I just love when I can answer three of the reflective essay questions with one answer...creative textography -- hahahah. For my "movie"/"book" promotion poster, I used a glowing flame text effect for the first time to bring out the letters and to add attention grabbing color to my poster. This had the added benefit of also capturing Captain Ashland's 'super nova vision'. Wow. Three questions answered. Technically, my reflection is done, but I wouldn't want to deprive you's all of further titillating diatribe.
So, I chose my poster genres because I actually had those exact two subjects to promote -- the Captain Ashland & Ganja Boy poster is for the upcoming first publication of the 'graphic novel' of the same title, to be completed for the final in this class and the Nick Temple music poster is to publicize my son's ongoing gig at the local Mexican restaurant, Miguel's.
Finally, I wanted to communicate a certain 'artsiness' and maturity of musicianship to the poster for my son. I wanted to portray his musicality in his facial expression without making it too prominent or overstated, and I wanted it to be obvious that he was playing acoustic guitar without having to spell it out. The simplicity of the poster, I think, lends itself to accomplishing these goals. Captain Ashland, on the other hand, is a fictional character set in a real location, so I used the combination of real people and the actual Ashland Springs Hotel with the cheesy costuming in the foreground and the graphic 'A' in the background (the 'A' being from our letter assignment). The characters and the story poke fun at life in Ashland and at themselves and, well, at life in general so I wanted the poster to have a sense of silliness and fun about it as well as a sense of things being knocked off balance...as the grounded center is humorously jabbed at.
This concludes the banter for this week. I have bestowed a certain mercy on you by stopping short this week, but that is most certainly all the mercy I have for this quarter.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Alpha Pic Soup...
First, to whomever of you is going to read my post this week, I must say that I will get more organized in my blog...soon!!! Just to keep you in the know, this week's work (aka, fun) is to be found in the following posts: "3 portraits...or so", "last of nature's letters", "more of nature's letters" and "nature's o". There are a few extraneous pics mixed in -- a cropped version of Q that I didn't really care for, an extra self-pic and a replacement for the emda logo that I had submitted some time ago (somehow, the first logo shadow letters ghosted themselves into nothingess...a mystery. An aside on the logo submissions, I wanted to create something that would copy well in black and white or in color.) With that preface out of the way, let's talk about Alpha Pic Soup.
I had so much fun this week looking for letters that I nearly forgot the other portrait part of the project. Though I was seeing the alphabet everywhere, I decided to limit myself to only those letters nature gave me, no man-made structures, inventions or fabrications qualified. I also decided to get all but one (the i-palm) in my back yard garden. In order, as you scroll down the blog, you first find the bee in "last of nature's letters" where between shadows and plants you find constructions of H, V, L, X, T and E. Ironically, I was at first so tuned into patterns on the bee, I neglected to see all the letters he was sitting next to. In "more of nature's letters", there is the i-palm in grand scale, the profusion-of-j's bloom (each individual petal is j-shaped), the i-calendula in petite scale, B-tomatoes and the Q-hollyhock, which is somewhat backwards, i know. When I rotated it to be letter perfect, however, I didn't like it and so let it's inspiration to Q stand as it was. "Nature's o" was my first pic. I got down under the leaning sunflower heads and took the pic looking skyward to do their flawless 'o' shape justice. To get the best light, I moved myself around each of the subject letters. None of these pictures were altered in any way, not to say that they couldn't use some help, but I was more focused, hee hee, on the camera for this part of the project. Then, the photoshop fun began. Using the sunflower pic, I started playing with layer adjustments. First, some brightness/contrast, then some levels, but while playing, I happened upon the single color fill adjustments and got away from improving the picture, instead moving towards creating a piece inspired by the picture, itself, an inspiration of 'o's, an inspiration of inspirations...hahaha! Probably, most importantly, I finally figured out how quick select works...I think. The quick select tool selects all the pixels in your image of the color pixel that you click on. This was a great moment of enlightenment!!! (let's not dwell on me finding that out this late in the quarter) Using that understanding, I created the altered version of sunflowers with fill layers and certain quick selections, such as parts of the flower centers, leaves and sky.
Time to move on to portraits, if I wanted to make deadline! Self-pic, furry beast and my son unawares to my plans. Starting with the self-picture as it was, I just started applying different adjustments to see what they would do. Again, I found something nifty -- threshold something or other. Applying this resulted in the black and white graphic novel looking image. In the picture of my dog, Spot, brightness/contrast and levels layer adjustments were huge improvements to the original dark picture. Hue/saturation adjustments added some fun. I particularly like the way the wall behind the roses became colored. Finally, on my son's pic, I played with the usual layer adjustments and then tweeked the perspective ever so slightly giving it more of an upward tilt and side to side shift. Added some cropping and called it done. I included the alteration pre-perspective shift and post-perspective shift with cropping. If you look carefully, you can see it. Changing the perspective tweeks the picture in such a way that cropping becomes necessary...the more you change it, the more you have to crop, or so it seems at this point.
Each part of the project offered many learning opportunities, so I'm not sure which benefitted me more. I do know that, in between bouts of doubts, frightful frights and uncertainties, I am having a great time and can hardly call this stuff homework. From working on these pictures, both in the taking and manipulating, I have vowed to become more proficient at using my camera and PS. Mountains and mountains to learn yet!!!
I had so much fun this week looking for letters that I nearly forgot the other portrait part of the project. Though I was seeing the alphabet everywhere, I decided to limit myself to only those letters nature gave me, no man-made structures, inventions or fabrications qualified. I also decided to get all but one (the i-palm) in my back yard garden. In order, as you scroll down the blog, you first find the bee in "last of nature's letters" where between shadows and plants you find constructions of H, V, L, X, T and E. Ironically, I was at first so tuned into patterns on the bee, I neglected to see all the letters he was sitting next to. In "more of nature's letters", there is the i-palm in grand scale, the profusion-of-j's bloom (each individual petal is j-shaped), the i-calendula in petite scale, B-tomatoes and the Q-hollyhock, which is somewhat backwards, i know. When I rotated it to be letter perfect, however, I didn't like it and so let it's inspiration to Q stand as it was. "Nature's o" was my first pic. I got down under the leaning sunflower heads and took the pic looking skyward to do their flawless 'o' shape justice. To get the best light, I moved myself around each of the subject letters. None of these pictures were altered in any way, not to say that they couldn't use some help, but I was more focused, hee hee, on the camera for this part of the project. Then, the photoshop fun began. Using the sunflower pic, I started playing with layer adjustments. First, some brightness/contrast, then some levels, but while playing, I happened upon the single color fill adjustments and got away from improving the picture, instead moving towards creating a piece inspired by the picture, itself, an inspiration of 'o's, an inspiration of inspirations...hahaha! Probably, most importantly, I finally figured out how quick select works...I think. The quick select tool selects all the pixels in your image of the color pixel that you click on. This was a great moment of enlightenment!!! (let's not dwell on me finding that out this late in the quarter) Using that understanding, I created the altered version of sunflowers with fill layers and certain quick selections, such as parts of the flower centers, leaves and sky.
Time to move on to portraits, if I wanted to make deadline! Self-pic, furry beast and my son unawares to my plans. Starting with the self-picture as it was, I just started applying different adjustments to see what they would do. Again, I found something nifty -- threshold something or other. Applying this resulted in the black and white graphic novel looking image. In the picture of my dog, Spot, brightness/contrast and levels layer adjustments were huge improvements to the original dark picture. Hue/saturation adjustments added some fun. I particularly like the way the wall behind the roses became colored. Finally, on my son's pic, I played with the usual layer adjustments and then tweeked the perspective ever so slightly giving it more of an upward tilt and side to side shift. Added some cropping and called it done. I included the alteration pre-perspective shift and post-perspective shift with cropping. If you look carefully, you can see it. Changing the perspective tweeks the picture in such a way that cropping becomes necessary...the more you change it, the more you have to crop, or so it seems at this point.
Each part of the project offered many learning opportunities, so I'm not sure which benefitted me more. I do know that, in between bouts of doubts, frightful frights and uncertainties, I am having a great time and can hardly call this stuff homework. From working on these pictures, both in the taking and manipulating, I have vowed to become more proficient at using my camera and PS. Mountains and mountains to learn yet!!!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
words on letters...
Five letters, five fonts, five images. The first thing that came to mind was...vowels. Call it grade school brainwashing, rote memorization, grey matter stuck in a rut, whatever, but when someone says, "five letters", I say, "A, E, I, O, U." Sometimes, you just have to go with simplicity. So, not only did I choose to make my images of each vowel, I chose to do them in order.
After looking at a few of different fonts, I just stabbed at one and ran with it. "A" took me forever. Hindsight tells me that, because I was communing with the simplicity of the universe (wink), my initial efforts at a grand plan with "A" were just not going to work, particularly after I placed the fattened, blue "A" -- rasterized and bulged -- prominently within my frame. From that moment on, nothing I added did that "A" justice. Finally recognizing this, I SIMPLY ghosted and shadowed my perfect letter.
Next in the lineup, came "E". Because my font for the previous image was so unadorned, I decided on a frilly, over-embellished font for "E". As soon as I stretched the letter vertically, I got the impression of street lamps. This image plays with the reaching effects of the tall, skinnies and the grounding effects of the short, squatties...not that I really know what I'm talking about here...just my own perceptions. Again, simplicity reigned.
"I" was the only image that I planned in advance. I knew that I was going to construct a SIMPLE, somewhat fractal-like tree with falling leaves. I knew that I was going to use red, green, brown and yellow for the fall season, and I knew that I wanted to evoke a gentle wind. And, so it went.
"O" was an idea that came after "O"verlapping a few "o"s. I did not accomplish the probably "O"verused visual effect that I was going for. With learning how to control the width of the overlapping letters and their concentricity, the effect could be achieved.
At last, the fifth of the vowels, "U" may be my favorite. The contest is definitely between "A" and "U". I like the balance of both images. "A" has a strong presence and elegance in its extreme simplicity. ( If I learn how to draw anytime soon, I may use the "A" for a Captain Ashland superhero cartoon.) "U" has more movement, freedom and is less weighty, the elegance in its script.
Playing with the text--stretching, moving, copying, rasterizing, warping, etc--has been a fun project and after five letters, five fonts and five images, I feel the software knowledge gaining. I particularly like the option of being able to treat text as text or, with rasterizing, as a drawing.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Betty Box Reflections
Betty Box began her evening by first finding a frilly to wear over her freshly moisturized and opacity-reduced brown skin (tips on saturation). She thought the particular little magenta/purple she decided on complimented her favorite green foundation make up. From the frilly came, in her mind, the obvious addition of fish net stockings. At last, she was able to turn her attention to her face, already coated with her signature green foundation. "Ooo, la la, mon cherie! What do you think of this lip color?" A silent question to the mirror which Betty Box answered aloud, with relish, "Oh, yes, oui, oui! Paint those lips, and then attend to your eyes." Finally, coiffing her lovely hair, Betty Box proclaimed herself ready for a night of...nothing, at least, nothing until she applied her beauty mark, for she knew all men love beauty marks. (As her dresser, my challenge was to trust her judgement that all things would come together in the end.)
One interesting thing about Ms. Betty Box, aside from the fact that she is rather boxy, is that she happens to be the sister to the famous Betty Boop. Ms. Box, however, never quite got the hang of that "boop, boop, be doo" that helped make her sister such an entity, a female force to be reckoned with (I reckon). Of course, there is also the fact that Ms. Boop is simply endowed with assets lacking in Ms. Box, a fact that Betty Box hotly denies, though she suspiciously comforts herself with lots of chocolate, indeed, has a raging love/hate relationship with the theobromide. Some have even conjectured that it is her fear of increased boxyness, aka, chocolate poundage, that causes her to hate poor "theo".
Ah, but we were discussing Ms. Box's preparations for her grand night out. The beauty mark perfectly applied, Ms. Box sashayed back and forth a few times, and then, grabbing her purse, off she went. (And now comes, likely, the most interesting thing about B. Box -- she has occasional visions of a maniacal chocolate bunny, a bunny which chases her demanding to be eaten. Funny as it is to hear, the visions always give her a frightful fright.) Off she went, into the night, out on the town. Some dinner, no dessert, some dancing, no date. Still, all was well, when, out of the corner of her eye, Ms. Box spotted the dreaded "Lapin de Chocolat". (I suspect her mind was working over the lack of dessert.) As is typical of her bunny spottings, "Lapin de Choc" gave her a toothy, menacing grin and commenced to running her down. The chase ensued. Betty Box's heart aleaped, her feet abounded, but, as fate sometimes has it, she got herself all stuckered up between a couple of innocently bystanding trees. (Her boxyness has always been a bit of a problem.) Just as "Lapin" was fixing to jump into Betty Box's screaming orifice, SPLAT! Fate, again, randomly caused Ms. Box's grief. From the heavens, or so it seemed to little Betty Box and her bunny, an orb of immense proportions dropped down on them, ending their little lives. It is only this narrator (suppose that's what I am) that knows what occurred, that this was all a rather ludicrous exploration in fear, fate and randomness, and what befell our unfortunate Betty Box and her imaginary enemy was merely a large bouncy ball.
Narrator's note: In the above diatribe, I believe five of the reflective essay questions are answered. Tools used on this project included the eye dropper, lasso, polygon lasso, paint bucket, opacity reduction, line, paint brush, rectangle/ellipse and...I can't remember the rest. Cheerio!
One interesting thing about Ms. Betty Box, aside from the fact that she is rather boxy, is that she happens to be the sister to the famous Betty Boop. Ms. Box, however, never quite got the hang of that "boop, boop, be doo" that helped make her sister such an entity, a female force to be reckoned with (I reckon). Of course, there is also the fact that Ms. Boop is simply endowed with assets lacking in Ms. Box, a fact that Betty Box hotly denies, though she suspiciously comforts herself with lots of chocolate, indeed, has a raging love/hate relationship with the theobromide. Some have even conjectured that it is her fear of increased boxyness, aka, chocolate poundage, that causes her to hate poor "theo".
Ah, but we were discussing Ms. Box's preparations for her grand night out. The beauty mark perfectly applied, Ms. Box sashayed back and forth a few times, and then, grabbing her purse, off she went. (And now comes, likely, the most interesting thing about B. Box -- she has occasional visions of a maniacal chocolate bunny, a bunny which chases her demanding to be eaten. Funny as it is to hear, the visions always give her a frightful fright.) Off she went, into the night, out on the town. Some dinner, no dessert, some dancing, no date. Still, all was well, when, out of the corner of her eye, Ms. Box spotted the dreaded "Lapin de Chocolat". (I suspect her mind was working over the lack of dessert.) As is typical of her bunny spottings, "Lapin de Choc" gave her a toothy, menacing grin and commenced to running her down. The chase ensued. Betty Box's heart aleaped, her feet abounded, but, as fate sometimes has it, she got herself all stuckered up between a couple of innocently bystanding trees. (Her boxyness has always been a bit of a problem.) Just as "Lapin" was fixing to jump into Betty Box's screaming orifice, SPLAT! Fate, again, randomly caused Ms. Box's grief. From the heavens, or so it seemed to little Betty Box and her bunny, an orb of immense proportions dropped down on them, ending their little lives. It is only this narrator (suppose that's what I am) that knows what occurred, that this was all a rather ludicrous exploration in fear, fate and randomness, and what befell our unfortunate Betty Box and her imaginary enemy was merely a large bouncy ball.
Narrator's note: In the above diatribe, I believe five of the reflective essay questions are answered. Tools used on this project included the eye dropper, lasso, polygon lasso, paint bucket, opacity reduction, line, paint brush, rectangle/ellipse and...I can't remember the rest. Cheerio!
Friday, October 8, 2010
betty box
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Thursday, October 7, 2010
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Reflections on Scratchin'
Help me, Mr. Wizard!!! And in answer, no soothing voice saying, "Tooter, tooter, tooter. Drizzle, drazzle, drazzle, drone, time for this one to come home." Oy!!! I am left adrift in a lonely boat, oarless, a fish out of water gulping, gasping for air. Criminy, Wendy. Get over yourself. It's just Photoshop! But, but, but I don't know this stuff...I'm technologically challenged. When I got out of Cal Poly (as a Mechanical Engigeeker, not an artist nor computer whiz), there was no internet. Heck, I just learned how to cut and paste! And now I have to blog, too? What the heck is a blog? And, jeez, I'm not so sure I want to do something that sounds like that. Stop. Chill. These young whippersnappers will help you. Whew. Breathe. Okay. No matter that it took the whole first class session just to get the paint brush to work... which is why, I suspect, it is my favorite photo shop gadget -- I got it to work first.
Then the eraser. Ah, I do like that tool! With the eraser in the right hand and the paint brush in the left, so to speak, I am well enough equipped to actually scratch out some simple shapes of not so many flat colors. The goal: click on every side bar item and see what it does. Give up on following what is being done on the 'big screen' in lecture or lab as it's moving too fast. This is perfectly fine. I'm a smart cookie. Spend the additional time necessary to play with the tools. And so, game plan in place, learned how to use the lasso tool, but not quite yet getting the difference between all three lassos. Learned how to move cut out shapes intra-layer and inter-layer, how to rotate images, how to use layers to change certain shapes without affecting others, how to use the rectangle/ellipse tool, how to use the pen tool...and a lot more. What I have definitely not figured out yet is the razor/slice tool. Couldn't get it do to one dag-blasted thing in any predictable manner! Obviously, more experimentation is needed.
My completed work: Three items, saved as jpegs (what does that even mean?). My first piece focused on just figuring out layers and the different paint brushes. I was so excited to have finally gotten something done, I saved it. The second piece, I tried out some text and some cutting. And the third, more cutting, more moving. When I was happy with each item's appearance, I guessed I was done. But, there is so much more to learn! And it is all so exciting! I'm thinking I may have developed a gill or a lung, depending on just which medium outside of Kansas I've landed in.
Then the eraser. Ah, I do like that tool! With the eraser in the right hand and the paint brush in the left, so to speak, I am well enough equipped to actually scratch out some simple shapes of not so many flat colors. The goal: click on every side bar item and see what it does. Give up on following what is being done on the 'big screen' in lecture or lab as it's moving too fast. This is perfectly fine. I'm a smart cookie. Spend the additional time necessary to play with the tools. And so, game plan in place, learned how to use the lasso tool, but not quite yet getting the difference between all three lassos. Learned how to move cut out shapes intra-layer and inter-layer, how to rotate images, how to use layers to change certain shapes without affecting others, how to use the rectangle/ellipse tool, how to use the pen tool...and a lot more. What I have definitely not figured out yet is the razor/slice tool. Couldn't get it do to one dag-blasted thing in any predictable manner! Obviously, more experimentation is needed.
My completed work: Three items, saved as jpegs (what does that even mean?). My first piece focused on just figuring out layers and the different paint brushes. I was so excited to have finally gotten something done, I saved it. The second piece, I tried out some text and some cutting. And the third, more cutting, more moving. When I was happy with each item's appearance, I guessed I was done. But, there is so much more to learn! And it is all so exciting! I'm thinking I may have developed a gill or a lung, depending on just which medium outside of Kansas I've landed in.
Friday, October 1, 2010
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