Final Reflection

April 10th, 2015:

My final days of DP are coming to a close as I complete high school and with that, my entire CAS experience. These past two years, the CAS program has impacted my life in terms of being involved in a variety of activities and allowed me to take on new roles and challenges that I never had done in my life before. 

Creativity

Over the past two years, my creativity aspects were always concerned with the arts. Whether it was drawing club, printmaking, or being involved in a theatre production, my creativity was derived from the arts. This was because the arts allowed me to express my creative ideas in my own way. For example, my sketches in drawing club were evidence of how I expressed my ideas and visuals that came to mind. Printmaking took my creativity a step further and allowed me to print and create images through new and abstract methods. Lighting for the Gala concert was also another major creative component I was a part of as I was able to choose which lights I wanted to place on stage.

        Action          

The sports I've tried out over my DP years were basketball, football, and volleyball. Trying out these different activities have given me an awareness to these sports and helped learn and develop various skills that I haven't known before. These skills were especially undertaken when trying out for SAISA teams as the training was taken at a more serious level and required more requirement. For example, I first played basketball during the 'Fun Basketball' activity but then continued pursuing it in SAISA where I learned about new skills I haven't known about basketball before.    
 

              Service                  

A sign of my commitment and perseverance to activities is definitely shown through my participation in service as I have been a part of the 'Hope for Kids' activity for both DP school years. My experience in this service has given me a global awareness of the disease of cancer and how it affects the lives of children. Our group was able to do this by interviewing the patients at the hospital we visit as well as their parents to find out about their background and families. Visiting the hospital at least once a month to entertain these children with numerous activities such as playing instruments, crafting decorations, boardgames etc., all helped develop my collaboration with others as well as learning new skills. 

Overall, the CAS program has really opened me to challenging myself by trying out activities I didn't know about and taught me about and developing skills will be useful for me as a person and will benefit me in the years to come.   

            

SAISA Basketball and Hope for Kids

March 25th, 2015:

I have continued to progress in my basketball skills through SAISA training with all the different layups, cuts, screens, defensive and offensive tactics we practised. Our team was able to test what we've learnt through the matches we played with different schools every Friday such as Gateway and a school from the Maldives. The positions I usually play on the court are the two wings or posts. I definitely have improved in terms of tactics during games when it comes to passing or cutting inside the key to retrieve the ball or getting the rebound. 

In Hope for Kids we have recently been connecting beads with the children, which is an activity they have been enjoying a lot recently. I personally think this activity was a great idea since it gives the chance for the children to use their creativity in an easy way. 

The activity helped both us and the children to be equally engaged as we taught them how to make the beads and they were able to show what they had learnt afterwards.  
           

Print Making Progress

March 9th, 2015:

I am well into my second piece I am going to create in printmaking arts. I enjoy this art style because it does give me the opportunity to produce creative and unique images. Here is a step by step to show how create my printing pieces:

Here is the logo for 'DC Shoes' which is my second image I will attempt to print. I chose this image because I like the design of the logo and I think it would be interesting for the image to be printed in a different colour (e.g. red) to appear more appealing and abstract.



The next step is to place tracing paper over the original image and use an etching utensil to trace out the shape of the image. The etching utensil has a sharp and pointed blade which is used to carefully trace and cut through the tracing paper. As you can see from the picture to the left, I have traced the outer shape of the 'DC Shoes' logo.


Here is a picture of the traced out part of the logo, but the actual piece of tracing that will be used is the original piece of tracing paper that has the shape of the selected image traced out (second picture). This is because a selected paint colour can easily be go through the traced out shape of the image and be printed on to a piece pressed against the other side of the tracing paper.    

Here is a picture of my first completed printed image, Levi from the anime 'Attack on Titan'. I've so far had fun with printmaking as it doesn't require any advanced sketching art skills to portray and represent an image. I've learnt that it is an activity that anyone is able to do. It's even given me a new perspective of what one can do and create with art. 


   

Print Making, Basketball, and Hope for Kids

February 16th, 2015:

My first piece I have decided to focus on print making was on the character, Levi, in the anime 'Attack on Titan'. I am currently still in the initial step of the printmaking process, the tracing, as it is the most important and difficult step in my opinion. This is because I had the challenge of tracing the lines in the image. Some of my peers in the activity were able to complete the entire print making process in just one session because they were tracing more simpler designs with less lines. I probably should have started with a more simple design as well since it would help progress my learning to start with the basics of printmaking and later on move on to more advanced designs. 

Throughout the fours session of training I've had in basketball training so far, I have acquired new techniques to develop my skills in dribbling, shooting, and layups. Unlike the 'Fun Basketball' activity, SAISA Basketball sessions have helped me train and develop my basketball skills that needed improvement. I've also learnt unique teamwork manoeuvres and guarding positions that helped improve and give a better understanding on playing in both defence and offence. 

My Hope for Kids group has recently been selling wristbands as a way of raising money for the service. A new activity we have planned for our next visit to the hospital is doing a sock puppet show. We would first make the puppets out of socks and other materials and present a mini show for the children at the hospital. We might even teach the children how to make their own sock puppets afterwards.   

DP2 Semester 2 Begins

January 20th, 2015:

As the new semester rolls in, I will be taking part in new activities for CAS:

Creativity: I will be a part of print making arts this semester for creativity. The activity will be supervised by Mr. McTavish, similar to drawing club, except printmaking is a different art style. Printmaking involves tracing over an image with clear tracing paper and placing ink through the traces. The tracing with the ink will then be placed in the print maker where it will be pressured against a piece of paper to print the image. The image can be printed as much times as wanted, which is one of the beauties of this abstract art style. I am really looking forward to learning this art style, since its a new practice to me and a more advanced technique than simply sketching images as I did in drawing club.

Action: I will trying for the SAISA Basketball team for action, since it is my most played sport and one I've had previous experiences in. I've already been a part of the fun basketball activity last semester so I do feel prepared entering SAISA training this semester. I'm looking forward to practicing more of the various aspects of basketball (dribbling, passing, shooting), as I wasn't able to gain much practice from Fun Basketball where our group would only play half court games. So overall, I expect to learn and come and my SAISA training with more knowledge and outcomes on basketball.

Service: I will still be a part of Hope for Kids for service as I have been for a year and a half now. I hope to plan activities for the kids in the caner hospital in which they could learn how to understand more words in English. One of the activities our group planned is to read short English stories to the children as well as continue to play songs in English and Sinhala for them.      

Gala Concert Lighting

December 6th, 2014:

I volunteered to be lighting technician for the Gale Concert because I already have previously gained experience this role during the Living with Lady Macbeth production back in November. Since I was already involved in lighting for a previous event, I felt comfortable filling in this role for the concert. However, lighting designing a concert was much more different from lighting a theatre production since a production only involved cued slow lighting transitions. A concert had more varied lighting sets as one musical act could only require a single lighting arrangement for the entire performance while another could require multiple moving and flashing lights. Here's a picture of me at the lighting desk:

 I felt that this was quite a unique and exciting experience, which was why I volunteered to try it a second time after lighting the school production. Here is a picture of one of the lighting sets that I arranged:

The main reason I found lighting designing enjoyable was because of the control I had to set the tone or mood of a scene/musical act. I was able to do this through the colours I choose to 'wash' the stage with or which transitions I would use. I've even noticed my growth in stage lighting experience from basic lighting transitions to setting more advanced transitions, using more types of lights and colours. These challenges I had to overcome in strengthening my lighting skills were a part of what made it such an enjoyable and memorable experience.   

Future Plans in Service and Creativity

November 20th, 2014:

Service:

In today's 'Hope for Kids' meeting, my service group and I discussed our future plans for what we'll be doing at the cancer hospital. We recently had a milkshake drive during one the lunchtimes at school to raise some money and were able to get 10,000 rupees. Since the December is coming soon, my service group is planning on spending the money raised on a Christmas-type event at the the hospital. Last year, we had a teacher dress up as santa and give away presents to each of the cancer patients, as well as dry rations. (rice, dhal etc.) We'll probably repeat this same plan this year along with more Christmas-themed activities to do with kids. One activity our group has in mind is cutting out paper decorations and hanging them on a Christmas tree, which we will bring into the play area of the hospital. 

Creativity:
While I am still continuing the drawing club activity, another creative act I will be taking on is the lighting for the Gale concert in the first week of December. I already have some experience in lighting as I am currently working on lights for the senior production, 'Living with Lady Macbeth'. I have decided to take this opportunity because I wanted to take notice of my lighting experience on my CAS blog but was not able to that with the senior production as it is a class requirement for theatre and would not be considered 'creative'. I am however, able to take notice of my lighting for this Gala concert on my blog since it is an extra-curricular job and not a class requirement.