Postcard

In creating this postcard, I began by uploading my landscape image into illustrator. After doing this I typed the text “Shroud Cay, Exuma” onto the image using a font from the typekit (the location of the picture). Using Effect/Warp/Rise I edited the text to have somewhat of a bend in the text. Editing the bend, I adjusted the amount of movement in the text. After that, I expanded the appearance. Using effect/3D/Extrude and Bevel I was able to create a shadow behind the image. I then expanded the appearance again. Using the direct selection tool I hit shift and then clicked on each letter. I then copy and pasted each letter onto the canvas. I put my text filler image on the text and moved it to the back and adjusted were I wanted the image to be. I copied the photo and sent it to the back. Using object/clipping mask/create I created a clipping mask on the photo. I did this for each letter to ensure that they are all filled in. I used direct selection and the path tool to align the texts. Next I added in my background image and put it beneath the text. My last few steps involved copying this image into photoshop by rasterizing and dragging the image to photoshop. I took the image of the old paper and placed it onto of my postcard. I then lowered the opacity of the paper and messed with the hue and saturation until I was happy with the image. I then added a small amount of text and warped that as well to fit the photo. The reason I chose this image because it was an image I took myself with my drone at my favorite faction spot on earth. It is called Shroud Cay and it is in a chain on islands called the Exumas which is in the Bahamas.

Final Project

When brainstorming my final project, the first thing that caught my eye on the list of ideas provided to us was ancestry. After brainstorming ideas on ancestry, I knew whatever my final project was going to be it was going to involve my family. I did some looking online at some random images and came across an image of Mount Rushmore. After seeing this image, I realized I could use this image to help interpret family into my project but also adding comedy. The idea I had was to take the faces of the presidents and replace them with the faces of my family members. I wanted to convey a message of unity and family also with that fact that you should have fun with your family. That is why I added a little bit of comedy to the image showing that you should laugh and joke around with you family.

I began by blurring out the faces of the presidents using the blur too. After blurring out each face of the presidents on the mountain, I started to find pictures of my family members which would fit the image well. As each face on the mountain is facing or looking in a different direction this was somewhat difficult. After finding the right pictures, I was ready to replace the blurred-out spots with my family’s faces. This was a very important part of my process as these faces will be the main focus of my image.

The first step I took was to select a section of the first blurred face I wanted to use with the marquee tool and copied this onto the first photo I wanted to use, which was a photo of my father. After doing this I selected another section with the marquee tool but this time the selection was taken from my father’s face. Next, I selected the Mount Rushmore swatch using the magnetic lasso tool and then selected Filter > Blur > Average. This averaged all the colors in the selection to one happy medium. I repeated this step with the selection of my father’s face. My next step was to make the photo swatch match the Rushmore swatch. I did this by selecting the top layer, then the curves tool. Using the finger tool and holding down shift I selected the Rushmore swatch which gives the RGB values for the swatch. While holding down shift and command I selected the swatch of my father’s face. Using the dropdown menu, I individually changed the red, green and blue values to match that of the Rushmore swatch. Next the two swatch layers need to be deleted and the curves mask is merged with the photo layer. After taking a large selection of my father’s face I copied onto the Rushmore photo and began to form and crop it onto the left most Rushmore face. I did this by lowering the opacity then using the brush tool to removed unneeded parts of the image. I tweaked the image several times, manipulating the size and hardness of the brush until I got the perfect fit. I repeated all of these steps three more times, but using my mother, brother and sister until my whole family was on Mount Rushmore. Lastly, I found an Image of myself standing which would fit well with the Rushmore image. I used the magnetic lasso tool to take a selection of myself removing the background of the image. The I copied the selection of me onto the Rushmore image and then adjusted the size until I was happy with how it looked.

When looking at the elements and principals of art, I was sure to incorporate several into my image to get the best product possible. First when I was blurring the faces of the presidents, I tried hard to not completely blur the face. I wanted to keep the form of the face that was engraved on the rock. By doing this when I placed my family members faces on Mount Rushmore, the form of the original structure will still be there instead of looking like a flat face.

Another principal of art I used was emphasis. I used this in two ways. One, as it was my family I wanted to be sure I was in the image. I place myself, in regular color, standing on top of Mount Rushmore outing emphasis on the fact that it is my family depicted. Me not matching the color of Mount Rushmore put an emphasis on me. Also, I put my father’s face in place of George Washington’s, putting emphasis on the fact that he is the man of the house.

One more principal I used was proportion. With there being only 4 faces on Mount Rushmore and my family having 5 members, I still wanted to incorporated myself into this image. I didn’t want to mess with the structure of Mount Rushmore, so I decided to take a photograph of myself and make it very small. I then placed the photo of myself on top of Mount Rushmore making it look like I was standing on top of the structure. Proportioning myself to be smaller makes it look more real, as if I was actually standing there in the original image.

Most of the feedback and critique I received of my image was positive. Other students in the class really enjoyed the image and enjoyed the comedy of the image. During the in process critique one of my classmates suggested to find a different image of my brother as the face just didn’t look right pasted on Mount Rushmore. I agreed with this critique and found a different image which I used for the final take. In the final critique, it was suggested to remove the American flag which is a part of the original image. It was said that the flag somewhat drew the focus of the image away from the faces due to the fact that it is right in the middle of the image. I decided to leave the flag. The reason I decided to leave it was due to the fact that it was a part of the original image and in my opinion removing it would distort the image. Also suggested was pacing something in front of the flag instead of removing it. In my opinion, anything that would be placed over the flag would have the same effect of drawing the attention away from the focus.

Portrait Edits

In making both of these portraits, the first thing I did was edit the eyes. I deselected everything besides the eyes then used hue to edit the color. Next I used the the spot heading brush tool to remove blemished from each image, smoothing them. After that I blurred the images and removed the texture and began to use the dodge and burn tools. Using the dodge and burn tools I brightened and darken different parts of the images to enhance the overall quality. In the image of myself, I had trouble editing the eyes because for some reason they were very dark. Possibly because of the original colors of the image.

First image is the real, second is the photoshopped.

Blog Entry 6: Final Project Brainstorming

The topic that interested me the most was ancestry.

1.) Ancestry interested me because first off I don’t know much about my families ancestry and second I think there are some very cool ways I could depict ancestry with photoshop.

2.) I know the basics of ancestry meaning I know what the word means. The reason I chose ancestry was because I wanted to use my family, so I know a little bit about my families ancestry but nothing past 2 or 3 generations.

3.) I wanted to get a deeper understanding of my families ancestry. As in where my roots come from, who helped build this family and how I got here today.

4.) I think the most cliché image for this topic would be to involve a family tree. Anything with ancestry screams family tree so I definitely need to stay away from that.

5.) Ancestry is an important part of who you are. It is your background and it is how you became who you are today so it is import that people know their background.

6.) I will discuss this object by using a creative unoriginal idea. My thoughts so far would be using me as the focus if the image and having my thoughts being depicted. In my depicted thoughts you will see different scenes and objects which factor into my ancestry somewhat telling a story. Another thought was to have me as the focus, but have different parts of my body covered in images that depict my families history.

7.) I think I will be able to get people interested in my topic by creating something that one makes sense and is capable of being understood. Two, I will depict ancestry as an important part of ones life to help people understand and want to look into their own ancestry.

Group Jointer Project

Photoshop generated version.                                          Collage version.                                                 Homemade photoshop version.

The most frustrating thing about this project to me was the photoshop generated part. Photoshop would not put more than 3 or 4 images together at once. The most exciting part was the homemade photoshop version because it allowed us to take our own photos and shape and mold them into a perfect collage. I think our homemade photo shop version is our best because we changed the size and shapes of the image creating a more diverse and well formed collage. Photoshop was definitely not able to make the same decisions that we were. Hockney feels that photoshop does not express movement well and is incapable of projecting a good image. He is right in this case because our photoshop generated image is poorly crafted compared to both of our other collages. I believe that photoshop is a tool for creation as a brush is a tool for painting. The user is making the art but photoshop just assists. I still believe these creations are art, just simply in a different form.

 

Blog Entry 4

In this image I placed a cruise ship in a small pond, and in the background I placed a storm. I purposefully left space between the mountains and the storm to make it appear as if the storm is far away.

Blog Entry 3

So far in this process of placing my face onto this American Gothic photo graph I have selected parts of each face with the marque tool. After that I averaged them (using filter-blur-averge) and used the RGB colors of the first image, copied those values into to the image of my face. Then I flattened the entire image to match the original. After that I took a large section of my face and placed it on the new image and began shaping it to fit the new image. The title of this image as previously stated is American Gothic and was painted by Grant Wood in 1930. The reason I chose this image was because I always found some humor in the image.

Blog Entry 2: Color

Grey Scale – to edit the grey scale I went to image/mode/grey scale. Applying Grey Scale gives the image only intensity values, no color values.

Desaturated – to desaturate this image I went to image/adjustments/desaturate. Applying desaturation lowers the intensity of the color.

Monotone – to make this image monotone I converted it to grey scale, then selected duotone and then selected a color. This gives the image only one color.

Channel Mixer – to access channel mixer I added a new layer and then adjusted the RGB values.

Blog Entry 1: Elements and Principles

The Elements of Art –

Shape – The counter of a flat object. The shape of this sticker is round.

Form – 3d structure with mass/depth. This baseball has a round from.

Value – an objects brightness/darkness. The brightness and darkness of the mountainside varies throughout the photo.

Space – An objects external/internal areas. The water is the external area and the boat is the internal.

Color – objects chromatic quality. The color of this object is red.

Texture – the tactile quality of a surface. This object has a ribbed texture.

Line – path of a moving point. The edge of this object has a line.

Principles of Design –

Balence – a distribution of equal visual weight

Contrast – a juxtaposition that accentuates difference

Emphasis – an accentuation of importance

Movement – the directed path of optical motion

Pattern – repetition of objects

Proportion – a scaling of objects in relation of one another

Alignment – an arrangement forming a straight line

Unity – harmonious arrangement of visual elements