Posts Tagged ‘class assignment’

Finding a Sense of Interspace

I’m taking a couple more UCLA Extension classes this quarter — Color Methodologies and Drawing for Communications. I haven’t done too much yet that I’ve wanted to post up here, but I feel like my positive/negative space composition turned out well, so I thought I’d share it.

The idea was to create a sense of “interspace,” a balance between positive and negative space, by creating a photomontage and deciding which areas to use as positive space, and which as negative. I had a lot of trouble at first, not liking my compositions and not feeling inspired — I was also really short on time. So I turned to a past photomontage project I’d done — decoupage chairs, and decided to use them as inspiration.

Here’s what I came up with:

positive and negative space composition

Click for a larger view

Here’s the original photo I took of the chair so you can see what I was working from.

Decoupage Chair - Photomontage

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August 10th, 2010 - Sketches & Projects

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Updating the Owl Calendar in Illustrator

For my Illustrator class, we had a calendar project and I thought it would be the perfect time to start updating my Owl Calendar. I created another yearly version with the tree with pretty much the same layout but completely revamped images and colors. I’m still considering some changes, so I’m not posting an image fit for download yet, but you should be able to get a good view.

Owl Calendar 2011

I also started creating some individual calendar months — here are January and July. More to come soon! Let me know what you think…

Owl Calendar JanuaryOwl Calendar July

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March 4th, 2010 - Sketches & Projects

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How to Create a Late Night Disaster

For my first Illustrator II class assignment, we had to create a how-to illustration. I decided to go timely with How to Cause a Late Night Disaster based on all the hoopla going on at NBC with Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and the Tonight Show.

How to Create a Late Night Disaster per NBC, Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien

Click image for larger view

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January 19th, 2010 - Art & Entertainment, Sketches & Projects

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Final Photoshop II Project: NYTimes Opinion Illustration

Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything. It’s been a really busy month and I have lots of adventures to catch up on writing about. First, though, I wanted to share my final project from my Photoshop II UCLA Extension class.

We had to create an illustration for a New York Times Opinion Section piece in the style of ParkeHarrison. I was inspired by the surreal images, and loved the themes of flight, clouds and tethering. I chose an article called “Have Work, Will Travel” about working holiday visas for young people and the freedom it gives them. I focused on the freedom to travel and explore the world as opposed to the parts of the article that talk about how the U.S. doesn’t have such reciprocal agreements with other countries. As someone who has used a working holiday visa — when I went to London — it really was a great experience.

I put together a number of different photos — my friend Guiselle leaping into the air, a stock landscape, many stock cloud photos and a photo of a parachute for the strings.

"Have Work, Will Travel" ParkeHarrison-Style Illustration - Click for larger view

"Have Work, Will Travel" ParkeHarrison-Style Illustration - Click for larger view

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December 6th, 2009 - Art & Entertainment, Sketches & Projects

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Recreating a Planet Terror Poster, Textures and All

Click to view a larger version of the comparison

Click to view a larger version of the comparison

Last week’s Photoshop class assignment was to recreate the look of a Planet Terror poster using our own images and textures. I chose a photo I took of Guiselle where she looks sort of scared, and painted on some eye makeup and made her lips a deeper red-orange so she looked like she was wearing lipstick. I couldn’t quite recreate the drippy mascara as well as I wanted, so I left it out. I also changed the color of her shirt from purple to green, and added a lot of highlights and shadows to make the lighting feel more like the original.

Click to view an even larger view of Guiselle's Planet Terror moment

Click to view an even larger view of Guiselle's Planet Terror moment

For the background, I blurred some crumpled paper to give the yellow some texture, and added scratches to the edges. I also added the paper folds, which was a pretty complicated process since I wanted to match the original colors in the folds, as well as the original feel, and I wasn’t working with the best photo of folds to begin with since my paper was just white and it has quite a lot of shadow on it.

I played with the text a bit, though just used the Title and production company logos from the original.

Click to view a larger version of Evan's texture moment

Click to view a larger version of Evan's texture moment

As this was texture week, we also had to create a bunch of original textures from photos/scans and use them in an image. I made of of Evan, using many textures, from tree bark to crumpled aluminum foil to ripped paper in the background, and dirt and more marked up tree bark on top of him to make him look grittier.

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October 28th, 2009 - Art & Entertainment, Sketches & Projects

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Playing With Halftone Photoshop Effects

One of the assignments in my Photoshop class last week was to create a series of halftone looks by using the regular and color halftone filters in creative ways. I may have gone a bit too abstract on some, but it was interesting playing around with an effect I hadn’t used before.

I used a portrait I created of Evan — I started playing around with it for the Editorial Portrait assignment. And added various halftone masks, layers and effects.

The original portrait I created by compositing Evan, a Goose and a background that I took in Cambridge while punting

The original portrait I created by compositing Evan, a Goose and a background that I took in Cambridge while punting

A very simple, even halftone pattern with no variation in size in 50% gray

A very simple, even halftone pattern with no variation in size in 50% gray -- you can barely see it in this small version, it's just giving the photo its softness

This is sort of an old-timey look, and it was a required matched look for the assignment

This is sort of an old-timey look, and it was a required matched look for the assignment

Here I deconstructed the color halftone into layers of red, green and blue and applied different opacities and effects like strokes and drop shadows

Here I deconstructed the color halftone into layers of red, green and blue and applied different opacities and effects like strokes and drop shadows

Then I went even more abstract, again pulling apart the color channels, but also using an alternate color scheme

Then I went even more abstract, again pulling apart the color channels, but also using an alternate color scheme

If I had used a less detailed image, I could have gotten much more dramatic effects or created a more Pop Art feel. I sort of wish I’d gone that way, but this is a learning process… and I do love how these change so dramatically as they increase or decrease in size.

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October 21st, 2009 - Art & Entertainment, Sketches & Projects

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Creating Composited Portraits in Photoshop

The first big assignment in my Photoshop II class was creating two “editorial portraits” that could be part of one magazine article, somehow related and showed some of the personality of the subject.

When I took photos for the first week of class, I used my friends Guiselle and Kacie as models. I shot the photos in my apartment against a white background. I also took photos of Evan, but for this assignment, I decided that I wanted the fictional article I was putting these photos together for to be a series of profiles of strong women.

Guiselle's Portrait

Guiselle's Portrait - Click to view a larger version

I decided to use two sort of confrontational photos. In Guiselle’s she’s jumping — actually hurdling — right at you. She ran track in high school and college, and she’s now a lawyer. I felt that her intense look and body language pushed out of the frame, showed a lot of movement, and really showed a strong woman. The background I used was from Highgate Cemetery, and I decided to add the flowers in to add a fanciful element, add more color and visual interest, and soften the photo a bit.

Kacie's Portrait

Kacie's Portrait - Click to view a larger version

In Kacie’s photo, I placed her in front of a house, giving a “get off my lawn” sort of stare. Kacie is one of my funniest friends — and she’s actually started doing stand-up comedy. She also loves bizarre props, like Billy Bob teeth, rubber chickens, alligator feet and flamingos. I chose to take a photo of that building because of the skull stickers on the door and the truck in the lawn. And I added in the gas meter, sign, and flamingo to add some more interest and humor to the image, and to help balance it as well.

This was a really fun assignment, and I feel like I was able to capture my friends’ personalities quite well. It was a lot of work to get the photos to look like this, but I’m really happy with how they turned out.

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October 11th, 2009 - Art & Entertainment, Sketches & Projects

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