JOHN STEZAKER

I have decided to change the direction of my project after being inspired by John Stezaker's work at the city gallery.

Seeing Stezaker's work made me think about how many images we are exposed to each day, especially through social media apps such as Instagram and Snapchat. By using old images to recreate new images, Stezaker is making a statement about how we are exposed to too many images to properly value them and see them for what they are worth.

This can be seen as a reflection on society, how as a mass we have very little attention span and how everything is now targeted towards this. Pair this with our new social practices surrounding social media and we can see an over saturation of images in our everyday life.

I think I would like to make a comment on this new style of photography (social media based) with ideas of image over saturation, basically that everyone posts the same things but it is from a different perspective.

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

Same thing, different perspective - Through the manipulation of brush strokes using a blur tool, I was able to create a textural piece of work inspired by the works of Petra Cortright. I then edited the images further in Photoshop by slightly changing their perspective and adding a drop shadow. This piece is essentially the same thing repeated three times, however literally by looking with a new perspective makes you question whether it is different or basically the same thing. 

 

SOFTWARE EXPERIMENTATION

I have downloaded a free software called KRITA, in which there is a focus on different types of brushes, allowing for lots of experimentation. Originally inspired by Petra Cortright, I wanted to try to create digital art which is relevant to the message I'm trying to communicate and visually pleasing. I have found I like creating a busy canvas and using a blur/smudge brush create textural based works. 

WEEK FIVE

In todays lesson we focused on colour grading, spotting and retouching images and creating panoramic images. 

To colour grade this photo we were shown how to use levels adjustment layer using specifically the RGB layers, I cant quite remember but I believe we took the blue flowers and made them an off white.

These two panoramic images were created using photoshops panoramic feature. In camera raw we batch edited the photographs so they has the same adjustment qualities then selecting them all merged them together using photoshops panoramic feature.

Unfortunately, Shirley has a lazy eye, luckily enough for her, we can fix this for her through photoshop.  We selected her right eye, duplicated it, transformed and flipped it to mirror her right eye and then through using blending brushes and healing brush tool we were able to convincingly blend her skin tones together.  

For this image, we were shown basic ways to beauty touch a portrait of someone. Using the dodge and burn tool and the spot healing brush tool to reduce the bags under her eyes and decreasing the intensity of her wrinkles around her face. We were also introduced to using the liquify filter which allowed us to make adjustments such as increasing the size of her eyes and reducing the size of her nose. 

ARTIST RESEARCH / CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

Kerry Ann Lee 

Kerry Ann Lee's art explores cultural intersections occurring in the space between private moments and public locations. With a background in graphic arts, she creates work that is both expressive and socially engaged by playfully investigating issues of identity and hybrid cultural formations through hand-made processes. 

http://www.whitespace.co.nz/artists/kerry-ann-lee.aspx 

I like the way lee has convincingly created a false environment using a combination of photography, image sourcing and illustration. Through the use of perspective, shadowing and scale Lee has created a unrecognisable scenario yet familiar  

Stuart Lipponcott

 Visual effects artist and animator Stuart Lippincott creates breathtaking ethereal scenarios in his ongoing “Everyday” series.

Petra Cortright

Shifting between the digital and the physical worlds, she interrogates definitions of painting and nags the boundaries of online/offline existence. Cortright creates her paintings from Internet-sourced imagery, which she digitally manipulates. Lifted from Google Images and Pinterest, colours, patterns, and skin tones are broken down and reintegrated to become the digital ‘paint’ from which Cortright builds slowly-morphing, fluid abstractions, consisting of hundreds of painterly layers and effects.

http://citygallery.org.nz/exhibitions/petra-cortright-running-neo-geo-games-under-mame/

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT 

For my investigation I am looking into the contemporary concern around social media, especially the rise of Instagram, and how this is changing the way we interact socially the world around us. Due to the fact that most people have access to a smart phone (which is basically a networking multimedia device with internet access at all times) everyone is a photographer now and choose snippets of their life to share with the rest of the world, in other worlds constructing their own virtual reality through social media.

With the rise of social media, ordinary people who have done exceptionally well at constructing their own personal life through Instagram have gained popularity, fame, recognition, opportunities and in some cases wealth. These people who now are social media famous, have a large audience and lots of influence on these people, especially the easily influenced minds of the youth that use Instagram, Where as when I was growing up people who influenced me were famous sports people and celebrities in movies etc.

More specifically I would like to make a comment on how 'Instagram famous' people have a large influence on a younger generation and they often promote many things a traditional celebrity would not.

WEEK FOUR

In class we were taught how to use the image scanner and flatbed and the basics of using the studio lighting for best results when intending to cut out the object photographed from the original image.

The goal of this exercise was to re-create an image Maddie and I had selected from a book using one online image from creative commons, an image shot in the studio and an image scanned in from a magazine. To create our image above we started by scanning in an image of a surfer, we wanted to select the wake of his surf board as we thought it was similar to the red brush stroke. to do this we simply used the magic wand tool with a low tolerance to try leave re-create the roughness of brush stroke. We then went to the studio where a I took a photo of Maddie holding her lipstick in a similar fashion to the person hold the paint brush, we turned the contrast down to make her skin tone darker and by using a blending layer made the tip of her lipstick blue. As for the image of the lightening we chose this as it was similar to the original image in shape and composition, we also changed the image to black and white

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WEEK THREE

In class today we continued playing with image layering focusing on clipping paths, grouping, using the dodge and burn tool, effective/efficient selecting and using layer masks.

To create this image, we first took the scenic bush picture and changed the white balance and made other small adjustments. We then added in a lens flare through a filter on a seperate layer and then by using a blend mode made the two layers visible. We then opened a new iamge and put some text overtop mine for example was 'slippery' we then created a layer mask around the text and cut out the remainder of the image. I also added a drop shadow and transformed my text using distort to communicate my word better.

This image was used to teach us how to use the dodge and burn tool effectively. To do so create a seperate layer filled with grey with the overlay blending mode selected. Then select your brush with an opacity of 5%, by using black and white you will be able to make darker colours brighter and brighter colours darker as seen here in this image. (uncompleted)

Simply to show different types of selections and masks.

To create the final image we first started with an image of the statue, to select him from the original image we used a combination of the colour range selector tool and polygonal lasso tool, once cut free with dragged him over to a new image and tried to place him realistically (to a point) using the free transform tool. The bottom and final image was created by duplicating the layer of the running man and playing with the colour range layer tool.