AE252_2010W_Louis40

(The following is from my artist statement)

For my final, I decided to expand on quiz #1. That is, I decided to make a magazine cover. However, I wanted to put more meaning into it this time because the first time around I was merely making it because I had to.

My Big Idea that is present in this piece is the concept that we are all connected. To show this I wanted to show a string of random magazines that appeared to be somehow connected. The first thought that popped in my mind was to put each magazine cover in the other and continue this trend six times (to also reference the popular concept of "six degrees of separation").

To make my picture, I first took two pictures with my camera, one of a magazine lying on a table, and the second of the table without the magazine on it (I used a tripod to do this to ensure the same position of the camera). Then, I looked for magazine covers on the Internet and found 5; they were from Car and Driver, National Geographic, People, Popular Science, and Time.

I opened up the picture I took with the magazine on the table in Photoshop and used the Vanishing Point filter to set a reference plane. Then, I copied the Car and Driver cover into a new layer and positioned it so that it was lying on the table, covering up the old magazine. Since the fit was not perfect, I duplicated the background layer, copied the picture of the empty table into the layer beneath the background copy, and erased the parts around the Car and Driver magazine. I found out that the picture of the empty table was a little lighter, so I used the Burn tool to darken it.

Then, I opened up the Time magazine cover, and I used the magic wand to select the interior of the cover. I then pressed select inverse and copied that into a new layer. After this, I only had to copy the previous image of the Car and Driver magazine on the table into a layer in between the background and the newly copied layer. This resulted in the "Time refined" layer.

I repeated this process for each of the magazine covers, and ended up using the Car and Driver cover as the initial magazine cover. This is what connects the magazines together. As you look from the first magazine, you go to the second, the third and so on, until you reach the sixth one, which happens to be the first magazine cover.

What I want to convey with this picture is that we are all connected and the magazines serve as a parallel to this ideology.

Here are the magazine covers found inside the final:

For this assignment, I had to combine a "chick flick" movie poster and a "guy pick" movie poster into one balanced combination. I chose to use (500) Days of Summer and 300, to make (300) Days of Summer. Here are the original movie posters:

And here is the combined movie poster:

The hardest part was to recreate the sun that was behind 500, it definitely took a long time.

This is quiz #3. I chose to modify an image of Zooey Deschanel. I really did not put in a good effort into this and I feel that I should have tried harder.

Original Image:



Modified Image:

1. What is the most significant accomplishment in looking at your Midterm or Final? You can talk about technique in Photoshop, investigating your Big Idea, creating a meaningful artwork, etc.
   
   I think the most significant accomplishment I've done in this class was done during my quiz #4, where I had to combine a chick flick with a guy pick. To edit the background of the (500) Days of Summer poster, I had to be incredibly meticulous and I often had to recreate parts that were not on the original image. I thought I pulled it off as best as I could and I was really pleased with the end result.
   
   


2. Choose a project in the class and discuss your most challenging learning experience in Photoshop. Focus on a technique or concept from Photoshop that was difficult at first, but that you mastered by the end of the quarter.
   
   Again, quiz #4 was one of the most challenging experiences. One thing that stands out in my mind was when I was using the cloning tool. Instead of using it in spurts, I used it for big sections. However, whenever the clone stamp replicated something that I didn't want, and I pressed Undo, it would undo a fairly large section and I would have to start over, even though there would only be a fairly tiny error.
   
   


3. Compare two projects from the quarter to compare and contrast how you achieved making meaning in the work. Try to showcase in your examples an improved capacity to making visual images that mean something as opposed to being a showcase of technique.
   
   Quiz #1 was one of the projects in which I had put little thought into towards the meaning. However, I put a lot of thought into the Midterm. I really felt more connected to my Midterm piece than quiz #1, even though at the time I finished quiz #1, I felt quite proud of my effort. I realize now that effort for effort's sake is not enough. If there is a little thought behind the effort, the piece becomes exponentially better.
   

My Final project will be an expansion of my quiz #1 entry. The Big Idea that I will address is the concept that we are all connected.

I will attempt to show this by using the following tutorial: Using the Vanishing Point Filter to Mock up a Business Card, to show a magazine lying on a table, and the cover of that magazine will be of one genre but the main picture will be using the same effect to show another magazine inside of a different genre. I hope to repeat this 6 times, to draw attention to the well-known concept of "six degrees of separation". Also, the final magazine cover's central picture will be the entire image, so it will sort of loop back on itself.

My primary magazine cover will be of a car magazine. For the inner magazine covers, I will use various other types of magazines such as Vanity Fair, Popular Science, etc. I will actually use the covers of an actual magazine and edit the central picture (keeping the magazine as unchanged as possible, something that I have tried to do in most of my works).

The first artist I chose was Glenn Jones. He is also known as Glennz because he is from Auckland, New Zealand (GLENN + NZ = GLENNZ). His website, store.glennz.com serves mainly as a place to buy T-shirts with his designs printed on them. All of the designs involve a funny way of looking at a commonplace notion. This seems to be the big idea that Glenn carries in his art. He makes sure to question the norm, and uses his alternate view of the norm to present a humourous look at these norms.

The above image shows a clownfish apparently being pied by another clownfish.



The above image shows a snake charmer charming the Snake from the popular arcade game.

I found this artist immediately inspiring because while the pictures more than evoked a chuckle from me, they also came across as simple as they could be. There was no extraneous use of effects, etc. As an engineer-to-be, this concept really appeals to me.


The second artist I chose was Keetra Dean Dixon. Her website is fromkeetra.com. The website where I harvested the images from is: Designboom - keetra dean dixon: just between you and me. Her big idea is one of co-dependence with objects that are not normally seen as needing two people to utilize.



The above image shows a balloon that has two ends to blow air into.



The above image shows a pair of glasses with three lenses with frames facing opposite directions.

The reason why her art appealed to me was I had never seen physical objects being transformed that way. Also, the idea of co-dependence really spoke volumes to me because my big idea was that we are all connected, and this really takes that a step further.

After browsing through the tutorials on http://worth1000.com, I decided to try the tutorial on making a matrix style poster. I have decided to include 8 snapshots of the work in progress.

And here is the finished work:

This week's quiz involved finding an image on the internet and then using photoshop to modify it, using the various tools and techniques we have learned over the past week. The image I chose was of a Porsche Cayman modified by RuF. And now, the modified image. I tried to make subtle changes so that the essence of image was left unchanged. I only changed little things that slightly fit the image more. For one thing, I changed the background to a warmer brown earth tone, rather than the steel-gray tone it was previously. For another, I made sure the side-view mirrors were a shade brighter than the rest of the car.

I have decided to post the magazine cover I made for quiz #1. I have changed only two things since the actual submission. The first thing was I fixed a typo I had in the bottom regarding page numbers. Second, since I've opened up the image at home, I've had to change a few of the fonts since they were not present on the computer I used to edit the image. Now onto how I made the picture. First, I added drop shadows to all of the text to make them pop out. Then, I added two lens flare effects to the central picture in order to make it seem like the headlights were on. Also, I added a barcode image and price list underneath to make it seem like a real magazine. One thing I was not pleased with was the title. I feel like I could have made a better effort on it to make it seem more professional-looking.

The artist I chose for this assignment is Raphaël Lacoste. Raphaël is a French-born digital artist who currently resides in Montreal, Canada. His portfolio includes the incredibly detailed scenes from the popular video games Prince of Persia (the revival), and Assasin's Creed. Include below are two of his pieces, the first one from Assasin's Creed. The above work, entitled North Kingdom, is from a scene in the video game Assassin's Creed. In this game, the player controls a medieval assassin who is tasked with carrying out various assassinations of highly influential people in the middle ages. The above picture shows the assassin going through two arches. Typically, this signifies him entering or leaving a particular region in the game. In this case, he is entering the North Kingdom. The mountains in the background show that the region is going to be a particularly mountainous region. The connotations I get from this is that the game will get particularly challenging once he enters this region. However, the sun shining on him and his horse, which suggests to me that though challenges may lie ahead, everything will turn out fine in the end. The above work, entitled Shilo Airport, shows an airplane either taking off or landing in a small-to-medium sized airport. The reason this airport is more medium-sized than small is because the airstrip is large enough to accommodate the airplane shown in the picture which if fairly big (it looks to be an airplane used for longer hauls, perhaps in excess of three hour trips). Again, in this scene, mountains are shown in the background. Since the mountains are behind the airplane this suggests to me the completion of some challenging task perhaps. The way one can't tell if the airplane is landing or taking off suggests to me the doubt that everyone experiences in real life. Here are the sources for the above info and pics: Pics - www.presidiacreative.com/58-breathtaking-matte-paintings-by-raphael-lacoste/ Bio - www.imdb.com/name/nm2900037/bio