Week 16 - Final

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CRAFT:

First I took the photo looking out the window and used the polygon lasso to crop the photo to just the window/window sill. I then took the image of the keys and used the same tool to crop the key, which I rotated to be sitting on the window sill. I took the image of the church and transformed it to the size desired and made it the bottom layer. I used the cutout filter on each layer to get the pain daubs for the building, mainly. I then used the various brushes I made to recolor and add texture. I dabbled with the hues to make the image dreary and dark. I used my circle brush to put the thick black outline behind the window areas. I used a brush set up with size, shape, and color variation to create the lava spewing from the mountain. I then used the lasso tool to draw outlines for the yellow bursts of energy and the smoke. I used my plastic brush in different colors to create the smoke. Then I used my stick figure stamps and positioned/resized them where I wanted them to create the scene. I created the yellow glow the same way as the smoke, only I colored the selection yellow, then used my brush as an eraser to get the faded effect. I applied a drop shadow to the "evil" stick figures, and a glow to the heroes.

CONCEPT:

The title of my piece is "Super Sticks." The concept is that there is this fantasy world of stick figures who are capable of anything. The evil stick figures on the window sill are trying to prevent the princess stick figure from escaping the castle by ridding the key to free her. Without her freedom, she will parish in the lava. However, the glowing stick figures are saving the day by keeping the key safe, stopping the lava, and swooping down to save her. The viewer of the artwork is looking out of the window, seeing this crazy alternate world where stick figures run crazy.

COMPOSITION:

I altered the hue/saturation of the image to make it seem somber. I positioned the church to occupy the majority of the empty space in the window, as its one of the main focuses. I used dark, dreary colors to give the artwork a hopeless, depressing feel. I positioned the key in the bottom left corner to utilize the space given on the window sill. I chose red for the bad things in the photo, as it is a menacing color to me. The hero's have a glow to them and a force making their superiority seem evident. I also selected to make them larger than the bad stick figures. I also added more "bad" events than good to create the idea of hopelessness, though the "super" sticks, with their glowing outline and yellow energy bursts seem to bring hope. And of course, the female figure is pink--a stereotypical girl color, and she needs saved as in many storylines. I used the bold black around the window area to create a frame for the image that draws the eye inwards.

Special Edition - Extra Credit

CRAFT: I had an image of Charles chugging wine, so I cropped him out with the magnetic lasso. I had to recreate a portion of his jacket with the clone tool, as well as use the distort tool on the hand holding the bread. I found a loaf of french bread and cropped it from it's original image, as the same with the beret, cheese, snail, and frog. I used the transform tool to alter the shape and angles of the various items. I used the eraser to clean up all of the edges and I used the text tool to write "il est stinky..." and the shape tool to make the bubbles. I applied a few filters to the entire image to make it fit together a bit better. I then added the frame by selecting a portion of a fence from another image and rotating and duplicating it. I added shadows to the frog and snail sitting on the frame. I drew the mustaches on Charles and the frog with a soft black brush, then applied a slight blur. And lastly, I created the smoke on the cigarette by drawing a thin gray line, then applying guassian blur. To finish, I adjusted hues/saturations to make the image fit together better.

CONCEPT:

I simply wanted to piss my French flatmate off, so I thought of every stereotype that I could execute visually.

COMPOSITION:
"Francy Pants"

Because I was unable to shoot all images myself, nor planned this project, I had a difficult time making the final product appear real, without any doubt. I decided that I would make everything look very glossy and bright to create unity, but still a level of believability. The viewer can imagine this happening. I positioned the bread, snail, frog, and background image, etc. in places that I thought balanced the image the best. The word bubble fell where it did because in the original image, there was a person's head there. I brightened the bottle and the drops falling from his mouth to make it noticeable. I put a red beret and bottle to make draw the eye there, then follow down the image. Everything I added to the image was to enforce the stereotype.

Week 15 - Portrait

CRAFT:

I began with an image of myself. I made it the background of the photo. Then, starting from the furthest object to the closest, I began painting the shadows. I would use the eyedropper to select a matching color, create a layer, paint that whole entire object the one hue, then create a new layer, eyedrop, and repeat until I had basic cutouts of the photo. I then started flashing the original photo on and off, making marks on a new layer to create shadows/highlights. Once the person looked recognizable, I just adjusted the hues of the various layers to make the colors match better.