Digital Collage |
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Title: Anyway,
Size: 60.96 cm x 91.44 cm (2ft x 3 ft) Medium: Digital manipulation Date: April 2018 Anyway, expresses the way people would rather talk 'at' one another than talk 'to' each other; it expresses narcissism and the inability to truly relate with one another. Using inspiration from the Swedish surrealist photographer, Erik Johansson, "Anyway," creates an outlandish image through the use of over-sized mouths in the center of the figures faces.
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Critical Investigation Research:
Man vs. Fist, Order Print
I chose Erik Johansson to be my inspiration for the digital collage. Erik Johansson is a Swedish photographer who manipulates his photographs to take place in surreal worlds and environments. Most of his art includes over-sized objects with tiny humans and are usually asymmetrical; having the object of interest in the corner and the manipulation takes up most of the image. His photographs are very detailed, intricate and take a long time to create. Johansson only produces about 6 or 8 images a year.
Inspiration:
Face vs. Fist Detail
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When I created the planning sketch, I was not inspired by any style specifically aside from surrealism because of the facial distortion, but I looked for an inspired style for how I will make the piece while photo-shopping. I found an image by Erik Johansson called Face vs. Fist and decided that would be my inspiration for my Digital Collage. When I was taking pictures to use for manipulation, I would take close up pictures of lips to edit over the layer with the face. Inspired by Johansson's realistic look, I blended the skin color of both the layer with the lips and the layer of the face as detailed as I could, constantly extracting the correct color in the location my brush was over to match the rest of the face in order for it to look authentic.
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I was hoping my Photoshop piece would look realistic as if someone had just taken a picture, rather than photo shopped the image. Johansson's photos feel as if you were there in the photograph which inspired me to make an artwork that was relatable artistically and metaphorically.
Tom. "18 Brilliant Photo Manipulations by Erik Johansson". boredpanda.com. https://www.boredpanda.com/creative-photo-manipulations-erik-johansson/(accessed April 13th, 2018)
Johansson, Erik. "Order Print". boredpanda, Tom, boredpanda. 2013, https://www.boredpanda.com/creative-photo-manipulations-erik-johansson/
http://www.erikjohanssonphoto.com/(accessed April 13th, 2018)
petapixel.com. https://petapixel.com/2015/07/29/this-is-how-photoshop-artist-erik-johansson-creates-his-mind-bending-images/ (accessed April 13th, 2018)
https://www.awwwards.com/the-fascinating-and-surreal-images-of-erik-johansson.html
Johansson, Erik. "Order Print". boredpanda, Tom, boredpanda. 2013, https://www.boredpanda.com/creative-photo-manipulations-erik-johansson/
http://www.erikjohanssonphoto.com/(accessed April 13th, 2018)
petapixel.com. https://petapixel.com/2015/07/29/this-is-how-photoshop-artist-erik-johansson-creates-his-mind-bending-images/ (accessed April 13th, 2018)
https://www.awwwards.com/the-fascinating-and-surreal-images-of-erik-johansson.html
Planning:
Planning Sketches: The first idea I had for the Digital collage was to create a scene with people up in the clouds watching over a boy as he goes through life. I wanted the people in the clouds to be his passes away family members with angel wings.
My second idea was to have an area or a backyard with a tree in the middle but surrounded with people of different eras and time periods all while that tree is in the same spot all through out time. I thought of scanning in old clothes from back then from books I have and then taking pictures of people in different positions to be around the tree in, making the older people more transparent than the people from modern day.
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My third idea came from a sketch I had done before but I re-drew it adding more people into the picture. This idea has people who do not have eyes or ears or noses, but just giant lips in the middle of their face symbolizing how they are so consumed with themselves they have no need to hear or look at others. I thought adding more people would enhance the emphasis of how many people are like this and how they are talking "at" each other when they should be talking to each other.
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To start off, I chose to work on the program called Firealpaca, which is a free painting software that is downloadable on the computer. The reason I chose this program was because it has the same components as Photoshop and my sister knows how to use it and taught me how to manipulate the tools.
Process:
My phone does not take the best of pictures because of it's age, so I borrowed a Motorola Z2 with a Hasselblad True Zoom attachment for better pictures. I took pictures of my sister to be the people in my collage with just a mouth. We set up an area in our house with lighting coming from the top right and took several pictures.
This was my first time using FireAlpaca, so I needed help from my sister. When I created the document, I set the width to 24 inches, not in pixels, and the height to 36 inches.
First, I opened up a picture after adding a transparent background and accidentally created a whole new document without realizing it, so I figured out a way to open up a picture as a new layer instead of a new document. After that, I began to erase the background of the picture of the first layer except for the outline of her. In order to make the giant lips on her face, I took close up pictures of her lips in order for the quality to be better instead of zooming in on the camera or expanding the image. Adding a new layer for the lips so I wouldn't erase over the first image, I began to carefully erase around the lips making sure to leave some of the upper lip and chin in to blend with the layer with the face below it. When I was done doing that, I dragged the image of the lips over her face and lowering the opacity of the lip so I can see beneath the image, staying on the layer of the big lips, I erased around the outline along the cheek to fit the same outline as the layer underneath. I did this process for the other two people, but I did not include a fourth person because there wasn't enough room and I didn't want most of the space in the digital collage to be negative since I was planning for the background to be black hopefully to imply an empty, agitated and hopeless feeling. In order to blend in the mouth with the layer of the the face beneath it, I right-clicked on the skin nearest to the edge of the layer to capture the color and using a watercolor option for the texture of the stroke, I dabbed along the outline of the mouth layer and face layer. After doing so and capturing multiple colors where there was a shadow on the face for example by the upper lip, I used a blurring brush to make the texture smooth rather than circled. I did so to make the face look as natural and realistic as the face in "Face vs Fist" in Erik Johansson's work. Now, the faces were complete, but I didn't want them to all look the same, I wanted to express how a lot of people act this way. If I kept them looking the same, I could have symbolized how all people who talk 'at' each other end up acting the same, but I decided to change how they looked. I attempted scanning in pictures from magazines of hair I could use over the people, but the hair turned out to be to blurry so I gave up on the idea. I also tried to change the hair color by selecting it but I could not change the hue. Instead of scanning in hair or coloring it, I drew hair using the watercolor brush. I even altered the skin colors of the person on the left and the middle girl. To do so, I created another layer over the each person I changed and changing the brush opacity to a low percentage, I brushed over the person so the skin appeared a bit darker, I erased the brush strokes in places where there was no skin, and after I finished, I combined the layers together so they were one. |
Reflection:
This project really helped me grasp the concepts of digital art. I do not usually create digital art, but when I do it's on Microsoft Paint which has no layers or as many tools and options that programs like FireAlpaca and Photoshop include. Microsoft Paint is more like an actual canvas where the background comes first and everything in the foreground and the details of the work comes after. But with FireAlpaca, you can manipulate and separate different parts of the art. I really enjoyed photo-shopping for this Digital Collage. Some parts of it were easier than I thought and other parts I found difficult. At times, I would lose my patience when trying to figure out how to change a color or how to make something look smooth or textured. I prefer traditional elements of art over digital.
ACT Questions:
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
Erik Johansson's artwork is detailed and realistic which is shown through the unity of the lips on the face.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author approach to my inspiration
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While I was reading about my inspiration and looking at the artwork, I generalized the items and objects in Erik Johansson's art that he decided to focus on were personal or reminded people of memories or fantasy.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The theme is a surreal world or environment; surrealism
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
While reading my research for my inspiration, Erik Johansson, I made inferences about the landscapes he decided to use for his artwork and the assumed the value they had.
Erik Johansson's artwork is detailed and realistic which is shown through the unity of the lips on the face.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author approach to my inspiration
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While I was reading about my inspiration and looking at the artwork, I generalized the items and objects in Erik Johansson's art that he decided to focus on were personal or reminded people of memories or fantasy.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The theme is a surreal world or environment; surrealism
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
While reading my research for my inspiration, Erik Johansson, I made inferences about the landscapes he decided to use for his artwork and the assumed the value they had.