For this Tiny World design, I chose The Oval. I am certain several other OSU students have chosen this location as well for this design and that is most likely because of the personality of the space. Not only is The Oval an aesthetically pleasing location, but for a lot of students it is one of the first awe inspiring moments they experience as freshman. The Oval is one of the first places I take friends from my hometown to because it is always guaranteed to impress. The Oval has a very strong energy of being alive, full of excitement and fun activities. There are always people lounging about enjoying their days. It is also a very strong social hub where it is relatively normal to meet new people and forge new relationships with people.

The creation process for my Tiny World was actually pleasantly simple. Though this is mostly because I did not complete this assignment until the end of the semester which allowed me to gain my skills through other assignments before returning to this one. Comically, the most difficult portion of this creation process for me was finding the time to get my own photographs taken for the assignment. The main difficulty with this image was editing the panorama photo of The Oval. Several people in the foreground had to be removed from the image with the clone-stamp tool. Additionally, after putting the image into polar coordinates, there were several streaks in the corners of the image that were not aesthetically pleasing that had to be edited also using the clone-stamp tool in an attempt to make it look more natural or at the very least keep the viewer’s attention from being drawn to those corners. No adjustments to shadows or lighting were made because as I looked over the photograph, it did not feel necessary to add any of those edits. The portrait being added was taken in the same lighting and the angle of the lighting source would have casted the shadow behind my body. Overall, I am very pleased with how the design came out and I am glad I had the opportunity to participate in this assignment.

Additionally, enjoy this bonus image of my friends who refused to leave the background of my image during my “photoshoot”.

Elements of Art:

Line

Line is the visualization of a path that a point (or the viewers focus) can move upon.

Shape

Shape is the 2D representation of contour or geometry of an object within the image. In the case of this image the negative shape inside the coffee cans creates the shape of a rectangle.

Color

Color is an images chromatic quality. Typically this is seen thematically as shown above with the clear brown scheme despite the presence of other colors.

Value

Value is an objects quality of brightness and darkness within the image.

Form

Form is an objects perception of 3D depth within an image.

Texture

Texture is an objects perception of having a tactile quality within the image.

Space

Space is the use and understanding of negative space as an object within an image.

Principles of Design:

Balance

Balance is the symmetry of objects within the image.

Contrast

Contrast is the arrangement of objects within the image to create a difference and draw attention to the imbalance within the image.

Emphasis

Emphasis is the use of difference to draw attention to an object of importance within the image.

Movement

Movement is the inference of motion of objects within an image.

Pattern

Pattern is a uniform repetition of objects within an image.

Proportion

Proportion is the use of scale between objects within an image.

Alignment (Repetition)

Alignment/Repetition is the uniform arrangement of objects within an image to form a line.

Unity

Unity is the concept that all objects within the image have a sense of belonging or possessing a central theme within an image.

Final Project:

Shown below is my custom resume, cover letter, business card, and Facebook banner. All of these designs were inspired by my personal interest in prostheses and bio-mechanical engineering as a whole.

Click to enlarge

This is my edit on the original Freckles and Tattoo image. In this edit, I have changed the models hair and eye color. In order to accomplish this, I utilized methods I had been taught in class. To modify the hair color, I duplicated the finished image and used the “Select and Mask” tool in order to screen out everything but the model’s hair. With the hair isolated, I was able to use difference colored brushes as well as different opacity and blending modes to effectively alter the model’s hair color. While this method is far from perfect, it was a very quick and efficient alteration that I was very surprised by. I did not perform this edit until late in the semester, so I was more familiar with the tools in Photoshop. However, I was surprised with how intuitively I was able to look at the image and perform my own edits without any guides or tutorials based exclusively what I had learned from class. Having the alteration process demoed in class was definitely very effective in helping me learn. While I may not be able to completely replicate the quality displayed to me, it shows me what type of quality is possible and what tools I should consider using when I attempt my own edits.

Altering the models eyes was performed using essentially the same process as the hair. I was inadvertently a bit sneaky with my choice of eye color for this edit. Being able to change the eye color of a person and have it look believable turned out to be more difficult than hair. Using a non-natural eye color that would suggest that the model is wearing colored contacts mitigated this issue. However, this was actually not intentional. While it was a convenient turn of events, after making this version of the image, I actually went back and attempting to create more natural eye colors with moderate success. When it came time to finally submit a design, I ended up reverting the image to the supernatural blue eye color. There was something bizarrely captivating and interesting about the edit that stuck out to me more than replacing her eyes with just another natural eye color. Overall, while I still have a lot of progress to make with making realistic and cosmetic edits, I was very satisfied with my ability to produce my own edits and have moderate success utilizing only the skills I had learned in class.

Normal Blending Modes:

Blending modes in the Normal Blending Mode family all exclusively use the opacity of the layers to control the blending between the layers. No external algorithm is used to blend the individual pixels.

Normal

The Normal blending mode is the default blend for all images in Photoshop. In this mode, there is no true blending being performed, although you can use the opacity slider to reveal additional layers.

Dissolve

The Dissolve blending mode blends the layers in Photoshop by using a dither pattern (noise/static). The intensity of this dither pattern is determined by the opacity of the layers being blended.

Darken Blending Modes:

Blending modes in the Darken Blending Mode operate by darkening the colors in the layer being blended. Any white in the layer will become transparent and any other colors will have some associated darkening affect on the layer it is being blended into.

Darken

Darken utilized the luminance values in the RGB channels in Photoshop between the base layer and the layer being blended and selects the darker of the two to display.

Multiply

Instead of comparing the darkness of the layers, multiply instead takes the luminance values in the RBG channels between the base layer and the layer being blended and multiplies them together resulting in a darker image.

Color Burn

Color Burn darkens the image by increasing the contrast between the base layer and the layer being blended in order to saturate the mid-tones and reduce any highlights in the image.

Linear Burn

Linear Burn darkens the image by decreasing the brightness of the base layer based upon the color values associated with the layer being blended in the image.

Darker Color

Darker Color is very similar to Darken, except that instead of looking at the RBG channels individually, Darker Color looks at the channels together and selects the darkest combination for the image.

Lighten Blending Modes:

Blending modes in the Lighten Blending Mode operate by lightening the colors in the layer being blended. Any black in the layer will become transparent and any other colors will have some associated lightening affect on the layer it is being blended into.

Lighten

Lighten operates by comparing the colors in the  base layer and the layer being blended into it and selecting the lightest color between the two. This is essentially the inverse of Darken.

Screen

Screen uses the luminance values of the pixels int he layers and selects the brighter pixels in the image to be displayed.

Color Dodge

Color Dodge decreases the contrast between the base layer and the layer being blended into it which reduces the saturation of the mid-tones and increases the highlights in the image.

Linear Dodge (Add)

Linear Dodge (Add) operates by increasing the brightness in the base layer based upon the associated color values of the layer being blended into it.

Lighter Color

Lighter Color simply compares the the brightness of the base and blending layer and displays the brightest of the two in the image. This blend mode utilizes the RBG channels to accomplish this type of blend.

Contrast Blending Modes:

Blending modes in the Contrast Blending Mode operate by comparing the colors in the layer to 50% gray. Colors that are lighter than 50% gray receive a lightening effect. However, colors that are darker than 50% gray receive a darkening effect in the image.

Overlay

Overlay is essentially a composite blend mode of Screen and Multiply. If the colors in the layer are lighter than 50% gray, then a Screen blend mode is applied at half strength. If the colors in the layer are darker than 50% gray, then a Multiply blend mode is applied at half strength instead.

Soft Light

Soft Light assigns a darkening or lightening effect by comparing the luminance values of the base layer and the layer being blended into it, but in a subtle fashion than other blending modes.

Hard Light

Hard light uses a composite of the Screen and Multiply blend modes similar to Overlay. However, Hard Light utilizes the brightness of the blend layer to perform its blending.

Vivid Light

Vivid Light is a very strict version of Overlay where anything darker than 50% gray is darkened and anything lighter than 50% gray is lightened.

Linear Light

Linear Light is essentially a composite blend mode of Linear Dodge and Linear Burn. If the colors in the layer are lighter than 50% gray, then a Linear Dodge blend mode is applied. If the colors in the layer are darker than 50% gray, then a Linear Burn blend mode is applied instead.

Pin Light

Pin Light completely removes the mid-tones in the image by performing the Darken and Lighten blend modes simultaneously.

Hard Mix

Hard mix blends the layers by adding the values of each RBG channel in the base layer and the blending layer. The only colors that can be present in the image is white, black, red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, or yellow.

Inversion Blending Modes:

Blending modes in the Inversion Blending Mode operate by utilizing variations between the base layer and the blending layer to create the specific blend.

Difference

The Difference blend mode uses the differences between the pixels in the base layer and the blending layer to perform the blend. In this blend, white inverts the pixel color of the base layer, black creates no change, and other colors creating variation in between.

Exclusion

Exclusion operates very similarly to the Difference blend mode with the exception that pixels that are blended with 50% gray will simply remain 50% gray in the image.

Subtract

The Subtract blend modes performs a blend in the image by subtracting the color values of the pixels in the blending layer from the base layer creating a darkening effect in the image. This effect is more pronounced in lighter areas of the image.

Divide

Divide creates an opposite effect to Subtract where darker areas of the image become lighter in the image due to the blending of the color values in the pixels between the base and blending layers.

Component Blending Modes:

Blending modes in the Component Blending Mode operate by utilizing hue, saturation and brightness to create blending effects.

Hue

The Hue blend mode does not affect the luminosity or saturation of the image. This blend mode simply changes the hue of the base layer to match the pixels of the blending layer.

Saturation

The Saturation blending mode does not affect the luminosity or hue of the image. This blend mode only affects the saturation of the base layer by changing it to match the blending layer.

Color

The Color blending mode does not affect the luminosity of the image. This blend mode changes the hue and saturation of the base layer by altering the corresponding values to match the values seen in the pixels of the blending layer.

Luminosity

The luminosity blending mode does not affect the hue or saturation of the image. Instead, this blending mode affects the luminosity of the base layer by altering its values to match the values seen in the pixels of the blending layer.

This is my Andy Warhol inspired design using my personal salt lamp I keep on my desk. I chose this item to represent myself as a sort of abstract representation of my spirituality and personality. Initially, I was going to select my wooden training sword from my time as a martial artist which has Japanese symbols that are very important to me burned into the handle. However, this idea was scrapped due to it not making a good composition for this style of design. Andy Warhol’s big idea was to use common objects such as Coca-cola cans in his artwork as a way to reach everyone as his audience. Regardless or wealth or social status, everyone could relate to things like Coca-cola or Campbell soup. I think his ideas about popular culture do have merit as these types of objects do have a very interesting relationship amongst people. His way of using this medium of common items is very simple, but a very effective way to get all ranges of audiences to stop and pay attention to his artwork and receive the message he has placed within the image.

My object does not necessarily connect to popular culture. The connotation of a salt lamp appeals more to a specific subset of people who are more spiritual than religious. However, what is very interesting about this type of object, especially with the bold color scheme I have chosen inspired by Andy Warhol, is that the vast majority of humans find some intrinsic fascination with the appearance of crystals. The warm glow that flows through the salt lamp is very comforting and captivating to watch regardless of your wealth or social status. Warhol used a significant amount of automation in his artwork which has been further improved upon by taking art-making into Photoshop. However, I think part of Warhol’s tradition may have been lost during this transition. One of the interesting characteristics of his artwork was how each object had a small amount of personality to them despite also looking the same. Now, with Photoshop, there seems to be a deeper desire for perfection, flawlessness, and for objects to look precisely the same. While this is very useful for some designs, it feels like some of the magic of Warhol’s art has been lost in this regard.

This is an image of my Enterprise Photoshop with a boat and additional planet added to the image!

This is my introduction to Adobe Illustrator which I used to create this interesting geometric landscape!

Figure 1: Lava field Photoshop (top left) with  posterize (top right), invert (bottom left) and invert (bottom right) adjustments

It was an interesting process creating this image because this was the first time in Photoshop that I felt as if I had made something interesting. Despite its simplicity, I found myself fascinated that I had taken three images and merged them together with a sense of unity. Obviously there are higher level things that could have been done to make the images more aesthetically pleasing and believable. However, it was a proud starting point for me that made me feel more eager to learn more and create more images in Photoshop.

Figure 2: Freckles and Tattoo Photoshop

This was a huge project for me as a beginner in Photoshop. The main tools I used for this image was the clone-stamp and blur tool in order to take clear portions of the models skin and cover the freckles and tattoos she possesses in the image. I had relative success with the models bicep and face. However, the forearm has very noticeable artifacting marks from my attempts to cover the large area of the tattoo. The primary complication in this assignment was her shoulder. The several types of lighting and shadowing proved too difficult for me to replicate and I ended up masking her entire chest and shoulder in a similar tone and essentially erasing her clavicle. It does not look very natural, however the choppy patches of different skin tones I was attempting to use actually drew more attention in the image than making it a uniform tone.

I actually did this project approximately four different times in an effort to improve the quality of my image. Each time I progressively learned more about the tools I was using and even though the final result was still far from perfect. It was orders of magnitude better than my first iteration of this project. I found myself temporarily addicting to trying out different methods to make sections of her skin appear more natural. Actually, in my first iteration I did not even use the clone stamp tool because I did not understand how it functioned. Instead I used several color modifications to pull the color out of her tattoos and then blurred them until they were unrecognizable as tattoos. Instead she just had the appearance of being very dirty which was admittedly not a great final product but a surprisingly effective result given the tools I was attempting to use. Overall, I developed a much deeper understanding of the basic tools used in Photoshop which has allowed me to grow as a designer and further deepen my skill set.