I started this project by first taking a self-portrait of myself using a green screen as the background. After I took a self-portrait of myself, I looked for images to use as symbolism in my identity collage, the images I used for symbolism were a clock, a spiral of papers, a field, a burnt forest, dark clouds, rain, a beach chair, desk, stopwatch, doves, broken light bulb, and lit light bulb. Once I collected the images I wanted to use, I added them to Photoshop, starting with using a clipping mask on the burnt forest and normal forest, followed by adding the cloud background for the left side along with the field on the right side. When both of the backgrounds were added I added the smaller symbolistic images and used blend modes to make them look like they belong in either the field or dark clouds, I also used adjustment layers to darken images to fit the lighting of the image. Blend modes are different types of settings that determine how pixels within a layer interact with other layers, an example of when I used blend modes in my project was with the clock where I applied a blend mode of overlay to it, which made it stand out from the background by having a higher contrast, I then used a layer mask and brush tool to remove part of the clock to make it look like it was hiding behind the clouds. Layer masks are a tool in Photoshop that allows the user to conceal/hide parts of an image without permanently removing parts of an image, an example of when I used a layer mask in my project was with the image of myself where I used a layer mask after using the magic wand tool to remove the green screen background of that image. An adjustment layer is a layer in Photoshop that allows the user to adjust different parts of an image such as brightness, hue, or color balance, An example of when I used an adjustment layer in my project was with the hand holding the stopwatch as I used a hue/saturation adjustment layer to make the lower the color saturation of the hand since it was much brighter than the cloud background I was using it for. My identity collage represents my identity by expressing how I felt before I made changes to my lifestyle and how I felt after making those changes. The spiral of papers represents how I used to let my life be encompassed by my schoolwork, and the hand holding the stopwatch represents how I used to feel like I needed to complete my work as immediately as I got it. The desk and to-do list represent how after eating lunch I would immediately go to my desk to work on my homework, it also represents how I let my workload haunt me where I felt that I couldn't let an assignment remain on my to-do list due to the guilt I felt for making no progress on it. The broken lightbulb represents how I used to struggle with creativity due to most thinking in an academic way, this was especially present in my work for digital media last year since most of them were pretty basic and uncreative. The burnt forest represents how burnt out and unmotivated I used to feel when I didn't have work to do during any long break or holiday. The clouds and the rain represent how I didn't like how I used to live my life. The doves represent the peace I now feel after making changes to my lifestyle. The clock represents how I now put time aside for myself. The sun umbrella and beach chair represent how relaxed and serene I feel after making my life not so dependent on my work. The lightbulb represents the motivation and happiness I now feel with the changes I made to my lifestyle. The live forest represents how happy and lively I feel from the changes I made to my life. The field represents the freedom that I now feel that I no longer let my work control my life and can compensate for events that may suddenly arise. What was successful in my project was that I was able to complete this project and express the parts of my identity that are not easily noticeable such as how I feel. What was unsuccessful about my project is that I didn't effectively incorporate an image of myself in the collage,  what I would do differently next time to solve this problem is to create my project with an image of myself in mind so that my project revolves around the image of myself rather than the image of myself being added towards the end hesitantly. Based on the learning target, the level of mastery I think my project demonstrates is "meeting the learning target" because it meets all the requirements for the project which were to have fourteen to fifteen symbols, clipping masks, adjustment layers, blend modes, and texture, but there are some empty spots in the field side of the collage that could be filled with more symbols that would further explain that side of the image. For these reasons, I believe my project demonstrates "meeting the learning target".

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