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Rhea Dayal

Ms.Sharma

Career Life Connections 12

19 January 2021

Capstone Reflection Paper

This project represents an aspect of who I hope to become in a number of ways. The
programming aspect of my project is directly related to my career path since I need to learn how
to code to become a software engineer. However, I decided to include an artistic portion in my
project since I believe that it is important for me to have a creative passion outside of my career.
I would consider opening a small art related business once I have improved my skills enough.
This project also shows my desire to learn more about technology. Since the importance of
technology in our lives is increasing rapidly, I want to learn more about how I can make the best
use of it. I chose to make a website as part of my project because being able to make one
yourself for free is a useful skill to have, especially for those like myself who are considering
opening a business someday.

The main obstacle I encountered was having the confidence to try new ideas in my work.
At first, I tried to stick to “safer” ideas where I knew I was likely to end up liking whatever I
make. However, this hindered my ability to be creative. Watching videos on Youtube about the
creative process and failures that all artists inevitably make helped me become more confident in
myself. I used to be afraid of trying new ideas, but one video in particular helped change my
mindset. In the video, an artist tried an idea she had for a painting even though she was not sure
if she would like it and ended up hating it. She picked the project back up later in an attempt to
revamp it and kept working on it until she loved it. Throughout the process she kept trying new
ideas, some of which she ended up disliking and had to paint over. Seeing the whole process
made me realize that it is normal for people to not like what they make on their first or even
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second attempt and that it is fine for me to try new ideas even if I think I might not like the
result. Learning about the psychology behind drawing also helped me recognize times when I
found I was unintentionally restraining my own ability to be creative. Being able to try new ideas
in my work was one of the key takeaways that I took from this project.

Since this project was a two part project I gained skills in a variety of areas. One of the
skills that I most improved in was my ability to shade in drawings. I learned more about shading
through Youtube tutorials and the book ​“Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.”​ The drawing
that I believe most improved my confidence in shading is the rose that I drew using a photograph
as a reference. Drawing all the edges and folds from the rose petals and knowing where to use
negative space was quite difficult for me at first, but I now feel much more confident in my
ability to shade. However, since I did not finish the book yet there is definitely still a lot of room
left for me to improve in my ability to draw realistically. I also improved in my ability to code
and learned how to make a professional digital portfolio. Prior to this project I had experience
coding, but not in the languages needed to develop websites, so I faced a steep learning curve. I
can improve on my programming abilities by learning about other features I can add to my
portfolio as well as continuing to practice using other coding languages that are used for website
development.

Looking back, one thing that I wish I could have changed about my project is how much
time I spent working on art. Ideally I would have finished reading the book ​“Drawing on the
Right Side of the Brain”​ before creating more drawings. However, I had to make sure I kept
drawing while reading so that I had enough content for my website, and making each individual
drawing took me a lot longer than expected. I also had to keep in mind that running into an error
in coding can take a long time to resolve, so it would be better for me to start coding my website
as soon as possible. Due to the time constraints I ended up using Youtube tutorials to learn more
often than I had originally expected since they are usually more straight to the point than the
book I was reading, which went more in depth than the videos. Although I do wish I could have
finished the book I am overall pleased with what I was able to learn and get done in this project.
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The part of my project that I am most proud of is the skateboard that I painted. I am
proud of this part of my project since it was my first painting project and it is for a charity event.
I was quite nervous when I first tried painting the board as I did not have much experience
painting or drawing on anything nearly as big as a skateboard. Painting the skateboard and even
coming up with designs took a while. Despite my lack of experience, I am happy with how the
skateboard turned out. My mentor was pleasantly surprised when she saw my finished
skateboard, which also made me feel more proud of the board.

The main piece of advice that I would give to a student who will be completing their
Capstone Project next year is to leave lots of buffer time in case anything goes wrong,
particularly if the project involves coding. Errors in coding arise unexpectedly and often take a
long time to resolve. Thinking about what might have gone wrong and trying out different
solutions can be quite time consuming. In actual jobs there is usually a debugging team to fix
these errors and consult, but for your Capstone project your mentor is usually your main source
of help but arranging a meeting with them can also take up a fair chunk of time. I would also
advise students who are beginning their Capstone to take lots of progress photographs of their
work as pictures like this are useful for explaining how they made their final product to others.
All things considered, as long as students make sure to manage their time properly and enjoy
working on their project, they likely will not struggle with completing their Capstone.