Charter Communication Company Case Analysis

Introduction The growth and sustainability of Charter Communication Company lie in the implementation of its objectives and business strategies. The objectives and business strategies of the organization must align with the market trend and market target (David, 2011).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Charter Communication Company: Case Analysis specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Charter communications is a leading company that manufactures Internet and broadcasting cable, it provides high-speed connections to corporate organizations, government agencies and home user. The company has its headquarters in the United States. The mission of Charter Company is to offer value to all customers. The company will achieve its goal by providing quality product and services at fair prices. The strategies of the organization align with its internal and external conditions. Objectivities and Strategies of Charter Communications Inc The objectives of Charter Communications build on quality service to meet customer’s satisfaction. The objectives are highlighted below To provide high-speed Internet, digital connections to its customers. To become the leading manufacturing company in the telecom industry. To provide affordable products and service to its customers. To maintain its quality and transform the world with digital technology. Charter Communications International has a projected 5.5 million client base. The company relies on its business strategy to satisfy its clients. The objectives of the organization can be achieved with an effective business strategy. The performance of the organizations is attributed to the correlation between its objectives and business strategies (Bygrave Zacharakis, 2010). The strategies include Commitment to its customers: The Company provides customer support to its clients. The organization is committed to the improvement of its products and services. Their cus tomer support team is efficient and always ready to render its service to its customers. The internal factor of success can be used to strengthen its external factors of success. An updated information unit will assist customers to make choices from its list of products and services. Efficient Employees: The Company utilizes its internal strategy to position the organization as a leading service provider. Their efficient and productive employees provide quality service to her numerous clients. The organization synchronizes its operations and market synergy to meet customers demand. A strategy to improve its opportunity To maintain its growth, Charter Communications manufactures compelling broadband products with lower cost of transactions to meet customer’s satisfaction. The company achieves this feat by sourcing its raw materials from low-cost sites. The production cost will be reduced and thus, its sales will be lower than similar products. The company provides its sales p oints at different locations to reduce the cost of transactions. Customers will choose a favourable location to save cost. Customers are willing to patronize a particular company when the cost of business transactions is reduced (Rao et al., 2008).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More A strategy to mitigate threats The notable threat is the competition from similar manufacturing companies. Similar products flood the market, thus, reducing the sales of Charter’s products. However, the management of Charter Communications utilizes product differentiation to overcome this threat. The quality of its products and services provides the competitive advantage to mitigate this threat. The low-cost of production encourages customers to patronize Charter’s broadband products and equipment.  The advantage of a competitive profile matrix transcends its components; it compares market strengths and weakness of competing firms. The variables for the analysis include the quality of products, management, prices, to mention a few. A competitive profile matrix can be used to analyze a company’s internal and external conditions. The analysis compares the success and failures of different companies (Rao et al., 2008). The analysis is presented in a matrix format. The format includes a rating section, which indicates the firm’s response to success. The weight section indicates the relevance of the variables of change to the company. The weighted score can be compiled by multiplying the variable success with its weight. The total weighted score section is the sum of each factor for success. Competitive profile matrix Charter company Verizon communication Cox communication Key success factors Weight Rating Weight score Rating Weight score Rating Weight score Customers care services 0.2 2 0.4 3 0.6 2 0.4 Advertisements 0.1 3 0.3 4 0.4 3 0.3 Price competitiveness 0.2 3 0.6 3 0.6 4 0.8 Network coverage 0.1 2 0.2 4 0.4 0.3 0.3 Streaming speed 0.1 2 0.2 4 0.4 3 0.3 Mobile banking 0.3 1 0.3 1 0.3 1 0.3 Product Differentiation 0.4 2 0.3 1 0.2 2 0.1 Service delivery 0.5 3 0.1 2 0.1 1 0.1 Total 1.0 2 2.7 2.6 Average score 2.075 Minor weakness Major weakness Minor strength Major strength The analysis shows a strong rating between the competing firms. Charter Communications recorded high success in its customer support services. The advertisement ratings show higher value. Its service delivery is a competitive advantage for the organization. The company’s weakness in mobile banking reduces its growth. Similar firms such as Verizon and Cox Communications recorded high ratings in their network coverage. The ratings dropped significantly with their product delivery services.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Charter Communication Company: Case Analysis specifically for you f or only $16.05 $11/page Learn More External factor matrix External factor matrix assesses the business trends of a company. The analysis reveals the threats and the opportunities of an organization. The external factor matrix comprises of a list of external factors, which influences the success of an organization. The components of the external factor evaluation include cultural, political, and economic factors. The external factor evaluation matrix of the Charter Communication Company is presented below. An external factor evaluation matrix Weight Rating Weight score Globalization trends 0.11 4 0.44 Government policy 0.12 3 0.36 Foreign exchange rates 0.15 1 0.15 Taxation 0.12 2 0.24 Political situation 0.14 2 0.28 Economies of scale 0.10 3 0.30 Per-capita income 0.05 3 0.15 Growth of economy 0.08 4 0.32 Inflation 0.05 2 0.10 Stock market trends 0.08 2 0.16 Total 1.0 2.5 Average 1.75 Minor threat Major threat Minor opportunity Major opp ortunity The evaluation matrix for Charter Communications shows a strong rating in global trends and a poor rating in its exchange rates. The economies of scale, government policies, pre-capita and taxation recoded average in the rating. The success factors in the organization determine the growth of the organization and measures the strengths and weakness of the company. The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the strengths, weakness, opportunities and the weakness of the Charter Communication Company. The objectives and strategies of the organization provide the platform for effective management of each production unit. An effective business plan influences the critical success of the organization. The competitive profile matrix can be used to reorganize the organization. The challenges faced by the organization can be reduced using the analysis in this report. A comprehensive report includes the objectives, strategies, internal and external matrix evaluation of the organ ization.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More References Bygrave, D., Zacharakis, A. (2010). The portable MBA in entrepreneurship. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. David, F. (2011). Strategic management: Concepts and cases. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall / Pearson. Rao, P., Rao, A., Sivaramakrishna, K. (2008). Strategic management and business policy: Texts and cases. New Delhi, India: Excel press. This essay on Charter Communication Company: Case Analysis was written and submitted by user Johnny Harris to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

The Pros and Cons of Assertiveness 3 Real Life Examples

The Pros and Cons of Assertiveness 3 Real Life Examples For several weeks, I’ve had the May 2016 issue of Success Magazine open on my desk. I had gotten about half-way through the issue when I  stalled in the middle of an article by Sophia Dembling about assertiveness. More pressing papers piled on top of it. In fact, I forgot it was there until today, when I set out in search of material for my weekly blog. I’ve been looking a lot at my own methods of assertiveness lately, so the article jumped out at me this morning. Just last weekend, I participated in a workshop called â€Å"Group Process.† There, I was part of a group that spent 14 hours on Saturday and six hours on Sunday simply being with each other to see what we would create in our interactions. The feedback I got from the group is that I have a tendency to want to dominate the conversation. This did not surprise me. It’s not that I talk more than other people in the group, but I do like to get attention, sometimes by stirring things up. Being assertive often requires not being nice, and I am starting to accept the fact that I am not a â€Å"nice† person. I am willing to hurt people, and to be hurt myself, in service of telling the truth and getting satisfied. Here are some examples, along with the attendant advice offered by Ms. Dembling: 1.) Accept the Learning Curve. In our Group Process group, the topic came up of how each of us sees ourselves as functioning in a group. Someone spoke about himself, and I wanted to spend more time with him, with each group member giving him feedback before moving to the next person. So when another group member started sharing about how she saw herself in the group, I interrupted her and said I’d like to spend more time on the first person. She was hurt and angry with me for doing that. I did end up getting part of what I wanted: I shared my thoughts with the first person. But then the conversation got derailed as the second woman and I worked through what had just happened. Frankly, we did not do the best job of resolving the conflict, despite my strong desire to do so. My assertiveness had created a rift in my relationship with this woman that will take more work to repair. 2.) Control Thyself. In another group, we were voting on who would fill a particular role. One person enthusiastically went for the role and was quickly voted in with no opposition. I did not trust that he was the best person for the job, so I asked someone else if he wanted the position, which he did. We then had a vote between the two of them. Person #1 still won, and I still was not satisfied, so I asked for further consideration and discussion. As you can imagine, Person #1 had some feelings about my behavior. But in the end, the group made a much more considered decision. Person #1 still got the role, but we were all much more clear about why he was chosen and what value each member of our team could have brought to the role. As the Success Article pointed out, we can’t control people. We can only control ourselves and our own behavior and words. I felt good in this instance that I spoke up and went for my full satisfaction, and maintained the respect of my group in the process. 3.) Pick a Delivery Mode. With the first group, we have eight more weeks of work to do together. I wrote an email suggesting that we assign roles within our group so we have specific people designated to organize our calls, take notes for the group, and support our members in various ways. I immediately got pushback on this idea, with three out of four members saying no, that they did not want to take on any more work. When I tried to explain that I wanted to make things easier, not harder, by having clear lines of responsibility for the things we were doing anyway, I was told that I was making things harder than they needed to be and that I was trying to control the group. As predicted by Randy J. Paterson, author of The Assertiveness Workbook: How to Express Your Ideas and Stand Up for Yourself at Work and in Relationships, things got worse. Obnoxiousness went up. And I began to question whether I ever did what I did. Ouch. These are the times where I wish I had thicker skin – and that I had not used email, where misinterpretation is so easy, to express myself. I felt hurt, not seen, and even persecuted. But thankfully I am good at reaching out for support, which I did (by telephone!), and I was able to get more perspective. One group member was able to see things more the way I saw them and to talk through what could address my concern and the concerns of everyone else. I’m feeling confident that we will come to a solution that works for the whole group. In all of these situations, what I truly wanted in the end was to be heard and understood. Yes I take a lot of risks and,   someone observed, often â€Å"throw myself under the bus† when I see what I think is a better way to do things. As stated by Diana Bacon, a financial planner who coaches women entrepreneurs on their assertiveness, being assertive doesn’t mean people will do what you want. But it does â€Å"give you the confidence of knowing you can stake out your space in the world.† I’m encouraged by Randy Paterson’s assertion that assertiveness is a set of skills that can improve over time. I definitely have room for growth, and I look forward to what’s possible.

Profile for Talent Director and Job Description for As Human Resource Essay - 1

Profile for Talent Director and Job Description for As Human Resource Coordinator - Essay Example As a result of the various layers in a bureaucratic organization, the decision making authority actually passes through several layers. Indeed, the characterization of bureaucracy as a â€Å"substitute for leadership† has been on the rise and is seen as the best way of managing organizational communication. Within the bureaucratic organizational structure, information flows from the top management. A good leader in a bureaucratic organization should enhance clear communication channels between them and their employees (Jasper 2). Thus, they the needs of the employees should be well communicated to the leaders. In this regard, effective actions are taken due to the clear information about the employees’ needs. Therefore, staffs’ needs and problems are effectively and efficiently attended to by the director. A democratic leadership style should be enhanced by the director if the needs of the staff are to be addressed properly. In this case, the leaders who exhibit this leadership style involve the staff in the decision making process. Hence the staff is able to participate in giving opinions of how activities should be handled in the organization. In this way, the staffs’ needs are catered for as they are clearly established in the participatory leadership. The director ensures the safety of the staff and consequently their safety of the work place. If the working conditions are not conducive, staff appears to lower their output. Therefore, when the need for safety is facilitated, the staff becomes enthusiastic as they feel that their needs are part of the company’s best interest. Collaborates with the director and other staff in promoting consistency with division that include organizational workflow through the guidance of institutional and departmental practice policies and guidelines The coordinator is expected ton be a team player but often became authoritative

Innovating the process of Custom-made Thobe by the use of technology Essay

Innovating the process of Custom-made Thobe by the use of technology - Essay Example Being custom-made, the thobe is highly unique for each customer. This is particularly true in the recent years where the process of buying a thobe has changed from just having to choose a fabric and take the size measurements, to advanced levels of specialization that are inherent in the modern process. Today a customer has to choose the color, fabric material, sleeves, collar, number of pockets, design and button style. This whole new and continuously updated process expanded the thobe market, increased the number of thobe stores and designers, and most of all, increased the need to buy thobes more frequently. In addition, these differences in styles and colors forced each customer to buy more than double the number he usually buys each year. Now he can have a different style for every occasion: work, formal look, in house, family and friends. The customer must first select a place to make his costumed thobe. This is usually done by random selection or based on advertisements or recommendations from other people. The customer then picks the fabric material, fabric colors, as well as other details including button shape and size; the shop’s staff records these specifications manually. Next, the customer goes through the measurement process where a staff from the shop makes size measurements using a measuring tape. Finally, the customer makes a down payment. Each tailor shop operates independently and relies on its own resources. For example, each tailor shop has their own garments, fabric, and staff who take body measurements. There are also tailors who work on the orders in the production facility, and some shops have their own exclusive and branded designs. The body size measurement process can be very time consuming for customers, especially when there are a lot of them waiting their turn. In many cases, new customers know how long the process could take. Therefore, if there are a number of customers being served, they are most

A Clockworkwork Orange (1971 movie) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

A Clockworkwork Orange (1971 movie) - Essay Example Besides, the director makes use of the characters as his mouthpiece to communicate with the viewers. Thesis statement: An investigation to unearth the scope of the problems faced by human beings, within the film A Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick. Plot summary The plot revolves around the protagonist Alex DeLarge, who is an outlaw and a member of a gang involved in anti-social activities. The film unveils the near future social life in London. But Stuart Y. McDougal states that â€Å"When A clockwork orange appeared in 1971, it was attacked as an unmediated celebration of the violent young self, as a provocation to youthful viewers to imitate what they saw on the screen† (19). As pointed out, Alex represents the gangs in London. After stealing a car, Alex attempts to rape a lady. This incident distracts the members of Alex’s gang but they are helpless to revolt against him. This encourages Alex and leads him to further crimes. At last, Alex was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment (say, 14 years). Within the prison system, Alex was forced to undergo experimentation to reduce social crimes. The Ludivico technique of conditioning, under the supervision of the Minister of the Interior transformed Alex to a new individual. This is the core aspect of the film A Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick.

Study of alberto Giacometti

Study of alberto Giacometti When working on Units 1 and 2 I was drawn to the human body and this was shown in my work. The human body has always been an interest so this is why I decided to study portraits for Unit 3. There were several things about portraits that interested me. First of all the idea of drawing/painting a portrait of someone and getting it to resemble that person was an exciting idea for me. At a younger age I was interested in getting a likeness of the models I would draw. I wanted to develop that ability. In the past when I had drawn from life I had only used pencil. By choosing this as my theme I knew this would give me the chance to draw portraits using other media. The first artist who helped me start this project was Pablo Picasso. I spent much time studying Picasso by looking at his different periods. I started with his African inspired work. However it wasnt until I studied his Rose and Blue Period that I really became interested in portraits. It was this era of his work that inspired me to study portraits. His works in the Blue Period captured my imagination. I feel they are powerful in capturing mood and emotion through Picassos use of colour, realism etc. This was something that pushed me in the direction of portraiture. I wanted to capture mood and emotion in my portraits. He was the inspiration that led me to study other artists including Giacometti and Lucian Freud. I studied artists which had relevance to my work and to the themes I wanted to explore. Alberto Giacometti: The first artist which I studied was Giacometti. The son of a painter, Alberto Giacometti was born in Stampa on October 10th 1901. He began to draw and model at an early age and in 1919 he enrolled at the École des Arts-et-Mà ©tiers in Geneva. He travelled in Italy in 1920-1921. He studied with the sculptor Émile Antoine Bourdelle at the Acadà ©mie de la Grande Chaumià ©re in Paris from 1922-1925. After sharing a studio in Paris with his brother Diego from 1925-1927, Giacometti set up his own. He would often use his brother Diego as a model. I studied his portrait of Jean Genet. Giacomettis technique with line drawing and gesture was something I wanted to explore through my own work. Another painting which reminded me of his style was a portrait of Giacometti. I chose this portrait because of the artists style in gesture drawing. I was interested by his ability to capture his models expressions through line and gesture drawing. I used this technique in my initial sketches in order to feel my way around the subject. Something that I found very interesting was choice in colour. The colours he uses in this particular portrait are all very warm (consisting of different shades of browns). They give a feeling of warmth and comfort yet the expression on the models face appears quite sad and cold. I found this to be somewhat of a paradox. This use of expressive colour I found very exciting and was a concept that led to more research for my project. I decided to paint a self portrait keeping these paints in mind. It led to the creation of a self portrait in this style using similar colours too. One technique the artist has used that I tried to show in my work was the layering of paint thickly. I felt this added volume and history to the portrait. Giacometti uses strong and thick layers of paint in order to emphasise the contrast between light and dark. He paints a dark figure on light background. I found the texture of the brush strokes very interesting but also hard to create in my own work. Giacometti usually focused on sculptures of the human body and for one of many portraits he created, this one shows how skilful he was at creating figures. I think the main aspect, of his paintings I have studied, that captures my interest is his style of painting. He uses free brush strokes and brush strokes which are applied like the crosshatching pencil strokes in a drawing. The shapes he creates with these brush strokes I think are most effective. I have tried to use mark making in my own work in this way. Francis Bacon: Having completed my self portrait I began to feel that it would be a good idea to try and capture expression in my work. I was interested in Francis Bacons expressions that he created in his models faces. Often distorting the faces, Bacons portraits and self portraits push the boundaries in portrait painting. The mood in his paintings is often sombre. Bacon uses dark colours such as dark green, blue and black. Much of his work conveys feelings of suffering and despair. His work is similar to that of cubist style painting and reminds me of Picassos work, such as the Demoiselles dAvignon, in particular the facial expressions of the figures. I studied The Screaming Pope. Bacon completed this painting after being inspired by Velazquezs portrait of Pope Innocent X in 1953. Bacon creates a claustrophobic and nightmarish scene. The figure of the pope is ghost-like. He looks dead or like he is dying. There is a haunted feel about the painting. The screaming face of the pope and the strokes down the painting adds to the horror of the image. One can almost hear his cries. I am not sure why Bacon decided to create such a horrific image of a religious figure who is seen by many as someone holy and graceful. Bacon may be expressing his feeling toward religion or to the concept of the pope. The fact that Bacon was a catholic who later came out as homosexual, perhaps he was suffering from quiet retribution. He may also have been challenging the status of the pope, shocking the public. Bacon had asthma as well as allergies to horses and dogs. During his attacks, he was given morphine, a strong drug, which may explain some of the creative expression in his work which have the quality of drug hallucinations. I am interested in this portrait; the colours convey a sense of horror. The use of purple and gold compliment each other very well but also signify riches and royalty. The black shadows in the background may represent growing shadows around the figure. The use of these colours and the dark aggressive feeling Bacon creates are very effective. When looking at the painting one can almost feel shivers down ones spine. The fact that you can see through the figures robes and that no legs are visible adds to the horror of this painting. After studying this painting I felt compelled to create a piece aiming to capture emotion in a similar way. I wanted to capture the expression in my portrait as Bacon did. I did another self portrait however this one differed from the first. I used different shades of blue acrylic paint. I did not however paint the whole face. Focusing from the nose down to the neck I painted a piece in which my mouth was wide open. I did this to try and capture a similar atmosphere which Bacon captured in The Screaming Pope. By focussing on the shapes created by the lips and cheeks, I was pleased with the result. However I think that perhaps the texture of the hardboard breaks up the brush strokes and makes the brush marks difficult to see. Lucian Freud: When it came to studying Lucian Freud I was amazed by the way he creates skin texture. One of his finest pieces of work was his self portrait entitled Reflection. Portraits and nudes are Freuds specialties and with this piece it is clear to see why. The thing I found most fascinating about this piece of art is the texture of the flesh. Freud seems to capture the raw and ugly nature of the human flesh. In this self portrait Freud has successfully captured every wrinkle and crevice on the face. He uses strong contrast in shadow and highlights and this is something I took into consideration with future paintings. His brushstrokes are carefully applied to create an accurate portrait, whereas Giacomettis portraits and figure drawings have a more abstract quality. Lucian Freuds portraits are so realistic that they become almost surreal. Freud captures every shadow and highlight in a meticulous manner and I was interested in achieving something similar in my own work. There is a strong significance about the colours and paint he uses: I want paint to work as flesh my portraits to be of people, not like them. Not having the look of the sitter, being them as far as I am concerned the paint is the person. I want it to work for me just as flesh does. www.about.com/painting Freud uses a granular pigment called cremnitz white to achieve his unique painting of the flesh. I mixed sand with paint to give more texture to my paint to imitate the texture. I thoroughly enjoyed working with it. I felt it added character to the portrait and made the texture of the skin far more interesting. I found the texture of the hair quite intriguing. I liked the rough and coarse look Freud creates and it was an option to try and achieve a similar look when painting my models hair. However the hair was probably the thing I had most trouble with. I struggled with texture and colour. Perhaps I should have spent more time studying how artists paint hair put it into practice before applying it to a large portrait. The expression in Freuds self portrait is interesting in relation to what it is I am trying to achieve in my work. I have looked closely at the forehead: the lines created from the artists frown. This was something else that I wanted to achieve in my own work. Final Pieces Self Portrait: This portrait was inspired by the portrait of Giacometti which I studied. Using similar colours I attempted to get that similarity to his work. For a first attempt I do not believe I achieved this. I did however succeed in getting a self portrait to actually look like me. This was a great boost of confidence for a first self portrait. From this piece I learned that I should create the background and plan it at the early stages of the portrait. I learned that the background is just as important as the face when creating mood or atmosphere. Oil Pastels on Brown Paper: This was the first time I used oil pastels for a large piece. My aim was to try and set a mood of strong emotion, so I went for feelings of anger and rage. This idea was inspired from paintings from artists such as Picasso and Bacon who use colour to manipulate the mood of their work. I used a strong red to achieve this, combined with black for shadows, orange for mediums and yellow and white for highlights. I drew from life. While looking in a mirror I tried to draw myself with an expression of anger. From this piece I learned how effective colour is in a portrait. For example I could have used a different colour other than red and a different feeling of emotion may have been evoked. Open Mouth Acrylic on hardboard: The aim with this piece was to capture emotion, a feeling of pain, fear or shock. I thought the use of different shades of blue would emphasise these feelings. This was influenced by works from Francis Bacon. The emotion in some of his paintings such as The Screaming Pope appealed to me and I wanted to portray that emotion through my work. However, I decided to take a different approach. Rather than painting my whole face I focused only on the bottom half, from the end of the nose down to the chin. My intention was to capture the emotion from just the open mouth, as I felt that is where most of the strong feelings of emotion exist in Bacons The Screaming Pope. Eyes can often show a persons true feelings, so I wanted achieve this without painting the eyes. The recycling of the hardboard was chosen to give myself experience working with other material. I used the rough side of the board to add texture and to give the piece some more character. In all I felt I had successfully created feelings such as pain and fear through not just my use of a cold colour like blue, but by focusing on the wide open mouth. Portrait of Brother: On A3 paper, I drew a portrait of my brother in pencil, from life. Before this I had practiced drawing portraits in pencil from photographs. This was to prepare me for drawing from life. I wanted to get an idea of shading, proportion, texture, etc. It was a challenge drawing from life as I was quite comfortable with drawing from photographs, however I needed to take that step in order to develop my skills in drawing portraits. Looking at the portrait now I see it lacks in volume. An obvious problem was that I only had a 4B and 6B pencil, so I learned the importance of having different grades of pencils. The portrait required more time in capturing the highlights and shadows. I also had a slight problem with measurements, as the eyes were a little out of proportion. I learned to spend more time in studying shading and to be stricter with my measurements. After drawing this portrait I then photocopied it. Working with the photocopies I tried to capture mood atmosphere by adding colour. I used blue oil pastels in the picture which ultimately led to a colder mood. I also tried to get a different effect. After colouring the picture I scrunched up the paper into a ball and dampened it with water. This then led to cracks on the page which I felt added to the mood, perhaps suggesting a mood of feeling cold and broken, etc. I then used a photocopy to draw it in a larger scale and with different material. Drawing on a sheet of brown paper larger than A2 I used chalk pastels with colours like orange, yellow and blue to try and get different effects. However I soon learned that there is a right way and a wrong way to use brown paper. I used the smoother side of the sheet which led to problems. It proved very difficult to work with as the chalk did not stick well. Portrait of Mother Pencil Charcoal: with this piece I drew my mother from life at a profile view. This was the first time I had drew someone at this angle, so I was interested to see how it would compare with my previous portraits. I used pencils grading from 2B up to 6B. I also used a rubber for the strong highlights that appeared on her hair. I found it challenging doing a profile view. I found that I had to be much more aware of the measurements from the ear to the eye and from the eye to the bridge of the nose. This was quite a challenge but I feel I was quite successful in getting the measurements quite accurate. I achieved a likeness in the drawing to my mothers face so this I felt was an achievement. I then moved on to a bigger piece using this drawing as a guide. On A2 grey card, I created a charcoal copy of the drawing. First however, because of our schools lack of resources, I was restricted to using a sheet of card, which was of poor quality. It had a shiny texture that did no agree with the charcoal. To solve this problem I mixed grey paint with sand. This changed the colour of the sheet but also made it rougher to allow the charcoal to stick. My measurements were a little off this time leading to a failure in getting a likeness to the model. I used the black of the charcoal for the dark shadings, the grey pain acted as a medium and I used white chalk for the highlights. From this I learned that it is possible to create better textures with the use of substances such as sand mixed with paint. I also learned that I have to be even stricter with my measurements as the charcoal piece was less accurate in comparison to the pencil drawing. Portrait of Tom: I drew a classmate from life using charcoal. When drawing this I wanted to explore different effects from light. I did it in a dark room with one office lamp. I feel I was quite successful in getting a likeness. My proportion has become more accurate. I then painted a final piece from this charcoal drawing. This I found a challenge as it is the largest portrait I have done yet. My aim was to get a Lucian Freud look and feel to it. I painted on the background first as I had learned from the past that it was easier to work in this progression. I painted thick brush strokes to create texture. I used shades of cream and pink for the skin colour. Then for the highlights I mixed sand with paint to give more texture to my paint to imitate the texture of Freuds cremnitz. I enjoyed working with this as it created an unusual and interesting texture. It proved to be effective in contrasting the highlights with shadows. The size was important as I wanted to experience with working on something large scale also I felt it would have a larger impact.

Teenagers and Suicide Essay -- Teenage Suicide Essays

The third leading cause of death amongst teenagers: Suicide Did you know that suicide is currently the third leading cause of death among teenagers in the United States? (4). In 1992, more teenagers and young adults died from suicide than those who died from stroke, cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, pneumonia, influenza and chronic lung disease combined (4). Suicide is definitely a compelling problem amongst youth in the U.S today. It is estimated that 300 to 400 teen suicides occur per year in Los Angeles County; which is equivalent to one teenager lost every day (1). Many concerned people ask, "What is going on?" and "Why is this happening?" Among many things, some suicidal youths experience family trouble, which leads them, to doubt their self-worth and make them feel unwanted, superfluous, and misunderstood. According to one study, 90 percent of suicidal teenagers believed their families did not understand them. Young people reported that when they tried to tell their parents about their feelings of unhappiness or failure, their mother and father denied or ignored their point of view (1). Suicide can be prevented; in fact, suicide prevention has saved over ten percent of teens who have tried to attempt suicide (1). In this paper I will prove that although, suicide is a serious epidemic amongst teens in the U.S., it can also be prevented. "I'm depressed." You might say it casually to refer to sadness that engulfs you and then goes away. But depression is also a mental health illness that may require help from an experienced professional(1). Depression has been considered to be the leading cause of teen suicide in the 20th century, affecting approximately eight million teens in North America (2). Recen... ... While the above teen suicide facts are astounding, here are some positives about teen depression and suicide: The number one cause of teen suicide is untreated depression. Most suicidal teens respond positively to psychotherapy and medication. Nearly 90 percent of depressed people benefit from medication. Those contemplating suicide can be "talked out of it." WWW Sources 1)Teen depression homepage, a rich resource on how to prevent teen suicide http://www.teen-depression.info/ 2)Teen depression homepage, a rich resource on causes of suicide. http://www.nami.org/Content/ContentGroups/Helpline1/Teenage_Suicide.htm 3)Teen depression homepage, a personal story on teen suicide http://www.1-teenage-suicide.com/story.html 4)Teen depression homepage, facts about suicide http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/mental_health/suicide.html