Today, we worked on phone covers and I used the images of coral, drywall, and an owl. The coral and drywall was used as the texture while the owl was put on top of them as the initial picture. I enjoyed the way it turned out because I had been expecting it to look a lot worse. In making the phone cover come together I used the different modes to connect the textures together. I also used alpha layer (I think that's what it was called) and load selection. These were essential in the construction of the case.

I enjoyed what we did in class today because I feel texture really helps an image come alive and in this case it really elevated the look of the cover.

Today, since I was done with my yearbook cover, I basically just started on the phone cover assignment. So far I have decided that my theme is going to be that of the sixties and seventies with an influence from The Beatles artwork. So far I have just changed the back ground using the paint tool and using the custom shapes I have added lines to imitate those of sun rays.

I also added more custom shapes of flowers in a magenta color because I have noticed the era I am getting inspiration from had a lot of particular and unique colors.

Yesterday we worked on finishing our yearbook covers and pages. It was interesting to see how much my ability with using tools has changed. I am now a lot more fluent in being able to change the poster properly.
I implemented the use of custom shapes, the pen path tool and many others.

I finished my yearbook pages in class and it was amazing to see how quickly I was done.

Yesterday on Tuesday, we worked on our movie posters and I had decided to do the Titanic. It was a pretty difficult because the look of the poster was originally slightly grainy with a romantic sunset haze to it. However when we took the original poster the lighting wasn't as soft as we were hoping so I decided to change the levels as well as brightness and contrast to make it look akin to the original. Then to recreate the grainy look I added a filter of noise which helped a bit.

Then I cut some masts from the original poster and fitted them to my Titanic poster. This made it look slightly more realistic rather than the subjects (Stanley and Mercedes) floating in midair.

Today we broke into groups and participated in photo shoots for a movie poster. My group decided to do Titanic so it took a bit of creativity (and time) to find an appropriate place for the picture. After finishing taking photos we individually worked on the picture for editing and what not.

Last class on Friday we did the finishing touches to our radial, symmetrical and asymmetrical photos.  It was interesting to see the different quotes possible for the different types of pictures.  I enjoyed being able to use the pen trace tool (I'm not exactly sure what it was called) properly and fluently because at the beginning I was a bit intimidated by it.

I also enjoyed using the circle tool because it made the paths of the radial picture look very clean and well defined. It was a good tool to be able to utilize for future projects.

On Thursday we participated in another photo shoot, this time for the outcome of three usable images. These images would be used for a radial, symmetrical, and asymmetrical designs. I worked on the asymmetrical design majority of the time and realized how easy it was to use the  (fancy) pen tool despite how formidable it looked at first glance. I just used a brush to trace the path and then penned it.

Then using Microsoft word I copied and pasted my phrase to the path made earlier.

Last class we worked on Yearbook covers where we implemented the ideas of complementary colors and the usage of vibrant colors. It was interesting because I realized in order to create a nice graphic with a lot of colors the artist needs to have a sense of what they want to do with it at first such as a unifying theme or idea.

I enjoyed the use of filters and custom shapes because they allowed the cover to go in a quirkier direction than it previously would have had they not been used. I think I may have over done some of the effects but I guess that is the whole point of this class; to explore further Photoshop as well as one's own graphic designer.

Photoshoots

Yesterday in class we had to embark on photo shoots for high key and low key pictures. I was paired in a group with Stanley and Mercedes and we figured out great spots for the lighter pictures, a couple of places used consisted of the elevators and the upstairs windows. I really enjoyed being able to implement light into contrasting pictures, I especially loved the dark room.

For Photoshop we just tweaked the contrast of light and balance as well as the levels.

Monday Class

  On Monday in class we all made a woman look like an enhanced and more beautiful version of herself through the art of Photoshop. It slightly upset me because everyone was kind of disgusted by her natural face and it made me think of how she was just a regular person who somehow ended up in a New Media design class to get ripped on. I learned a lot that day especially concerning the fine line between a natural touch-up and one that makes the subject look like "a burn victim" (phrasing professor Dunning). I also learned that I am terrible at using the blur effect from filter but I was great at implementing the clone stamp for fixing the red spots on the subject's face as well as removing the most of her uni brow.  I enjoyed using the sponge tool for softening certain aspects of her features.

  The burn tool was one of my favorites solely because it made her eyes pop in a very pretty way. She already had curly eyelashes and using this tool only emphasized them by using darkness. 

I'm hungry.