Comments on constructing a web project for a class called Clio II
So I am putting the final touches in on the website and I need the year for the Punch Barmaid sketch that I used in my image assignment and final project. I have it in my Zotero files, but I thought I would take a short cut and just google the thing.
Expect the first hit on Google for the Punch barmaid sketch is victorianwomenatwork.com. Which is my website.
I have added a new font for my final project, something to break up the large yellow space at the top of my page. It is cursive, which is different than anything else I have used before. I had difficulty with the spacing because I had the large space above the text before I added this font. I think I have straightened those issues out. I also struggled with narrowing the navigation bar while everything else remained the same.
I changed many of the things recommended in class, although, as of this posting I have not changed the picture on the 1st or last page. The Tissot picture I plan to flip, the last picture I plan to crop but not put in a black outline. I don’t like the way that looks so for now it is reverted back to the way it was in class. I hope I have added enough spacing around pictures and make my columns large enough. I have also added the cream colored font at the bottom of the pages and added a brief About Me page. Which needs editing since I mashed it together from a few different things.
Clearly this is a part 1 of 2 since I will be making whatever changes I need to in the coming week and finishing up the last 2 pages which are in a state of rough draft. I spent some time today looking through other people’s projects and reading the content. Although I only commented on Royce’s, Erika’s and Erin’s pages I have enjoyed looking at everyone’s work and different interests. This class not only exposes us to a different field(digital history) but also gives us a window into everyone’s research interests which is great. Someone mentioned on another page that working together and being part of a group is important and I think this class does that. I learned from the people sitting next to me and from seeing other people’s projects. I hope to hear comments on my own project which will in turn help me improve as well.
I don’t think tonight will be as painful as I expected, for a couple of reasons. For one, I actually thinks my site looks better than I thought it would especially since I started over so close to the due date. Page 5 and 6 need work but I’m ok with that. And second I already had my double dose of real pain this morning when I stepped on a tack, pulled it out and then had to get a tetanus booster. So really hearing comments on my work has to be easier than pulling a tack out of my foot.
I feel like I should be entitling these blog posts Designing Working Women.
I have my second page up and working footnotes! Although the footnotes lack content, right now they just say Footnote. My text is along side of the picture and my Fabian pamphlet is small and not centered. I had to change the size in Dreamweaver. It was cropped nicely but I failed to check the picture size, which apparently is much bigger than the actual pamphlet size. I also changed my header font color to a white. I’m not sure about that, but clearly I am no color expert.
I have to track down some Shop Assistant Union posters for the last couple of pages and I may stick this small one in the header.
And since it took me 20 minutes to get this entire picture into my blog, I am finding a way to use it on my web page. If I find the documentation on this to prove it is from the UK union and not the US union. They had the same name, founded at different times, same purpose.
I realized that I’m not good at picking color as I tried to match something to the Tissot painting I am now using. Picking color is not my strong suit, and if you ever visit my house it will be clear. It’s all variations of one color. And my new web page is looking very familiar all of a sudden. I would post a picture of the wall in front of me, but you can click on my new web page and see the same colors.
If you visit my final project you will notice I have radically altered the topic. I just couldn’t make the prostitute project work. The images were a struggle. The paper itself was limiting and not my favorite. I am back to my working class shop girls. I think this topic lends itself to images and I get to put in a gas lamp since I actually discuss how gas lamps were blamed for the long working hours.
It’s that time of the year (the end of the semester) where I clearly have no sense of humor and little tolerance. Correcting errors within my code frustrates me because it is time consuming. I am also frustrated because if I had closed my divs properly when I wrote everything the first time, I wouldn’t have to go back and do it now. I have a post it note stuck to my Mac now. “Close the div!”
First off I am extremely grateful for Laura who wanted to switch with someone for the due date of the Final Project. This last week was extemely busy for me and I would have been very stressed to get everything done before class. Having this week to work on it without having it officially due was a good thing. Although I did get a good deal of it done, I wouldn’t want to display it for critical review yet.
Although last week I spoke briefly about my disastrous adventures in Photoshop, I have tried very hard not to vent-blog. This week I have been working on making changes to the look of my web page without altering the feel of the web page. My subject matter just does not lend itself to pretty Victorian colors or designs. I have seen those web sites. They look ridiculous which is not the reaction I am going for. I have altered the colors, I have added dark borders to pictures to make them stand out and I have tried, nearly successfully to design a Victorian rule for my page that has an Eliza Doolittle feel as someone in class said. Street grimy without adding in the typical late 19th century gore. The lamp by the way is out replaced by charts and photographs. I did add lace to my web page as someone suggested and then removed it because I didn’t like the look. These were women working for survival caught up in moral disease control movement. Pretty lace doesn’t feel right.
I am pleased with my site so far, which isn’t live yet. It’s academic, it’s simple and thus far working for me. I have many ideas of what I would like to do in a future project and I will continue to learn as the class winds down. However, I am aiming for clean code and a successful completion of the project. I have some of the required elements up – my skip nav button, which I deleted at some point is back. My line length is good and my footnotes work. I am sticking with what I can do without crashing everything else in my attempts to make something fancy. My goal in the next few days is to learn how to make the first letter of each paragraph a large capital letter. I just saw it on Zayna’s page, where I made a comment. I really like it and think I can add that to my site maybe altering the color also.
I used the directions on hongkiat.com to learn how to add the smoke effects.
So I started here.
Well, there I was all proud of myself because I got the lamp post done. With a nice glow behind it and in the glass panes. And I got it into the site, position relative check, position absolute check (thank you Erica for the code). Immediately once on the site I hated it. I moved it to the left, I moved it to the right. Maybe I will try to make it transparent and much bigger but for now I am leaning towards deleting it. It doesn’t really fit with any other pictures I have. My conclusions on this experiment. I have learned some valuable Photoshop skills and web design skills with this lamp that I will use on another project on another time. I still want to figure out what to do with the smokey fog.
I think Photoshop and I have had a major stumble in our relationship. Up until now, while I didn’t understand everything I at least could get things to go the way I wanted if I was persistent, patient and used the book. So I was getting along with the program. I don’t think I was patient enough today or maybe the visions of what I want the page to be are well beyond what I can get Photoshop/Dreamweaver to do at this time. Either way, it’s seems strange to be angry with a program but that’s where I am today.
So what I did. I took a picture of a lamp post locally, and using the techniques from class last week I removed the background. I selected the glass panes, cleaned them up and removed the sign hinges. Using the gradient tool I created a yellow glow on another layer to sit behind the lamp and selected the glass panes coloring them yellow as well. I lightened the dark lamp and put some yellow highlights into the lamp to make it glow. I had played with the outer glow and inner glow properties but I was not happy with the results. I also added some smoke, which I found through a Photoshop tutorial online. I thought this was very interesting and will have to play with this some more. Is it too much to have fake fog on all of my pages?
