ok ok last post of the day...

Here is another Dave Mckean piece of work I drew inspiration from... Actually I am just going to paste my compostition board I created to help me get inspired for this project.

A composition board is a very handy tool I always do in right before I start a new project. I feel that researching work and gathering ideas is always a good thing.  It helps you stay on track and makes you feel less like you have writers block.  Here is my composition board. Every picture on here is a Dave Mckean piece of work... None of this is my own work.

If you see closely you can even see where I typed my notes of what I wanted in my own Dave Mckean inspired work...

Check it out.

inspiration for my poster

I used Dave Mckean as inspiration for the poster. I took his warm colors his industrial structure and feel to make my montage. Other images he has done in comic books and such have lots of illegible text, piled on top of each other... all elements are dave mckean elements that I tried to
imitate... what do you think? did I succeed?

Now that photoshop class is over... well almost over

Today is the last day of the class and I have nothing to do but wait for the class to present all the photoshop montages. 

Luckily for me, I am way behind in my flash class and I need to play catch up before 6pm tonight.  Tonight we present our final projects in flash and I am about 50% done with my animation.

However, I have been looking around in my photoshop class and there seems to be many great montages. I cant wait to see them all!

Photoshop overall...

Photoshop has always been a weakness for me. I could never really grasp the tools and techniques. However, after being in this class, I feel I  have learned so much. I definitely have more to learn but I can now say that I am comfortable with this program.

Adobe Illustrator has always been my go-to program but now I am going to start doing my own work in photoshop.

The more I practice the more I will learn right? and the better I will become.

I am grateful for having this class and learning so much... =)

Final Montage

So here it is... my final montage for my photoshop class... The assignment was to read a story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez about a poor family that finds an old man in their back yard who has these
enormous wings that are kind of decaying...

They're not sure if its a fallen angel or just some freak of nature.

Here is my picture... What do you guys think?

just finished my final montage

So its finally done... after lots of hours, hard labor its done... It came out really well! I LOVE IT! it was very tedious at points but the hard work paid off...

I will have to paste the picture later as the file is currently almost a gig!

Making a face look old in photoshp

I took this tutorial from youtube.com on how to make a face look old in photoshop, considering my new montage is about an old man.

I want to take a picture of my little brother and make him look old. I've been dabbling on learning to do it myself but it is VERY difficult.  So I looked at tutorials....

This tutorial is very long and I dont really have lots of patience to LLLlllloooooooonnnnngggg tutorials..


If you feel there is a better one, please let me know...

Here is the tutorial, tell me what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD_BqknfhME

Bagua Vision Board

A few months back I created a bagua vision board... Essentially, its a collage of pictures you cut out from magazines and such. Very elementary school but tons of fun. Its centered (literally) around one concept you want to achieve in your life. Mine is happiness. The pictures you paste around your central concept always reflect your central concept. It's fun to create but it took some time to make.

The idea behind a vision board is kinda like setting goals for yourself, only, in a more artistic way. This is where you paste what you want out of life, career, friendships, love life, etc.  After you are finished with it, you are supposed to hang it somewhere you can always see it to remind you of your goals in life, which ultimately pushes you to attain your goals.

As a formal social service worker I decided to change career paths and re-enter academia to pursue something more artistic, Graphic Design. My heart has always been in the arts and I was terribly unhappy doing something I didnt really care for. My vision board also reflects my change into the graphic design field that ultimately leads to happiness.

A year ago I ruthlessly quit my job and expected the worst out of a life without money. However as life should have it, I am now enrolled in school full time and I do not have any money problems. Thanks to my family and close friends that I have.

The only problem I seem to get often is the weird sense of selfishness people seem to portray me as... They categorize me as being selfish for pursuing my dreams... I suppose I know who my true friends are now.

However, I am posting this because I feel the vision board is pushing me to attain my goals, even with opposition.

No one said things were going to be easy... They said it would be DAMN worth it! So far, it is, and I am ultimately happy with myself and how things are turning out. =)

I am posting a map of the layout of the vision board in case you'd like to have a little fun with it... this concept can also be applied to your living space. It's a fun thing to do with friends as well... well, friends that like new age type stuff... Enjoy!

Another Tutorial for your review

For my last montage I took pictures of my siblings and I turned them into zombies... This was a learning process for me. I looked for tutorials online. There were many. The one I used was the easiest to follow... However I felt that this tutorial was too destructive. The link is below...


Make a zombie of your family members and see if this tutorial helps you out.

Let me know what you think...

Yay, or nay???

http://www.myphotoshoptutorial.com/archived-photoshop-tutorials/2009/10/24/halloween-special-zombie-movie-poster.html?currentPage=3

Tutorial on how to create a broken glass effect...

So... For my first class montage I created a broken glass effect... I didnt know how to do that so I looked online to see I could find a tutorial... The tutorial is good and it teaches me what I wanted to know, but I feel as though there were lots of things I did not need.  There are about 19 steps and I think I had to figure out what I  needed and start at step 11 or so...

Check it out and tell me what you think of this tutorial... The link is below.

Yay, or Nay???


http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/tutorials/photoshop/make-smashing-glass-effects/

bad pants!

As I browse the internet for ugly pants for my next photoshop project, I come across many pants that are ugly. None of the pants I see online are pants I want to use in my project anyway. However, some of these pants are so hideous I thought I would post one on here and see what you think of them.  I hope no one ever wears these pants!

I will continue to search for better pants for my photoshop montage!

Before and After???

I was looking around the internet at photoshoped images and I stumbled upon this interesting image. Its a little disturbing but funny... anyway brace yourself.

I think its very interesting that in the world of retouching photos, not one person is ever perfect. It doesnt matter how attractive that person is, or how amazing their body is... That flaw that they do have needs to be photoshoped.


LOL funny, right??

Photoshop Montage

Here is my montage! Created entirely in photoshop in my DMAD 193 class. I think it came out fantastic. I feel I have learned so much in this class... way past the basics now. Since discovering Adobe Illustrator I have generally stuck with it. Now that I have been learning photoshop I think I am going to use it so much more.

I spent a lot of time doing this but here is what I did:

I took a picture of my brother and sister and told them what kind of facial expression I wanted.

I made each of them look zombie-esque. Placed scars on their face and different hair style. I changed the levels of their faces to  make them look pale. I also changed the color of their eyes. After working on their individual picture I turned them into a smart object and placed them into the American gothic painting. I then masked out their bodies. 

In the American gothic painting I took the beautiful blue sky away and replaced it with an apocalyptic background. I then added lots of texture to the houses in the background. I created a broken class effect and placed a frame around the entire thing.  I did lots of curves and level changes to make the entire thing cohesive in terms of color. I had a lot of fun doing this project. 

What do you think?

Photoshopped before photoshop!? Oh my!

In the 1970s there was a famous picture going around newspapers, magazines, and television. The picture was of a peaceful protester, shot by police while his girlfriend screams in agony... Yes, quite the scene. However, the publicized picture had been tampered with. There was a pole placed behind the females head which made the picture look kind of wacky... but overall the picture was fine.  A photographer took the image and "airbrushed" the pole from behind her head.  Im not sure what that meant back in those days... I only know what airbrushing means in photoshopped terms.

This next picture is sensational! This baby flew around the internet like wildfire in the last few years. The story states that the female in this picture had cheated on her boyfriend (a tattoo artist). Later that week, she went to his tattoo parlor to get a scene of Narnia tattooed on her back. The unsuspecting cheater had no idea her boyfriend had figured it all out, thus implementing his harsh revenge plan and tattooing a giant piece of c**p on her back.  The picture is reported fake! The story never happened. In fact the two people (the girl and her tattoo artist boyfriend) never existed. Makes me feel good that human kind isn't as awful as the media depicts... =)

Mixing Images and Captions

This first gem was found in the LA times. The picture is about the US Postal Services cutting their work days to Monday through Friday. The caption is from the NY times. The article was about a study that was created to find the meaning of "cool" .

The picture below was discovered in the LA Times Science Now section. The article is about the religious right to hunt (or not hunt in this matter) in the Amazon.  The caption was found in a National Geographic website article about a dog that is now trained to find buried bones and fossils.

Picture number three is of well known porn star Ron Jeremy and his trip to the emergency room after he suffered an aneurism. The picture was found in the LA Times, Science Now section.  The caption was also found in the LA Times Science Now section in which a study shows the low sperm count of couch potatoes.

Testing 1...2...3

Pedro Meyer does some creepy church stuff...