Photoshop Art
For the first portion of the year I worked on several different projects using Adobe Photoshop developing and expanding my skills further. In Digital Media my classmates and I worked on various painting techniques in Photoshop, such as oil, watercolor, and pastel. Mediums like these can be tricky to blend and undo mistakes, but with digital painting it’s as simple as pressing a few buttons. In addition to this I learned how to make photos look as though they were painted with filters and other effects.
I often use the app Procreate on my iPad Pro at home, however this was one of my first digital paintings using Photoshop. There are many similarities between both applications and it was very insightful to learn how Photoshop uses the same techniques. At the time, one struggle I faced was having to turn on and off the layer to use the eyedropper tool to collect colors. I realize now that I could have made the art board double the size and have my painting and the photo side by side. This is something I will of course use next time. Looking back I would improve the lips and hands since in my eyes they still seem a bit wonky, but I am over all proud of the whole piece especially my use of texture in the hair and background. I plan on using the skills I developed during this project to further educate myself on photoshop painting to make sure I wait a few hours before turning in in case there are mistakes. In addition to these projects I learned how to composite multiple photos into one cohesive image. By taking several photos of skateboarders I used multiple effects to create a singular image with each skateboarder in the same bowl.
For this surrealism assignment I decided to explore underwater animals swimming above land. In all honesty there is no deeper message within this piece. I simply just wanted to create a world where animals are usually found underwater, where seen above water in a place furthest away from their natural habitat. If I were to change my idea in any way, I would have maybe put these creatures swimming in a desert environment. Surrealism is not something I often explore in my art work. I think of surrealism as chaos. In my work there is a level of organization and need for perfection. In this piece, although there is order in the placement of the trees and columns, the fish and sharks swim around effortlessly in random patterns. I learned how to embrace the chaos and let it roam free without needing to organize. I take pride in learning these photoshop skills and being able to apply them to something like this.
As a way of experimenting with 3D space and virtual reality, I was tasked with creating a 360º photo gallery. I chose to put picture of my pieces of artwork I used in my college portfolio as the subject matter. I later opted to use this 360º space in my Lyrical essay production
^CLICK AND DRAG TO MOVE AROUND^
Above is an interactive before and after comparison piece. I used Photoshop to edit the original photo using filters to create a watercolor effect.
Lightbox Project
In digital media I created a lightbox through Adobe Illustrator. The layers I created were then laser cut and I assembled them adding LED lights to the back illuminating the different layers.
My inspiration for this project was my mom and her house at the beach. I did not have any use for this Lightbox in my room and I thought my mom would enjoy having this piece as an added beach decor in her house. This project taught me some additional building skills which are not my strong suit. If I were to change anything I would probably add more layers and make a more detailed design but I am most proud of how happy my mom was when I showed her the final product. Overall this project helped me appreciate how much time artists who specialize in 3D art spend.