The Assignment:

Platform game maps were originally used in the 1980s for games like Pac-Man and Super Mario. Platform games created geography, characters, and features with pixelated tiles. You will use this retro gaming iconography as a simplified visual language to create a map of “home.” Use the memories and experiences you generated in the “X-page” exercise to imagine the qualities home. Those qualities will inform the outward appearance of the  environment. The landscapes will be based on a grid format, using color and symbols to add the geographic details. Try considering things like social, economic, geological, and cultural qualities.

The process of making my final image –

 

 

 

My Final Piece –

I used watercolors and watercolor paper and sharpies.

Upon recieving the assignment, I was very confused how I was supposed to create a map of home because home is such an abstract concept to me. The physical location of home is California, but since I truly feel at home when I am by the water, specifically with my family or when I am traveling, I decided to portray the idea that California is home but camoflauge the symbols of what I currently define as home because home is so personal to me. I think that the critique went really well and I think everything people said I agreed with.