Week 6

ASSIGNMENT
Mashing up our own pictures to convey a message to viewers

CRAFT
Gather a bunch of pictures and use Photoshop to make them funky (i.e. shrink people, put giant heads on little bodies, etc) and mash them all into one big deal.


COMPOSITION
So I'm mashing about seven or eight pictures together, all of them being things and people that mean a lot to me. The main focus of the piece is going to be me, sort of looking off into space. All of the other pictures are going to be "floating" around me as my "thoughts." Why? Because these are the things/people that are important to me and that I'm constantly thinking about. The piece will have no specific order. It will just be my "thoughts" floating around.


CONCEPT
The idea that I'm trying to get across is my love for all of these objects in the piece. I want the picture of myself to be the most noticeable because the main idea of the piece is to show MY personal thoughts. I want the viewer to think to themselves "she is the focal point of the piece, so these objects outlining her must have something to do with her and her life."

Week 5

Assignment

Mash up two pictures that you have photographed yourself. Try and communicate something specific to other people using visual art (i.e. the photos).

Craft

Pick up a camera, point at a subject, and click! Well, in this case, point at 25 subjects (no, not all at the same time), and then click.

Concept

I'm not sure exactly what pictures I'm going to be mashing at this time, but once I do figure that out, I'll have a five-star (that's right, FIVE-STAR) concept. I have absolutely no idea of what I even want to do at this point as far as a concept goes. But it's okay because I'll eventually get there!

Composition

Even though I'm not exactly sure what picture I'm going to use, I'm most likely going to mesh up pictures of people and things that are close to me, seeing that most of the pictures I took for this project are pictures of people and things that are close to me. The only problem with this is that I will have to find a way to show that these things are the things that I care about. This is my missing piece. Posted with this blog are some of the pictures that might be used. From top to bottom, the descriptions are as follows: one of my nephews holding Spongebob; my older sister picking her teeth after a delightful lunch at Weber Grill; COLDSTONE!; my music awards; my bestest friend in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD; another one of my nephews laying on the floor; my mom and dad holding hands and looking both ways before crossing the street. Got any suggestions???

Week 4

Craft

The craft of my final print came out very nicely. There were no funky white edges or weird shadows anywhere. Abe's head was sized and rotated to perfection over the original head. His glasses (which weren't originally his, of course) gave him a very intelligent look. The original pictures on the banners hanging on the museum were replaced with photographs of Lincoln, and they were sized and fit perfectly. The only thing that was suggested that I should change in my piece was the brightness of Lincoln's head in comparison to the rest of the piece. It was quite bright compared to all the other elements in the picture (not intentionally), so I lowered the brightness and contrast on his head, and raised the brightness and contrast on my sister's body and the background. Now, everything flows better, and Lincoln's head doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.

Composition/Concept

I chose to mesh these series of pictures because as I've stated in previous blogs, Lincoln is a major figure in American history, and I thought that it would be pretty awesome for him to visit a museum and see the impact he has made on America. Also, it's a museum in Illinois, Lincoln's home state. What better place to have Lincoln see his own history than in his home state? The title of my piece is "Studious." I came up with this title in our second critique. Prof. Peck inspired it. As he began to "state the obvious" in my piece, he said "So we see Lincoln visiting a museum to see himself. How very studious of him." I thought it was pretty funny when he said it, and I became attached to the word and decided to use it as my title. It fit in really well with the backpack and glasses Lincoln happened to be wearing.

Week 3

Craft
I changed the pictures that I was originally going to use, but I'll get to that once I begin to talk about my concept. I chose these three pictures because my sister (the girl in the photo) was at SUCH a perfect position for Abraham Lincoln's head to be placed over hers. So hey, why not stick his head on a body with a polyester jacket? That's not something you see everyday! The background is there to just give extra insight into the concept of the pictures.

Composition

Who knew that you couuld change a photograph so drastically by using just a simple computer program? It's amazing! I cut Lincoln's head off of his body and placed it on my sister's. Then I cut my sister out of the picture that she was in (the background was so... Blah) and placed her on a picture of the Field Museum (which just so happened to be where we were when I took the photograph of her). My sister wears glasses so I decided to put them on Abe's face. It turned out to be pretty cool! Hanging on the front of the museum are two banners; one with a photo of a dinosaur and another with a photo of a mummy. I plan on replacing both of those with photographs of Abe.

Concept

I originally didn't have a solid concept when I began the meshing of the photographs. I was hoping it would come to me as I went along. I didn't get a solid concept until the day of the critiques. I got a few really good ideas from different people. Ultimately, I ended up with this. Museums are full of history. Abraham Lincoln is an important figure in American history. What In this photo, I have Lincoln going to the museum to see himself. What would Lincoln think of himself after going to the museum to look at his own history?