Week 6

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Assignment: (First draft of mash up #2)

The main objective for week six was to create a image, with the help of the pictures that we have taken and Photoshop, to convey a message to our audience. 

Craft: (How did I do it?)

I started with all the photos I taken during week five.  I looked at all of them and picked out certain ones that I liked and would fit well in the composition of my image.  The background of my piece was a large photo of a face.  Before I chose the specific picture I opened Photoshop and made a new blank document.  I chose a 11X17 page with 300 resolution.  Then I imported the background picture and sized it accordingly.  Next, I started to cut out the images I wanted to put in my picture.  I mostly used the magic wand tool to select the little worker people. I also used the mask to make sure I selected everything I wanted.  I did the same thing for all four mini people.  Then I imported all of them onto the background and resized them.  After I placed them were I wanted them to be I added shadows on all of them to make it look more realistic.  Then I started working on the highlights of the face by making each aspect a new layer.  This gave me the ability to move the layer around on the background image as well as not make permanent marks on the background layer.  These are most of the techniques I used to complete my first draft. 

Composition: (Arrangement of elements)

The main element of the image, at first, is the large right side of a face.  As you look closer you are able to see little mini beauty workers fixing certain areas of this persons face.  There is one changing the eye color, one covering up a pimple, one applying blush, and one whiting the persons teeth.  All of the little workers are in different parts of the face so that they all can be easily seen and what they are doing can be easily understood.  I chose 11X17 paper size so that these workers could be seen in detail and would not be overlooked.

Concept: (What am I trying to say?)

This images entitled, "Beauty of the Future," was created as a response to all of the new and sometimes controversial ideas of beauty enhancement.  With all of the new technology and scientific discoveries how far will people go to change themselves?  Will at one point individuals put super small organisms on there face to look make them look good?  How far is too far?  These are the issues and thoughts are what I want this very image to raise. 

Week 5

Assignment: (Take 25 pictures / Think of idea)

The assignment for this week was to think of an idea that we felt passionate about. Then we will be able to create a mash up in Photoshop that would visually say the message to the viewer. In order to start this assignment I needed to have an idea as well as take 25 pictures to get started.

Craft: (How did I do it?)

The first step in this process was to think up an idea that I had feelings about and something I could make a cool picture out of. The idea that struck me as interesting and controversial at the same time was one of beauty. I was on cnn.com and clicked on a story about new cream that makes a woman's eye lashes grow really long, this got me thinking. Nowadays, it seems everyone is getting some kind of unnatural physical enhancement. This led me to the topic of my project "artificial beauty of the future." So after I had thought of my idea I tried to think of a way to convey a story in the form of a photo. I decided to find some props around my house and made a bit of a "pink" screen instead of a green screen. I asked my girlfriend to be my model and started to take pictures. I took some close up pictures of her face as well as a lot of different posses she made with all the props acting as the little beauty physicians. Above are some of the pictures that I will probably use for my mash up.

Composition: (Arrangement of the elements)

In order to achieve my message I need to arrange the photo in a way that makes the ideas simple and easy to understand. I have decided to make the background of the photo one side of a natural human face. Then, on this face will be "futuristic beauty physicians" working. These beauty physicians are little clones of the individual that is being "beautified". These clones are miniature and will be all over the face accomplishing different task, i.e. applying makeup, whitening teeth, enhancing eye color, etc. The important part of my picture is making sure that the beauty physicians are able to be seen and it can be easily understood what they are doing.

Concept: (What am I trying to say?)

One sentence of what I am trying to say would be, "If science continues to test new boundaries and the want for artificial physical enhancement grows, then what unethical extremes are humans capable of reaching to accomplish these goals."

As I started to think about all these new scientific technologies used to improve ones physical appearance, I also thought about how science is testing new ethical questions these days - such as cloning. I reflected on these two situations and thought; what if in the future these two things meet up and become one? What if in future artificial beauty improvement techniques involved individual personalized people which did all the work for each client and what if these workers where actually little clones of the person who wanted these beauty improvements. This is my idea and what I will try to convey it to my audience.

200 Lincoln's

On Friday 13th, myself and my fellow classmate James went to the Chicago Art Department to check out the 200 Lincoln's exhibit.  The main reason that I wanted to go was because my art work along with my other classmates work would be apart of this show.  We have been working on Abe Lincoln mash up photos for a few weeks in class and now our finish pieces where going to be on display in the gallery.  We arrived at the gallery early and was able to get a close up look at all the art.  There was a ton of cool art, I really liked that the exhibit was open to all media types.  This allowed for every piece to have different style and always kept my eye looking forward to the next piece.  This was a really cool experience, making my own art and then being able to see my finish piece in an actually art gallery.   

Week 4

Assignment: (Improve our Lincoln mash ups)

The assignment for week 4 was to think about the comments and ideas we heard from others during the critique on Wednesday.  Then try and improve our photo in some of those ways.  We need to produce a final rough draft. Also we needed to format our image so that it would fit well on the 11 x 17 paper since that is the size are finished photograph will be printed on.

Craft: (How did I do it?)

During our first critique I received some good comments which helped my while I worked during this week.  The main issue I wanted to improve was the neck area around Lincoln's collar.  In order to accomplish this I copied and pasted a portion of the shirt collar from another picture onto the Lincoln photo.  By doing this I was able to put the portion of the imported collar on top of Lincoln's neck so that it looked clean and neat.  Also I lighten up the image of Obama on the laptop screen so it would pop a bit more.  Finally, I changed my image size in Photoshop under "image" - "image size"  I made sure the; Resample Image, Constrain Proportions and Scale Style boxes where checked and that the Resolution was 300.  Then I changed the Document Size to as close as I could to 11 x 17. 

Composition: (Arrangement of the elements)

The two elements of Lincoln and the laptop where in a pretty good order, so I did not have to work too much on making adjustments.  Lincoln is in the foreground and is the bigger of the two images which makes him the first thing your eye catches.  The laptop with President Obama's images on it is in the background.  Also, because I lightened up the image on the laptop your eye will travel straight from Lincoln's head towards the image of Obama, which is the order I wanted the the two men to be seen in, Lincoln first then Obama.

Concept: (What am I trying to say?)

My message is still the same as it was before.  Lincoln, setting in front of a laptop during the current area, is looking at the current President, Obama.  These are two men that have totally changed America's thoughts and ideas.  Also, this picture symbolizes how Lincoln, if he was alive today, would (I personal opinion) be very interested and inspired by Obama and what it means to have elected a African American President.  In the same way Obama has been very interested and inspired by Lincoln throughout his way to the presidency.  I have named the Photograph - Impossible possible. 

Week 3

Assignment: (Combine two pictures together)

The project for week 3 was to mash up an old photo of Lincoln which we have found on the internet with a new photo I personally taken of the current era.

Craft: (How did I do it?)

In order to start this project I needed to find or take a picture that I wanted to put Abe into.  I looked at all the photos that I already have taken throughout the years and I did not find any that I liked.  So I decided to take a picture for a specific reason, to convey the message I wanted within the mash up.  I took a picture of my dad by the computer in order to accomplish the new picture aspect.  Then I started looking through my contact sheet of the Lincoln photos.  I found a few pictures where Lincoln's head was looking in the directing I wanted.  Then I opened both the new and old pictures in Photoshop.  I selected Lincoln's head with the magic wand tool and then copied and pasted it into a blank Photoshop document.  From there I zoomed in and took my time to erase everything around Lincoln's head.  Then I copied and pasted Lincoln's head into the photo of my dad.  I then had to resize Lincoln's head in order to get the proper look of realism.  Finally, I lowered the saturation of both pictures down to zero in order to achieve a black and white photo.

Composition: (Arrangement and order of the elements) 

In my photograph I wanted two main elements to be seen, 1) Abe Lincoln in front of the computer. 2) A computer with some image of Barack Obama on it.  The picture that I took of my dad had a lot of empty space around the edges.  So I cropped the pictures so that the image was full of the two subjects I had in the photo.  I also wanted to make Lincoln the main focus of the picture because of the assignment so that is why he is larger and his face is the first thing your eye is drawn to.

Concept: (What am I trying to say?)

My main message in this photograph is two individuals that have ratified a nation at two very different time periods.  This picture is meant of signify change, pass and present.  Lincoln is now sitting in my current era, looking at how change has come to America in 2009.  One aspect which I really like about the picture is the direction of both Abe and Obama's face.  It looks like both men are starring off toward the right hand direction.  This photo signifies that both men have changed America in some way, now they are thinking - looking into the future, to see who or what will be the next big change in America.