Blog- Daily Notes and Instructions from Class
August 15th, 2013
After the second day of class, we have learned how to create a website using Weebly.com Through Weebly, we are able to add different tabs to our page, and customize each tab by adding titles, paragraphs, and pictures. We created 5 tabs which we will use throughout the year: a home, a projects page, a 9 weeks projects page, a portfolio page, a biography page, and finally, a blog page. We were also asked to upload 3 photos from our documents to the site. I personalized my website by adjusting font types and sizes, uploading pictures of flowers, and filling in the biography without giving away any critical information about myself.
August 16th. 2013
Today, there as an introduction to Photoshop. Some important things that we learned are : undo shortcut= control + z, good resolution= 200 pixels, control + j= how to copy a layer, and control + += shortcut to zoom. We learned about the different buttons on the side tool bar, options on the top tool bar, and how to add different layers. Mr. Parker told us that in Photoshop, we will mostly be focusing on layers and filters. We experimented with brushes by changing the size, type, and color. Then, we learned how to make our own brush. We took a picture of our signature, emailed it to ourselves, saved the image to our documents, and then opened the JPEG in Photoshop. Then, I used the rectangular marquee to go around our signature, copied another layer, and hid the rest of the layers, so only my signature was visible. Next, I used the magic eraser to whiten the paper around the writing, so that only the signature remained. Continuing on, we went to Edit, the Define Brush Preset, and saved it as Olivia's Signaure. In addition, I saved the Photoshop document and the JPEG also as Olivia's signature. Finally, I uploaded the JPEG the Projects tab on this website. The Projects tab is where I am to post all of the works I create using the programs I learn in Computer Design.
August 19th, 2013
We began a piece in Photoshop modeled after Frank Stella's work. We opened a Photoshop document, set the dimensions to be a square. Then, we unlocked the first layer, which become Layer 0. Next, we set the background layer as a dark color, covered the entire layer with a rectangular marquee, and hit control + backspace to fill in the color I picked. Then, we learned how to use stroke, which basically puts a border around the boxes. I select a layer, click Layer on the top bar, go down to Layer Style, and click Stroke.I select a color and a width, then press OK. Also, we learned to use the eyedropper tool to match a shade exactly. You click the Eyedropper button on the lower section of the side tool bar and use the tool to click on the desired color. Then, that color becomes one of the background color of the two boxes in the lower left corner, so all you need to do is switch the two backgrounds and hit control + backspace to fill the rectangular marquee. Once I finish this piece, I have been instructed to use my signature to sign my work, and upload it to the Projects tab on this website. After I have finished 2 Stella pieces, I have been asked to do some research and write a short biography about why he is such an important artist.
August 20th, 2013
During class today, I finished my first Frank Stella piece with the rectangles, and started another Frank Stella piece, creating it with the same methods, only know I am using the Elliptical Marquee Tool. To have this option, I right-click on the Rectangular Marquee icon on the side bar. I also completed a short biography of Frank Stella. Because I had completed my first work, I saved it as a JPEG and uploaded to the Projects tab of this site, as I am going to do with all my other projects. Once I am finished with my second Frank Stella piece, I am to begin working and a piece modeled after Wassily Kandinsky, also accompanied by a short biography.
August 21st, 2013
I finished my second Frank Stella piece and uploaded it to my Projects tab on my website. Then, I began another Photoshop document based on Wassily Kandinsky's Concentric Circles. First, to make things easier, I adjusted the dimensions of the page to be 12 inches long and 9 inches wide. This way 12 3x3 inch squares would fit on the page, and in these squares, could create the circles that make up the art piece. In order to recreate this painting, I first used the rectangular marquee tool to cool the 12 3x3 inch boxes I mentioned earlier. Then, I created another layer and used the elliptical marquee tool to create the circles which fit within the boxes. I repeated this step, each layer on Photoshop containing another layer of circles, until I felt the art piece to be sufficient. Next, I uploaded it to my projects page, along with a short biography of Wassily Kandinsky. Tomorrow, we have been told we are to begin working with text manipulation.
August 22nd, 2013
During class, we learned how to do text manipulation to make the words look like its shining (Elvis Bling). First I opened a new document, set the dimensions to 500x500 pixels, and 72 pixels per inch. Then I set the background color (the farther square) to mustard yellow and the text color (the closer box) to black. Next, I clicked on the large T button on the side bar to open a text box, set the font to Magneto, and typed my name. I experienced some difficulty making it large enough. Mr. Parker helped me to enlarge the text through the following steps: first, I adjusted the text box so it tightly fit around the letters, then I pressed the checkmark, located in the upper right corner, after that, I was able to enlarge the text by dragging the corner of the text box outward, lastly, and this was very important, I had to again click the checkmark. If I hadn't clicked the check mark I wouldn't have been able to take other actions afterward Then, I proceeded, under Mr. Parker's instruction, to manipulate the text by applying different layer styles to it. We used Inner Glow, Bevel and Emboss, Gradient Overlay, Pattern Overlay, and finally, Stroke for a border. Remember to change the contour of the Inner Glow from the diagonal line to the two hills by clicking on the drop down menu and increase the opacity to 100%. The Bevel and Emboss isn't extremely noticeable but serves the purpose of making the text pop out from the background and enhancing its three-dimensional nature. Set the gloss contour as the two hills as well, the depth at 100, and the size at 10px. Use a brown and white Gradient Overlay with an opacity of around 14% to make the words look shiner and for the pattern, pick some kind of gray marble or rock with an opacity of 100%. Tomorrow, we are going to continue with this project, finishing the last steps. Then, we will repeat the process with out own original design.
August 23rd, 2013
At the beginning of class, Mr. Parker asked us to open a new document and try to recreate the Bling text we learned yesterday by using our notes. I had a bit of trouble because I didn't remember to hit control+t when I was trying to make the text larger in the beginning. However, once I figured that out I could complete the rest of the steps up until the point we had left of yesterday. Just a note: Remember to not make the Gradient Overlay too high because then you aren't able to see the Pattern Overlay. Next, we finished the last steps of the Bling text which amount to making the shadow for the words, and putting little sparkles around the letters. To make the shadow, I first hit control + j to make a copy of the layer with the text on it. Then, I stripped the middle layer of all the layer styles by unchecking the small boxes in the layer style window and finally clicking the eye icon next to the layer to hide it. Now at this point, all that was on my screen was my name in plain black letters, and here is where I began to make the shadow. At the top of the window, I clicked Edit, Transformation, and Skew. I used this to tilt the letters to the right at about a 20 degree angle. Then, I clicked Edit, Transformation, Free Transform, and decreased the height of the words (smushed them down). At this point, I clicked on the eye icon next to the layer to un-hide it and I moved the words so they align with the shadow. Next, I clicked Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur, and set it at about 30%. Finally, I used a small star brush to put some sparkles around the edges. In order to do this, you will first have to rasterize the document, making it so that you can't edit the text any longer. When I finished, I uploaded it to my website.
August 26th, 2013
We learned how to do the "Cold" text manipulation. First, you find a picture of a an iceberg scene, save it, and open it in an 7x5 inch document at 100 pixels. Then, you open up a text box, type the word "Cold" in all caps in a large, white font. Then, we rotated it 90 degrees clockwise by clicking Edit, Transform, and Rotate 90 CW. Next, we clicked Filter, Stylize, Wind, and applied it from the right about 2-3 times so that it drips down like icicles. A shortcut to repeat a filter is control + f. During this step, we applied the filter too many times, so that we could learn about History. To go back after messing up several steps, I clicked Window on the top bar, History, scrolled up in the small window that pops up, and clicked on the step I wanted to return to. After I was content with the amount of wind filters, I rotated it back counterclockwise by clicking Edit, Transform, Rotate 90 CCW. Continuing on, I was on the Text layer, I used the shortcut Control + j to make a copy of that layer. Then, I clicked Edit, Transform, and Flip Vertical. I dragged so the letters were alligned. I used Edit, Transform, and Distort to stretch the letters out along the water so that they formed a sort of trapezoid shape. Finally, I used the eraser tool, lowering the opacity to about 20%, and went over the reflected letters. I went over the bottom of the letters more times so that they disappeared more the farther away from the original letters. We were also instructed to create our own original version, so I began working one with a picture of the Eiffel Tower.
August 27th, 2013
Today, I completed and posted my original spin on the "Cold" Text Manipulation technique. For the background, I found a picture on the internet of the Eiffel Tower reflected off a pool of water. Again, I downloaded it, saved it to my Documents, and opened it as a Photoshop document by clicking File, Open, and selecting that picture. I make the picture a bit bigger by surrounding the edges with a Rectangular marquee, hit control + t, and enlarged the image. Then, I followed the same steps that I used to create the "Cold"picture, as described above, using this time the word "France". Remember to type the word in all caps because otherwise it is harder to get the reflected and distorted letters to align with the original. Even with the all caps, I had some trouble with the size of the reflected letters, so I clicked Edit, Free Transform, and decreased the length so the letters lined up. Also, I talked a bit about rasterizing in the entry from August 23rd, but I didn't not explain how or why one must do it. In order to paint with a brush or make other changes to a document after doing text manipulation, I will need to rasterize, which is basically combining all the the layers into one. To do this, I click Layers in the top bar, and go down to rasterize. Sometimes, Photoshop will automatically ask if you want to rasterize. Another note, when using the eraser to create the reflection in the water, make sure that there are several different layers of increasing darkness moving down the letters. Today, I really only made on shade, and it did not look as good as when I tried again, I made different distinct layers. Finally, I added a blue Inner Glow to my letters, something I applied from a previous lesson, a skill Mr. Parker would like us to begin using. All of our projects from now on should try to incorporate old aspects in with the new skills we are learning.
August 28th, 2013
We learned how to do the "Fire" text manipulation in during class. The document I opened was 5x7 inch and 100 pixels per inch. I made the background, selected a large font, and typed the word "Fire" white all capitals letters. Then I used the Smudge tool, an option that can be selected under the Blur tool, which is the icon consisting of a drop, Using this, I drew little flames coming out from the letters. You could also use the Forward Warp Tool under the Liquify filter, but that is much stronger. If you wanted to use the Smudge tool, but you wanted a stronger effect, the strength can be increased by adjusting the bar at the top of the screen. The next step I did was to click on the half-white, half-black circle, called the New Adjustment Layer at the bottom right near the layer options, and then selected Color Balance. I adjusted the Midtones so the bars were closer to the red, the magenta, and the yellow ends of the bars. I then played around a bit with the shadows, until I finally set it the once of the bars slightly towards the red. Continuing on, I made another text layer with the same word of identical font, size and color. I aligned the two words, and they put a Gradient overlay on top layer. The gradient transitioned from blue, red, dark orange, medium orange, light orange, finally ending in yellow. I moved the button from left to right on the opacity to make the effect more visible. I also added an Inner Glow following the same color scheme, but it didn't seem to have much effect. It was more noticeable however when I changed the Blend mode Normal by clicking the drop down arrow at the top, and changing the contour from a straight diagnogal line to two curves. Finally, I signed and uploaded it.
August 29th, 2013
Today, we created a GIF. I opened a new document with default dimensions (5x7 inches, 100 pixles per inch). I filled in the background in black and with the text marquee tool, created a inch white rectangular box along the bottom of the page. I clicked Filter, Blur, and apllied a 25x Gaussain Blur, and created 3 copies of that layer. I hid 3 of the bottom layers so only the top was showing and use the magic eraser tool to get rid of the black in the background, repeated this step twice, so that the top three layers had the white rectangle and only the original later had a black in the background. Then, we used the Smudge tool (under the drop icon), and smudged the white into the black on the three copied layers to make flames. Only make one layer visible as you work on it, so you get three different flame layers. Then, we began making it into a GIF by clicking Window and Animation. One frame should come up automatically with the original layer. Add three more frames by clicking on the icon that looks like a piece of paper with a folded corner at the bottom of the animation window. In each of these each of these new frames keep only visible the original layer and one flame layer. In each frame, it should be a different flame layer visible, for example in the second frame background and copy 1 are visible, but in the third frame the background and copy 2 should be visible. Next, once I had 4 slides, I clicked on the lower button that looks like a diagonal line of small circles. This button will perform a function called tweening, which adds more slides to help smooth over the transition, making the GIF look more realistic. Then, I clicked the half white, half black circle at the bottom of the layer screen to create an Adjustment layer, and change the color balance so the flames look red, as I did yesterday. Finally, you save this document by clicking File, and Save for Web and Devices.
August 31st, 2013
After a guided practice of making a GIF yesterday, today we recreated the project on our own by following the same steps, either by remembering them or looking at our notes. I spent a good amount of time smoothing over my GIF, by tweening, rearranging the slides, and deleting some slides that didn't fit. Then, we worked on making our own original GIF. I used what I learned in the "Bling" text lesson, and worked to make a GIF of my name sparkling. However, I didn't get very far, so I am going to continue once we get return to school after Labor Day weekend.
September 3rd, 2013
Today, we learned to make words look like Grass. I opened a document that was 400x400 pixels, and 100 pixels per inch and typed the word Grass in large, green Arial font on a mustard yellow background I clicked Filter, Sketch, Torn Edges. The settings Image Balance- 50, Smoothness-1, and Contrast-25. This causes the text to look like Snake skin, or pixelized with little holes. Then I put a Gaussian Blur on it of 3.8, and this made the world look fuzzy, as if you were squinting. The next step is to put a dark green Inner Shadow on it with opacity=75%, distance=5px, size=21px, and the contour is one large hill (1st row, 2nd column). This fills in the letters, stops them from disappearing completely because they had become very faint in the first two steps. Then I put an Outer Glow on it, leaving the default color, with 75% opacity, spread=2%, size=4px, range=50% and a contour (1st row, 6th column) that looks like a wavy uphill slope. This gives the word fuzzy, lighter outline. Continuing down the layer stiles window, I selected an Inner Glow with a 75% opacity, 43px size, 50% range and leaving the contour as a straight diagonal line. This lightens the color of the letters. Next, I add a Bevel and Emboss which gives it a dark center and make look like there are two outlines of the letters, as if one was squinting and could see two of everything. It had a 100% depth, 5px size, and the two pyramids (2nd row, 6th column) for the gloss contour. Under the Bevel and Emboss, I clicked on the Contour and changed it to the steps (2nd row, 5th column) with a 50% range, making the letters look as if they had metallic layers that got smaller as they moved inward. Also, under Bevel and Emboss, I clicked Pattern, and clicked one of the gray and white rock/marble patterns (any will do), making sure the scale was at 100%. This is essential because it is what finally makes the letters look like grass. Finally, I put a 100% gradient overlay that transitioned from white to dark green (purple or black would also work). This didn't have much effect. During class, we first had a guided practice and then attempted to recreate it independently. Both versions were signed and uploaded to the Projects page.
September 4th, 2013
During today's class, we experimented with the different possibilities of the Pen tool. A shortcut for the pen tool is just clicking the letter p. We created what looks a bit like modern abstract art with the regular pen tool. Basically, what happens when you use this tool is you left- click, stretch or compress the line, let go, and then repeat the process. You can spin or rotate the line all the way around, and the space created by rotating and stretching the line fills with color. Next, we clicked on the pen tool with a dotted, curved line coming from the top to use the Freeform Pen tool, which one could use to draw basically any shape they want. For example, you could create a leaf, a heart, a cloud etc. We then remained on the Freeform Pen Tool but in the top left corner (under the drop down edit menu), we changed the settings from the empty box to the box with a pen in it. This lets you create paths, which are like roads along which you can type and put brushes. Mr. Parker gave the example of how a wave fills the moat around a sand castle with water. Basically, you create a path along any shape. Then, to type around it, select the text button on the left side menu, and insert a text box directly on the path. This allows you to type words that follow along the inside or the outside of the path. I assume, though we have not been officially taught, that one would follow the same process with a brush (inserting a brush directly on the path). Using this tool, one could, for example, create a Valentine's day card with heart brushes around it, or maybe instead create a cool poster/ flyer for an upcoming event. You could also create a GIF in which the a circle of words are orbiting or rotating around an object; this is an assignment that we have been assigned to finish by Friday. In order to get the text to fit around your shape, you made need to adjust the texts size, font, width, or height. To do this, you click on the icon with the capital "A", named Characteristics.
September 5th, 2013
Today, we learned how to create a jersey, with stitched letters and a number in the background. I opened a document with default settings, set the background to black, and I typed my name in white letters, all caps. I shaped the words into an arch by pressing the button with an arch under a capital "T", which is located on the right text menu bar, directly under the top menu. Then, I placed the cursor on the edge of a letter, right-clicked, and selected Create Work Path. Once a work path has been created, I hid the text layer. Then, I created a new layer and names it Stitches. After downloading the Stiches brushes from Mr. Parker's website, I went select a brush, clicked the arrow next to the Master Diameter, which opened a dropdown menu, and selected Load Brushes. After that I clicked on the capital V of the brush tool and adjusted it so the size was similar looking to the size of actual stitches. Then, I clicked on the brushes button on the side bar near the capital "A" characteristics button, clicked Brush Tip preset, and adjusted the spacing. If the button isn't visible you can reach these settings by going to Window on the top menu, and Brushes. Next, I clicked on the brush tool, dragged the cursor over the edge of the work path, and right-clicked. When the drop down menu appears, I clicked Stroke path, which causes a window to pop up. In the drop down menu of the window, change the Pencil option to Brush. This causes stitches to appear around the text. Then, you delete the work path by going to the right side, where the layer window is, selecting the path tab, and deleting the path. Finally, you un-hide the text layer, so that the final result is white letters with red stitches around them, all on a black background. I then repeated the process with numbers under my name, so that it looked like a jersey.Continuing on, I was told to create an original one, relating in some way to Keystone After I finished, I uploaded both to my website.
September 6th, 2013
Today, class was a bit different. Mr. Parker presented us with a challenge. He told us he wanted us to create an object with the stitches around it, but he didn't tell us how, so we had to try to figure it out. I floundered around a bit, testing many different methods, each proving to be unsuccessful Then, I finally found a way that worked. First, I found an image of an object I wanted to apply this stitched look to saved it to my computer. In this case I used a curly heart. Next, I opened the image in a new document and used the magic eraser to get rid of all the white or off-white background leaving only the shape of the object. Then, using the fourth icon down on side bar, the wand I was able to create a Work Path around this irregular shape. I right-clicked the button, selected the Magic Wand tool, and click on imaged. A Work Path should appear around it. Then, I hid the image, so only the work path remained. I completed the rest of steps as you would normally for letters. I created a new layer called Stitches, adjusted the capitol "V" brush to look like a stitch, left-clicked on the path, selected Stroke Path, and applied the brush. Then, I unhid the layer underneath, so the background and the color of the shape would appear again. Finally, I deleted the work path and signed the bottom of my creation. I wanted to add also that I discovered that you can apply different layer styles to the letters and the background when using these stitches. You can apply Bevel and Emboss to the letters, to make them stand up a bit more, making them look 3D and a bit more like actual embroidered letters. Also, you can put a Gradient overlay on a dull blue background to make it look like stitched letters on denim fabric. As always, there are endless possibilities when using artistic tools such as Photoshop.
September 16th, 2013
This was our first day back from our OPI trip, and we actually did a project relating to that area. I found a picture online of Olympic National Park, but truthfully it could be a picture of anything. It could even my a picture you took yourself, which is something we are going to do a bit later with the pictures we took during our OPI trip. Anyway, I saved it to my Documents and then opened it in Photoshop. Next, I hit Control +J to copy that layer of the picture. Then, I added a translucent layer in between the two identical layers, and filled it (by clicking control + backspace) with white, but it could be filled with any color depending on your project. Make sure to put this layer between the two picture layers, like a sandwich. Then, select the top layer, which should be the copy of the picture, and add a text layer. I wrote the word OPI, in all caps. However, again, one could theoretically use any word. Format this word using a big font, and click control + t, to increase the size of the words. Use the Character, also known as the letter palette (capital A button on right side of screen) to adjust the space between the letters and the height and the width of the letters. Ideally, the letters take up as much space as possible. If the button isn't there, you can always go to Workspace in upper right at set it at the default workspace settings. You could also go to View on the Top Bar Menu, select Character, and drag the button to the columns with the other buttons. Then, I moved the text layer so that it was under top layer of the picture. In other words it was 2nd from the top, under the picture copy, above the white layer. Then I clicked Image in the Top Bar Menu, Create Clipping Mask. This should create the effect that the white is the background and the picture shows through the words, as if they were stencils. It was a pretty neat effect, and my teacher noted that it was a good example of using text manipulation and images in Computer Design. He also added, that if one was to put an Outer Glow around the letter and didn't use the plain color layers, then the words look like watermark or ghost letters.
September 17th, 2013
Today, Mr.Parker gave us another challenge: he wanted us to use Clipping Mask to create a postcard-like image, where there is a name of a place, and in each letter is different photo of that place. I didn't complete the assignment, but I made progress. My strategy was to follow the process we learned the day before, and in 5 different documents, type one letter for each picture. Then, I'm planning on saving all the documents as pictures and somehow putting all the JPEGs in one document. I completed the first part by the end of today's class. However, I'm having a bit of trouble with getting all the saved images into one document. I'm beginning to think that maybe this is not the method I should be pursuing. As a side note, I clicked Edit, Trim before I saved the images in order to get rid of the space that would get in the way of other images when I try to combine them.Also, make sure the image being used is at a high enough resolution. Otherwise, you won't be able to type anything the text box. If this happens, try making the text smaller, and if that doesn't work, get another image. Another mistake I made was not being on the right layer when I wanted to create a Clippin Mask. You need to be on the Top picture layer because a clipping mask is a bit like a whole
NO CLASS ON SEPTEMBER 18TH, 2013
September 19th, 2013
In class, I finished up my Clipping Mask project. The final result was five capital letters, spelling SO CAL, each with a different picture from Southern California on it. I was able to do this because I figured out how to but all of the letters into one document. I was wrong to save them as JPEGs. Instead, you leave them as Photoshop documents. Once you are done formatting it and your letters are exactly how you want them to be, you click Layers, Rasterize, All Layers. Then, delete your original picture layer and the color layer. All that should be left is your text layer with the copied picture layer on top of it, which creates a transparent background and the letter with a picture inside of it. Then, make sure in the document, you are on your text layer, which should be second from the top. At times, I was on the top picture layer, and the option needed to merge the documents would not appear, so its important you are on the right layer for the next step. Next, click Layers, Merge Clipping Mask, and select the drag tool. Have the document with your letter in it minimized (so it doesn't take up the entire screen), and have a new, plain document open next to it. Then, you physically just drag the letter from the old document onto the black sheet. Do this with all of the letters. You can move them around the black sheet using the drag tool. If resizing is needed, I select the layer of the letter I want to format, and just click control + t. Originally, I was surrounding the letter with the rectangular marquee tool, but that is unnecessary and makes it harder to resize because it may cut off some of the image. After all the letters where correctly sized and situated, I applied a white stroke to them to define them a bit. Finally, I applied a Gradient Overlay that transitioned from a mild orange to a mild yellow and back to a mild orange. I also applied a Pattern Overlay to distinguish the background a bit. I have to say, I think the final product looks pretty cool. Mr. Parker wants us to create 2 more of these place Clipping Masks with words. Then, he wants us to create 3 Clipping Masks with objects, as well as another Clipping Mask using Objects based on Rene Magritte's pieces with the sky in the outline of a bird on a beach. In general, he expressed that he wants us to begin doing series of our projects. In other words, he would like us to complete more than one project on the same concept, so that we can really cement our knowledge. We are also beginning to think about 9 week projects. Two different ones are due at the end of the quarter. Each of them should combine several things we learned, and one of them needs to be a GIF.
September 20th, 2013
In class today, we continued to work on our clipping masks projects. The meaning of series was clarified. It doesn't not mean just many examples. It is instead three works that all tie together somehow. For example, I have completed a series titled "Cool Vacation Spots" that uses clipping masks to show interesting places in Southern California, France, and Seattle A small sidenote: while working today on the Places Clipping Mask project, I discovered that if you are planning on merging the clipping mask into one document, you don't need to have a color layer of the original picture layer underneath the text and top picture layer. One does need those if they are creating a clipping mask and not planning to move it, but if you want a transparent background, you can skip those steps. Today, I figured out how to do a clipping mask of an object. I have been working with faces, which is a little more difficult that regular objects, but the instructions still apply. When picking an object, it needs to be fairly simple to select, so you need an image that is just a black and white outline of the object. It should look like a 2-D picture one would find in a childs coloring book. You also need some image to put behind it. The first step is to open both the image and the object in Photoshop. With the object, use the Magic Wand Tool to select the image. If you need to click more than once to select everything, you can change, in the top left corner fo the screen, the selection from one square to two overlapping squares. When everything is surrounded by the "dancing ants" (the line that surrounds a selected object), click control + j, and a new layer should pop up with just your selection. Then, minimize the screen, select the Move Tool, and drag the objects outline onto your Image document. Click control + t to transfrom the size. You also may need to crop the photo to make the object fit better. Then, make a copy of the picture layer and put it at the top. Make a color layer and put it between the two photo layers, and place the layer with your object outline above the color layer and under the top image layer. A helpful hint: use strokes, outerglows, or other layer styles to define the outline to make it more clear.
September 23th, 2013
Today, we created text portraits, which basically looks like a picture made out of words. I began by opening a picture of ourselves in Photoshop, and simultaneously opening a Word document. In that word document, I typed the story of that picture, about a paragraph long, no indentions and not too much space between the lines of text. The we hit control + c, to copy it. I toggled back over to the Photoshop document and began working on the picture. First, we cropped the picture so it just had my face. Then, using the Magnetic Lasso Tool, we went around the outline of our head, clicking to drop little points along the path. Once I finished, I clicked control + j, which created a new layer with my face and a transparent background. Next, I created a black layer above it. Then, I created a text layer, clicking control + v, and pasting the text into the text box. Paste it as many times as needed in order to fill up the page. Once this is completed, go back to the layer containing the outline of the picture, and follow the directions below.
Steps:
Control a- select all
Control c- copy
Layer mask (rectangle with circle in)
Hold Alt
Control v- paste
Control d- deselect
Click on Background
After this, you should have a Text Portrait. Keep in mind the different possibilities for the background: different colors, gradients, patterns. Also, I discovered that if you play around with the text, sometimes the image becomes clearer. For example, changing the size, font, or making it bold etc. effects the quality of the portrait. Mr. Parker would like us to complete a series of Text Portraits, including this one which is what we will be working on in class.
September 24th, 2013
Today, we continued to work on our text portrait series. I am using 3 pictures from my family's road trip to Washington D.C., which we took this summer. So far everything is going well. One thing I learned is that using smaller font and setting it at the smallest size helps to preserve some of the detail of the picture. Also, it was hard to tell what was in my pictures because they were kind of dark, so I selected Layer Mask by holding down Alt and clicking, and I right-clicked on that picture. At the top of the menu that appears, there is an option for Brightness/Contrast, and increased the brightness a bit. I'm not sure it really helped, but I thought it was worth a try.
September 25th, 2013
Again, class today was mostly spent completing our text portraits, but this was the last daywe had to work on them. A tip for future reference: the Impact font worls very well. Mr. Parker spent the remainder of time explaining what we are going to do tomorrow, which is an Andy Warhol inspired piece where you change certain colors on your face to achieve his signature look. Mr. Parker also introduced us to the idea of using green-screens to put ourself in front of one of our creations, which we are going to be doing next 9 weeks.
September 26th, 2013
Today, we began our Andy Warhol projects. Mr. Parker has instructed us to make a series of Andy Warhol portraits. The first step in doing it is to first select a close up picture. Crop out any of the background and use the Magnetic Lasso tool, to select only the head and soldiers of the person in the picture. Click control + j to paste the selection into a new layer. Keep the layer of the picture so that you can use it for the other three pictures, but hide it so you can work on the other one. Next, cpu the mouse of select on the top bar, and click select color range. A window should pop up with a drop down menu. On the drop down menu you can select Highlights, Midtones, or Shadows. Do this three times, one for each part of the picture, and every time click control + j and put that selection in its own layer. Hide the selection of the head and shoulders and two of the 3 layers containing the color parts of the picture. Hover with the mouse about Edit at the top bar, select Fill, and choose a color to fill into either the Highlights, Midtones, or Shadows. Do this with the other two. Made all three visible and put a colorful or white background behind all three. Go to Layer in the top bar, and click merge visible. Repeat this process 3 more times, using different colors. Then, create a new document, making square in size. Make the grid appear, then minimize this new document and one of the other colorful head shots. Use the Move tool, and drag it into the new document. Adjust it to fit into one fourth of the square. Repeat with the other three. Sign and post it to your website. In doing this, I discovered a couple things. First, if you hold shift down while you are transforming (control + t) the picture, it will constrain the proportions. This helped me when I would drag the normal colored headshot of me into a new document to make another Warhol square with different colors. This way nothing got distorted and everything was symmetrical when I combined them into one document. Also, in reference to the colors, remember to make color schemes using the color wheel, and make it so all the color schemes make sense together. Lastly, that making it, for example, so that the Shadows were the darkest colors, the Midtones were the lightest, and the highlights were the middle in all the pictures helped to tie them together. It doesn't have to be in that order, just that each part corresponds with a light/dark/medium color.
September 27th, 2013
We continued to work on our Andy Warhol. Mason discovered that one can put a pattern over the selection for a very cool effect. I also discovered that using a very dark color for the majority of my face gives me a devilish appearance. However, that was all. Today was mostly continuing practicing our Andy Warhol/ Color skills.
September 30th, 2013
Today, we began a project, but I'm not exactly sure what it is called or what the end product will be. I know the main idea involves Layer Masks. First, I selected a close up picture, which was very important if this is going to work correctly. Then, I selected only my head and shoulders, clicked control + j and put it in a new layer, which I then hid. Next, similar to the Andy Warhol project, I selected the Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights and put them each in a new layer. However, instead of filling each with color, I filled the Shadows in with black, the Midtones with 50% gray (which is an option in the lower part of the Edit-Fill window that pops up). Then I filled the Highlights with 15% gray. To get that, click to fill with color. In the color range, all the way to the left and halfway up would be 50% gray, so just go a bit more up, and that should be about 15% gray. Its not really dark, but it is definetely not white. Mr. Parker said it we had a bit too much of each color, for example a bit too much shadow on the forehead or something, then we could use the eraser to erase some of it. After this, we hid everything except for a totally white layer (which was the background). On this, we wrote 5 adjectives to describe us, all in different interesting fonts, and then our name, also in an interesting font. Some of the fonts should be ornate, others should be large and blocky. In other words, have a diverse array. Then, make this into brushes using the rectangular marquee tool and clicking Edit, Define Brush Present. You may have to click control + t and change the size before making it into a brush to make it easier but its not necessary because you can adjust the brush size also. This is where we left off, and we are going to continue tomorrow.
October 1st, 2013
Today we continued our project using brushes in layer masks. It ends up making a picture out our words, but it is different than what we did before. First, get a close up picture, crop it, and use the Magnetic Lasso to select only your face and shoulders. Then, put select the shadows and Midtones, clicking control + j to put them in their own layer. Fill the Shadows with black and the Midtones with 50% Gray, which is an option in the Edit, Fill, on the bottom of the drop-down menu. Delete the original picture that is has the background still in it (in other words the original picture you opened up and took the head and shoulders selection from. Merge the Shadows and Midtones layers into one by selection Layer, Merge Down or Merge Visible. Then, create a new layer of a white background. Put the order in White layer on the very top, then the gray beneath, and finally the regularly colored layer with my head and shoulders. Create a new transparent layer and cover it use the brushes you previously made of words describing yourself or the person in the picture. Put a Layer mask on that layer. The follow these steps:
Control a on the Shadows and Midtones layer- select all
Control c- copy
Hold down Alt and click on the Layer Mask
Control v- paste
Control d- deselect
Control i- invert (makes it look like an x-ray)
Then, un-hide the Shadow/Midtone layer, the white background, and the transparent layer with the Brush and Layer mask. If it did not turn out that well, you can use the brush tool to color it in or the erase opacity tool to erase some of the excess shadows or Midtones Mr. Parker assigned a series of pieces, featuring people done this way, and one of ourselves with 5 brushes with adjectives describing us and one of our name. Mr. Parker also gave us the idea of using a Gradient or Pattern overlay in our pieces.
October 2nd, 2013
We used our class time today to continue on our Brush Layer Mask series. I am working on a series of Movie Heroines. I didn't not learn any new information today, but instead mostly practiced the new skills and cemented my understanding of this process.
October 3rd, 2013
Similar to yesterday, we worked to complete our Brush Layer Mask series. I finished the series, but I still need to complete the portrait of myself with my name and 5 adjectives describing me. Also, because the due date for our 9 weeks project is coming up, I began brainstorming what I could do for that. Thought not in class, I did learn something interesting about this strategy. I was playing around with Photoshop during my free time, and I figured out that if I wanted the background to be black, instead of white, I could fill the Shadows with the color white instead of black, so when inverted it, it would be the opposite that it was when I filled the Shadows layer with black. Therefore, I could use the opposite color in the background and it would still work. I also experimented with putting an outer glow on a Brush Layer Mask document.
October 4th, 2013
Today, I finished my Brush Layer Mask Self Portrait, and then I started my 9 weeks project. The idea I am working with currently is to make a fire GIF coming out of the words "The Book Thief", which have a clipping mask of words behind them, making it look like burning books.
October 7th, 2013
We learned our last concept for this 9 weeks today. It involved creating a silhouette doing something, and was inspired by iPod commercials that were aired when the iPod first came out. To create this, I first chose a picture of someone doing some action. It is best if they are in motion, and that their arms are not folded in. The idea is to have a very distinct and interesting outline, not a blob. Then I used the Magnetic Pen tool to select the person, clicking to drop anchor points. After the person is surrounded, I right-clicked, clicked Make Selection, and then OK when a box pops up. I clicked control + j to put the selection in a new layer, then Edit, Fill, to fill in the selection with whatever color I wanted. Using the Magnetic Pen tool is better than the Magic Wand tool or other tools because it is more accurate. After everything is filled in with the correct color, I added a new layer and filled the background with a color, and then added a text box with "i_____". Any adjective, verb, and noun can go in the blank. Again, to lessen the blob affect, one can select certain items with in the picture (hair, clothing, object begin held etc.), and make it a different color so it sticks out. Mr. Parker asked us to create one of ourselves and a series of 3. For the first, I created an iSiblings, using a picture of me and my brother, and for the series, I chose the topic of Disney princesses, using pictures of Mulan, Belle, and Ariel.
October 8th, 2013- October 11th, 2013
During this entire last week of the quarter, I was working on my two 9 weeks projects. One project needed to be a GIF, while the other one could be anything else. The idea for these projects is to combine a couple things that we learned throughout the 9 weeks into one work. My final projects were Fire GIF coming out of the words "The Book Thief" and a country road scene. The Book Thief GIF combined concepts of Clipping Masks with words, making fire, which includes, Filters, Layer Styles, Liquify tool, Color Balance Layers, and Brightness/Contrast Layers, and finally, making and tweening GIFs. The Country Road Scene combined the concepts of the Rectangular Marquee Tool, the Color Palette, Filters, Layer Styles, the Pen tool, the Transform tool, and the Liquify tool. If you want to know more details about what I did, visit the 9 Weeks Projects page by clicking the tab at the top of the screen.
SCHOOL HOLIDAY ON OCTOBER 14TH, 2013
October 15th, 2013
Today was the first day of the new 9 weeks. Mr. Parker started off by explaining to us what we will be doing this second quarter. Because this class is for a Art Credit, some Art History must be involved, so that is going to be the main focus of this 9 weeks. We are going to study the different styles or eras of art in chronological order, beginning this week with what is considered the first piece of artwork, cave paintings in the Paleolithic Stone Age. Instead of just analyzing and memorizing different pieces of famous artworks, we are going to do a little research on that period, write a short paragraph, and then we are going to imitate the style of the time period using Photoshop. With this, the class is not only accomplishes learning about art history, but also gaining a more extensive knowledge of the Photoshop program. For each period, as I said before, we will write a brief paragraph describing the style. Then, we will create a series (3 pieces) imitating the work of that time period, with a short explanation of each. Finally, we will give a short presentation in front of a green screen about the time period, and then we will put our Photoshop documents as the background, to create a short movie on Art History. All the time we will continue blogging about how we are accomplishing the intended looks. Mr. Parker is not so much guiding us anymore as challenging us to use our knowledge of Photoshop to achieve a certain effect, so there will be a good amount of blogging about new things I am figuring out as I go along. In addition to this Art History aspect, we will again have 2 more 9 week projects, in addition to compiling a 10 piece Portfolio that encompasses everything we learned this quarter, in place of a Midterm Test. After that had been explained, we began working on the assignment for our first era, the Paleolithic Stone Age. Our first piece should be a Paleolithic cave painting, our second piece reminisce Mesolithic art work, for example something involving the first civilizations painted on pottery, and our third piece should be something similar looking to Stonehenge (creating 3-D objects that look to be something one would use to worship the Gods). I started at the beginning, working on the cave painting. First, I used a brush with undefined edges painted the background varying colors of brown and red, stretching from very light to very dark. Then, I applied the Gaussian Blur Filter to give the "rock" more of a natural look, make the colors less defined and seems to blend together. Then, I applied a Pattern Overlay of stone that was located under Rock Patterns. Next, I opened a new document, and used the black brush to draw a cow, similar to the ones seen on cave walls. I saved it as a brush (Edit>Define Brush Preset), toggled back to my wall of rock document and begin using the brush tool to draw cows on the rock, using varying shades of brown and red. I also used the Transform tool to change the size and to Flip Horizontally, so that the cows were facing different directions. I used the Move tool or the brush tool to make some of the cows of different size and color overlap with one another, which is a common trait in actual cave paintings. Lastly, on some of the brushes, I went back over them with a low opacity eraser tool, making the cave paintings look more realistic.
October 16th, 2013
In class today, I continued to work on my Paleolithic cave painting. In a new document, I used the Brush tool to draw the outline of a hand. Then, I increased the size of the brush, and filled in the hand. Next, I used the Gaussian Blur to blur the edges of the hand, making it look less defined and a bit more like real paint. Then, I saved it as a Brush Preset, toggled back to my cave painting document, and began filling the empty spaces with hands of different sizes, colors, and also facing different directions (Transform>Flip Horizontally). I would have to create new layers if I wanted to draw with brush and then flip it because if I continued to use the same layer for all m brushes, when I clicked Flip Horizontally, it flip everything I had drawn on that layer, and I only wanted to flip a few hands or cows. Then, once I was down positioning and using a low opacity eraser to make the hands stand-out less, I merged all of the hand layers and all of the cow layers into one, just to simplify everything. Once you do this however, you can't make anymore edits to a particular cow/hand's orientation, the action would flip all on that layer. When I was done, I uploaded this to my new Art History page on my website. I began to work on the my second project (Mesolithic pottery), but the bell rang before I could make much progress. I need to finish my last two Stone Age pieces and accompanying research by Friday because that is when we are planning to do the green screen filming.
October 17th, 2013
We continued to work on our Stone Age Projects. I completed the last two. For the Mesolithic, I used the Circular Marquee tool, and layered a darker brown circular over a lighter brown circle. I couldn't get them to match up just through transformation, so I placed the darker circle in the middle of the circle, lining the ends up with the edges of the larger circle. Then I used the Magic Selection tool to select the top part of the circle, clicked Edit>Fill, and filled it in with white. Any extra brown that didn't get selected for some reason can be erased using the Eraser tool. Then, I put a Bevel and Emboss on it. Next, I made a copy of the layer, and filled it with black. Then, I moved it using the Move Tool, clicked control + t, and skewed (hold down control and drag corners with mouse) to make it look like a shadow. Then, I selected the Eraser tool, increased the size dramatically, so it encompassed the entire page, lowered the opacity, and clicked a couple times to make it look more realistic. Then, I opened up a new document, and used the brush tool to draw two kinds of people holding bow and arrows, as well as a tee-pee. Then, I made them brushes by clicking Edit>Define Brush Preset. I toggled back to the bowl document and painted a couple of each on in different sizes. Finally, if it doesn't have one already, give it a white background. For the Stonehenge project, I used the Rectangular Marquee tool. First, I made one gray rectangle, then hit control + j three times to copy it. I moved two of them using the Move tool, clicked control + t to transform them to from the sides of a rectangular prism, The front is rectangle, and the sides are parallelograms. Then, since in this case the light was coming from the upper left, I made the right side the darkest, the middle side that was facing me (the rectangle) a middle gray, and the top of the prism facing up the lightest gray. Then, I put a medium opacity Pattern Overlay over it make it look like stone (any of the rock patterns will do). Finally, I used the last copy of the original gray rectangle to make the Shadow. Using skew, you can set it at the angel opposite the direction of light. Then I used a large, low opacity eraser, and clicked a couple times to make it more realistic. I merged all of these layers that make up this stone block, and then clicked control + j to copy that layer, using the move tool to move it to the right. These will form the legs of a stone table of sorts. The next step is to make the top. Again use the rectangular marquee tool to make a rectangle long in length, but short in height, and place it on stop of the legs. Copy it twice by clicking control + j, and skew the other two to make the top and side, similar to process of forming the 3-D legs. However, stretch the parallelogram that is going to be the surface of the table long in height. As before, make the top surface the lightest gray, the side surface on the right (other parallelogram) the darkest gray, and the rectangular side the middle gray. Also, as before, add the medium opacity Pattern Overlay of stone. When everything is arranged, merge all the layers that make up the table, and copy the layer twice. Then use the Move tool and the Transform tool to put them on other places of the paper and size them accordingly. Lastly, I made the background. On the lowest layer, I used the Rectangular Marquee Tool to make the bottom 2/3 green, and the top 2/3 blue. I used the Brush tool, selected the blades of grass brush, and spotted (set the Brush Preferences to a slight color jitter, wide spacing, a slight angle jitter) the green rectangle (the ground) with grass. Then, I used the Smudge tool (the hand with the finger facing down), to move the line separating the sky and earth a bit. Finally, I applied a lower opacity Gradient Layer all over the entire layer. The Changing from Dark green to lighter green, with a relatively large white layer in the middle, then chaning from light blue finishing with dark blue at the top. The white layer in the middle also helps to less the defined, unrealistic line between sky and earth.
October 18th, 2013
In class today, we recorded our first presentation of our pieces in front of the green screen. To be honest, I found it really difficult and it caused me a good amount of stress. Because I had finished my pieces before I spent the first 20 minutes of class figuring out what I was going to say, and then practicing it. I was the first one to videotape my response. By listening to everyone do theirs, I think my approach was a bit off. I gave a little to much about the history, whereas Mr. Parker really just wanted us to say a little something about what the image we made. Afterwards, I began researching our next unit, Mesopotamian art.
October 21st, 2013
Our next time period is Mesopotamian/Egyptian art. We are supposed to create one image encompassing Mesopotmian art, and 3 for Egyptian, one for each period. I am working on the Mesopotamian piece first. I am creating a painting of people with three layers going from top to bottom, a common form for art in this period. In each of the layers, I will put aspects important to Mesopotamian life. So far, I have created three brown layers with purple around it, using the Rectangular Marquee tool. I applied a rock Pattern Overlay.Then, I opened up a new document and used a very small brush to draw the outline of a horse. Then, I went over the outline on a different layer with a larger black brush. That way I could make mistakes on the first drawing, and the second word turn out better. I hid the first layer, and made the second outline of a horse a a Brush Preset. I toggled back to the other document, and on the bottom layer, painted the horses facing one direction half of the distance. Then I made a new layer, and painted the rest of the distance with horses. Then on the second layer, I clicked Edit>Transform> Flip horizontally, so that the horses were facing the center, a characteristic that is part of the common format for this type of art.
October 22nd, 2013
Today, I finished my Mesopotamian art project. I opened up a separate document, and did my best to draw a man on a chariot/cart, and a man standing up. For the man standing, I first used a tiny brush to create the main shape. Then on a different layer, I used a thicker black brush to go over the lines, make the hair etc. I hid the first outline, and made the second layer a brush. For the bottom of the chariot, I used the Rectangular Marquee tool, and for the wheels, I made a circle using the Circular Marquee tool, then made a copy of that circle for the other wheel. Then, for the front of the cart as well as the man on top and the reins, I used the same technique as above: first outline, then use a brush. I defined this also as a brush. Toggling back the main document, I applied a man with a chariot on opposite ends of the bottom layer, using a dark brown and making sure they were in different layers. Then, I clicked Edit>Transform> Flip horizontally on the layer containing the left chariot, to make it face inward. I finished this bottom layer my using a brush tool to connect the horses by rope to the cart. For the second layer, I used a brown-black brush of the man standing up. I applied half on one layer, and half on another layer. For the layer with those on the left half, I again clicked Edit>Transform> Flip horizontally, using control + t to adjust and center the line of men. Next, I used two Grass brushes, one tall and one shorter, to make grass coming up to about their knees. I used Brush Preferences to adjust the spacing and apply a Size Jitter. Finally, for the top layer, I found a picture of a mosaic tile lion, opened it in Photoshop, traced over it with a brown brush in another layer, and defined the trace as a brush. Then, I applied the brush twice, making the lions pretty large. Each lion was in a different layer, and a clicked Edit>Transform> Flip horizontally for the left one.
October 23rd, 2013- Early Kingdom for Egypt- Carlo's head on sphinx
Today, I began the Early Egyptian Kingdom project. For it, I decided to do something a bit comical (as I have not really done much of that before) and Photoshop my brother's face onto the Sphinx. I found a picture of the Sphinx online, where he relatively forward facing, then I chose a picture of my brother in the relatively same position. I opened both pictures in photoshop. I used the Pen tool to cut my brother's face out of the background, made the selection, and clicked control + j. Then, I used the Move tool to transfer the layer to the Sphinx document, I used the Transform tool to adjust my brother's face over the Sphinx. To do this more easily, I lowered the opacity of the layer contain the face, so I could match up the eyes and noses. I found that clicking control and dragging the corner arrows to be very helpful in adjusting the positioning (a combination of skew and distort). Then, I increased the opacity, and used the Eraser tool, with a lower opacity, to go over the hair and edges of the face until his face began to blend about with the sphinx. Going slowly with a lower opacity is the best way to do this.That was all that I had time for today, but I plan on finishing tomorrow.
October 24th, 2013
Todya, I worked on finishing my Sphinx/ Early Kingdom project. First, I applied a Color Balance Adjustment layer over my brother's face, matching the tone to the tone of the rock. Lowering the opacity of the layer is also helpful in matching the skin tones. Next, to help in continuing to blend and create a 3-D effect, I used the Dodge and Burn tools. The Burn tool is especially useful in adding shadows. If need be, continue to erase, transform, dodge, and burn to blend the two images together. Then when I was content, my last step was to apply the Spherize filter to me brother's face to help with the 3D effect.
October 25th, 2013- Middle Kingdom- hieroglyphics and Late Kingdom- GIF
Today and over the weekend, I finished my Egyptian era projects. I did one for the Middle Kingdom and the Late Kingdom. For the Middle Kingdom, I created a Hieroglyphics image. On line, I found a picture of an Egyptian lion goddess, named Sekmet, and made her into a brush. Then, using a picture of a key of hieroglyphic letters, I made her name into a brush. I opened a new document and filled in the background layer with a light brown. Then, I applied a Pattern Overlay, with some sort of rock texture, and lowered the opacity so the color remained. In an new layer, I applied the picture of Sekmet in dark gray brush. Then, I copied the layer, clicked control + i to invert, and placed the inverted layer under and little to the side of the black layer, giving the shape a bit of a 3D appearance. Next, I added a layer above the background but under the one with the goddess, and across the this layer, I neatly applied her name brush. For the Late Kingdom, I decided to make a GIF. First, I found pictures of King Tut and Queen Nefertiti. I opened both pictures in photoshop. For King Tut, I first cut him out of his background. Then, I added a new layer, and used the Eyedropper tool to select a close that matched the color of his "skin". I used the Brush tool to go over one of hte eyes, and then on the background color, selected black, switched them, and used black to draw a winking eye. I used the Pen tool to cut out Queen Nefereti, and then the move tool to merge the documents. Then I made several copies of the Queen layer. In each copy, I used the transform tool to move the queen so that each progressing layer showed her at points along the path of falling down. Then, I added a new layer, used the shape tool to make a heart, and filled it in with the color red. Then, I made three copies of this layer, and moved the heart a bit farther up in each progressing layer. Finally, as the background, I put a white layer. Then, I used the Animation tool, and made several slides depicting this: King Tut normal, then he winks, and Queen Nefertiti falls and a heart floats up from her head. I chose what each frame held by hiding and hiding certain layers along the progression.
October 28th, 2013
Since this week is Halloween, we will be doing Halloween themed tutorials, taking a short break from our Art History study. Today we learned how to make someone look like a Zombie. First, find a picture of peeling paint, cracked side walk, etc. and layer it over a picture of your face. Get rid of the background of the picture of you by using the Pen tool. Change the Blending mode to Soft Light, Linear Light, or Overlay. Then, use the Eraser tool or the Pen tool to get rid of the unwanted texture layer. Decrease the opacity to help in doing so. Also, erase the texture from your eyes and teeth. Increase the opacity back up. However, you may not want to go all the way back to 100% because a little lower opacity may look more realistic. Also for a more realistic appearance, use the Dodge and Burn tools to create shadows and light spots in the texture that align with those naturally in the picture. Apply a Color Balance Adjustment Filter to change the color of your skin and eyes to give yourself a zombish appearance. Finally, on the bottom layer giver yourself a creepy background or just fill it in with black
October 29th, 2013
Today, we learned how to change the color of eyes to make them appear luminous and spooky. Get a picture and crop it to just include eyes. Use the Rectangular Marquee tool or the Pen tool and go around the iris. Make the selection, and click Select>Modify>Feather or about ten. It works best when at this point the selection is just around the pupil. Fill it with what ever color you choose, it works best with a light color. Click control + i to invert, and then clear (alt+ backspace or control + backspace on a mac). Change the blending mode to Color Dodge. Copy this layer and apply it to the other eye. Add a Hue and Saturation layer with these settings: Hue- -32, Saturation- +61, Lightness- 0. Add a layer of back, lower the oppacity to 40% and set the blending mode at Hue. Add a layer of Dark Green, lower the opacity to 40% and set the blending mode as Hue. Finally, use the dodge and burn tools to brighten the eyes and apply shadows respectively.
October 30th, 2013- October 31st, 2013
During both of these days, we worked on creating a series from a group of Halloween Photoshop tutorials introduced to us by Mr. Parker. Here is the link: http://www.youthedesigner.com/2010/10/19/creepy-halloween-photoshop-tutorials-you-should-try. I completed, first the Evil Eye tutorial, which consisted of applying Gradient Maps to darken the image, using the Lens Flare to create bright eyes on a layer above the Gradient maps, and using a Layer Mask and a black brush to reveal the dark image underneath the top Layer. I also used the Burn and Dodge tools to improve the image. Next, I did the Good vs. Evil tutorial, in which I used the circular marquee tool to change the color of the eyes, desaturation, hue adjustment, texture, Burn tool, and Messy Make-up Brushes for the evil side, and sparkle brush and Gaussian blur for the good side. Throughout, I changed blending modes to achieve certain effects. Lastly, I did the Decay tutorial, which is similar to the Zombie tutorial. Here, I applied a Hue/Saturation layer, put a texture in the layer above and used Layer mask to erase unwanted portions, used the Dodge and Burn tools to make it look more realistic.
November 1st, 2013-
Today, I was assigned the challenge of creating some Monster food. What I did was find a picture of a 3 fancy, 3-layered cake and a picture of a growling tiger. I used the Rectangular Marquee tool and control = j to select the main area that I wanted. Then, I dragged that layer onto the picture of the cake. I used the Liquify tool to stretch to top and bottom of the cake to fit the basic shape of a wide open mouth. I also used the Transform tool to fit the mouth to the shape of the cake. Then I decreased the top layer, the one with the growling teeth, making it easy to erase outside sections, slowly working it to blend in with the cake. Also, to help it blend a little bit better, I used the Dodge and Burn tool. Lastly, I used a soft black brush to fill the inside of the mouth in completely black, getting rid of the toungue, which looked unrealistic. The final product wasn't perfect, but I think it would have worked better if I had chose a moth that wasn't so wide open.
November 4th, 2013
This week we are transferring back to our study of Art History, picking up again with the Greek Era. Because of the nudity in other art, we are going to primarily focus on architecture. We have been assigned to do research on the 3 major types of Greek architecture (Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian), pick one, and create a building built to that style. Today in class, I did my research and decided I wanted to try to make an Ionic style Monument. Because the introduction to the project and the initial research took up most of my time, I just started to make the columns using the Rectangular Marquee tool. I made 6 in total, since Greek Architecture is largely symmetrical. Also, the columns are known to be wider at the bottom than at the top, so I created this effect with the Transform tool.
November 5th, 2013
Today, I continued to work on our Greek architecture project by adding and improving on one of the most important features of the building, the columns. First, I used the Rectangular Marquee tool to make the little crevices in the columns called fluting. I specifically put the same number on each column and I used the Transform tool to tilt them, slightly diagonal, stretching from the narrow top to the wider bottom. Next, I found pictures of volutes- the shape at the top of the column, with a specific kind characteristic to Ionic architecture, and bases- the decorative piece at the bottom of the column, cut them out with the Pen tool, dragged them into the main document, and resized them to fit onto a column. Next, I used the Dodge and Burn tools to made the parts all the same shade of gray, making them look like all from the same rock. I also darkened the top of the column to suggest a shadow, and I also darkened the fluting. Then, I realized to obtain maximum uniformity. It would be best to delete the parts that made up five of the columns, combine all the layers that make up one column, and copy that layer 5 more times to get 6 identical columns.
November 6th, 2013: Finished Ionic Architecture-, rest of monument and background, did 300 tutorials- 1 city scape, 1 dragan style
In class, I finished my Greek monument. Then, since I have gotten a little behind, I worked a bit at home doing the 300 tutorials (based on the movie 300) . To finish my Ionic architecture, I build the foundation under the bases of the columns, the frieze- the rectangular piece above the volutes, usually decorated with carvings, and the cornice- the triangular top using the Rectangular Marquee tool, the Transform tool, and darker/lighter shades of gray. Next, I placed a large wall behind all the columns using the Rectangular Marquee tool. Then, on each of the walls, parts, and column I applied a Pattern Overlay of rock. Using the Burn tool, I created shadows of the columns on the back wall. Lastly, on the bottom layer, I created the background, in which the lower 2/3 of the document was grass, an effect we learned earlier in the semester, and the rest of the layer was light blue to represent the sky. For the 300 tutorials, I did one distinctive portrait style known as Dragan, which makes everything look very clear and rough. The full tutorial is on this website- http://wegraphics.net/blog/tutorials/photoshop-quick-tip-create-a-dragan-style-portrait-effect-in-5-steps/ (also found on Mr. Parker's website- www.hisnameisparker.weebly.com), but the main steps are this 1. Increasing contrast with Levels Adjustment 2. Decreasing Saturation with Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer 3. Adjust contrast and highlights with Curves (make an wavy uphill). 4. New layer>High Pass Filter with Overlay Blending Mode 4. Burn tools to darken "hot" areas of skin, Dodge tool to brighten eyes. Lastly, I did a city scape in a similar fashion to the setting for the 300 movie. Here is the link: http://9tutorials.com/2007/05/20/how-to-turn-your-photo-into-the-300-movie-like-effect-using-photoshop.html (again, also found on my teacher's website). The main steps are 1. Increase Hue, Decrease Saturation 2. Adjust Exposure- increase exposure, decrease offset and gamma 3. New Layer>Lens Blur with Overlay Blending Mode 4. Layer Mask, Black brush over focal point 5. New Layer, all black - low opacity, large eraser in center (black on edges) 6. Flatten image, Noise Filter 7. Black bars at top and bottom 8. Optional- add blue color twist
November 7th, 2013
For our Roman unit, we are to create scenes of Roman Mythology in an art form that was popular during that era, i.e. like that represented by using fresco, bas relief, mosaic tiles, and texturizer filters in Photoshop. We are to do two myths, and therefore two representations. For my first, I chose a personal favorite myth of mine, the story of Icarus and Daedalus. First, I began with the ocean. To make the waves, I first filled a Rectangular Marquee with a dark blue-green, and then shaped the waves using the Liquify tool. To give the waves a water/liquid- like appearance, I applied a subtle rock Pattern Overlay. It wasn't the best method, and maybe I will find a more realistic technique in the future. Next, under that layer, I filled another layer entirely with light blue to represent the sky. I applied on it a Gradient Overlay that changed from light blue in the top left corner to dark blue in the bottom right corner. Then, in the top left corner I applied a Lens Flare filter to look like the sun. However, I erased the lower marks because they didn't fit with the scene. Lastly, I used the Pen tool to cut out do figures to represent Daedalus, flying, and Icarus, falling out of the sky. For Daedalus, I searched "soccer dives" and for Icarus, I just searched "falling man". I filled these shapes with black and merged them into the picture. Then I found a picture or some cool wings to serve as the wings used to escape the prison in the story. I clicked Select>Color Range>Shadows and control + j to get rid of the white background. Then, for the first set of wings I just applied a yellow Outer Glow. I played around about with the Blending mode and contour of the Outer Glow Layer Style. For the second pair of wings, I used the Magic Wand to select the wings. I apply a Gradient Overlay that has the colors of fire, and then I used the Magic Eraser and clicked outside the selection to get rid of the color outside of the wings. Lastly, again I put on Outer Glow on this set of wings. I dragged both set of wings into the document and used the Transform tool to fit them to the figures. For the falling man I had to separate the wings using Rectangular Marquee tool and control + j and adjust them separately. Next, I applied a Bevel and Emboss to the figures to make the stand out. Finally, I merged all of the layers into one and applied he Mosaic Tiles filter over it all.
November 8th, 2013
Today, I began my second piece of the Roman art section of our Art History study. For this mosaic piece, I chose the part of the Odyssey where Odysseus asks his men to tie him to a post on the ship so that he can listen to the Siren's lethal song as they sail by. The first step was to create the side of the boat, which I did using the Rectangular Marquee tool, Transform tool, and varying shades of brown. To make the walls look as if they were made of wood, I applied the Fibers filter (under Render). What it does is create fibers of the two colors set as the foreground and background colors, so to create the wood effect I set the colors as brown and black. Next I used again the Rectangular Marquee tool and Transform tool to make the post. I curved the bottom to make it look more like a cylinder. Also, I applied the Spherize Filter (under Distort). Then, I made the waves by filling a Rectangular Marquee with a dark blue-green color, giving it a wave-like shape using the Liquify tool, and applying a Pattern Overlay to make it look like water. Under that Layer, I filled a layer with light blue to make a sky. On this same layer I applied a Lens Flare Filter to make the sun, but I eraser the marks it made near the bottom of the document because they don't coincide with the characteristics of sunbeams. Then, on a layer above the sky but under the water, I used the Rectangular Marquee and Liquify tool to make a large rock, which I then applied a Pattern Overlay and a Bevel and Emboss to. With each on it's own layer, I then made many darker and smaller rocks nearer to the water with the Circular Marquee tool. To these I also applied a Patter Overlay and a Bevel and Emboss. Lastly, I found pictures of mermaids and a man with his hands tied behind his back on the internet, and cut them out using the Pen tool. I made them smaller or larger, or in the man's case, fit his arms around the post, using the Transform tool. Lastly, I combined all the layers and applied the Mosaic Tiles filter to the entire scene.
November 11th, 2013
Mr. Parker introduced us to the first project in our unit for the Indian Art Era today in class. Because different deities or reincarnations of certain gods are so important in Hinduism, India's major religion, it was a major theme in ancient Indian art, so our project is to create some kind of image depicting one of the Hindu gods. I chose a lesser known god named Ardhanarishvara, whose defining characteristic is that it is half male and half female. After doing a bit of research, I decided to create a realistic version of this god using images of actual people. First, I searched the internet for a picture of a traditional Indian bride and groom. After much searching, I finally found two pictures of approximately the same size that would work. I downloaded both of the pictures and opened them in Photoshop. Using the Rectangular Marquee Tool and the control + J shortcut, I isolated opposite halves of each of the figures in certain layers. Then in a new document (around 500x500 size), I merged both of these halves, and used Free Transform to make the halves line up with each other. Then, I made sure the left-man side was below the woman's side, and I applied to it a Color Balance Adjustment layer, to make his skin blue, as the male side is traditionally depicted. This also coincidentally happened to make his clothes red, which matched up with the woman's clothes. The woman layer needed to be above the man's so that her coloring wouldn't be affected. Next, I used the pen tool to select the arms on both the figures (in the other documents that had the original pictures), clicked control + j, dragged the arms onto the main document, and used Transform to position them.
November 12th, 2013Today I finished my Indian deity project. First, using the Pen tool to cut out other pictures of objects I had found on the Internet, I dragged a cow, a lion, a staff, and a lily into the image, which are all traditionally found in the depiction of this god. I actually put the staff in a layer above the male side so that the end of the staff went in front of his face, and used the eraser tool to get rid of the section that appeared in front of his hand. I put the lily on the layer below the female side because of the placement of her hand. Lastly, at the bottom I added a layer, selected a brown color as the background, and filled the space. Then, I used an Indian Henna design (for a project I will be doing tomorrow), made a brush, and applied a large size brush to the background. Lastly, I merged all of the layers besides the background into one and I applied a yellow outer glow.
November 13th, 2013
I began and completed the second part of the Indian Art Unit, which was to paint a part of my own body with Henna. With Zoe's help, I took a picture of my hand on her phone, she emailed it to me, I downloaded the file, and I opened it in Photoshop. Using the Pen tool, I selected my hand. Then, I hit control + j and put it in another layer. Next, I found a cool Henna design on Google Images, and I saved the downloaded and opened the picture in Photoshop. I began using the Magic Eraser to erase all of the white spots. However, it was a pretty elaborate design and I realized it would be faster to hit Select>Color Range>Shadows, which selected only the dark design part. Then I clicked control + J, putting it in it's own layer. Next, I clicked Edit>Define Brush Preset and made it a brush. I toggled back over to the other document, selected a good brownish-red color (traditionally the color of Henna) as the foreground, selected the newly made brush, adjusted the size to cover my entire arm and hand, and clicked once, applying the brush. Lastly, I added a Gradient Overlay on a new background layer (at the bottom of all the other layers). It was a diamond style gradient, and the colors changed from innermost-red, then orange, and outermost-yellow.
November 14th, 2013
Today, we watched the "You Suck at Photoshop" Video on Perspective in introduction to our Chinese Project which is to create an army of Terra Cotta Soldiers. I chose to do an army of Will Ferrels. I found a good standing photo from the internet, downloaded it, and opened in Photoshop. I applied a Color Overlay layer of brownish-red (the color of terra cotta clay). Then I added a Pattern Overlay of a subtle rock, to create the effect of clay, which is roughish but still relatively smooth. I chose a right rock with small black dots After this however, I hit a bit of a dead end and proceeded to struggle a bit with the perspective technique shows in the video.
November 15th, 2013
Today, I struggled some more with the Vanishing Point Filter and Perspective technique. However, after not being able to get it, I decided to create my army through another method. I added many layers and used the Transform tool, making the figures smaller and moving them into the distance by keeping them on the same diagonal path. By holding down shift with transforming the size, the proportions were kept the same, or constrained, which added the effect of uniformity of the statues.
November 18th, 2013
I finished my Terra Cotta Army project today. I used the Rectangular Marquee tool to create barrier walls that separate individual lines of stone soldiers. Using the Transform tool and lighter/darker shades of brown, to create a three dimensional object. Then, I added a layer placed it below all the other layers, filled it with a light brown color, and applied the same rock Pattern Overlay as I used on the Terra Cotta soldiers. Then I began working on my Persian rug. First I opened and 900x600 pixel document. I filled the background with a very light brown. Then on a new layer, I used the Rectangular Marquee tool to make a dark red rectangle that was proportionally smaller that he background, so there is an outer brown frame, equal in width on all sides, to the dark red layer. Lastly, I put a dark brown Stroke on this first red layer.
November 19th, 2013
Today, we were introduced to the Middle Ages project, which is creating a building that has Gothic Architecture. However, I first needed to complete my Persian Rug for our Byzantine and Islamic Unit. First, I added a new layer, created within the 1st red layer, another light red layer. The rectangle was again smaller so that there was a good-sized dark red border around it. Then, I added a light brown stroke (lighter than the outermost layer) on this light red layer. Next, I downloaded a vine design from the internet, made it into a brush, and in the same shade of Dark Brown that I used for the first stroke, I applied all over the light brown background layer. I adjusted the Spacing and Angle Jitter in Brush Preferences. Then, using the Brush I made for the earlier Henna project, I used the same shade of brown and applied the pattern to the dark red layer. Lastly in a separate document, I isolated certain parts from the Henna pattern (using the Eraser tool and the Magic Selection tool), and made new brushes out of them. Using the same shades of brown used for the strokes, I created symmetrical designs in the light red layer. Finally, I combined all the layers, and applied the Grain Filter to made the design look fibrous, like a carpet. I also applied a Glowing Edges Filter, just for fun because it looked very cool (its on the Just for Fun page). I used the remaining class time to do some Gothic Architecture research in preparation for working on the project tomorrow.
November 20th, 2013
Today, I began creating my Gothic Cathedral. Using the Rectangular Marquee tool, I created a large rectangular base, a second layer made of 3 walls, and the a large triangular top. Using the Transform tool and varying lighter and darker colors, I gave the building a 3D appearance. Then, I created 3 entryways on the front. Using a picture from the internet of the shape of a Gothic window/doorway, I used the Pen tool to outline the main shape. I right-clicked, and selected Define Custom Shape. Then, using the shape tool, I created levels going inward of the doorway. I made each shape smaller and filled it with a darker color, until finally the inner most is filled with black. I combined all of these layers, and applied the Craquelure Filter. Finally, I copied this layer twice by hitting control + j and positioning them of equidistance apart.
November 21st, 2013
In class today, I finished by Middle Ages Gothic Architecture piece. First, using the Rectangular Marquee tool and the Transformation ability, I added two columns between the three windows. I filled the frontward facing side with a color lighter that of the large frontward-facing wall, and I made the rightward-facing sides the same color as the large rightward- facing wall. Then, I added texture to the surface of the building by applying the Craquelure Filter to each layer containing a wall or side. I DID NOT COMBINE ALL THE LAYERS BEFORE APPLYING THE FILTER. If one does that, the effect is much less realistic because the "bricks" are not positioned that the correct angles and instead looks two dimensional, as if one blanket texture was placed over the whole building. Instead to save time and ensure uniformity on all the layers, I set the settings as I liked for the walls, then on all the other layers, clicked on the first option of the Filter Scroll Down Menu, which read Craquelure. The program remembered my settings and offered me that shortcut for the very same settings. The keyboard shortcut for this action (applying the same filter as one did last time) is control + f. Next, I made the windows. First, I downloaded a picture of a rose window in an actual Gothic Cathedral and opened the image in Photoshop. I used Select>Color Range>Shadows and then clicked control +J, and in the new layers, I had only the black, or outline of the stained glass structure. Then using the Circular Marquee tool, I filled in the shape with red and blue circles. On each of these circles I put a yellow Stroke. Then, on the very outside of the stained glass pattern, I used brushes of different opacities to color the different features and shapes different colors. After, I applied the Stained Glass Filter. Then, I used the Magic Selection tool to select the entire shape, right-clicked, picked Stroke, and added a black stroke around the shape. I minimized the document, and dragged the shape onto the my building, and placed in the center of the 2nd top layer. Then, I toggled back to the stained glass document, clicked control +J to make a new layer, and hid the original layer. Clicking control + i, I inverted the colors, added another black stroke (the last one is now white), and dragged it onto the other building document. Then, I copied the layer 3 times, arranged the four windows 2x2, and combined the four layers into one. I copied this layer, and positioned the two four window structures on opposite sides of the main building. Next, I found a picture of Jesus Cruxifiction, downloaded it and opened it in Photoshop, where I then applied the Stained Glass filter to it. I dragged this onto the building as well, placing it between the two four-windowed structures. Finally, I made a new layer, placing it at the bottom, and applied a Gradient Overlay to it, which transitioned from brown to light brown to white to light blue to blue.
November 22nd, 2013
Today (the last day before Thanksgiving break), was only a 30 minute class. It was spent on an in depth explanation of our Portfolio projects. They are due on the last day of school before winter break, and all 10 must fall under a certain theme. The goal of these it to show mastery of all the skills learned in the semester by combining 5 to 6 techniques to create the final product. Along with these, as usual, 2 Nine weeks projects are due, which are designed to show skills learned in just the 2nd Quarter and are a combination of 2 to 3 techniques. Mr. Parker wants us to have a solid theme and a general plan for these assignments when we come back from Thanksgiving break.
SCHOOL HOLIDAY NOVEMBER 24TH THROUGH 29TH
December 2nd, 2013-
Today, Mr. Parker explained to us that we are going to skip ahead in art history to more modern movements, such as Pop Art. The first artist we will be imitating is the cartoonist, Roy Lichtenstein. We did a guided practice of how to make a Halftone Pattern comic. Here is the website with the tutorial: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UvbpgmnaLoZy1gqynhDGP1iq-9m2Wg7z-nWArHguGnw/edit. These are the main steps: 1. Adjust Levels to 60/1.00/240 2. Filter>Artistic>Film Grain (Grain-4, Highlight Area- 0, Intensity- 10) 3. Add layer and apply Filter>Pixilate>Color Halftone (Radius- 4, 108/162/90/45). Change Blending mode to Darken 5. Apply 20px stroke on the inside 6. Add a speech bubble with text
December 3rd, 2013
Mr. Parker has asked us to create a 5 frame comic with the techniques we used yesterday. I am doing one on the difficulties of family vacations.
December 4th, 2013- Assigned color halftone pattern
Today, Mr. Parker assigned us to create an animated version of ourselves, using at least in some parts the Halftone Pattern Filter. I spent, the majority of class however completing my comic. In addition to what we learned, I have discovered that one can use the Rectangular Marquee tool to express speech and location as well. Also here are some shortcuts I have discovered : alt + backspace- filling selection in with foreground color, contorl + f re-applies the filter use just used, control + '- makes grid visible and invisible
December 5th, 2013
Today, I worked on creating an animated version of myself using the Halftone Pattern Filter. I opened up a picture and used the Pen tool to select different part so my face and body. Then I am filling them in with either a color or a pattern. To get to cool effect for my hair, I didn't fill it in with any color first, I just control + j and applied the filter. Also, your foreground and background colors are the colors used in the pattern. Lastly, I figured out that if something isn't filling in with the pattern. Make a copy and fill that copy in with white, or any other color, and the pattern for some reason works after that.
December 6th, 2013
Today, I finished the animated version of myself, and Mr. Parker assigned our last assignment: a mock Shepard Fairey (man who did Obama's campaign posters) portrait. I will begin on Monday.
December 9th, 2013
Today, I began working on the Shepard Fairey project I had been assigned on Friday. I opened a picture of myself in Photoshop, and began following the tutorial on this website: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12JizDxDpyU4PBalEZ_OqicIsFGAOHyrJS0JC1Qlrcb4/edit# I didn’t need to crop the picture which was the first step, so I continued on to the second step which was to Posterize the picture (under Adjustments). The next step was to create four level of Thresholds (under adjustment). Set the level of the Threshold lower and lower, so that there is less black as you make more layers. Then, basically the rest of the steps are to fill in these layers.
December 10th, 2013
Today, I put the finishing touches on my Shepard Fairey. I filled the background in with yellow, and then used the Rectangular Marquee tool to create a red rectangle that is half the background and a blue rectangle that is half the background. Then at the bottom, I made a dark blue rectangle, and used the text tool to write my name there. Lastly, I used Select>Modify Edge to smooth out the edges of each layer.
December 11th, 2013
For my second portfolio piece, I decided to create Roy Lichtenstein-esque snowflake, using what we recently learned about Halftone Pattern. I found an basic black and white picture of a snow flake, similar to a picture one would find in a children’s coloring book. I used the Magic Eraser tool to get rid of the rid. Then, I attempted to fill the snowflake with dots using the Halftone Pattern Filter, but I was unsuccessful, so instead I used the Circular Marqee tool, copied the blue circle many times, and used the Grid tool to arrange them equidistance from each other in a grid pattern. The using the Magic Wand tool and the Magic Eraser tool, I got rid of the dot patterns in unwanted areas (if unclear, there is a better explanation in my Portfolio). Then, in the background I applied a red and white line Halftone pattern and used the Transform tool to set the lines going diagonally.
December 12th, 2013
Today, I worked to finish my Second Portfolio piece. To add a bit more complexity, I applied a Bevel and Emboss to the edge of the snowflake (the black line), event adjusting the settings of Contour and Pattern under Bevel and Emboss, to make it look a bit like it has icicles. Then, I put a Outer Glow on the Snowflake. For the settings of these specific Layer Styles, see my Portfolio. Then, I proceeded to write up my steps in the Portfolio.
December 13th, 2013
When searching for pictures of snow on Google Images, I found a really cute picture of a cat with snow getting dropped on his head, so I decided I would apply what we learned about Andy Warhol to it. Using the Pen tool, I cut the cat out of the background. The I also put a path about all of the snow, both dropping and already on his head, because I want to fill that it with a different color. I also used to the Magic Selection Tool to get some little bits that were on the cat’s face. I clicked Select>Color Range, and then Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights, and filled them in with my chosen colors (Dark Blue, Pink, Light Pink respectively). However, with the Shadows and the Highlights, I only filled it with a 50% opacity, so that the image remained clear. I filled the Midtones normally, with 100%. I then filled the snow with a 50% opacity orange. To the snow layer, I applied an Artistic>Cutout Filter, and a Texture> Ocean Ripple, to make it look more like snow. Then, in the background behind the cat, I filled it with blue. I made a snowflake brush from a snowflake outline I found outline, applied some jitters to it (Size, Angle, Scatter, Color), and brushed it all over the background. Next, I made a copy of the background, applied Glowing Edges to it, and set its blending mode at luminosity. I made sure to set my Foreground color to a light yellow and to leave my Background color white, for the Glowing Edges. Lastly, I lowered the opacity of the Glowing Edges Layer. In class, I only completed one, but I plan to do the other three over the weekend.
December 16th- December 17th, 2013
I typed up the write-ups to my Portfolio in class, while I mostly complete the assignments at home.
After the second day of class, we have learned how to create a website using Weebly.com Through Weebly, we are able to add different tabs to our page, and customize each tab by adding titles, paragraphs, and pictures. We created 5 tabs which we will use throughout the year: a home, a projects page, a 9 weeks projects page, a portfolio page, a biography page, and finally, a blog page. We were also asked to upload 3 photos from our documents to the site. I personalized my website by adjusting font types and sizes, uploading pictures of flowers, and filling in the biography without giving away any critical information about myself.
August 16th. 2013
Today, there as an introduction to Photoshop. Some important things that we learned are : undo shortcut= control + z, good resolution= 200 pixels, control + j= how to copy a layer, and control + += shortcut to zoom. We learned about the different buttons on the side tool bar, options on the top tool bar, and how to add different layers. Mr. Parker told us that in Photoshop, we will mostly be focusing on layers and filters. We experimented with brushes by changing the size, type, and color. Then, we learned how to make our own brush. We took a picture of our signature, emailed it to ourselves, saved the image to our documents, and then opened the JPEG in Photoshop. Then, I used the rectangular marquee to go around our signature, copied another layer, and hid the rest of the layers, so only my signature was visible. Next, I used the magic eraser to whiten the paper around the writing, so that only the signature remained. Continuing on, we went to Edit, the Define Brush Preset, and saved it as Olivia's Signaure. In addition, I saved the Photoshop document and the JPEG also as Olivia's signature. Finally, I uploaded the JPEG the Projects tab on this website. The Projects tab is where I am to post all of the works I create using the programs I learn in Computer Design.
August 19th, 2013
We began a piece in Photoshop modeled after Frank Stella's work. We opened a Photoshop document, set the dimensions to be a square. Then, we unlocked the first layer, which become Layer 0. Next, we set the background layer as a dark color, covered the entire layer with a rectangular marquee, and hit control + backspace to fill in the color I picked. Then, we learned how to use stroke, which basically puts a border around the boxes. I select a layer, click Layer on the top bar, go down to Layer Style, and click Stroke.I select a color and a width, then press OK. Also, we learned to use the eyedropper tool to match a shade exactly. You click the Eyedropper button on the lower section of the side tool bar and use the tool to click on the desired color. Then, that color becomes one of the background color of the two boxes in the lower left corner, so all you need to do is switch the two backgrounds and hit control + backspace to fill the rectangular marquee. Once I finish this piece, I have been instructed to use my signature to sign my work, and upload it to the Projects tab on this website. After I have finished 2 Stella pieces, I have been asked to do some research and write a short biography about why he is such an important artist.
August 20th, 2013
During class today, I finished my first Frank Stella piece with the rectangles, and started another Frank Stella piece, creating it with the same methods, only know I am using the Elliptical Marquee Tool. To have this option, I right-click on the Rectangular Marquee icon on the side bar. I also completed a short biography of Frank Stella. Because I had completed my first work, I saved it as a JPEG and uploaded to the Projects tab of this site, as I am going to do with all my other projects. Once I am finished with my second Frank Stella piece, I am to begin working and a piece modeled after Wassily Kandinsky, also accompanied by a short biography.
August 21st, 2013
I finished my second Frank Stella piece and uploaded it to my Projects tab on my website. Then, I began another Photoshop document based on Wassily Kandinsky's Concentric Circles. First, to make things easier, I adjusted the dimensions of the page to be 12 inches long and 9 inches wide. This way 12 3x3 inch squares would fit on the page, and in these squares, could create the circles that make up the art piece. In order to recreate this painting, I first used the rectangular marquee tool to cool the 12 3x3 inch boxes I mentioned earlier. Then, I created another layer and used the elliptical marquee tool to create the circles which fit within the boxes. I repeated this step, each layer on Photoshop containing another layer of circles, until I felt the art piece to be sufficient. Next, I uploaded it to my projects page, along with a short biography of Wassily Kandinsky. Tomorrow, we have been told we are to begin working with text manipulation.
August 22nd, 2013
During class, we learned how to do text manipulation to make the words look like its shining (Elvis Bling). First I opened a new document, set the dimensions to 500x500 pixels, and 72 pixels per inch. Then I set the background color (the farther square) to mustard yellow and the text color (the closer box) to black. Next, I clicked on the large T button on the side bar to open a text box, set the font to Magneto, and typed my name. I experienced some difficulty making it large enough. Mr. Parker helped me to enlarge the text through the following steps: first, I adjusted the text box so it tightly fit around the letters, then I pressed the checkmark, located in the upper right corner, after that, I was able to enlarge the text by dragging the corner of the text box outward, lastly, and this was very important, I had to again click the checkmark. If I hadn't clicked the check mark I wouldn't have been able to take other actions afterward Then, I proceeded, under Mr. Parker's instruction, to manipulate the text by applying different layer styles to it. We used Inner Glow, Bevel and Emboss, Gradient Overlay, Pattern Overlay, and finally, Stroke for a border. Remember to change the contour of the Inner Glow from the diagonal line to the two hills by clicking on the drop down menu and increase the opacity to 100%. The Bevel and Emboss isn't extremely noticeable but serves the purpose of making the text pop out from the background and enhancing its three-dimensional nature. Set the gloss contour as the two hills as well, the depth at 100, and the size at 10px. Use a brown and white Gradient Overlay with an opacity of around 14% to make the words look shiner and for the pattern, pick some kind of gray marble or rock with an opacity of 100%. Tomorrow, we are going to continue with this project, finishing the last steps. Then, we will repeat the process with out own original design.
August 23rd, 2013
At the beginning of class, Mr. Parker asked us to open a new document and try to recreate the Bling text we learned yesterday by using our notes. I had a bit of trouble because I didn't remember to hit control+t when I was trying to make the text larger in the beginning. However, once I figured that out I could complete the rest of the steps up until the point we had left of yesterday. Just a note: Remember to not make the Gradient Overlay too high because then you aren't able to see the Pattern Overlay. Next, we finished the last steps of the Bling text which amount to making the shadow for the words, and putting little sparkles around the letters. To make the shadow, I first hit control + j to make a copy of the layer with the text on it. Then, I stripped the middle layer of all the layer styles by unchecking the small boxes in the layer style window and finally clicking the eye icon next to the layer to hide it. Now at this point, all that was on my screen was my name in plain black letters, and here is where I began to make the shadow. At the top of the window, I clicked Edit, Transformation, and Skew. I used this to tilt the letters to the right at about a 20 degree angle. Then, I clicked Edit, Transformation, Free Transform, and decreased the height of the words (smushed them down). At this point, I clicked on the eye icon next to the layer to un-hide it and I moved the words so they align with the shadow. Next, I clicked Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur, and set it at about 30%. Finally, I used a small star brush to put some sparkles around the edges. In order to do this, you will first have to rasterize the document, making it so that you can't edit the text any longer. When I finished, I uploaded it to my website.
August 26th, 2013
We learned how to do the "Cold" text manipulation. First, you find a picture of a an iceberg scene, save it, and open it in an 7x5 inch document at 100 pixels. Then, you open up a text box, type the word "Cold" in all caps in a large, white font. Then, we rotated it 90 degrees clockwise by clicking Edit, Transform, and Rotate 90 CW. Next, we clicked Filter, Stylize, Wind, and applied it from the right about 2-3 times so that it drips down like icicles. A shortcut to repeat a filter is control + f. During this step, we applied the filter too many times, so that we could learn about History. To go back after messing up several steps, I clicked Window on the top bar, History, scrolled up in the small window that pops up, and clicked on the step I wanted to return to. After I was content with the amount of wind filters, I rotated it back counterclockwise by clicking Edit, Transform, Rotate 90 CCW. Continuing on, I was on the Text layer, I used the shortcut Control + j to make a copy of that layer. Then, I clicked Edit, Transform, and Flip Vertical. I dragged so the letters were alligned. I used Edit, Transform, and Distort to stretch the letters out along the water so that they formed a sort of trapezoid shape. Finally, I used the eraser tool, lowering the opacity to about 20%, and went over the reflected letters. I went over the bottom of the letters more times so that they disappeared more the farther away from the original letters. We were also instructed to create our own original version, so I began working one with a picture of the Eiffel Tower.
August 27th, 2013
Today, I completed and posted my original spin on the "Cold" Text Manipulation technique. For the background, I found a picture on the internet of the Eiffel Tower reflected off a pool of water. Again, I downloaded it, saved it to my Documents, and opened it as a Photoshop document by clicking File, Open, and selecting that picture. I make the picture a bit bigger by surrounding the edges with a Rectangular marquee, hit control + t, and enlarged the image. Then, I followed the same steps that I used to create the "Cold"picture, as described above, using this time the word "France". Remember to type the word in all caps because otherwise it is harder to get the reflected and distorted letters to align with the original. Even with the all caps, I had some trouble with the size of the reflected letters, so I clicked Edit, Free Transform, and decreased the length so the letters lined up. Also, I talked a bit about rasterizing in the entry from August 23rd, but I didn't not explain how or why one must do it. In order to paint with a brush or make other changes to a document after doing text manipulation, I will need to rasterize, which is basically combining all the the layers into one. To do this, I click Layers in the top bar, and go down to rasterize. Sometimes, Photoshop will automatically ask if you want to rasterize. Another note, when using the eraser to create the reflection in the water, make sure that there are several different layers of increasing darkness moving down the letters. Today, I really only made on shade, and it did not look as good as when I tried again, I made different distinct layers. Finally, I added a blue Inner Glow to my letters, something I applied from a previous lesson, a skill Mr. Parker would like us to begin using. All of our projects from now on should try to incorporate old aspects in with the new skills we are learning.
August 28th, 2013
We learned how to do the "Fire" text manipulation in during class. The document I opened was 5x7 inch and 100 pixels per inch. I made the background, selected a large font, and typed the word "Fire" white all capitals letters. Then I used the Smudge tool, an option that can be selected under the Blur tool, which is the icon consisting of a drop, Using this, I drew little flames coming out from the letters. You could also use the Forward Warp Tool under the Liquify filter, but that is much stronger. If you wanted to use the Smudge tool, but you wanted a stronger effect, the strength can be increased by adjusting the bar at the top of the screen. The next step I did was to click on the half-white, half-black circle, called the New Adjustment Layer at the bottom right near the layer options, and then selected Color Balance. I adjusted the Midtones so the bars were closer to the red, the magenta, and the yellow ends of the bars. I then played around a bit with the shadows, until I finally set it the once of the bars slightly towards the red. Continuing on, I made another text layer with the same word of identical font, size and color. I aligned the two words, and they put a Gradient overlay on top layer. The gradient transitioned from blue, red, dark orange, medium orange, light orange, finally ending in yellow. I moved the button from left to right on the opacity to make the effect more visible. I also added an Inner Glow following the same color scheme, but it didn't seem to have much effect. It was more noticeable however when I changed the Blend mode Normal by clicking the drop down arrow at the top, and changing the contour from a straight diagnogal line to two curves. Finally, I signed and uploaded it.
August 29th, 2013
Today, we created a GIF. I opened a new document with default dimensions (5x7 inches, 100 pixles per inch). I filled in the background in black and with the text marquee tool, created a inch white rectangular box along the bottom of the page. I clicked Filter, Blur, and apllied a 25x Gaussain Blur, and created 3 copies of that layer. I hid 3 of the bottom layers so only the top was showing and use the magic eraser tool to get rid of the black in the background, repeated this step twice, so that the top three layers had the white rectangle and only the original later had a black in the background. Then, we used the Smudge tool (under the drop icon), and smudged the white into the black on the three copied layers to make flames. Only make one layer visible as you work on it, so you get three different flame layers. Then, we began making it into a GIF by clicking Window and Animation. One frame should come up automatically with the original layer. Add three more frames by clicking on the icon that looks like a piece of paper with a folded corner at the bottom of the animation window. In each of these each of these new frames keep only visible the original layer and one flame layer. In each frame, it should be a different flame layer visible, for example in the second frame background and copy 1 are visible, but in the third frame the background and copy 2 should be visible. Next, once I had 4 slides, I clicked on the lower button that looks like a diagonal line of small circles. This button will perform a function called tweening, which adds more slides to help smooth over the transition, making the GIF look more realistic. Then, I clicked the half white, half black circle at the bottom of the layer screen to create an Adjustment layer, and change the color balance so the flames look red, as I did yesterday. Finally, you save this document by clicking File, and Save for Web and Devices.
August 31st, 2013
After a guided practice of making a GIF yesterday, today we recreated the project on our own by following the same steps, either by remembering them or looking at our notes. I spent a good amount of time smoothing over my GIF, by tweening, rearranging the slides, and deleting some slides that didn't fit. Then, we worked on making our own original GIF. I used what I learned in the "Bling" text lesson, and worked to make a GIF of my name sparkling. However, I didn't get very far, so I am going to continue once we get return to school after Labor Day weekend.
September 3rd, 2013
Today, we learned to make words look like Grass. I opened a document that was 400x400 pixels, and 100 pixels per inch and typed the word Grass in large, green Arial font on a mustard yellow background I clicked Filter, Sketch, Torn Edges. The settings Image Balance- 50, Smoothness-1, and Contrast-25. This causes the text to look like Snake skin, or pixelized with little holes. Then I put a Gaussian Blur on it of 3.8, and this made the world look fuzzy, as if you were squinting. The next step is to put a dark green Inner Shadow on it with opacity=75%, distance=5px, size=21px, and the contour is one large hill (1st row, 2nd column). This fills in the letters, stops them from disappearing completely because they had become very faint in the first two steps. Then I put an Outer Glow on it, leaving the default color, with 75% opacity, spread=2%, size=4px, range=50% and a contour (1st row, 6th column) that looks like a wavy uphill slope. This gives the word fuzzy, lighter outline. Continuing down the layer stiles window, I selected an Inner Glow with a 75% opacity, 43px size, 50% range and leaving the contour as a straight diagonal line. This lightens the color of the letters. Next, I add a Bevel and Emboss which gives it a dark center and make look like there are two outlines of the letters, as if one was squinting and could see two of everything. It had a 100% depth, 5px size, and the two pyramids (2nd row, 6th column) for the gloss contour. Under the Bevel and Emboss, I clicked on the Contour and changed it to the steps (2nd row, 5th column) with a 50% range, making the letters look as if they had metallic layers that got smaller as they moved inward. Also, under Bevel and Emboss, I clicked Pattern, and clicked one of the gray and white rock/marble patterns (any will do), making sure the scale was at 100%. This is essential because it is what finally makes the letters look like grass. Finally, I put a 100% gradient overlay that transitioned from white to dark green (purple or black would also work). This didn't have much effect. During class, we first had a guided practice and then attempted to recreate it independently. Both versions were signed and uploaded to the Projects page.
September 4th, 2013
During today's class, we experimented with the different possibilities of the Pen tool. A shortcut for the pen tool is just clicking the letter p. We created what looks a bit like modern abstract art with the regular pen tool. Basically, what happens when you use this tool is you left- click, stretch or compress the line, let go, and then repeat the process. You can spin or rotate the line all the way around, and the space created by rotating and stretching the line fills with color. Next, we clicked on the pen tool with a dotted, curved line coming from the top to use the Freeform Pen tool, which one could use to draw basically any shape they want. For example, you could create a leaf, a heart, a cloud etc. We then remained on the Freeform Pen Tool but in the top left corner (under the drop down edit menu), we changed the settings from the empty box to the box with a pen in it. This lets you create paths, which are like roads along which you can type and put brushes. Mr. Parker gave the example of how a wave fills the moat around a sand castle with water. Basically, you create a path along any shape. Then, to type around it, select the text button on the left side menu, and insert a text box directly on the path. This allows you to type words that follow along the inside or the outside of the path. I assume, though we have not been officially taught, that one would follow the same process with a brush (inserting a brush directly on the path). Using this tool, one could, for example, create a Valentine's day card with heart brushes around it, or maybe instead create a cool poster/ flyer for an upcoming event. You could also create a GIF in which the a circle of words are orbiting or rotating around an object; this is an assignment that we have been assigned to finish by Friday. In order to get the text to fit around your shape, you made need to adjust the texts size, font, width, or height. To do this, you click on the icon with the capital "A", named Characteristics.
September 5th, 2013
Today, we learned how to create a jersey, with stitched letters and a number in the background. I opened a document with default settings, set the background to black, and I typed my name in white letters, all caps. I shaped the words into an arch by pressing the button with an arch under a capital "T", which is located on the right text menu bar, directly under the top menu. Then, I placed the cursor on the edge of a letter, right-clicked, and selected Create Work Path. Once a work path has been created, I hid the text layer. Then, I created a new layer and names it Stitches. After downloading the Stiches brushes from Mr. Parker's website, I went select a brush, clicked the arrow next to the Master Diameter, which opened a dropdown menu, and selected Load Brushes. After that I clicked on the capital V of the brush tool and adjusted it so the size was similar looking to the size of actual stitches. Then, I clicked on the brushes button on the side bar near the capital "A" characteristics button, clicked Brush Tip preset, and adjusted the spacing. If the button isn't visible you can reach these settings by going to Window on the top menu, and Brushes. Next, I clicked on the brush tool, dragged the cursor over the edge of the work path, and right-clicked. When the drop down menu appears, I clicked Stroke path, which causes a window to pop up. In the drop down menu of the window, change the Pencil option to Brush. This causes stitches to appear around the text. Then, you delete the work path by going to the right side, where the layer window is, selecting the path tab, and deleting the path. Finally, you un-hide the text layer, so that the final result is white letters with red stitches around them, all on a black background. I then repeated the process with numbers under my name, so that it looked like a jersey.Continuing on, I was told to create an original one, relating in some way to Keystone After I finished, I uploaded both to my website.
September 6th, 2013
Today, class was a bit different. Mr. Parker presented us with a challenge. He told us he wanted us to create an object with the stitches around it, but he didn't tell us how, so we had to try to figure it out. I floundered around a bit, testing many different methods, each proving to be unsuccessful Then, I finally found a way that worked. First, I found an image of an object I wanted to apply this stitched look to saved it to my computer. In this case I used a curly heart. Next, I opened the image in a new document and used the magic eraser to get rid of all the white or off-white background leaving only the shape of the object. Then, using the fourth icon down on side bar, the wand I was able to create a Work Path around this irregular shape. I right-clicked the button, selected the Magic Wand tool, and click on imaged. A Work Path should appear around it. Then, I hid the image, so only the work path remained. I completed the rest of steps as you would normally for letters. I created a new layer called Stitches, adjusted the capitol "V" brush to look like a stitch, left-clicked on the path, selected Stroke Path, and applied the brush. Then, I unhid the layer underneath, so the background and the color of the shape would appear again. Finally, I deleted the work path and signed the bottom of my creation. I wanted to add also that I discovered that you can apply different layer styles to the letters and the background when using these stitches. You can apply Bevel and Emboss to the letters, to make them stand up a bit more, making them look 3D and a bit more like actual embroidered letters. Also, you can put a Gradient overlay on a dull blue background to make it look like stitched letters on denim fabric. As always, there are endless possibilities when using artistic tools such as Photoshop.
September 16th, 2013
This was our first day back from our OPI trip, and we actually did a project relating to that area. I found a picture online of Olympic National Park, but truthfully it could be a picture of anything. It could even my a picture you took yourself, which is something we are going to do a bit later with the pictures we took during our OPI trip. Anyway, I saved it to my Documents and then opened it in Photoshop. Next, I hit Control +J to copy that layer of the picture. Then, I added a translucent layer in between the two identical layers, and filled it (by clicking control + backspace) with white, but it could be filled with any color depending on your project. Make sure to put this layer between the two picture layers, like a sandwich. Then, select the top layer, which should be the copy of the picture, and add a text layer. I wrote the word OPI, in all caps. However, again, one could theoretically use any word. Format this word using a big font, and click control + t, to increase the size of the words. Use the Character, also known as the letter palette (capital A button on right side of screen) to adjust the space between the letters and the height and the width of the letters. Ideally, the letters take up as much space as possible. If the button isn't there, you can always go to Workspace in upper right at set it at the default workspace settings. You could also go to View on the Top Bar Menu, select Character, and drag the button to the columns with the other buttons. Then, I moved the text layer so that it was under top layer of the picture. In other words it was 2nd from the top, under the picture copy, above the white layer. Then I clicked Image in the Top Bar Menu, Create Clipping Mask. This should create the effect that the white is the background and the picture shows through the words, as if they were stencils. It was a pretty neat effect, and my teacher noted that it was a good example of using text manipulation and images in Computer Design. He also added, that if one was to put an Outer Glow around the letter and didn't use the plain color layers, then the words look like watermark or ghost letters.
September 17th, 2013
Today, Mr.Parker gave us another challenge: he wanted us to use Clipping Mask to create a postcard-like image, where there is a name of a place, and in each letter is different photo of that place. I didn't complete the assignment, but I made progress. My strategy was to follow the process we learned the day before, and in 5 different documents, type one letter for each picture. Then, I'm planning on saving all the documents as pictures and somehow putting all the JPEGs in one document. I completed the first part by the end of today's class. However, I'm having a bit of trouble with getting all the saved images into one document. I'm beginning to think that maybe this is not the method I should be pursuing. As a side note, I clicked Edit, Trim before I saved the images in order to get rid of the space that would get in the way of other images when I try to combine them.Also, make sure the image being used is at a high enough resolution. Otherwise, you won't be able to type anything the text box. If this happens, try making the text smaller, and if that doesn't work, get another image. Another mistake I made was not being on the right layer when I wanted to create a Clippin Mask. You need to be on the Top picture layer because a clipping mask is a bit like a whole
NO CLASS ON SEPTEMBER 18TH, 2013
September 19th, 2013
In class, I finished up my Clipping Mask project. The final result was five capital letters, spelling SO CAL, each with a different picture from Southern California on it. I was able to do this because I figured out how to but all of the letters into one document. I was wrong to save them as JPEGs. Instead, you leave them as Photoshop documents. Once you are done formatting it and your letters are exactly how you want them to be, you click Layers, Rasterize, All Layers. Then, delete your original picture layer and the color layer. All that should be left is your text layer with the copied picture layer on top of it, which creates a transparent background and the letter with a picture inside of it. Then, make sure in the document, you are on your text layer, which should be second from the top. At times, I was on the top picture layer, and the option needed to merge the documents would not appear, so its important you are on the right layer for the next step. Next, click Layers, Merge Clipping Mask, and select the drag tool. Have the document with your letter in it minimized (so it doesn't take up the entire screen), and have a new, plain document open next to it. Then, you physically just drag the letter from the old document onto the black sheet. Do this with all of the letters. You can move them around the black sheet using the drag tool. If resizing is needed, I select the layer of the letter I want to format, and just click control + t. Originally, I was surrounding the letter with the rectangular marquee tool, but that is unnecessary and makes it harder to resize because it may cut off some of the image. After all the letters where correctly sized and situated, I applied a white stroke to them to define them a bit. Finally, I applied a Gradient Overlay that transitioned from a mild orange to a mild yellow and back to a mild orange. I also applied a Pattern Overlay to distinguish the background a bit. I have to say, I think the final product looks pretty cool. Mr. Parker wants us to create 2 more of these place Clipping Masks with words. Then, he wants us to create 3 Clipping Masks with objects, as well as another Clipping Mask using Objects based on Rene Magritte's pieces with the sky in the outline of a bird on a beach. In general, he expressed that he wants us to begin doing series of our projects. In other words, he would like us to complete more than one project on the same concept, so that we can really cement our knowledge. We are also beginning to think about 9 week projects. Two different ones are due at the end of the quarter. Each of them should combine several things we learned, and one of them needs to be a GIF.
September 20th, 2013
In class today, we continued to work on our clipping masks projects. The meaning of series was clarified. It doesn't not mean just many examples. It is instead three works that all tie together somehow. For example, I have completed a series titled "Cool Vacation Spots" that uses clipping masks to show interesting places in Southern California, France, and Seattle A small sidenote: while working today on the Places Clipping Mask project, I discovered that if you are planning on merging the clipping mask into one document, you don't need to have a color layer of the original picture layer underneath the text and top picture layer. One does need those if they are creating a clipping mask and not planning to move it, but if you want a transparent background, you can skip those steps. Today, I figured out how to do a clipping mask of an object. I have been working with faces, which is a little more difficult that regular objects, but the instructions still apply. When picking an object, it needs to be fairly simple to select, so you need an image that is just a black and white outline of the object. It should look like a 2-D picture one would find in a childs coloring book. You also need some image to put behind it. The first step is to open both the image and the object in Photoshop. With the object, use the Magic Wand Tool to select the image. If you need to click more than once to select everything, you can change, in the top left corner fo the screen, the selection from one square to two overlapping squares. When everything is surrounded by the "dancing ants" (the line that surrounds a selected object), click control + j, and a new layer should pop up with just your selection. Then, minimize the screen, select the Move Tool, and drag the objects outline onto your Image document. Click control + t to transfrom the size. You also may need to crop the photo to make the object fit better. Then, make a copy of the picture layer and put it at the top. Make a color layer and put it between the two photo layers, and place the layer with your object outline above the color layer and under the top image layer. A helpful hint: use strokes, outerglows, or other layer styles to define the outline to make it more clear.
September 23th, 2013
Today, we created text portraits, which basically looks like a picture made out of words. I began by opening a picture of ourselves in Photoshop, and simultaneously opening a Word document. In that word document, I typed the story of that picture, about a paragraph long, no indentions and not too much space between the lines of text. The we hit control + c, to copy it. I toggled back over to the Photoshop document and began working on the picture. First, we cropped the picture so it just had my face. Then, using the Magnetic Lasso Tool, we went around the outline of our head, clicking to drop little points along the path. Once I finished, I clicked control + j, which created a new layer with my face and a transparent background. Next, I created a black layer above it. Then, I created a text layer, clicking control + v, and pasting the text into the text box. Paste it as many times as needed in order to fill up the page. Once this is completed, go back to the layer containing the outline of the picture, and follow the directions below.
Steps:
Control a- select all
Control c- copy
Layer mask (rectangle with circle in)
Hold Alt
Control v- paste
Control d- deselect
Click on Background
After this, you should have a Text Portrait. Keep in mind the different possibilities for the background: different colors, gradients, patterns. Also, I discovered that if you play around with the text, sometimes the image becomes clearer. For example, changing the size, font, or making it bold etc. effects the quality of the portrait. Mr. Parker would like us to complete a series of Text Portraits, including this one which is what we will be working on in class.
September 24th, 2013
Today, we continued to work on our text portrait series. I am using 3 pictures from my family's road trip to Washington D.C., which we took this summer. So far everything is going well. One thing I learned is that using smaller font and setting it at the smallest size helps to preserve some of the detail of the picture. Also, it was hard to tell what was in my pictures because they were kind of dark, so I selected Layer Mask by holding down Alt and clicking, and I right-clicked on that picture. At the top of the menu that appears, there is an option for Brightness/Contrast, and increased the brightness a bit. I'm not sure it really helped, but I thought it was worth a try.
September 25th, 2013
Again, class today was mostly spent completing our text portraits, but this was the last daywe had to work on them. A tip for future reference: the Impact font worls very well. Mr. Parker spent the remainder of time explaining what we are going to do tomorrow, which is an Andy Warhol inspired piece where you change certain colors on your face to achieve his signature look. Mr. Parker also introduced us to the idea of using green-screens to put ourself in front of one of our creations, which we are going to be doing next 9 weeks.
September 26th, 2013
Today, we began our Andy Warhol projects. Mr. Parker has instructed us to make a series of Andy Warhol portraits. The first step in doing it is to first select a close up picture. Crop out any of the background and use the Magnetic Lasso tool, to select only the head and soldiers of the person in the picture. Click control + j to paste the selection into a new layer. Keep the layer of the picture so that you can use it for the other three pictures, but hide it so you can work on the other one. Next, cpu the mouse of select on the top bar, and click select color range. A window should pop up with a drop down menu. On the drop down menu you can select Highlights, Midtones, or Shadows. Do this three times, one for each part of the picture, and every time click control + j and put that selection in its own layer. Hide the selection of the head and shoulders and two of the 3 layers containing the color parts of the picture. Hover with the mouse about Edit at the top bar, select Fill, and choose a color to fill into either the Highlights, Midtones, or Shadows. Do this with the other two. Made all three visible and put a colorful or white background behind all three. Go to Layer in the top bar, and click merge visible. Repeat this process 3 more times, using different colors. Then, create a new document, making square in size. Make the grid appear, then minimize this new document and one of the other colorful head shots. Use the Move tool, and drag it into the new document. Adjust it to fit into one fourth of the square. Repeat with the other three. Sign and post it to your website. In doing this, I discovered a couple things. First, if you hold shift down while you are transforming (control + t) the picture, it will constrain the proportions. This helped me when I would drag the normal colored headshot of me into a new document to make another Warhol square with different colors. This way nothing got distorted and everything was symmetrical when I combined them into one document. Also, in reference to the colors, remember to make color schemes using the color wheel, and make it so all the color schemes make sense together. Lastly, that making it, for example, so that the Shadows were the darkest colors, the Midtones were the lightest, and the highlights were the middle in all the pictures helped to tie them together. It doesn't have to be in that order, just that each part corresponds with a light/dark/medium color.
September 27th, 2013
We continued to work on our Andy Warhol. Mason discovered that one can put a pattern over the selection for a very cool effect. I also discovered that using a very dark color for the majority of my face gives me a devilish appearance. However, that was all. Today was mostly continuing practicing our Andy Warhol/ Color skills.
September 30th, 2013
Today, we began a project, but I'm not exactly sure what it is called or what the end product will be. I know the main idea involves Layer Masks. First, I selected a close up picture, which was very important if this is going to work correctly. Then, I selected only my head and shoulders, clicked control + j and put it in a new layer, which I then hid. Next, similar to the Andy Warhol project, I selected the Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights and put them each in a new layer. However, instead of filling each with color, I filled the Shadows in with black, the Midtones with 50% gray (which is an option in the lower part of the Edit-Fill window that pops up). Then I filled the Highlights with 15% gray. To get that, click to fill with color. In the color range, all the way to the left and halfway up would be 50% gray, so just go a bit more up, and that should be about 15% gray. Its not really dark, but it is definetely not white. Mr. Parker said it we had a bit too much of each color, for example a bit too much shadow on the forehead or something, then we could use the eraser to erase some of it. After this, we hid everything except for a totally white layer (which was the background). On this, we wrote 5 adjectives to describe us, all in different interesting fonts, and then our name, also in an interesting font. Some of the fonts should be ornate, others should be large and blocky. In other words, have a diverse array. Then, make this into brushes using the rectangular marquee tool and clicking Edit, Define Brush Present. You may have to click control + t and change the size before making it into a brush to make it easier but its not necessary because you can adjust the brush size also. This is where we left off, and we are going to continue tomorrow.
October 1st, 2013
Today we continued our project using brushes in layer masks. It ends up making a picture out our words, but it is different than what we did before. First, get a close up picture, crop it, and use the Magnetic Lasso to select only your face and shoulders. Then, put select the shadows and Midtones, clicking control + j to put them in their own layer. Fill the Shadows with black and the Midtones with 50% Gray, which is an option in the Edit, Fill, on the bottom of the drop-down menu. Delete the original picture that is has the background still in it (in other words the original picture you opened up and took the head and shoulders selection from. Merge the Shadows and Midtones layers into one by selection Layer, Merge Down or Merge Visible. Then, create a new layer of a white background. Put the order in White layer on the very top, then the gray beneath, and finally the regularly colored layer with my head and shoulders. Create a new transparent layer and cover it use the brushes you previously made of words describing yourself or the person in the picture. Put a Layer mask on that layer. The follow these steps:
Control a on the Shadows and Midtones layer- select all
Control c- copy
Hold down Alt and click on the Layer Mask
Control v- paste
Control d- deselect
Control i- invert (makes it look like an x-ray)
Then, un-hide the Shadow/Midtone layer, the white background, and the transparent layer with the Brush and Layer mask. If it did not turn out that well, you can use the brush tool to color it in or the erase opacity tool to erase some of the excess shadows or Midtones Mr. Parker assigned a series of pieces, featuring people done this way, and one of ourselves with 5 brushes with adjectives describing us and one of our name. Mr. Parker also gave us the idea of using a Gradient or Pattern overlay in our pieces.
October 2nd, 2013
We used our class time today to continue on our Brush Layer Mask series. I am working on a series of Movie Heroines. I didn't not learn any new information today, but instead mostly practiced the new skills and cemented my understanding of this process.
October 3rd, 2013
Similar to yesterday, we worked to complete our Brush Layer Mask series. I finished the series, but I still need to complete the portrait of myself with my name and 5 adjectives describing me. Also, because the due date for our 9 weeks project is coming up, I began brainstorming what I could do for that. Thought not in class, I did learn something interesting about this strategy. I was playing around with Photoshop during my free time, and I figured out that if I wanted the background to be black, instead of white, I could fill the Shadows with the color white instead of black, so when inverted it, it would be the opposite that it was when I filled the Shadows layer with black. Therefore, I could use the opposite color in the background and it would still work. I also experimented with putting an outer glow on a Brush Layer Mask document.
October 4th, 2013
Today, I finished my Brush Layer Mask Self Portrait, and then I started my 9 weeks project. The idea I am working with currently is to make a fire GIF coming out of the words "The Book Thief", which have a clipping mask of words behind them, making it look like burning books.
October 7th, 2013
We learned our last concept for this 9 weeks today. It involved creating a silhouette doing something, and was inspired by iPod commercials that were aired when the iPod first came out. To create this, I first chose a picture of someone doing some action. It is best if they are in motion, and that their arms are not folded in. The idea is to have a very distinct and interesting outline, not a blob. Then I used the Magnetic Pen tool to select the person, clicking to drop anchor points. After the person is surrounded, I right-clicked, clicked Make Selection, and then OK when a box pops up. I clicked control + j to put the selection in a new layer, then Edit, Fill, to fill in the selection with whatever color I wanted. Using the Magnetic Pen tool is better than the Magic Wand tool or other tools because it is more accurate. After everything is filled in with the correct color, I added a new layer and filled the background with a color, and then added a text box with "i_____". Any adjective, verb, and noun can go in the blank. Again, to lessen the blob affect, one can select certain items with in the picture (hair, clothing, object begin held etc.), and make it a different color so it sticks out. Mr. Parker asked us to create one of ourselves and a series of 3. For the first, I created an iSiblings, using a picture of me and my brother, and for the series, I chose the topic of Disney princesses, using pictures of Mulan, Belle, and Ariel.
October 8th, 2013- October 11th, 2013
During this entire last week of the quarter, I was working on my two 9 weeks projects. One project needed to be a GIF, while the other one could be anything else. The idea for these projects is to combine a couple things that we learned throughout the 9 weeks into one work. My final projects were Fire GIF coming out of the words "The Book Thief" and a country road scene. The Book Thief GIF combined concepts of Clipping Masks with words, making fire, which includes, Filters, Layer Styles, Liquify tool, Color Balance Layers, and Brightness/Contrast Layers, and finally, making and tweening GIFs. The Country Road Scene combined the concepts of the Rectangular Marquee Tool, the Color Palette, Filters, Layer Styles, the Pen tool, the Transform tool, and the Liquify tool. If you want to know more details about what I did, visit the 9 Weeks Projects page by clicking the tab at the top of the screen.
SCHOOL HOLIDAY ON OCTOBER 14TH, 2013
October 15th, 2013
Today was the first day of the new 9 weeks. Mr. Parker started off by explaining to us what we will be doing this second quarter. Because this class is for a Art Credit, some Art History must be involved, so that is going to be the main focus of this 9 weeks. We are going to study the different styles or eras of art in chronological order, beginning this week with what is considered the first piece of artwork, cave paintings in the Paleolithic Stone Age. Instead of just analyzing and memorizing different pieces of famous artworks, we are going to do a little research on that period, write a short paragraph, and then we are going to imitate the style of the time period using Photoshop. With this, the class is not only accomplishes learning about art history, but also gaining a more extensive knowledge of the Photoshop program. For each period, as I said before, we will write a brief paragraph describing the style. Then, we will create a series (3 pieces) imitating the work of that time period, with a short explanation of each. Finally, we will give a short presentation in front of a green screen about the time period, and then we will put our Photoshop documents as the background, to create a short movie on Art History. All the time we will continue blogging about how we are accomplishing the intended looks. Mr. Parker is not so much guiding us anymore as challenging us to use our knowledge of Photoshop to achieve a certain effect, so there will be a good amount of blogging about new things I am figuring out as I go along. In addition to this Art History aspect, we will again have 2 more 9 week projects, in addition to compiling a 10 piece Portfolio that encompasses everything we learned this quarter, in place of a Midterm Test. After that had been explained, we began working on the assignment for our first era, the Paleolithic Stone Age. Our first piece should be a Paleolithic cave painting, our second piece reminisce Mesolithic art work, for example something involving the first civilizations painted on pottery, and our third piece should be something similar looking to Stonehenge (creating 3-D objects that look to be something one would use to worship the Gods). I started at the beginning, working on the cave painting. First, I used a brush with undefined edges painted the background varying colors of brown and red, stretching from very light to very dark. Then, I applied the Gaussian Blur Filter to give the "rock" more of a natural look, make the colors less defined and seems to blend together. Then, I applied a Pattern Overlay of stone that was located under Rock Patterns. Next, I opened a new document, and used the black brush to draw a cow, similar to the ones seen on cave walls. I saved it as a brush (Edit>Define Brush Preset), toggled back to my wall of rock document and begin using the brush tool to draw cows on the rock, using varying shades of brown and red. I also used the Transform tool to change the size and to Flip Horizontally, so that the cows were facing different directions. I used the Move tool or the brush tool to make some of the cows of different size and color overlap with one another, which is a common trait in actual cave paintings. Lastly, on some of the brushes, I went back over them with a low opacity eraser tool, making the cave paintings look more realistic.
October 16th, 2013
In class today, I continued to work on my Paleolithic cave painting. In a new document, I used the Brush tool to draw the outline of a hand. Then, I increased the size of the brush, and filled in the hand. Next, I used the Gaussian Blur to blur the edges of the hand, making it look less defined and a bit more like real paint. Then, I saved it as a Brush Preset, toggled back to my cave painting document, and began filling the empty spaces with hands of different sizes, colors, and also facing different directions (Transform>Flip Horizontally). I would have to create new layers if I wanted to draw with brush and then flip it because if I continued to use the same layer for all m brushes, when I clicked Flip Horizontally, it flip everything I had drawn on that layer, and I only wanted to flip a few hands or cows. Then, once I was down positioning and using a low opacity eraser to make the hands stand-out less, I merged all of the hand layers and all of the cow layers into one, just to simplify everything. Once you do this however, you can't make anymore edits to a particular cow/hand's orientation, the action would flip all on that layer. When I was done, I uploaded this to my new Art History page on my website. I began to work on the my second project (Mesolithic pottery), but the bell rang before I could make much progress. I need to finish my last two Stone Age pieces and accompanying research by Friday because that is when we are planning to do the green screen filming.
October 17th, 2013
We continued to work on our Stone Age Projects. I completed the last two. For the Mesolithic, I used the Circular Marquee tool, and layered a darker brown circular over a lighter brown circle. I couldn't get them to match up just through transformation, so I placed the darker circle in the middle of the circle, lining the ends up with the edges of the larger circle. Then I used the Magic Selection tool to select the top part of the circle, clicked Edit>Fill, and filled it in with white. Any extra brown that didn't get selected for some reason can be erased using the Eraser tool. Then, I put a Bevel and Emboss on it. Next, I made a copy of the layer, and filled it with black. Then, I moved it using the Move Tool, clicked control + t, and skewed (hold down control and drag corners with mouse) to make it look like a shadow. Then, I selected the Eraser tool, increased the size dramatically, so it encompassed the entire page, lowered the opacity, and clicked a couple times to make it look more realistic. Then, I opened up a new document, and used the brush tool to draw two kinds of people holding bow and arrows, as well as a tee-pee. Then, I made them brushes by clicking Edit>Define Brush Preset. I toggled back to the bowl document and painted a couple of each on in different sizes. Finally, if it doesn't have one already, give it a white background. For the Stonehenge project, I used the Rectangular Marquee tool. First, I made one gray rectangle, then hit control + j three times to copy it. I moved two of them using the Move tool, clicked control + t to transform them to from the sides of a rectangular prism, The front is rectangle, and the sides are parallelograms. Then, since in this case the light was coming from the upper left, I made the right side the darkest, the middle side that was facing me (the rectangle) a middle gray, and the top of the prism facing up the lightest gray. Then, I put a medium opacity Pattern Overlay over it make it look like stone (any of the rock patterns will do). Finally, I used the last copy of the original gray rectangle to make the Shadow. Using skew, you can set it at the angel opposite the direction of light. Then I used a large, low opacity eraser, and clicked a couple times to make it more realistic. I merged all of these layers that make up this stone block, and then clicked control + j to copy that layer, using the move tool to move it to the right. These will form the legs of a stone table of sorts. The next step is to make the top. Again use the rectangular marquee tool to make a rectangle long in length, but short in height, and place it on stop of the legs. Copy it twice by clicking control + j, and skew the other two to make the top and side, similar to process of forming the 3-D legs. However, stretch the parallelogram that is going to be the surface of the table long in height. As before, make the top surface the lightest gray, the side surface on the right (other parallelogram) the darkest gray, and the rectangular side the middle gray. Also, as before, add the medium opacity Pattern Overlay of stone. When everything is arranged, merge all the layers that make up the table, and copy the layer twice. Then use the Move tool and the Transform tool to put them on other places of the paper and size them accordingly. Lastly, I made the background. On the lowest layer, I used the Rectangular Marquee Tool to make the bottom 2/3 green, and the top 2/3 blue. I used the Brush tool, selected the blades of grass brush, and spotted (set the Brush Preferences to a slight color jitter, wide spacing, a slight angle jitter) the green rectangle (the ground) with grass. Then, I used the Smudge tool (the hand with the finger facing down), to move the line separating the sky and earth a bit. Finally, I applied a lower opacity Gradient Layer all over the entire layer. The Changing from Dark green to lighter green, with a relatively large white layer in the middle, then chaning from light blue finishing with dark blue at the top. The white layer in the middle also helps to less the defined, unrealistic line between sky and earth.
October 18th, 2013
In class today, we recorded our first presentation of our pieces in front of the green screen. To be honest, I found it really difficult and it caused me a good amount of stress. Because I had finished my pieces before I spent the first 20 minutes of class figuring out what I was going to say, and then practicing it. I was the first one to videotape my response. By listening to everyone do theirs, I think my approach was a bit off. I gave a little to much about the history, whereas Mr. Parker really just wanted us to say a little something about what the image we made. Afterwards, I began researching our next unit, Mesopotamian art.
October 21st, 2013
Our next time period is Mesopotamian/Egyptian art. We are supposed to create one image encompassing Mesopotmian art, and 3 for Egyptian, one for each period. I am working on the Mesopotamian piece first. I am creating a painting of people with three layers going from top to bottom, a common form for art in this period. In each of the layers, I will put aspects important to Mesopotamian life. So far, I have created three brown layers with purple around it, using the Rectangular Marquee tool. I applied a rock Pattern Overlay.Then, I opened up a new document and used a very small brush to draw the outline of a horse. Then, I went over the outline on a different layer with a larger black brush. That way I could make mistakes on the first drawing, and the second word turn out better. I hid the first layer, and made the second outline of a horse a a Brush Preset. I toggled back to the other document, and on the bottom layer, painted the horses facing one direction half of the distance. Then I made a new layer, and painted the rest of the distance with horses. Then on the second layer, I clicked Edit>Transform> Flip horizontally, so that the horses were facing the center, a characteristic that is part of the common format for this type of art.
October 22nd, 2013
Today, I finished my Mesopotamian art project. I opened up a separate document, and did my best to draw a man on a chariot/cart, and a man standing up. For the man standing, I first used a tiny brush to create the main shape. Then on a different layer, I used a thicker black brush to go over the lines, make the hair etc. I hid the first outline, and made the second layer a brush. For the bottom of the chariot, I used the Rectangular Marquee tool, and for the wheels, I made a circle using the Circular Marquee tool, then made a copy of that circle for the other wheel. Then, for the front of the cart as well as the man on top and the reins, I used the same technique as above: first outline, then use a brush. I defined this also as a brush. Toggling back the main document, I applied a man with a chariot on opposite ends of the bottom layer, using a dark brown and making sure they were in different layers. Then, I clicked Edit>Transform> Flip horizontally on the layer containing the left chariot, to make it face inward. I finished this bottom layer my using a brush tool to connect the horses by rope to the cart. For the second layer, I used a brown-black brush of the man standing up. I applied half on one layer, and half on another layer. For the layer with those on the left half, I again clicked Edit>Transform> Flip horizontally, using control + t to adjust and center the line of men. Next, I used two Grass brushes, one tall and one shorter, to make grass coming up to about their knees. I used Brush Preferences to adjust the spacing and apply a Size Jitter. Finally, for the top layer, I found a picture of a mosaic tile lion, opened it in Photoshop, traced over it with a brown brush in another layer, and defined the trace as a brush. Then, I applied the brush twice, making the lions pretty large. Each lion was in a different layer, and a clicked Edit>Transform> Flip horizontally for the left one.
October 23rd, 2013- Early Kingdom for Egypt- Carlo's head on sphinx
Today, I began the Early Egyptian Kingdom project. For it, I decided to do something a bit comical (as I have not really done much of that before) and Photoshop my brother's face onto the Sphinx. I found a picture of the Sphinx online, where he relatively forward facing, then I chose a picture of my brother in the relatively same position. I opened both pictures in photoshop. I used the Pen tool to cut my brother's face out of the background, made the selection, and clicked control + j. Then, I used the Move tool to transfer the layer to the Sphinx document, I used the Transform tool to adjust my brother's face over the Sphinx. To do this more easily, I lowered the opacity of the layer contain the face, so I could match up the eyes and noses. I found that clicking control and dragging the corner arrows to be very helpful in adjusting the positioning (a combination of skew and distort). Then, I increased the opacity, and used the Eraser tool, with a lower opacity, to go over the hair and edges of the face until his face began to blend about with the sphinx. Going slowly with a lower opacity is the best way to do this.That was all that I had time for today, but I plan on finishing tomorrow.
October 24th, 2013
Todya, I worked on finishing my Sphinx/ Early Kingdom project. First, I applied a Color Balance Adjustment layer over my brother's face, matching the tone to the tone of the rock. Lowering the opacity of the layer is also helpful in matching the skin tones. Next, to help in continuing to blend and create a 3-D effect, I used the Dodge and Burn tools. The Burn tool is especially useful in adding shadows. If need be, continue to erase, transform, dodge, and burn to blend the two images together. Then when I was content, my last step was to apply the Spherize filter to me brother's face to help with the 3D effect.
October 25th, 2013- Middle Kingdom- hieroglyphics and Late Kingdom- GIF
Today and over the weekend, I finished my Egyptian era projects. I did one for the Middle Kingdom and the Late Kingdom. For the Middle Kingdom, I created a Hieroglyphics image. On line, I found a picture of an Egyptian lion goddess, named Sekmet, and made her into a brush. Then, using a picture of a key of hieroglyphic letters, I made her name into a brush. I opened a new document and filled in the background layer with a light brown. Then, I applied a Pattern Overlay, with some sort of rock texture, and lowered the opacity so the color remained. In an new layer, I applied the picture of Sekmet in dark gray brush. Then, I copied the layer, clicked control + i to invert, and placed the inverted layer under and little to the side of the black layer, giving the shape a bit of a 3D appearance. Next, I added a layer above the background but under the one with the goddess, and across the this layer, I neatly applied her name brush. For the Late Kingdom, I decided to make a GIF. First, I found pictures of King Tut and Queen Nefertiti. I opened both pictures in photoshop. For King Tut, I first cut him out of his background. Then, I added a new layer, and used the Eyedropper tool to select a close that matched the color of his "skin". I used the Brush tool to go over one of hte eyes, and then on the background color, selected black, switched them, and used black to draw a winking eye. I used the Pen tool to cut out Queen Nefereti, and then the move tool to merge the documents. Then I made several copies of the Queen layer. In each copy, I used the transform tool to move the queen so that each progressing layer showed her at points along the path of falling down. Then, I added a new layer, used the shape tool to make a heart, and filled it in with the color red. Then, I made three copies of this layer, and moved the heart a bit farther up in each progressing layer. Finally, as the background, I put a white layer. Then, I used the Animation tool, and made several slides depicting this: King Tut normal, then he winks, and Queen Nefertiti falls and a heart floats up from her head. I chose what each frame held by hiding and hiding certain layers along the progression.
October 28th, 2013
Since this week is Halloween, we will be doing Halloween themed tutorials, taking a short break from our Art History study. Today we learned how to make someone look like a Zombie. First, find a picture of peeling paint, cracked side walk, etc. and layer it over a picture of your face. Get rid of the background of the picture of you by using the Pen tool. Change the Blending mode to Soft Light, Linear Light, or Overlay. Then, use the Eraser tool or the Pen tool to get rid of the unwanted texture layer. Decrease the opacity to help in doing so. Also, erase the texture from your eyes and teeth. Increase the opacity back up. However, you may not want to go all the way back to 100% because a little lower opacity may look more realistic. Also for a more realistic appearance, use the Dodge and Burn tools to create shadows and light spots in the texture that align with those naturally in the picture. Apply a Color Balance Adjustment Filter to change the color of your skin and eyes to give yourself a zombish appearance. Finally, on the bottom layer giver yourself a creepy background or just fill it in with black
October 29th, 2013
Today, we learned how to change the color of eyes to make them appear luminous and spooky. Get a picture and crop it to just include eyes. Use the Rectangular Marquee tool or the Pen tool and go around the iris. Make the selection, and click Select>Modify>Feather or about ten. It works best when at this point the selection is just around the pupil. Fill it with what ever color you choose, it works best with a light color. Click control + i to invert, and then clear (alt+ backspace or control + backspace on a mac). Change the blending mode to Color Dodge. Copy this layer and apply it to the other eye. Add a Hue and Saturation layer with these settings: Hue- -32, Saturation- +61, Lightness- 0. Add a layer of back, lower the oppacity to 40% and set the blending mode at Hue. Add a layer of Dark Green, lower the opacity to 40% and set the blending mode as Hue. Finally, use the dodge and burn tools to brighten the eyes and apply shadows respectively.
October 30th, 2013- October 31st, 2013
During both of these days, we worked on creating a series from a group of Halloween Photoshop tutorials introduced to us by Mr. Parker. Here is the link: http://www.youthedesigner.com/2010/10/19/creepy-halloween-photoshop-tutorials-you-should-try. I completed, first the Evil Eye tutorial, which consisted of applying Gradient Maps to darken the image, using the Lens Flare to create bright eyes on a layer above the Gradient maps, and using a Layer Mask and a black brush to reveal the dark image underneath the top Layer. I also used the Burn and Dodge tools to improve the image. Next, I did the Good vs. Evil tutorial, in which I used the circular marquee tool to change the color of the eyes, desaturation, hue adjustment, texture, Burn tool, and Messy Make-up Brushes for the evil side, and sparkle brush and Gaussian blur for the good side. Throughout, I changed blending modes to achieve certain effects. Lastly, I did the Decay tutorial, which is similar to the Zombie tutorial. Here, I applied a Hue/Saturation layer, put a texture in the layer above and used Layer mask to erase unwanted portions, used the Dodge and Burn tools to make it look more realistic.
November 1st, 2013-
Today, I was assigned the challenge of creating some Monster food. What I did was find a picture of a 3 fancy, 3-layered cake and a picture of a growling tiger. I used the Rectangular Marquee tool and control = j to select the main area that I wanted. Then, I dragged that layer onto the picture of the cake. I used the Liquify tool to stretch to top and bottom of the cake to fit the basic shape of a wide open mouth. I also used the Transform tool to fit the mouth to the shape of the cake. Then I decreased the top layer, the one with the growling teeth, making it easy to erase outside sections, slowly working it to blend in with the cake. Also, to help it blend a little bit better, I used the Dodge and Burn tool. Lastly, I used a soft black brush to fill the inside of the mouth in completely black, getting rid of the toungue, which looked unrealistic. The final product wasn't perfect, but I think it would have worked better if I had chose a moth that wasn't so wide open.
November 4th, 2013
This week we are transferring back to our study of Art History, picking up again with the Greek Era. Because of the nudity in other art, we are going to primarily focus on architecture. We have been assigned to do research on the 3 major types of Greek architecture (Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian), pick one, and create a building built to that style. Today in class, I did my research and decided I wanted to try to make an Ionic style Monument. Because the introduction to the project and the initial research took up most of my time, I just started to make the columns using the Rectangular Marquee tool. I made 6 in total, since Greek Architecture is largely symmetrical. Also, the columns are known to be wider at the bottom than at the top, so I created this effect with the Transform tool.
November 5th, 2013
Today, I continued to work on our Greek architecture project by adding and improving on one of the most important features of the building, the columns. First, I used the Rectangular Marquee tool to make the little crevices in the columns called fluting. I specifically put the same number on each column and I used the Transform tool to tilt them, slightly diagonal, stretching from the narrow top to the wider bottom. Next, I found pictures of volutes- the shape at the top of the column, with a specific kind characteristic to Ionic architecture, and bases- the decorative piece at the bottom of the column, cut them out with the Pen tool, dragged them into the main document, and resized them to fit onto a column. Next, I used the Dodge and Burn tools to made the parts all the same shade of gray, making them look like all from the same rock. I also darkened the top of the column to suggest a shadow, and I also darkened the fluting. Then, I realized to obtain maximum uniformity. It would be best to delete the parts that made up five of the columns, combine all the layers that make up one column, and copy that layer 5 more times to get 6 identical columns.
November 6th, 2013: Finished Ionic Architecture-, rest of monument and background, did 300 tutorials- 1 city scape, 1 dragan style
In class, I finished my Greek monument. Then, since I have gotten a little behind, I worked a bit at home doing the 300 tutorials (based on the movie 300) . To finish my Ionic architecture, I build the foundation under the bases of the columns, the frieze- the rectangular piece above the volutes, usually decorated with carvings, and the cornice- the triangular top using the Rectangular Marquee tool, the Transform tool, and darker/lighter shades of gray. Next, I placed a large wall behind all the columns using the Rectangular Marquee tool. Then, on each of the walls, parts, and column I applied a Pattern Overlay of rock. Using the Burn tool, I created shadows of the columns on the back wall. Lastly, on the bottom layer, I created the background, in which the lower 2/3 of the document was grass, an effect we learned earlier in the semester, and the rest of the layer was light blue to represent the sky. For the 300 tutorials, I did one distinctive portrait style known as Dragan, which makes everything look very clear and rough. The full tutorial is on this website- http://wegraphics.net/blog/tutorials/photoshop-quick-tip-create-a-dragan-style-portrait-effect-in-5-steps/ (also found on Mr. Parker's website- www.hisnameisparker.weebly.com), but the main steps are this 1. Increasing contrast with Levels Adjustment 2. Decreasing Saturation with Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer 3. Adjust contrast and highlights with Curves (make an wavy uphill). 4. New layer>High Pass Filter with Overlay Blending Mode 4. Burn tools to darken "hot" areas of skin, Dodge tool to brighten eyes. Lastly, I did a city scape in a similar fashion to the setting for the 300 movie. Here is the link: http://9tutorials.com/2007/05/20/how-to-turn-your-photo-into-the-300-movie-like-effect-using-photoshop.html (again, also found on my teacher's website). The main steps are 1. Increase Hue, Decrease Saturation 2. Adjust Exposure- increase exposure, decrease offset and gamma 3. New Layer>Lens Blur with Overlay Blending Mode 4. Layer Mask, Black brush over focal point 5. New Layer, all black - low opacity, large eraser in center (black on edges) 6. Flatten image, Noise Filter 7. Black bars at top and bottom 8. Optional- add blue color twist
November 7th, 2013
For our Roman unit, we are to create scenes of Roman Mythology in an art form that was popular during that era, i.e. like that represented by using fresco, bas relief, mosaic tiles, and texturizer filters in Photoshop. We are to do two myths, and therefore two representations. For my first, I chose a personal favorite myth of mine, the story of Icarus and Daedalus. First, I began with the ocean. To make the waves, I first filled a Rectangular Marquee with a dark blue-green, and then shaped the waves using the Liquify tool. To give the waves a water/liquid- like appearance, I applied a subtle rock Pattern Overlay. It wasn't the best method, and maybe I will find a more realistic technique in the future. Next, under that layer, I filled another layer entirely with light blue to represent the sky. I applied on it a Gradient Overlay that changed from light blue in the top left corner to dark blue in the bottom right corner. Then, in the top left corner I applied a Lens Flare filter to look like the sun. However, I erased the lower marks because they didn't fit with the scene. Lastly, I used the Pen tool to cut out do figures to represent Daedalus, flying, and Icarus, falling out of the sky. For Daedalus, I searched "soccer dives" and for Icarus, I just searched "falling man". I filled these shapes with black and merged them into the picture. Then I found a picture or some cool wings to serve as the wings used to escape the prison in the story. I clicked Select>Color Range>Shadows and control + j to get rid of the white background. Then, for the first set of wings I just applied a yellow Outer Glow. I played around about with the Blending mode and contour of the Outer Glow Layer Style. For the second pair of wings, I used the Magic Wand to select the wings. I apply a Gradient Overlay that has the colors of fire, and then I used the Magic Eraser and clicked outside the selection to get rid of the color outside of the wings. Lastly, again I put on Outer Glow on this set of wings. I dragged both set of wings into the document and used the Transform tool to fit them to the figures. For the falling man I had to separate the wings using Rectangular Marquee tool and control + j and adjust them separately. Next, I applied a Bevel and Emboss to the figures to make the stand out. Finally, I merged all of the layers into one and applied he Mosaic Tiles filter over it all.
November 8th, 2013
Today, I began my second piece of the Roman art section of our Art History study. For this mosaic piece, I chose the part of the Odyssey where Odysseus asks his men to tie him to a post on the ship so that he can listen to the Siren's lethal song as they sail by. The first step was to create the side of the boat, which I did using the Rectangular Marquee tool, Transform tool, and varying shades of brown. To make the walls look as if they were made of wood, I applied the Fibers filter (under Render). What it does is create fibers of the two colors set as the foreground and background colors, so to create the wood effect I set the colors as brown and black. Next I used again the Rectangular Marquee tool and Transform tool to make the post. I curved the bottom to make it look more like a cylinder. Also, I applied the Spherize Filter (under Distort). Then, I made the waves by filling a Rectangular Marquee with a dark blue-green color, giving it a wave-like shape using the Liquify tool, and applying a Pattern Overlay to make it look like water. Under that Layer, I filled a layer with light blue to make a sky. On this same layer I applied a Lens Flare Filter to make the sun, but I eraser the marks it made near the bottom of the document because they don't coincide with the characteristics of sunbeams. Then, on a layer above the sky but under the water, I used the Rectangular Marquee and Liquify tool to make a large rock, which I then applied a Pattern Overlay and a Bevel and Emboss to. With each on it's own layer, I then made many darker and smaller rocks nearer to the water with the Circular Marquee tool. To these I also applied a Patter Overlay and a Bevel and Emboss. Lastly, I found pictures of mermaids and a man with his hands tied behind his back on the internet, and cut them out using the Pen tool. I made them smaller or larger, or in the man's case, fit his arms around the post, using the Transform tool. Lastly, I combined all the layers and applied the Mosaic Tiles filter to the entire scene.
November 11th, 2013
Mr. Parker introduced us to the first project in our unit for the Indian Art Era today in class. Because different deities or reincarnations of certain gods are so important in Hinduism, India's major religion, it was a major theme in ancient Indian art, so our project is to create some kind of image depicting one of the Hindu gods. I chose a lesser known god named Ardhanarishvara, whose defining characteristic is that it is half male and half female. After doing a bit of research, I decided to create a realistic version of this god using images of actual people. First, I searched the internet for a picture of a traditional Indian bride and groom. After much searching, I finally found two pictures of approximately the same size that would work. I downloaded both of the pictures and opened them in Photoshop. Using the Rectangular Marquee Tool and the control + J shortcut, I isolated opposite halves of each of the figures in certain layers. Then in a new document (around 500x500 size), I merged both of these halves, and used Free Transform to make the halves line up with each other. Then, I made sure the left-man side was below the woman's side, and I applied to it a Color Balance Adjustment layer, to make his skin blue, as the male side is traditionally depicted. This also coincidentally happened to make his clothes red, which matched up with the woman's clothes. The woman layer needed to be above the man's so that her coloring wouldn't be affected. Next, I used the pen tool to select the arms on both the figures (in the other documents that had the original pictures), clicked control + j, dragged the arms onto the main document, and used Transform to position them.
November 12th, 2013Today I finished my Indian deity project. First, using the Pen tool to cut out other pictures of objects I had found on the Internet, I dragged a cow, a lion, a staff, and a lily into the image, which are all traditionally found in the depiction of this god. I actually put the staff in a layer above the male side so that the end of the staff went in front of his face, and used the eraser tool to get rid of the section that appeared in front of his hand. I put the lily on the layer below the female side because of the placement of her hand. Lastly, at the bottom I added a layer, selected a brown color as the background, and filled the space. Then, I used an Indian Henna design (for a project I will be doing tomorrow), made a brush, and applied a large size brush to the background. Lastly, I merged all of the layers besides the background into one and I applied a yellow outer glow.
November 13th, 2013
I began and completed the second part of the Indian Art Unit, which was to paint a part of my own body with Henna. With Zoe's help, I took a picture of my hand on her phone, she emailed it to me, I downloaded the file, and I opened it in Photoshop. Using the Pen tool, I selected my hand. Then, I hit control + j and put it in another layer. Next, I found a cool Henna design on Google Images, and I saved the downloaded and opened the picture in Photoshop. I began using the Magic Eraser to erase all of the white spots. However, it was a pretty elaborate design and I realized it would be faster to hit Select>Color Range>Shadows, which selected only the dark design part. Then I clicked control + J, putting it in it's own layer. Next, I clicked Edit>Define Brush Preset and made it a brush. I toggled back over to the other document, selected a good brownish-red color (traditionally the color of Henna) as the foreground, selected the newly made brush, adjusted the size to cover my entire arm and hand, and clicked once, applying the brush. Lastly, I added a Gradient Overlay on a new background layer (at the bottom of all the other layers). It was a diamond style gradient, and the colors changed from innermost-red, then orange, and outermost-yellow.
November 14th, 2013
Today, we watched the "You Suck at Photoshop" Video on Perspective in introduction to our Chinese Project which is to create an army of Terra Cotta Soldiers. I chose to do an army of Will Ferrels. I found a good standing photo from the internet, downloaded it, and opened in Photoshop. I applied a Color Overlay layer of brownish-red (the color of terra cotta clay). Then I added a Pattern Overlay of a subtle rock, to create the effect of clay, which is roughish but still relatively smooth. I chose a right rock with small black dots After this however, I hit a bit of a dead end and proceeded to struggle a bit with the perspective technique shows in the video.
November 15th, 2013
Today, I struggled some more with the Vanishing Point Filter and Perspective technique. However, after not being able to get it, I decided to create my army through another method. I added many layers and used the Transform tool, making the figures smaller and moving them into the distance by keeping them on the same diagonal path. By holding down shift with transforming the size, the proportions were kept the same, or constrained, which added the effect of uniformity of the statues.
November 18th, 2013
I finished my Terra Cotta Army project today. I used the Rectangular Marquee tool to create barrier walls that separate individual lines of stone soldiers. Using the Transform tool and lighter/darker shades of brown, to create a three dimensional object. Then, I added a layer placed it below all the other layers, filled it with a light brown color, and applied the same rock Pattern Overlay as I used on the Terra Cotta soldiers. Then I began working on my Persian rug. First I opened and 900x600 pixel document. I filled the background with a very light brown. Then on a new layer, I used the Rectangular Marquee tool to make a dark red rectangle that was proportionally smaller that he background, so there is an outer brown frame, equal in width on all sides, to the dark red layer. Lastly, I put a dark brown Stroke on this first red layer.
November 19th, 2013
Today, we were introduced to the Middle Ages project, which is creating a building that has Gothic Architecture. However, I first needed to complete my Persian Rug for our Byzantine and Islamic Unit. First, I added a new layer, created within the 1st red layer, another light red layer. The rectangle was again smaller so that there was a good-sized dark red border around it. Then, I added a light brown stroke (lighter than the outermost layer) on this light red layer. Next, I downloaded a vine design from the internet, made it into a brush, and in the same shade of Dark Brown that I used for the first stroke, I applied all over the light brown background layer. I adjusted the Spacing and Angle Jitter in Brush Preferences. Then, using the Brush I made for the earlier Henna project, I used the same shade of brown and applied the pattern to the dark red layer. Lastly in a separate document, I isolated certain parts from the Henna pattern (using the Eraser tool and the Magic Selection tool), and made new brushes out of them. Using the same shades of brown used for the strokes, I created symmetrical designs in the light red layer. Finally, I combined all the layers, and applied the Grain Filter to made the design look fibrous, like a carpet. I also applied a Glowing Edges Filter, just for fun because it looked very cool (its on the Just for Fun page). I used the remaining class time to do some Gothic Architecture research in preparation for working on the project tomorrow.
November 20th, 2013
Today, I began creating my Gothic Cathedral. Using the Rectangular Marquee tool, I created a large rectangular base, a second layer made of 3 walls, and the a large triangular top. Using the Transform tool and varying lighter and darker colors, I gave the building a 3D appearance. Then, I created 3 entryways on the front. Using a picture from the internet of the shape of a Gothic window/doorway, I used the Pen tool to outline the main shape. I right-clicked, and selected Define Custom Shape. Then, using the shape tool, I created levels going inward of the doorway. I made each shape smaller and filled it with a darker color, until finally the inner most is filled with black. I combined all of these layers, and applied the Craquelure Filter. Finally, I copied this layer twice by hitting control + j and positioning them of equidistance apart.
November 21st, 2013
In class today, I finished by Middle Ages Gothic Architecture piece. First, using the Rectangular Marquee tool and the Transformation ability, I added two columns between the three windows. I filled the frontward facing side with a color lighter that of the large frontward-facing wall, and I made the rightward-facing sides the same color as the large rightward- facing wall. Then, I added texture to the surface of the building by applying the Craquelure Filter to each layer containing a wall or side. I DID NOT COMBINE ALL THE LAYERS BEFORE APPLYING THE FILTER. If one does that, the effect is much less realistic because the "bricks" are not positioned that the correct angles and instead looks two dimensional, as if one blanket texture was placed over the whole building. Instead to save time and ensure uniformity on all the layers, I set the settings as I liked for the walls, then on all the other layers, clicked on the first option of the Filter Scroll Down Menu, which read Craquelure. The program remembered my settings and offered me that shortcut for the very same settings. The keyboard shortcut for this action (applying the same filter as one did last time) is control + f. Next, I made the windows. First, I downloaded a picture of a rose window in an actual Gothic Cathedral and opened the image in Photoshop. I used Select>Color Range>Shadows and then clicked control +J, and in the new layers, I had only the black, or outline of the stained glass structure. Then using the Circular Marquee tool, I filled in the shape with red and blue circles. On each of these circles I put a yellow Stroke. Then, on the very outside of the stained glass pattern, I used brushes of different opacities to color the different features and shapes different colors. After, I applied the Stained Glass Filter. Then, I used the Magic Selection tool to select the entire shape, right-clicked, picked Stroke, and added a black stroke around the shape. I minimized the document, and dragged the shape onto the my building, and placed in the center of the 2nd top layer. Then, I toggled back to the stained glass document, clicked control +J to make a new layer, and hid the original layer. Clicking control + i, I inverted the colors, added another black stroke (the last one is now white), and dragged it onto the other building document. Then, I copied the layer 3 times, arranged the four windows 2x2, and combined the four layers into one. I copied this layer, and positioned the two four window structures on opposite sides of the main building. Next, I found a picture of Jesus Cruxifiction, downloaded it and opened it in Photoshop, where I then applied the Stained Glass filter to it. I dragged this onto the building as well, placing it between the two four-windowed structures. Finally, I made a new layer, placing it at the bottom, and applied a Gradient Overlay to it, which transitioned from brown to light brown to white to light blue to blue.
November 22nd, 2013
Today (the last day before Thanksgiving break), was only a 30 minute class. It was spent on an in depth explanation of our Portfolio projects. They are due on the last day of school before winter break, and all 10 must fall under a certain theme. The goal of these it to show mastery of all the skills learned in the semester by combining 5 to 6 techniques to create the final product. Along with these, as usual, 2 Nine weeks projects are due, which are designed to show skills learned in just the 2nd Quarter and are a combination of 2 to 3 techniques. Mr. Parker wants us to have a solid theme and a general plan for these assignments when we come back from Thanksgiving break.
SCHOOL HOLIDAY NOVEMBER 24TH THROUGH 29TH
December 2nd, 2013-
Today, Mr. Parker explained to us that we are going to skip ahead in art history to more modern movements, such as Pop Art. The first artist we will be imitating is the cartoonist, Roy Lichtenstein. We did a guided practice of how to make a Halftone Pattern comic. Here is the website with the tutorial: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UvbpgmnaLoZy1gqynhDGP1iq-9m2Wg7z-nWArHguGnw/edit. These are the main steps: 1. Adjust Levels to 60/1.00/240 2. Filter>Artistic>Film Grain (Grain-4, Highlight Area- 0, Intensity- 10) 3. Add layer and apply Filter>Pixilate>Color Halftone (Radius- 4, 108/162/90/45). Change Blending mode to Darken 5. Apply 20px stroke on the inside 6. Add a speech bubble with text
December 3rd, 2013
Mr. Parker has asked us to create a 5 frame comic with the techniques we used yesterday. I am doing one on the difficulties of family vacations.
December 4th, 2013- Assigned color halftone pattern
Today, Mr. Parker assigned us to create an animated version of ourselves, using at least in some parts the Halftone Pattern Filter. I spent, the majority of class however completing my comic. In addition to what we learned, I have discovered that one can use the Rectangular Marquee tool to express speech and location as well. Also here are some shortcuts I have discovered : alt + backspace- filling selection in with foreground color, contorl + f re-applies the filter use just used, control + '- makes grid visible and invisible
December 5th, 2013
Today, I worked on creating an animated version of myself using the Halftone Pattern Filter. I opened up a picture and used the Pen tool to select different part so my face and body. Then I am filling them in with either a color or a pattern. To get to cool effect for my hair, I didn't fill it in with any color first, I just control + j and applied the filter. Also, your foreground and background colors are the colors used in the pattern. Lastly, I figured out that if something isn't filling in with the pattern. Make a copy and fill that copy in with white, or any other color, and the pattern for some reason works after that.
December 6th, 2013
Today, I finished the animated version of myself, and Mr. Parker assigned our last assignment: a mock Shepard Fairey (man who did Obama's campaign posters) portrait. I will begin on Monday.
December 9th, 2013
Today, I began working on the Shepard Fairey project I had been assigned on Friday. I opened a picture of myself in Photoshop, and began following the tutorial on this website: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12JizDxDpyU4PBalEZ_OqicIsFGAOHyrJS0JC1Qlrcb4/edit# I didn’t need to crop the picture which was the first step, so I continued on to the second step which was to Posterize the picture (under Adjustments). The next step was to create four level of Thresholds (under adjustment). Set the level of the Threshold lower and lower, so that there is less black as you make more layers. Then, basically the rest of the steps are to fill in these layers.
December 10th, 2013
Today, I put the finishing touches on my Shepard Fairey. I filled the background in with yellow, and then used the Rectangular Marquee tool to create a red rectangle that is half the background and a blue rectangle that is half the background. Then at the bottom, I made a dark blue rectangle, and used the text tool to write my name there. Lastly, I used Select>Modify Edge to smooth out the edges of each layer.
December 11th, 2013
For my second portfolio piece, I decided to create Roy Lichtenstein-esque snowflake, using what we recently learned about Halftone Pattern. I found an basic black and white picture of a snow flake, similar to a picture one would find in a children’s coloring book. I used the Magic Eraser tool to get rid of the rid. Then, I attempted to fill the snowflake with dots using the Halftone Pattern Filter, but I was unsuccessful, so instead I used the Circular Marqee tool, copied the blue circle many times, and used the Grid tool to arrange them equidistance from each other in a grid pattern. The using the Magic Wand tool and the Magic Eraser tool, I got rid of the dot patterns in unwanted areas (if unclear, there is a better explanation in my Portfolio). Then, in the background I applied a red and white line Halftone pattern and used the Transform tool to set the lines going diagonally.
December 12th, 2013
Today, I worked to finish my Second Portfolio piece. To add a bit more complexity, I applied a Bevel and Emboss to the edge of the snowflake (the black line), event adjusting the settings of Contour and Pattern under Bevel and Emboss, to make it look a bit like it has icicles. Then, I put a Outer Glow on the Snowflake. For the settings of these specific Layer Styles, see my Portfolio. Then, I proceeded to write up my steps in the Portfolio.
December 13th, 2013
When searching for pictures of snow on Google Images, I found a really cute picture of a cat with snow getting dropped on his head, so I decided I would apply what we learned about Andy Warhol to it. Using the Pen tool, I cut the cat out of the background. The I also put a path about all of the snow, both dropping and already on his head, because I want to fill that it with a different color. I also used to the Magic Selection Tool to get some little bits that were on the cat’s face. I clicked Select>Color Range, and then Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights, and filled them in with my chosen colors (Dark Blue, Pink, Light Pink respectively). However, with the Shadows and the Highlights, I only filled it with a 50% opacity, so that the image remained clear. I filled the Midtones normally, with 100%. I then filled the snow with a 50% opacity orange. To the snow layer, I applied an Artistic>Cutout Filter, and a Texture> Ocean Ripple, to make it look more like snow. Then, in the background behind the cat, I filled it with blue. I made a snowflake brush from a snowflake outline I found outline, applied some jitters to it (Size, Angle, Scatter, Color), and brushed it all over the background. Next, I made a copy of the background, applied Glowing Edges to it, and set its blending mode at luminosity. I made sure to set my Foreground color to a light yellow and to leave my Background color white, for the Glowing Edges. Lastly, I lowered the opacity of the Glowing Edges Layer. In class, I only completed one, but I plan to do the other three over the weekend.
December 16th- December 17th, 2013
I typed up the write-ups to my Portfolio in class, while I mostly complete the assignments at home.