Week 14 - Brushes Only

CRAFT: I created two brushes -- hands and a dove. The image of the dove was obtained from a friend and the hands are one I took myself. To create each brush, I created a 2000 x 2000px canvas in grayscale. I used the various selection tools to crop the specific portions of the image I wanted. I then copied it into the new canvas, resided as needed, then created a brush. I then created the canvas for my project. I colored the background a rich crimson. I then created a layer above the background where I selected white and used my hand brush. On another layer, I selected a deep gold and created the dove. I created another layer and found some sparkle brushes. I used a 2 large sparkle brushes to create the shine coming from the hands, and the glow in the corner. I then selected different style sparkle brushes and made their positioning scattered and their size dependent on the pressure of my pen strokes on the tablet. I generated the streaks of sparkles from the hand around the dove. I then went back behind these 3 new layers to complete my background. I found a circular brush and selected a purple. I then created various layers of this brush at different hues to center in on the dove. The purple overlapping the red achieved some very pretty effects. I then did the same thing with black circles around the hand and added a golden glow by using a very soft edged brush.

CONCEPT: The concept was magic. When I think of magic, I think of white gloves, slight of hand, doves coming from nothing, etc. Colors I associate with magic are reds and golds and purples. If I could see magic happening, I would imagine it to be like fairy dust in movies--shiny and luminescent. I decided on the concept of magical hands. The hands have a magic stream coming from them, spreading out to generate a dove. I want the viewer to imagine that the dove is somehow released from the hands, and with the colors and luminescence used, that the transformation was magical.

COMPOSITION: The colors I use in the image remind me of magic. Magicians typically wear white gloves, so I made the hands white and since they are magic hands, all of the "magic dust" stems from them, so the glowing white sparkles emulate from the hand to the dove. The hands are positioned to resemble the shape of the dove flying. The background is red and purple because I feel those colors are befitting of the theme. The hands are the most important part and I want the eye to see the hands, then trace the magic stream to the dove. By using white, I think I achieve this. The dove is a deep gold, which still contrasts from the other colors, while still making it seem enchanted. I used the blacks near the hands to make the white seem brighter and add some balance.

Week 13 - Organic and Manufactured

CRAFT: I used the scanner to obtain images of manufactured and natural items. I scanned a fallen leaf, a dandylion, and a leaf stem plucked from a bush. I used 300dpi. I then cropped the items away from their background with the magnetic lasso tool. I scanned some mesh flowers and my sweater at a larger dpi to get more detail in the woven materials. I created a mask from the fallen leaf and used it to create leaves out of the manufactured materials. I scattered them about the whole background layer of my project, resized, and reduced their saturation and altered their hues to make them naturally colored, though artificial. I copied the dandylion head and duplicated it, rotating each flower to the correct angle to make a circle. I applied a filter to the entire group to increase the hue and saturation. I used the original fallen leaf and copied a circular portion of it to create a background behind the circle of flowers. I resized it as needed. I used liquefy to alter the shape of the leaf stem to make it look more like a peace sign. I again altered the hue/saturation to achieve the desired result. I then applied drop shadow to all of the natural items to make them stand out from their background. I then applied an opaque rainbow gradient over the background layer.

CONCEPT: The assignment was to merge natural and manufactured textures while maintaining a level of recognizable realism. Upon seeing the leaf stem , I thought it resembled a peace sign. Since it was a natural texture, I decided on Peace is Natural. I created the iconic peace sign out of all of the natural materials I obtained. I did not alter them greatly from their natural color because I wanted the realism. I used masks of natural leaves to create cut outs from the manufactured textures. I created a background that resembled nature, but was obviously not composed of organic material. I then added the rainbow gradient to overlay the background because I associate the idea of peace with a lot of color. I thought it helped convey my theme.

COMPOSITION: I gave the manufactured leaves very natural looking hues because I wanted a level of realism even though the items were not organic. I rotated and resized the leaves to make sure that their key parts, such as the stems, were visible and not hidden under the peace sign. I wanted it to be obvious that the background was made of a leaf shape. The peace sign is centered. The dandy lions are the brightest because they are the first thing i want to be seen. Then the eye follows to the green stem within to formulate the peace sign. However, before that correlation is made, you see the flowers...the natural portion. Then with the addition of the stem, the recognizable symbol of peace is formed. Then the eye trails from the brightest portion of the image to the background, which lies apparent that it is not made from the same materials as the peace sign. The title, "Peace is Natural", also conveys this message.

Week 12 - Photo Recolors

CRAFT: I used my camera to take photos of shoes. I converted the image to grayscale and enhanced the vibrance of the shoes. I set it to multiply, then created a layer behind it in a dark orange. I created a layer above it with a lighter, and then a nearly white variation of the same color and used the paintbrush on the different layers to paint the objects I wanted to enhance. I then used a combination of an eraser with a soft edge and the magnetic lasso tool to trim the color that fell outside of the lines. I used brightness and contrast to brighten the lights and darken the darks until I got my desired result.

CONCEPT: I really enjoy shoes and the idea of viewing the world from the same level as them. I wanted images that were interesting so that I could enhance different parts of the photo to draw attention to details. I chose shoes to be my most important part of the photo with the things they see as the secondary.

COMPOSITION: All of my photos are from angles near ground level of whatever the shoes are on. I made sure to take layered images so that I had different things to look at. I tried to make the shoes the largest portion of the photo, even if they were not the largest thing in the photo. I selected interesting angles on the shoes to try to make the photos more interesting and I tried to keep the poses natural.

Week 11 - Misfit Toy Advertisement

CRAFT: (See Week 9 for Barbie's craft)

I took an image of the McDonalds Logo against a white background and used the magic wand to remove the white. I then used the text tool to add the "Brought to you by" and the eyedropper to select the proper red from the original logo. I merged the 2 layers and applied an outline. I used the text tool to create "Barbie" and applied an outline and drop shadow. I used text to create "Supersize Me" and used the eye dropper to match the yellows and reds to the McDonalds logo. I added a bevel and red outline, as well as drop shadow I used the text tool to create"Bigger Barbie, Bigger FUN!". I used Character to resize and tamper with the width of the letters to create the enlarging effect. I used traditional Barbie pink from the bathing suit and added the same pink outline as the Barbie logo. I then added 2 more layers with the McDonalds colors. I then added the text "Includes 1 FREE meal" and englarged the 1 FREE and made it the Mcdonalds yellow, rather than the red. I beveled both and then added a drop shadow to just the words "includes" and "meal".

CONCEPT:

I created an overweight Barbie themed along the idea of McDonalds, since McDonalds fast food is associated with obesity. I wanted something taboo that nobody would buy, but I wanted to sell it as if it were an amazing toy. I've heard the phase Bigger is Better, so I did a spin off on it with "Bigger Barbie, Bigger FUN!" In order to put understanding behind the large Barbie, I incorporated the McDonalds theme into it with their logo and colors.

COMPOSITION:

I examined a few Barbie advertisements and the one that was the most striking to me had an image of the Barbie's face only along the whole side of the ad. In the white space was the text selling the doll with the catchphrase and the logo at the bottom right. I borrowed this idea to create my ad. I wanted to be sure that the Barbie's size was apparent in the advertisement so I chose to use her whole figure. I wanted her to be a large portion of the ad, since she is large. I incorporated Barbie colors as well as McDonalds colors in order to create consistency. I made the slogan the largest text in the ad aside from the Barbie trademark because to me, the slogan sells the toy. I tried to balance all of the colors, especially the pinks, throughout the ad, hence the pink background. I made the text "Bigger FUN" the largest to emulate the text being bigger.