Thursday, May 26, 2011

Flourish and Wither



Week 3: Wordplay
The two pieces from this week convey a play on the words “flourish” and the antonym “wither”. I stared with the major background and added a simple overlay to each piece with the flourish line art and the window. As I added more layers I used the Quick Selection and Eraser tools to place the elements into the photos. With each layer I blended with the different lighting tools to create a unified feeling. With the “flourish” piece I used the Brush tool to paint as an emphasis on the colors of the flowers and tomato. For the “wither” piece I used the Gradient tool to create a darker, browner atmosphere to incorporate the idea of decaying. In both of the pieces I used the retouching tools to refine the different layers especially with the greenery in both backgrounds. The text was the last added layer to each of the pieces, and in both I wanted to make the text a part of the background. The “flourish” text was duplicated and I changed the copy of the text to an overlay and decreased the opacity to make the text standout more but still flow and blend with the surrounding area. However the “wither” text was simpler in order to convey the earthy idea. The pieces were fun to create especially after being more familiar with the different options on Photoshop especially once I made a decision on the words I wanted to use. I landed on these words after I had begun taking pictures around my yard. The idea really came to me when I took the photo of my old playground set that has been unused for more than fifteen years. After doing this project I feel very confident in producing great pieces in my future projects.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Lesson 6: Painting and Retouching



Week 3: Painting and Retouching Lesson

This is my before and after piece for the lesson we did this week. I was able to to retouch the glare from the original with the healing tool and add color to the different areas using the brush tool. I really liked this lesson! It was fun to play with color and change the picture based on my own ideas.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

"Your emotional currents are flowing powerfully now!"




Week 2: Fortune Cookie
This week we were to get a fortune and give our interpretation. My fortune was: “Your emotional currents are flowing powerfully now.” To me this fortune gave me the idea to incorporate water and how the change in tides can occur quickly like emotions do.  Both of the pieces are similar in nature in order to express the emotions and power behind them; however the first depicts more emotions while the second depicts more conflicting emotions. For these pieces I used the Quick Selection, Blur, Smudge, Eraser, and Clone Stamp tools to create the effects I wanted. In the second piece I used layer adjustments like the overlay, saturation, and channel mixer to create a stormy atmosphere for this more emotional conflict piece. I used both my own photos and borrowed some other photos from Getty Images that is was not able to get on my own camera. This week I feel like I have the hang of it so far but I know I can improve on the refining techniques. I really enjoyed this project! It was fun to mess around with the different layers and giving my own ideas to the fortune. I’m getting better at this!

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Self Portrait


Portrait: Thur. 5-12-11

For my portrait piece I was able to use the photos I took to merge and create this particular piece. I used the Lasso tool to refine my face and used the Eraser tool to define the lily behind my head. I also copied the eye and flipped it. After scaling the images to size I was able to place them together and add the 70s albums as my background. Lastly I flattended the layers and gave the portrait a black and white color scheme. I enjoyed this peice becasue I wanted to convey my interests in music, nature, and art.

Bike On!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Attempt at Photoshop. . .Not working



 Day 1 was a bit difficult to follow each step but as I played with Photoshop I was able to duplicate images, change the layers and adjust the coloring. Need more time to play!