Glaze

So in class we were supposed to play with another app we haven't used yet. I played with an app called "glaze" and used some of my previous photos and art pieces. :D

Autumn, photo edited on Ipad in Glaze app.

Needle Teeth, photo edited on Ipad in Glaze app.

Midnight Fog, photo edited on Ipad in Glaze app.

Bone and Leather, photo edited on Ipad in Glaze app.

Clawed Touch, photo edited on Ipad in Glaze app.

The Sketching Hand, photo edited on Ipad in Glaze app.

Nurture, photo edited on Ipad in Glaze app.

Magnetic Storm, photo edited on Ipad in Glaze app.

 

Bat out of Hell

This was a photo manipulation done in Photoshop! This piece wasn't really going for realism, but perhaps more of a graphic novel type feel. We were required to feature ourselves inside this piece, so of course I featured myself with bats! After finding a scenic photo of a volcano, I looked up several photos of bat colonies which I knew I wanted to have coming from the mouth of the volcano, billowing out similar to how smoke would. The bats in the foreground had their contrast set up higher which made them look more volcanic, perfect for creatures that live in the depths of a volcano. While my figure with my arms stretched out, appears to be “summoning” them. The title Bat out of Hell seemed perfect for this piece.

                This is an asymmetrical piece which focal point lies on the mouth of the volcano, due to the bright orange color amongst the more de-saturated colors. It has aerial sense of space and proportion as the bats grow larger and become more refined the closer they come from the background to the foreground. In turn, this created movement, as your eyes can follow the bats from where they erupt, to where they ‘fly’ toward the summoning figure. The grainy texture of the background takes away from any realism but I think added to the overall feel of the piece.

                I like this piece alright, though with more time I think I could improve on it!

Bat out of Hell, photos used and manipulated in Photoshop.

Flowers growing in my Shadow

Imprint in Nature, photos taken with the app 100FX on an Ipad

Looming Nature, photos taken with the app 100FX on an Ipad

Grouping Cells, photos taken with the app 100FX on an Ipad.

Alice in Wonderland, photos taken with the app 100FX on an Ipad.

Cemented Over, photos taken with the app 100FX on an Ipad.

The Gardener, photos taken with the app 100FX on an Ipad.

Flower Petals, photos taken with the app 100FX on an Ipad.

I'll be writing about the piece Flower Petals seen above, as it was my favorite out of the experiments we did! As its caption says, I made this piece using the 100FX app on the Ipad, and used one of its many filters to create the effect. While we were out and about taking photos, I really liked how prominently my shadow was casting over this garden on the TCC campus, so I proceeded to snap his shot and play with it!

While Flower Petals has no particular meaning, I think it could be seen in several ways. The color Yellow is generally associated with sunshine, warmth, cheerfulness and energy. I think this piece certainly has a warm feeling to it because of the color, but the values and shapes can bring a more ominous energy to it. The center figure certainly seems to be the focal point as it draws the most attention with its darker value amongst such brighter colors and shades. I think it could potentially symbolize the cycle of life and death, if you were to see the figure as someone who has perished, but in turn flowers have begun to grow inside the imprint they left behind. Or alternatively, it could show humans imprint on nature, as the browning edges could make the flowers appear to as if they’re becoming singed and burnt away—while the cloud on the left-hand side resembles embers and ash scattering to the wind. 

I rather liked this piece, my only issue is the watermark, which I eventually plan to edit out.

Glitch

Nothing that was needed for class here, but in light of October creeping closer I decided to do something creepy while playing in Photoshop!  Looks a bit cheesy like the old Goosebumps series, but that's okay! I basically warped and manipulated each photo, before animating it through the website Iaza.com.

If I were to write about this one for class however, I'd say the focal point is likely drawn to the dimly-lit background, which makes the darker values and shapes pop more. However, on the final frame there is an emphases on the shadowed figure, which has moved closer to the camera. There is (obviously) movement to it, as it is an animated gif. I think visual blur and choppy movement to the frames makes it have a more unsettling, unnatural feel.

Glitch, photos taken with phone, edited in Photoshop.

First Snow.

This was mostly just me playing with the adjustments and filters in Photoshop! This is my dog Sebastian when he was a puppy, experiencing his first snow which is a rare occurrence in our part of Texas.

First Snow, photograph edited in Photoshop.

First Snow Graphite, photograph edited in Photoshop.

Coffee and Snow, photograph edited in Photoshop.

Bright Eyes, photograph edited in Photoshop.

 

First Snow Grunge, photograph edited in Photoshop.

Woven Together, photograph edited in Photoshop. 

For this piece I retrieved an older photo of my dog from Photobucket, before taking it into Photoshop to play with. After making several different adjustments and filters of the same photo, I saved each one to ultimately use on a separate, singular piece. After laying down the original photo as a base, I began to cut out vertical and horizontal rectangles from each of the edited pieces, before aligning them on top of the original base. All of the layers besides the base had its opacity lowered for a softer effect, while the ‘top’ rectangular strips were given a dropped shadow, giving them the illusion that they were overlapping the other strips.  In fact, the title, Woven Together was named as the over lapping plaid-like pattern made the image appear to be woven together to make a singular image.

I think the focal point lies within the center circular shape, where your eyes are automatically drawn to the left-hand eye on the photo due to its more sharp lines and bright contrast. While this piece is asymmetrical, it has a sense of unity due to the shapes coming together and meeting at the circular opening, which brings focus to my dogs face. With that it has a variety of textures due to the different filters and adjustments making the fur appear to have a different feel. For example, one patch might look soft and cottony while the other looks more rough and grainy. Because of the reoccurring use of horizontal and geometric shapes it has in a semi-organized way, I think it has a sense of repetition. It also has a use of harmonic gray-tones, which I like as it makes me think of snow.

While I initially thought this piece might be a little jumbled, no one else seemed to think so and the piece is still recognizable as a dog, so that’s good!

Assassin

     This was my Dada-like piece that we made during class! No real meaning, I just made it while playing around. We started out by taking photos of ourselves using our Ipads, and then brought them into photoshop for editing. I will say the cartoon-ish outline around the face was inspired by the grungy look in the video game Borderlands! Actually, the shirt I was wearing at the time, which said "Assassin" is a type of character class you could play in the game, hence where the wording came from. My friend said it looks like some kind of strange subliminal propaganda poster.

     While there is some symmetry in the background of this piece, due to the foreground layout I think it would still be considered asymmetrical. There is a use of both geometric and organic shapes within this piece; the rectangular cut-outs of the face were actually inspired by the artist Pablo Picasso. I believe the focal point is where the wording ‘Assassin’ is due to its bright contrast and the fact it does not reoccur on any other part of the piece which seems to emphasize it. Also because of the more vertical shapes including the drip pattern, I believe it draws your eyes to scan the image up and down. It has repetition as the cut-outs and mirrored pictures are from the same photo, only they have been slightly altered or cut out from different areas before being placed onto the piece.

     Again, this is another fairly simple piece but I like it as it is.

Assassin, photos taken with an Ipad and edited in Photoshop.

Da·da

ˈdädä/

noun

noun: Dada

1. an early-20th-century international movement in art, literature, music, and film, repudiating and mocking artistic and social conventions and emphasizing the illogical and absurd.