Blog 5

My most significant accomplishment in this class was figuring out how to use the pen tool and how to make my own brush on my own for my final project.  I utilized online tutorials and just played around on Photoshop to achieve the effect that I really wanted.  A picture of my final project follows.  I used the pen tool for most of the curved lines in the image and I used my own brush to create the filmstrip.

The most challenging thing for me in Photoshop (at least initially) was the skill of using layer masks.  I experimented on the first day we learned the technique and achieved the following effect:

It looks decent but not very convincing.  The blending looks poor and the windows do not look crisp.  Also, you can still see some of the edges of the house.  For my midterm project, I really wanted to improve my layer masking abilities.  I wanted to replace the sky with a wormhole/clock.  I put the picture in the background and utilized masking layers to achieve the desired effect.  I was much happier with the end result that time.  The sky looked realistic and the edges were crisp (but not too crisp!) in addition to blending well with the colors of the original photograph.  An image of my midterm is below--it is probably too small to really see the details, but you get the general idea.

I also developed my meaning-making abilities throughout the quarter.  A good example of this can be seen by comparing my second quiz with my final project.  For the second quiz, I more or less just created a beach scene with no further meaning behind it.  On the other hand, almost everything I did for the final had some kind of idea behind it that I was trying to convey or at least leave open to interpretation.  Making meaning is not hard; it just takes a deliberate thought process.  Throughout the quarter I realized that the cognitive process required to make meaning out of artwork was something that I already possessed--I just further developed the skill of tapping into my mind and thinking about how to depict an idea that I wanted to show in my work.  Below are pictures of my second quiz and final for comparison. It is easy to tell that my final has a much deeper meaning than my second quiz.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Photoshop class.  I learned some cool techniques that I can take with me for later use both on a personal and a professional level (I already created a Photoshop document for my marketing class!).  Also, I further developed my interpretation and meaning-making skills throughout the quarter.  I will continue to explore and enjoy Photoshop long after this quarter is over!