self portrait

Animation

For this assignment I just had fun playing around really. The one with the alphabet was my first so I was really just trying to figure out how to get the layers and frames to line up how I wanted them too. The second one I wanted to use photos. I wanted to make it look like the legs of an animal were moving as they walked but I couldn't make it look really enough so they ended up just hoping across the screen. I think I like my last one the most. If I had more time I would have liked to add more destinations for the ball to bounce through.

then, now, when

The first image is my now/then. It includes Cheney, NYC, and camp. I'm currently in the mindset of wanting to be in NY, and at camp, but i'm stuck here in Cheney for a few more weeks. My second is where I'd like to go. It includes places of where i would like to live, or visit. Including Seattle, Florida, New York, Dublin, and Australia, 

Oh the places I have been....

I had fun with this assignment. The first one i did was for NYC. I've been able to visit there at least once a year for the past 4 years. When I think of NYC I like thinking of it at night with all its neon lights and craziness. I also added a few elements of some of my favorite places there. My second it for Tokyo, Japan. It was the first time I traveled internationally and it was very overwhelming and confusing. I tried to capture that in my piece with the over lapping of the maps. It was also a very color full place full of interesting people. My last one is based on Camp Starlight. It has been my summer home for the past 4 summers, and will be this summer as well. It has a special place in my heart and there are many layers to camp and why I love going there. Its fun, and hectic, and crazy, and also just a beautiful place.

Rural Landscape/fantasy

I enjoyed this assignment much more than the last. I didn't feel like I had to be so critical of my work in trying to make them look realistic.I had fun with the fantasy ones in particular. I played around with transparency, and colors a a lot. I also felt for the landscapes it was much easier to get the composition to look more realistic, than it was when having to use buildings.

photo realism

I had a hard time with this one. I kept wanted to warp things around or change colors and make them more funky, but instead I tried to make them as realistic as I could. I still don't think they are all that successful. I think it's pretty obvious that some things were added to the original photo, but I tried my best at it. 

Text

I started out trying to create the image of the word I was using. Which was the tree one. After working on it for a while but not really liking who it came out my thinking towards the project changed. I then thought of more simple compositions. I started playing around with a black background and trying to make the text pop and I managed to make it glow. So the neon lights one was by accident. Then I wanted to use color in someway and I just got the idea of spellin out a color with another color that was spelt with another color. Made sense when I thought about it. For the Penguin, I wanted to give the imagery idea another shot. I think the penguin was much more successful than the tree. 

Organic Surrealism

This assignment was a bit of a stretch for me. I've never been a huge fan of surrealism, I appreciate some of it, but it was difficult for me to try and create surreal pieces.  I'm happy with one or two of my pieces but it was a struggle for me. Although by the last few compositions, I realized that I'm starting to get the hang of Photoshop. I'm able to navigate the different options pretty well. 
My main thought was to take some something normal, but make it abnormal. That's kind ofwhat I think of when I think of Surrealism. Like Dali and his clocks. The clocks were normal, but then he goes and melts them. I don't know if I was that successful with my approach but I tried. 

Real vs Surreal

For the "Real" part of this assignment my approach was to pick a theme with some objects I had around the house, I also wanted to play with colors. My first one is a game theme, I enjoy playing board, and card games and  I thought the colors of all the different pieces would make an interesting composition. My second piece is based on a summer camp that I have worked at for the past four years and I'm going back for my 5th summer. It's become almost like a second home so it was a easy pick for me to use pieces that represent Starlight. My third is a generation theme. I have at least one object belonging to myself, my mother, my grandmother and my great grandmother. I put them together in an arrangement alluding to a jewelry chest and went for a bright color scheme.

For the "Surreal" part I started with no really plan. I basically scanned a bunch of random pieces and hoped for the best. The first one I scanned some different playing cards. After messing around with the warp tool I made a rain drop shape and that how that piece evolved. The second is several crochet needles. I like these just because the colors are so vibrant. I warped them a bit, layered them, and then used several filters. The third I started layering a leaf earring I scanned and I created a wing like shape from there I kept seeing an insect and I had fun playing with different filters.

First Assingment

For this first assignment I was interested in exploring all the different brush shapes there are in Photoshop, and different filters. I played around with them creating different textures, by using multiple layers, and different sized brushes. I also discovered the overlay option towards the end and had fun layering colors on top of each other as well. There is no correlation between the different pieces, each one was made a different way trying to create something different from the one before.