Final Project

Final Thoughts

One memorable experience from this semester was having to choose our own pictures to show at the art show at Clayton’s. When we have most of a years body of work to choose from, picking two is very difficult. This process helped me look critically at my work and better appreciate the decisions that professional artists have to make before they show their work. I doubt an artist ever shows all of their best work.

Another highlight of the semester was working in photoshop. While I had already learned the basics I still enjoyed using what I knew to make affective images. I am happy with how my free-choice photoshop project came out. I was trying to do something similar to the first surrealist collage and I liked having that opportunity to try again and be more successful.

Sword Fight/Falling

For this assignment we picked a storyline to make a stop motion video. Becca and I decided to use wooden manikins instead of people for our animation. They have a limited range of motion and they have to be balanced perfectly in order for them to stand so it was difficult to get them to do what they were supposed to do at times, especially when we had them falling. Our second animation with the sword fight definitely had a better storyline but was also more involved. We had more things to think about for each frame of the animation than in the first animation.

Final Project

For my final project I think I am going to choose two elements of design and create a series of work that communicates those elements. The two elements I am thinking of working with are light and perspective. Within this idea, I want to be do macro-photography, at least as much as my camera lense will allow. As I work on this, I think it could evolve into something a bit different. While I want to do macro-photography, If I can get some portraits to fit this theme I might try to add some of those. However, for the most part I am interested in taking pictures of smaller objects that I can use to communicate my elements of design.

Still-Life

The sea-glass is from an island off the coast of Maine where my father’s side of the family lives on. We have spent many summer days wandering around the island and happening upon sea glass. The mask is from my trip to Venice, Italy. Venice has amazing masks, but I got this one from a street vendor when I couldn’t find the store I had wanted to look in anymore. The charm bracelet I got after my great great aunt passed away, something from her jewelry box.

I think I was successful in capturing the still-lives in photography. I feel that each picture is simple but effective. I had a more difficult time trying to figure out how to relate the different objects in one still-life so I made different ones with different pieces. I think next time I might try and work more objects into a single still-life, provided that I can make them work together or at least not look super out of place next to each other. 

Visual Story

When I took pictures for this assignment, I decided to take pictures for two different stories since I wasn't sure which one I wanted to use. The first story was steeping loose leaf tea and the second one was baking cookies. The first thing I need to do next is choose a theme, since I received feedback for both possible stories. For the story about tea, some of the feedback included having an introductory photo of a collection of tea, putting the tea leaves straight into the hot water, and making the lighting warmer. This would give the story a feeling of comfort as well as a more definitive story line. There was also a suggestion of including pictures with tea cups or a tea set to have a better end of the story.
For the second story some of the feedback was similar, including adding warmer lighting and having all the ingredients out at the beginning to make a more definitive beginning.

Surrealism Free-choice photoshop

The purpose of my assignment was to use surrealism as an inspiration for images in photoshop. I found photos online that were looked interesting and decided to use those as a starting point. Since I wasn’t particularly pleased with how my original surrealist collage turned out, I wanted to try something similar. I liked using the photos as inspiration instead of just trying to emulate them because while I was taking pictures I had another idea that was similar but wasn’t the same as either of the pictures. I think the biggest challenge while working on this project came from the fact that I wasn’t totally sure how to go about creating the image I wanted to. I had a vague idea of how I might make it work, but it was trial and error after a point.

I think one thing I learned from this assignment is how to layer the same image multiple times when I am combining multiple images so that I am more able to manipulate the look of the photograph. Another thing I learned was to utilize the ability to make the eraser and the layers less opaque. In order to make only the right parts of the image underneath show up without looking like you made a huge hole in the layer over it, you need to use a more transparent eraser. It gives the image a more surreal quality and makes the image stronger. A third thing I learned was that even if I tend to like having the photos in color to see how the colors pop, it can sometimes be more effective if the picture is in black and white. The things I learned will impact my future learning in that I will know some of these techniques without having to experiment my way through as much of a similar project. They will also benefit me in that with this knowledge I will be more able to try new things in photoshop and maybe be encouraged to experiment with the saturation of a photo if something is a little off in the color version.