// Quiz // Complex Radial Symmetry // Graphic Design

// Assignment 11 // Stamps // Graphic Design

          My strongest technical aspect of my work was how I made the repetition stamp look. I like how I have the same image in the back but mirrored and then a different photo but of Melanie in the sam outfit in the front. I also like how I selected actual colors from within the images to write the price, location, and year. I could have improved on how my text stamp looks. I tried to make the pillow that she was originally holding have lyrics to one of her songs in it but I'm not a big fan of the font I chose to use.

          The easiest thing for me was picking out who I wanted the stamps to be on and how I made the minimalist and repetition stamp. I knew I wanted to use Melanie as the focus as she uses a lot of colors and her outfit choices can be out there which I like and thought would add to the overall look of the stamps. The most difficult thing for me was the text stamp because I kept putting the text to spaced out and it looked weird. I then went in and redid that and accomplished what I have above. As it was originally a fluffy pillow it stands out now as being flatter with lyrics to her song 'pity party'. 

          I demonstrated the objective of this project by selecting a focus for the stamps and creating a minimalist, repetition, and text stamp. I made the minimalist stamp by finding an image of her that I thought would look best standing on its own and created that stamp. Then for the repletion stamp I found pictures of her in the same outfit and set the same image in the background twice but flipped it the opposite way to have a mirrored effect. Then I added another image on top and deleted the original background from it. Then for the text stamp I cut out the pillow she was holding on top of a new layer and then added a white background and added the text on top. If I had to do this project again I would try to find a cursive like font for the text stamp instead of the font I chose to use which was already offered on the photoshop program. 

// Assignment 10 // Painting // Graphic Design

          My strongest technical aspect is the way I have the colors appear, especially in the eyes. I think how I had done the selections of colors and brought them together was successful and I enjoy how it looks. I like how I made all of the colors accurate to how the actual cat was and how I took the time to work on smaller sections like the whiskers or the eyes as each eye tok me the longest to do.  I could have improved on the negative space at the bottom. I started it close to the bottom so I only have negative space in between the legs of the cat.
          The easiest thing for me was getting into the painting, I knew I wanted to focus on a cat so I found an image and then had immediately become immersed in creating the piece. I figured out my plan on how to do this very quickly and yes it may have been time consuming but it was worth it and I enjoyed doing it. The most difficult thing for me was painting some of the sections of the legs and paws because the colors had extreme changes from one to another and I wanted to make sure I included all of them or at least as many as I could. The colors one paw had a lot of colors so it took me more time to do that one than the other. Other than that the painting was pretty straightforward but I just wanted to make sure I represented as many colors from the cat as I could.
          I demonstrated the objective of this project by outlining the pieces I wanted a certain color and then filled them in with the paint bucket. That leaves agape with the outline and the paint bucket so I would also have to go back in and color them in. For sections like the eyes, whiskers, and mouth I painted them fully and avoided the outline and paint bucket. For the background I wanted it to be very simple and just added in a white layer and added a texture to it so it would appear almost snow like. If I had to do this project again I would most likely wind up having a result that is very similar to the one I have above.

// Assignment 9 // Pop Art #2 // Graphic Design

          My strongest technical aspect of this work was how it all came together by using more realistic colors. I realized that if I shut the view of the white layer and the background layer off, it would leave the original image still visible but with slightly muted colors left over so then I would use the eyedropper tool to pick up the actual colors and painted them in that way. I also used a very small sized pen tool so I could put in outlines of where the color should end and begin before adding in the color. I don't think that I could have improved on anything based on what I was trying to accomplish. I wanted colors to look natural and go along with the original photo.

          The easiest thing for me was deciding what photo I wanted to use and how I would make the colors appear. I wanted this one to seem more natural and real towards how the first version of the photo had looked. I knew I wanted to do a photo of them because all of their photos for their newest album's era has a prevalent use of the color red and I thought a slight pop of color would make this look really nice. I don't really think anything on this was that difficult because after doing the first one I realized how to se the tools really fast and I enjoyed doing that one so this wasn't all that difficult for me. At times it did take time to do certain parts because of the accurate lines I was trying to get on the hair, the lips, or even the beanie. 

          I demonstrated the objective of this project by using making copies of the original photo, deleting the background on one and adding in the black background, then I changed the image to greyscale and changed the threshold of the image so it looked as if it could be pop art. Then I created a duplicate of that layer and made it completely white so I could paint in all of the colors again. Then I painted in all of the colors so it would look the way it does now. If I had to do this project again I would most likely wind up having the image the way it is now because I had wanted this to look a certain way and I had accomplished that.  

          

// Assignment 8 // Pop Art #1 // Graphic Design

          

          My strongest technical aspect of this work was how I kept with the natural lines of the actual photo. I did that because not all of the natural end lines of the photo appeared in the edited version but I still wanted the colors to end where they actually would have on the actual photo. I did that by closing two of the layers over the background layer and making the paint tool very small so I could outline where each color would have naturally ended on that original photo. I don't really think I could have improved on anything, I think it turned out looking really nice. I think taking the extra time to really find the natural endings of each piece of the picture and I think that adds to the entire

photo.

          The easiest thing for me was deciding a color scheme for the photo. I wanted to stick with pastels because I thought it would all look as if it went best together. I made the lips a couple shades darker than how the shade I used for the skin. I then decided to leave both the eyes and the teeth white because I thought it would add to the look of the piece as a whole. For me the hardest part of this was using a picture that worked because the first photo I tried was to much of a profile view and the shirt the girl was wearing was a major contrast from the face and I either had the face fully disappear or the clothes would fully disappear. 

          I demonstrated the objective of this project by making separate copies of the original image and then deleting the background to one of those copies using the pen tool. Then I used solid fill layers on top of a white version of the original image and drew in where I wanted all of the colors to go. If I was to do this project again I would leave all of the colors the way they are because I think it goes well together. I would most likely add a darker shade of blue to the slight gaps within the black side of her hair.

// Assignment 7 // Animal Morph // Graphic Design

          My strongest technical aspect of this work was blending the way the fish looked with the way the chameleon looks. I like how I blended the scales from the chameleon onto the fins of the lion fish.  I think that I could have improved on how the background appears. I couldn't really find a background that didn't make the hybrid look kind of fake or weird because of the cut out sections within the tail fin of the fish. I do however like how the hybrid looks as if it is exiting the ocean to walk on dry land.
          The easiest thing for me was using the stamp tool because I knew exactly where I wanted the impressions of each animal to be. With having the use of the stamp tool I was able to make the fins look as if they are really a part of the chameleon. The hardest part for me was the background because I went through a lot of different ones and wasn't really satisfied with any of them. Eventually I found the background that is in the picture and I thought that it looked the best because a lot of backgrounds I had tried prior didn't go that well with the rough edges of some of the fins. I think the background would look better if the animal was actually real and not just something I had done in photoshop.
          I demonstrated the objective of this project by blending the two animals together using the stamp tool. The stamp tool allowed the animals to blend in a better way and share the same skin textures as one another. If I had to do this project again I would probably focus on the background some more and maybe edit it so it wouldn't appear as sharp. I'm not sure that editing the background would work in that aspect but I could try and mess around with it in that way as hopes it would look a bit more natural. I do believe though that my first attempt not working out was a good thing because this one looks a lot better than that one had.

// Assignment 6 // Radial Symmetry // Graphic Design

         My strongest technical aspect of my work was keeping a straight pattern. I like how the pattern turned out and I like how all of the colors seem to run together. I think the effects I added to the layers added an extra flare and made them look better than they had originally. I think that I could have improved on the sizing of some of the shapes, I like the sizes on the above version of my project but as I was going along I added a few very small sized shapes. As you can tell those didn't stick and I went with larger sized shapes, but not large enough to make the project to messy or wacky. 

          The easiest thing for me was picking the colors and making them look the way that I wanted them to look. I also thought finding sizes for the final shapes and making them appear radially symmetrical was easy, at least for me. The hardest part of this for me was fixing the outer parts because I wanted them to still blend well with the center point. The center is my favorite part of this piece and I wanted everything else to go well with it and fit that point. Eventually, I was able to make it look the way I had wanted it to. 

          I demonstrated the objective of this project by using a 10 x 10 image sand filling it with shapes using radial symmetry. I separated all of my shapes into the eleven groups and then changed the opacity of the groupings so it would appear in the best way possible. I added the groupings and changed the opacity as I went, but I added the effects to the layers as I went. If I was to do this project   again I would keep the colors the exact same because I like how they appear. I would probably make the white circles smaller or smaller and then add more.