The Evolution of Thought: A Senior Explorations Amplified Piece by Elizabeth Halliday (2014)

For my final Freestyle Design project, I decided to explore the idea of Thought. When I first drew the piece, I was inspired by the question of: can a thought ever escape? Or are you stuck with a thought for the rest of your life? For me, I tend to over-think things, so the idea of a thought simply stay for its proper time in your brain, then move on is very intriguing. However, as I was exploring the piece, I decided to look at this concept more optimistically by thinking that bad thoughts can be morphed into good thoughts. I wanted to explore the idea that thoughts don't always have to be dangerous. That's why I made the Amplified piece look like a butterfly, and added the sparks of light adding to the realization that thoughts can be good!

In this project, I used colored pencil on Dura-Lar paper to create the original drawing. I then scanned it into Photoshop and downloaded a filter from online. The filter added a ‘Christmas ornament' effect, which is similar to the look of a fisheye. I then increased the saturation and extruded the colors. Finally, using a tutorial I found online, I created a new brush that created the sparks. I then added some gradients and a little smoke effect to make the sparks look even more realistic.