photoshop will be to retrace/convert image to black/white for viewing, and coloring/effects rendering.
Paper, for sketching, as well as possible use of a Drawing tablet.
What questions will I ask?
- How long does it usually take to produce a professional image/drawing?
- What do the professionals use? (Programs/studio(s))
How will I take action?
- I can try harder and harder to create a drawing that will look like the real thing, and as I go, I will try out different and new approaches and techniques to creating my piece, and possibly, upload it to the internet (Deviantart).