Crash and Burn: A Junior Design Student Conceptual Project by Evelyn Potter (2017)

I am exploring the feeling of anger when driving.

The objects in my photograph are a dip pen, and red and blue ink which is on grey speckled paper. The dip pen is shown lying down on top of the paper, next to the ink which is drawn in circles and then a puddle. The dip pen drew the lines as you can see the ink still on the tip of it. The angle I chose was from the side a little but still looking down on the paper in order to get the splash of red ink, the nicely drawn out blue swirls, and also include the dip pen. The lighting is bright in order to enhance the colors, and the background is plane because I want the focus to be on what’s drawn on the paper, and also what is sitting on it. I made these decisions and they support my concept statement because for the background, it is a grey speckled paper which represents the road in driving, and the angle focuses more on the red splash because that portrays the anger but also incorporates the dip pen which is like being in control which represents driving as well. My concept statement of anger when driving is portrayed through my picture. For starters, most of the background of the picture is the grey speckled paper which represents the road, and the dip pen which drew the lines on the paper portrays driving as when you are driving, you are in control of the wheel, and when you write you are in control of the pen. Behind the red ink, there are swirls of nicely drawn out blue lines which represents a cool or calm tone while driving and as the lines go on, it turns more purple until it turns into the splash of messy red. This represents how when you drive, you start out calm and as you go on, you become more angry until you burst with anger, which is portrayed through the red ink which spills on the page. The anger is shown through the vibrant red color and how the lines change from clear spirals into a splash of spilled red ink.

In photoshop, my skills in making selections improved as well as my understanding of the different tools. When I originally took my photo, it was not as light as I had wanted it to be, so in photoshop I brightened it. Also, I added a vignette in order to have the main focal point be the paper and dip pen. I increased the saturation and contrast of the photo so that the different lines and colors would show up more vibrantly. In photoshop, I made selections on all of the red and blue ink lines, which I made more vibrant and saturated so that they would pop and show up more on the page. All of this helped contribute to my final composition because I learned more about making selections and all of the things I changed in photoshop led to the colors and important pieces of my photo to stand out more and be more prominent.