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Illustrator Photocard

I went to India last summer, and I was able to travel to many tourist destinations in India. I’ve always wanted to visit the Taj Mahal, and it has always been in my bucket list to see it in person. The Taj Mahal is located in Agra, which is about a few hours away from India’s capital, New Dehli. I chose Agra as the place I wanted to use for photo card because I wanted my own memorabilia of this place. This place will always be memorable for me.  I played around with the Warp and Extrude & Bevel tools to modify the tilts of the text and adjusting the shadow. I removed the test from the shadow to place the image of the Taj Mahal in the letters.I tried my best to align the letters across the Taj Mahal through the clipping mask in Illustrator. I tried to align the side pillars in the A’s, and put the main structure into the G and the R. I chose the shadow of the text to be red so the letters stand out, and red reminds me of royalty and love, which is what the Taj Mahal represents.

The background image is taken from a fort that is located behind the Taj Mahal. There is supposed to be a body of water in between the fort and the Taj Mahal, but because of the extreme heat, all the water dried up. If you look more closely, there is so much dry land and heat that is able to be seen in the image. Also, the white marble that makes up the Taj Mahal is losing its color due to pollution, so it’s not as white as it is supposed to be. I put the letters AGRA right on top of where the Taj Mahal is located in the background image. I chose this background image because it’s a different, atypical view of the Taj Mahal and it provides a different perspective about one of the 7 Wonders of the World.

I applied the old paper image over the post card image in Photoshop by doing a partial frequency separation. I applied a gaussian blur to the color layer, but I ended up only keeping the texture layer to give the photo card the effect of looking like paper. I also tried adjusting the blending mode on the layers to give the postcard different effects.

Photoshop Final Project

 

Riya’s Final Photoshop Project

Meaning in Artwork and Ideation:

I wanted my artwork to represent what the future could look like. Big tech companies like Google and Facebook track all their users and store data about the links they click on, what posts they like, etc. and then use that data to refer users to suggested posts and show matching advertisements. Although this information isn’t new to me, I do find it creepy that companies can track everything you do on your phone, almost like they are watching your every move. This idea is what I wanted to demonstrate in my image. I wanted to give my audience a glimpse into what the future could look like. In this image, the two girls are taking a selfie and having fun, but if you look closely in the background, they are being watched by drones. I wanted the background of the sky to represent data transfer, meaning that information from the phone is being tracked by someone else. I also thought my image represents the lack of privacy because the girls are being watched all around by drones.

It’s important to discuss this topic of how companies use user’s data because I think it will become a big political issue soon. Facebook revealed that they track user’s phone calls and messages on Android phones. I think this is an invasion of privacy and companies should be more explicit about what info they track from each user.

I sort of used cliche imagery because I feel like a lot of sci-fi related movies/ images show a city during the night time. I used the coloring of the image to give the image a creepy and eerie feeling, especially because the girls are being watched by so many drones.


Elements of Art:

-Space: The positive space is the subject, so in my image it’s the two girls taking a selfie. The negative space is the background, which in my image is the is city skyline and the data image behind it. I wanted the positive space to appear brighter and the negative space to be darker so the first thing the eyes are directed to are the girls.

-Color: I chose the colors blue, red, and black to be the main colors shown in my image. The black and blue create a futuristic feel in the image, and the red wires represent data transfer.

-Line: The light abstract curves picture that has the curved lines that look like wires represent data transfer. It also demonstrates that information is being transferred in the opposite direction from the girls.

Principles of Design:

-Contrast: I purposefully made the girls brighter and lighter to make them really apparent and contrast against the background. I wanted the girls to represent the present time and the background to represent a dark and eerie future. I also made the girls look somewhat transparent to make it seem like they were a hologram, which further complexes my image in deciding what’s real and what isn’t.

-Repetition: I placed the drones all over the sky to emphasize that someone is watching over the girls. With advances in technology, we are also losing our private information in the digital world.

-Unity: I kept repeating the colors to make the image look harmonious. I also placed the drones all around the sky to balance the image.


Photoshop Tools and Techniques:

-Background Eraser Tool: For the layer with the two girls taking a selfie, I used this tool to erase all of the background to keep only the two girls. This tool was super easy to use, especially around her arm and their hair, to remove the background. I increased the transparency to 100% to make sure everything is removed from the background.

I also used this tool to remove part of the background behind the skyline of the city. I wanted the light abstract curves image to appear in the sky behind the buildings. I was

-Blending mode: I used this on the layer with the image of the girls to change the coloring. I also used this tool to modify the colors of the drones to make some of them appear darker and others lighter. I chose to alter the colors to make some of the drones look hidden and others more visible against the background.

-Gradient tool: While I was deciding where to place the data transfer image, I played around with the gradient tool to see if I could gradually blend the image into the background. Ultimately, I didn’t like how the background looked with the gradient. I liked my image better with the entire sky covered behind the buildings.


Critique:

In process critique: I asked my partner next to me to critique my project. I was debating on whether I should put the light abstract curves image on the bottom half or the upper half of the canvas. I wanted the project to have futuristic vibes. I also wanted the girls taking a selfie to be the main center point of my image. She suggested having it at the top so it would be easier to see the girls in the front of the image.

Final critique: When I presented my image to the class, they pointed out to me how the nail polish of the girl matched with the data transferring wires in the sky. They told me that my image is very well color coordinated.  I did not make any modifications based on my classmates feedback because most of the comments were appreciating my image.


Images Used:

Photo by bruce mars from Pexels https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-women-taking-picture-786801/

https://www.pexels.com/photo/illuminated-cityscape-against-blue-sky-at-night-316093/

https://shop.gopro.com/karma

https://www.pexels.com/photo/lights-abstract-curves-long-exposure-1944/

Portrait Edits

To edit these images, I first started to enhance the eyes by adding a brightness and contrast layer mask. Then, I colored in everything else black except for the iris and pupils of the eyes. Then, for my self-portrait, I used the screen blending mode to make my eyes a brighter brown color. For my brother, I added an additional hue and saturation mask to give his eyes a greenish color. For the frequency separation, I created two copies of the original image to create a colors layer and texture layer. I blurred out the image in the colors layer, and then subtracted the colors in the textures layer. I then chose linear light as the blending mode. Through this process, I was able to enhance the images. On the texture layer, I used the healing brush tools to even out the skin tones and remove blemishes. Both mine and my brother’s cheeks were quite red and pink, so I tried to reduce the redness in the images. Then, I used the dodge and burn tools on the colors layer to highlight the areas of the face that light reflects off of, and added shadows to darken some areas of the face.

 

 

Blog Entry 6: Final Project Brainstorming

Possible Themes:

Self/self reflection-

This topic interests me because I have changed a lot as a person since the beginning of college. I think this topic will be relate able for my audience. All of us are thinking about ourselves, our self-image, and how others perceive us. In the modern day, with social media, I often feel that sometimes people intentionally post things online to project a false image of themselves to make themselves look better than reality.

A cliche image for this topic would be a mirror, but I want to tackle this cliche head on and make my project meaningful. So far I’m planning on making a collage of mirrored images of someone (either myself or a different person) and build upon the image from there.

I’m hoping that I can get people to be interested in this topic by using visual illusions in my collage to attract the audience. Also, there has been so much controversy about using photoshop to alter images of models all over the media and how it projects an unreal standard of beauty. I want to use the irony that I’m using Photoshop to create an image about self, and how one perceives themselves, and how others perceive you.


Community-

This topic interests me because I think there is a strong sense of community on our campus. Even though we have 60,000 people attending OSU, I feel like we can always come together as one, unified community and rally together for something whether it’s sports, Pelotonia, or raising money for BuckeyeThon.

To represent the Buckeye community, some cliche images would be: the buckeye nut, the buckeye tree, the Block O, and anything else to do with the OSU logo. Cliche images of community in general would be people holding hands, hearts, people sitting together at a table. I might use this topic for my iMovie project, but I’m still in the process of  brainstorming.

I think people should care about this topic because the idea of community impacts our daily lives. For example, after the recent school shooting in Florida, all the high school students and families are working together to fight for better gun control. They are gaining support worldwide, and thus expanding their community of support. There is also going to be a national walk out day, so this means numerous communities will be working together as a whole to advocate for gun control. I think communities have more power than we realize, and through communities, people have the chance to impact others and the world around us.


Change/Future-

This topic interests me because I think robotics is an ever changing field that can be applied in so many different ways. Prosthetic limbs have changed people’s lives and allowed them to pursue what ever they want to. Robots are being used in manufacturing factories. We can use robots in our homes in our daily lives. In the future, I’m sure robots will be able to do so much more. I want to learn about what is being improved about these robots that we already have and what future designs look like. This is just an initial idea because I’m not entirely sure where to go beyond this.

Cliche images would be robots from movies, like the Iron Giant, Short Circuit, or Big Hero 6. My favorite is Baymax from Big Hero 6 because if he existed in the real world, he could be saving so many lives and helping patients recover.

People should care about this topic because technology is going to change faster than we realize. Amazon has created a store with no cashiers or lines, and several companies are already working on self driving cars. I hoping to portray the future of technology through my work so the audience can get a glimpse of what the future may look like.

Group Joiner Project

The most exciting part of this project was creating the physical collage. It was so much easier to physically pick up the photos and arrange them how I wanted to. Being able to work with paper and scissors made it easier for me and my group to collaborate together. We could move around the images, but we had to be careful cutting up the images because there is no undo button to reverse to the original picture. I liked our Photoshop collage too, but I found it harder to work together because one person is controlling the mouse while the rest of us look at the monitor. Overall, I think the physical collage was more successful because we were able to put all of our creative input together and show movement through our piece.

The most frustrating part of this project was the photo merge image. All of our images ended up looking like a stack of photos on top of each other. I tried to select different images and a different amount of images and the results all nearly looked the same. I think Photoshop saw the repeated background of the Wex center and just piled all the pictures on top of each other to align the lines of the structure together. Photoshop wasn’t able to make the same decisions as my team and I wanted to. We did not want a pile of images, but to arrange them in an interesting manner, which Photoshop’s algorithm failed at.

Although I think art created by algorithm and AI should still considered to be art, they can’t completely replace art created by humans. No matter how complex Photoshop algorithms are, it is nearly impossible to replicate the creativity of the human mind, which is what makes us separate from other species. I agree with Hockney that physical images can create a powerful piece of art, but tools like Photoshop can further enhance an artist’s creativity. I think Photoshop is a powerful tool to edit and manipulate images, and is much quicker to modify than creating a physical piece of art. I also think digital media through Photoshop is equally as important as art we see in museums because majority of our lives have become digital now. We can use the internet as another creative outlet, so we could definitely use Photoshop as another tool to create art.

Composite Landscape

What if someone lost their umbrella while visiting the unusual Golden Gate Bridge?

Riya’s Composite Landscape

Screenshot of Enterprise tutorial

In Progress Face Swap

The painting I used to swap my face with is Lorette in a Red Jacket by Henri Matisse. I’m already a fan of Matisse’s artwork, and I felt that I have some similar features like Lorette in this painting. Also, this painting primarily consists of reds and yellows, which is less colorful than Matisse’s other paintings, which made this painting interesting to me.

I took a swatch of my face and a portion of Lorette’s face and changed the RGB values of my swatch so that my face would be a similar tone like the painting. I copied and pasted my face onto the painting, and created a layer mask to brush away parts of my face to align with the painting. Then, I used the polygon tool to select a portion of Lorette’s face and began to move around the grid lines and dots to merge my face with the painting.

Examining Color in Photoshop

Elements of Art and Principles of Design Example Photos