Comic Book Essay

This comic book is basically a montage of all my images from Unit 2, all compiled into a comic book. I have my Past and Future images on the left, my Value picture spanning the third of the page, and my Space image on the bottom left corner.

To make the starbursts, I used the polygonal lasso tool the best I could. I then added text to the starbursts using a nice comic-book style font. The background was made using a Photoshop grass brush and giving it a red-orange color. For the title colors, however, I used a gradient.

Comic Book Assignment

Shape Essay

For this assignment, we made two self-portraits from the same original picture. One image was to be an "ancient" version and the other was to be a "futuristic" version of ourselves. My first image is of myself in a 1960s setting, complete with hippie outfit and hair. Standing next to a hippie van decorated with psychedelic colors and designs, I sport a thick mustache along with a Led Zeppelin-type hairstyle. Instead of keeping the blue sweater I had on, I created a layer mask of a Sergeant Pepper's uniform and fitted it over my body, rotating it at the proper angle to fit my body perfectly. For the hair, I used a grasslike brush and increased the thickness to make it more frizzy and volumized. The mustache and beard were created the same way, except with lower brush thickness and with a grayish tinge to it rather than a full black hue. For further effect, I made a layer mask of a flower necklace and applied that to the main image.

The futuristic version is basically a mutated alien version of myself; I used several random techniques to achieve this effect. I first got a techno background that I made duplicates of and flipped horizontally and vertically to make it more interesting. I then used the Liquefy tool to mutate the eyes, nose, and mouth. After adding some features with brushes here and there, I added a Charcoal effect from the Filter tab, which made the image more grainy and of a black-and-white texture. I finished up by creating a layer mask of an antennae and applying it to the main image. Looking back at the finished image, I don't like the Charcoal effect much, but can't figure out a way to remove it.

Value Range

Past and Future Assignment

Past Self-Portrait

 Future Self-Portrait

What I Learned - ARTS 1311

To say that I learned a lot more about the fundamentals and principals of computer design than I expected in these four weeks would be a major understatement. We started off with some drawing and line techniques, then moved on to creating virtual space and experimenting with brushes. I found the virtual space very interesting, as  I could bring in objects from various images and combine them into one. It created different illusions in terms of depth and space. Using the dodge and burn tools effectively was key to creating a realistic image. Practicing with shadows was also important. I learned that artists can distort the lines in an image to place emphasis on certain areas of the image. By changing the foreground and background, one can focus the viewer’s attention to certain parts of the image. Brushes are another useful tool; they add fill, texture, and color. Brusheezy.com is an excellent website for downloading different brushes and stamps; they really add a unique aspect to the image. I found one that stamped faces of classic rock stars. The only limit is one's creativity.

This painting is composed only of single lines.

 This is a great example of using lines in an image to create texture. The painting is by Picasso.

An example of a virtual space image.

Arts 1311 - Line and Brushes

A variation of the previous image.