Presentation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xr46TzoCvqBCXJ9c5yhGFfV0g2Y_edbldJqi3dP7p7A/edit?usp=sharing

No touchy!

Pixel Explosion Effect in Photoshop

This video teaches how to make a pixelated explosion effect in Photoshop. In the process, it gives information about using masks to show pieces of an image, using shadow effects, and a type of brush that paints in unusual ways. With all these features together it created the effect, so it feels like instead it gave me a better understanding of multiple options.

The creator of this video did a great job of teaching how to incorporate the effect into artwork, but since this specific effect can be used in so many different ways that weren't explored, I think that reading or watching a tutorial about what one can do with brushes would give a lot more valuable information.

I personally don't see myself using this effect very much in the future, but it would be great for an album cover because it's alluring and surreal.

Masks & Blending Modes Used

Title: Combines;Gate

The image that you see above includes a Professor of Physics at the University of Nottingham, Philip Moriarty. I placed an image of him in front of a lovely Green Tea background and a metal gate, then I used a mask to hide Moriarty's real background to show the tea background & selected the Multiply blending mode on the tea background in order to faintly show the metal gate.

I call this Combines;Gate because it merges a gate with tea, and there's a great time-travel anime called Steins;Gate.

Pixel Portrait

Wilson Joseph Pixel Portrait GIF

Wilson Joseph Pixel Portrait PNG

Format-Comparison


I don't notice a difference when enlarging and comparing the GIF and PNG image formats. The only difference that I learned about them is that PNG can carry many, many more combinations of colours than GIF, and therefore frequently has to encode the information into a slightly less compressed format.



Features

When making this image, I was trying to emphasize the curving of my hair. I did this by making boomerang type lines, where the lines are thicker in the middle and fade out on either end. I was trying to make myself look formal and proper, so I darkened or lightened lines that head in the same direction to make it seem orderly. Another addition to formality was my use of grayer colours, such as bronze, light-silver/beige, and dirty-blue. I recently learned that gray is a neutral colour, and thought that it would be a good fit for coming across as solemn.


Procedure

I made this through Photoshop CS5, as a 100x150 px image with RGB colour and 72 dpi. I first took a reference image, shrunk it, and put it on the bottom layer, then I put an adjustment layer over it to lower the opacity of the reference to be able to differentiate between the original and the new. Then I had another copy of the reference of to the side in order to copy the original colours. The rest was making new layers for different parts of the image, putting down main colours, and shading what needs to be shaded.

Chinese WaterColour Painting

Flower & Bird Painting

Flower & Bird painting reference

 Flower and Bird painting style was introduced in the Tang Dynasty around the 9th century. They frequently include branches, flowers, birds, fish, insects, cats, and really focus on natural scenes. The brushes used to make these paintings are similar to the brushes used for calligraphy, as they both have a fine tip and a broad back for brushes. Additionally, empty space is often used in these paintings to create balance, and many curved or faded lines are used for plant life. The background of the art is traditionally a steel-brown colour by virtue of the style over-using the colour.










Four Seasons Painting

Four Seasons painting reference

The four seasons paintings, sometimes called "four gentlemen" are represented by four plants: Plum Blossom for winter, orchid for spring, bamboo for summer and chrysanthemum for autumn. Each plant combined with their season represent another meaning. Many of these artworks instead use one type of plant and have it shown in all four seasons, or sometimes include underlying colours that are widely used in each season.

Garden photos to grayscale/black and white/BW+1

Recently I've been discovering PhotoShop (CS6) further and more precisely, the grayscale conversion techniques. Each approach offers distinctive differences even though they all convert in to grayscale. Here's what I found:

 For this particular image, I used the red, green, and blue channels to pick one channel to use, then I edited it slightly more with the channel mixer adjusting the red green and blue source channels.
I suspect that this photo looks second best of the three. It seems slightly too dark in the background to like very much. I realize now that it needs a green tone down for an ideal image.

This photo is definitely my least favourite of the bunch. I resulted in this by usage of the black and white button that gives you the channel mixer to adjust. However this channel mixer is different then the one mentioned previously. This channel mixer gives the user the option to adjust reds, yellows, greens, blues, cyans, and magentas!
Despite all these options, it still looks awful unless you're going for a garbage look. I dislike how the flower looks burned and crisp like it was baking at 5130 degrees.

Very ironically this is the photo I prefer although I used the grayscale converter located in image/mode. This choice gives you no say in what comes out the other end. After one presses the button then photoshop will poop out what ever. I admire the appearance because of the range of black and whites. The last two have been too light or too dark, this one is similar to a combination of the previous.

This is the black and white + one colour photo. The photo that is basically the best looking back and white/ grayscale combination with one other colour. I removed the black and white layer partly to get the flower's colour out, I also used a filter to get the yellow much brighter and vibrant. I believe this works well because the flower is to the side a bit thus it's not too boring in the middle. That is all.















Thus photoshop has many choices for grayscale and how you get it, use whatever feels best.

Realistic chess piece drawing

This drawing was created to capture realism, movement, rhythm, and contrast.

Compared to the realistic drawings that you can see any time on google images, this one is not too special. I do believe that people will understand that this is a chess piece especially with the chess board helping out there. However I do not think that people will understand that there is a sword under the piece because it's pretty arbatrarry.

The movement aspect of this drawing is created because the tilt on the chess piece that makes it seem that the piece is going to fall, or being lifted from the board. Since the chess piece is the vocal point on this image, the eye will move down/right following the sword and then see the cartoon holding up the realistic drawing and examine the other cartoons.

In the rhythm category, I believe it's lacking, because other than the alternating black and white rectangles, I can't see any pattern that relates to rhythm.

Contrast is something that I think is very well because I was drawing what I saw instead of what I think is there. The shading started with the chess piece then I used relatively the same area of shading for everything around it, then I put in the darkest darks I could get and worked my way downward. When I was taking the picture, I made sure to use enough lighting so it could be seen well, and not too much so that it wouldn't cause glare.