DMF Book project

1. There are several skills that were very useful for me in creating this project. I found the Free Transform tool very helpful, because it allowed me to warp the body of my text and make it fit snugly. I also found the color levels to be helpful. I enjoyed using this tool and altering the shades of my photos, allowing me to make them unique and more striking.
2. I think that my choice to try and use my own photos best served me. Originally I had wanted to created a children's book. But when I realized that my schedule was not going to allow me to complete one, I resorted to flipping through my facebook photo library for ideas. While searching, I realized that I had multiple pictures of shoes. So, I am glad that I made the choice to compile photos and quotes about shoes, because it was fun and challenging.
3. I learned that production schedule can dictate what you produce. As I mentioned before, I would have LOVED to make a children's book, but I was way too busy. Having a deadline helped me work with what I had and try to make something fresh and unique with it. Overall, it was a very fun project.

DMF Poster assignment

1. The themes that I chose for this poster cam mostly from a variety of things I have seen recently in mass media; television, internet, etc. I decided that I wanted to try using text, as was suggested, as part of the overall image. In this poster the text is meant to suggest a kind of frenzy, but also a very imaginitive theme. I chose snow white because I recently saw a trailer for a new remake of the original movie. It was on my mind, so I decided to try and convert my thoughts into digital media.
2. For this project I really used the layers tool a lot more than I have before. I used it for every element of the poster. And I found myself doing things that had previously stumped me! For example, the two central panels of text were not solid at first, but then I began shuffling my layers around until I liked what I saw.
3. I used free transform and cloning to really warp this iconic image of a Disney princess. I felt like this would really catch people's attention. You see, in our minds snow white is perfect, innocent, virtuous. But I didn't want to put a stereotypical image of her on my poster. Otherwise it would be just like all of the others we typically see. I copied the image of her face and made it point in all different directions. I chose that image of her head in particular because she is not smiling and looks more nondescript and shocked than anything. I also used the outline of an apple instead of the traditional red apple with a bite missing. I wanted to imply things here, and not allow the audience to assume that she has or that she will do what they have been told (i.e, taking a bite). I also used text to show more of a modern, almost comic-book style image.

DMF Assignment Week #6 Portrature

Okay, I did not realize until a minute ago when I saved these images as JPEGs on my computer that somehow I mis-saved these ones like I did on week 4's photos. AH!!! Note to self, STOP DOING THAT! Well, I am sorry that there has been this mistake. For some reason they don't show up like this on school computers. Warren, if you are reading this, PLEASE help. Or make a helpful comment!

Anyways, this week's assignment was to take three pictures of someone with a story to tell and change them in Photoshop. Inspiration for this project came from a global movement of artists called INSIDEOUTPROJECT. During this lab the HUE/SATURATION and CURVES tools were emphasized. I used both tools on all three pieces.

1. I was excited when I learned about this global project. It introduced new ideas that I had never thought of and made me feel motivated to participate in something so creative, so public, so inspirational, and so darn easy and accessible. Now that I have completed this project, I am surprised at the simplicity of it. But at the same time, the simplicity is packed with layers of complexity; what is behind the expression? what is the story of this subject, or they also the artist? why does it mater to them? how extensive is there contribution? what message are they sending to the world with their photo?  The list goes on.
2. I am the subject for all three photos. I did it this way for the sake of time (thank you, midterms. I want my life back now, pleeeeeaaase.) At first I wanted to take pictures of different people. But I stil had a good experience working with my own pictures. I found myself increasingly conscious of how I was changing my appearance and how that appearance might be interpreted. I plan to use the same discression when editing other people's photos.
3. Can art change the world? Yes, it can. First, art is a very broad noun with countless meanings. But in the most general sense, art is a form of expression which portrays certain sentiments. Those sentiments, their message, be it benign or explicit, sad or joyful, pensieve or explosive, will reveal themselves to audiences in countless places. And the message of that artwork will speak, be it queitly or violently, to the audience. Sometimes words aren't enough. But if a picture is worth a thousand words, then I am certain that countless people will take something away from even the smallest image. So, yes. Art can change the world.

At last! I got the images from my school lab computer. Here they are!!

DMF Assignment Week #5 Photomontage

Last week's assignment was to combine four photos into one. I ended up doing five because I forgot it was only four! It is posted this week because I had a family emergency and had to miss my lab, which is where I usually complete these assignments.
When choosing pictures, I chose ones from my travels in high school. Obviously the finished product is very tampered. But the idea is that I began to play with new tools that help me to more effectively create and fabricate material. I really stretched my FREE TRANSFORM skills here as well as a new dimension to the tool; Perspective. This tool allowed me to warp the image I had selected and make it look even more realistic. Here is the finished product.
Enjoy. :)
p.s, that is an authentic swiss guard. Yes, he failed to arrest me for taking his picture.

1. The original images for this product are all selected from my personal photos, which I took when traveling in 2008 through Europe. The main picture is originally just me standing in front of stonehenge. Then, on one of the stones you may notice a transformed Easter Island head. That is from a picture I took of a statue in Germany, which was a replica of the originals. The swiss guard on the bottom left hand corner is from a picture I took on my trip to the Vatican City in Rome, Italy. The small version of myself in a chair is from a picture taken in Warwicke Castle, in England. And finally, the image of me on all fours making a very odd face is from a castle in Denmark. Originally I was kneeling on a marble floor beside a bronze statue of a lion, whose expression I am impersonating.
2. The most challenging part of this task was effectively arranging all the pieces. I think that if I had had more time than I would have created a more complex image. However, I am satisfied with the end product, though it is more humorous and exagerated than I anticipated.
3. The reality that I created with this image is that here, at a very iconic historical landmark, there are components that contest traditional expectations. Apparently you didn't know that there is a carving of an easter island head on one of the stonehenge stones? Well, there is! And now, thanks to me, you can see it. This image doesn't tell a sequential tale, but it is packed with implications. With the image of the guard, and me crouching on a rock, I wanted to create a feeling of mischief. Then, with me sitting in a chair making a very arrogant and mocking face, I wanted to give a feeling of spunk, and even rebellion to this piece. I wanted to push the boundaries of the picture as far as I could.

DMF Assignment, Week #4 Erasure

Hello to all!
This week in Digital Media Foundations we have been practicing erasing. That's right! The art of removing things from an image. It has been a very fun activity experimenting with the symbology and implications of the things removed from images. Unfortunately I had a harder time saving things this week. I have all my images, but they were not saved the way I want them to be. On the bright side, they still look interesting and almost odd.... But I hope you like them. It takes a lot more work than you might think. Enjoy!

DMF Assignment #3, Scratch Project

This week in DMF we have been working with Vector graphics and flat color. In these pieces I was working with a specific set of perameters; flat color, limited paletter, clear shapes. What I played with mostly on this assignment was underlying messages. I found that even with very geometric shapes and sharp colors, I can still create analytical pieces that are creative and constructive.
I hope you like them. :)

1. How are they different from working with continuous tones?
I found that these pieces were different becuase the flat color made everything much sharper. For example, the gradients are simpler and there is a lot less variation in color. Each piece has a distinct shade (and one background is gradient). Initially I thought that a limited palette would be, well, limiting! But I found that working within a distinctive palette made the graphics more striking. I discovered elements that might have otherwise been subtle, had I not stayed within those boundaries.
2. How did you choose which colors to work with?
I never had specific colors in mind. What I tried to do with each piece is to push myself by choosing a random color to start with and then maintaining that color as the hub of my palette. An example of this is my last piece, which says "Freedom has many shapes". The background is not a particularly attractive color. ( I referred to it earlier as vomit mustard.....). But when I started to envision my graphics, I chose the paler gold and black because I thought they looked complimentary. Now that I see my finished piece, I wouldn't change the colors. They have grown on me.
3. Did some color combinations work better than others?
Yes, several color combinations worked better than others. I found that after I chose an initial palette, that I had to be very selective about which colors I chose and where I applied them. One thing I found that helps with color combinations is brightness/contrast. I used this tool to manipulate the hues of these pieces, so that they would have a more unique and eye-catching effect.

Digital Media Foundations, Type Assignment

Hello friends,
this year I am taking courses for my Emerging Arts and Digital Media minor. For the next eight months I will be posting assignments on my blog. Most of them will be samples of the coursework covered that week, including brief reflective writings.
This first assignment was to experiment with type, or with a single letter and case. As you can see, I got a little creative. :)
Here are my five samples:

   2. What attracted you to one of the letters you chose? What things did you notice about the letter as a shape?
When choosing letters, what attracted me was the variation of fonts, not the individual letters. I picked the ones that I thought would give me the most flexibility, like bricks to build a church with. As you can see, several of my samples has subjects that have very definite characteristics. For example, the owl made out of O's. I couldn't have made the owl as easily if I had used an H. :)
3. Did you find working with layers easy and intuitive, or awkward at first? Where there any tricks that made working with layers easier?
At first I was pretty confused. I hadn't used photo shop in five or so years! After lots of mistakes and UGLY results, I discovered two tricks. The first trick is to make a layer for every single part of your canvas. For example, I made a layer for every row and every larger piece of the font so that they could be adjusted individually. The other trick I used, which helped me in adjusting and giving personality to my type, is the COMMAND T, or the FREE TRANSFORM action. This allowed me to manipulate my characters in a new and really exciting way! Check out my giant, tipsy T! The one that appears to be falling over. Also, when I did that piece, I was experimenting with kinetic motion, or implied motion.
 4. Were letters always the figures in your compositions, or were there some compositions where they seemed to form the ground for other parts of the composition?
Yes! I referred to this in my first response question as well. But in three of my five samples I created other shapes, using the letters as foundations. In one of them I used a lower case 'i' to create a lego-style samurai warrior! In another I used cursive O's to create an owl. And in the other I used lower case cursive f's to create my version of a kaleidoscope vortex, which reminded me of a dust devil.

A Trip to The Great White Ridge

This last weekend my husband and younger brother-in-law Erik went on a camping trip to the Marble Mountain wilderness of northern California. We began our trip early afternoon Friday from a place called Lover's camp. Our destination was a campground in the high country. The scenery was as rugged and unforgiving as it was beautiful. The ascent to our camp took half of a day and we were literally walking up hill the entire time. (Yeah, we're sore!!!). When we finally arrived at camp, the site of the marble mountains stole my breath away. Having been raised at their base, I was marginally accustomed to their majesty. I had also, at the age of 12, had the opportunity to pack in from the opposite side and spend one night at the Cuddyhys. The sight of that place brought me to tears (though no one else saw it) and I stood in awe of this amazing world that God created for us. It was a very moving place to be.
Once we settled into camp, we took off up the mountain towards the marble ridge in pursuit of a cave. Jason knew of this cave from a trip he took earlier in the summer with friends from High School. I had never been caving before, so I agreed to give it a shot. This cave offered a very unique and personal experience for me. Upon entering I became extremely wary, as I was a guest in this delicate and foreign place. It was dark and cold, yet in many places possessed strong winds and miraculous forms of life. There were times while caving that I felt myself being pushed to the very limit; facing fears that I did not know I had. (For example, you might not know you're afraid of heights until you are climbing around a 30 ft ravine for 30 seconds (It's also pitch black, FYI). ). When we reached the end of the cave I felt exhilarated but also incredibly small. Rubbing noses (literally) with nature as we had just done was a very humbling thing. The end of the cave opened up to a 1000 ft. sheer cliff that gave us a breathtaking view of the entire valley. Now is where my personal trial began. Somehow in my preparation and planning, I had misunderstood that this cave was the one which required us to return the same way we had come. You see, the whole time that I had been facing those frightening things, I had found solace in thinking that once I got to the end of the cave it would be over. But no. I felt like Nephi of old as I was asked to return again the way I had come and face those things which had pushed me so far and nearly led me to tears. At first I was frustrated with my husband for not specifying what would be required of us within the walls of the cave. Had I known beforehand, I might not have gone. As I pondered our circumstances, I came to realize that Jason played the role of a loving Heavenly Father here, in that he had led me so far and kept me safe the whole time. Surely he would not ask me to do something that I could not do. So, I swallowed my frustration and stepped back into the cave with tired and shaking limbs. The cave was not less scary or any easier when exiting. I felt reverenced as I realized that had I known what was in store, I would not have done it. But having had those powerful experiences, I know that it has made me better (and also helped me trust my husband more). When we got to the real end of the cave, all I could say was "I've never been so happy to see a giant whole in the ground!!" And it was completely true.
Another powerful experience we had was that evening. As we were preparing for nightfall, each of us felt prompted to change the sleeping arrangements we had. The original plan was for Jason and I to share a tiny tent and for Erik to sleep in a hamock on the other side of the campfire. Each of us felt that we should not do that, but sleep outside and right next to the fire. We kept the fire going all night to ward off any curious animals. None of us slept more than three to four hours that night, always taking turns watching the fire and keeping the pistol on hand. We heard eerie noises, gun shots, and large animals moving in the forest near the edge of our camp. I've never felt so exposed in my life. Saturday morning, after surviving the long night, Jason went to get water at a nearby creek not 300 feet from where we had been resting. He found very fresh cougar prints there, that had not been there the previous evening when we last filled our water bottles.
Also, in the early morning I saw a bear crossing a meadow that lay to one side of camp. When he saw me he was completely startled and took of running the opposite direction. He was only 200 ft from me and he had no idea we were there. It was as though a shield of protection lay around us; making creatures oblivious to our presence. But how could they have been? Surely they would have smelled three human bodies, our food, or campfire smoke? No, they did not. We were truly protected that night. I have rarely been as grateful for following the promptings of the holy ghost.
Well, those are the two intense things that happened. But the wilderness was beautiful and breathtaking. I look forward to returning again someday (with more people and probably more guns...). Till then, I will remember those experiences and how they have already helped shape me.

Something GREEEEEN In Ashland

This week I have taken my first step in becoming a gardener. Since I have no flower beds to plant in, I have utilized a teacup-shaped planter that I was given for my bridal shower in May. So, this week I planted two little flower bushes! One purple and one dark pink. (The pink one is named Polly and the purple one is named Minerva. :D)
Jason and I are so excited to have these two little plants. One day we hope to have space enough for planting a real garden with vegetables, fruits, AND flowers.  Until then, it will have to be small and random places that turn up along the way. Be warned, things are brewing in the teacup!!

Can you say CAKE!?!

Well, last week Jason got home from a camping trip (he was gone for FOUR whole days, very depressing, let me tell you) so I decided to celebrate by making a cake. And of course, I made a chocolate one! One of the cool things about finally being settled is discovering all the nifty things you received as wedding presents. One of mine was a bundt pan that is candy-apple red and very shiny. So naturally,  I was obliged to break it in. To my ECSTATIC suprise, my first ever bundt cake came out absolutely perfect. (I was so confident in it that I even took some to Jason's dad and little brother). And to make things even better, Jason loved it so much that he ate it in less than two days. :D. Needless to say, I was very proud.
(Oh, and for ROO! I promised you pictures of the house. Here are a few! The kitchen is microscopic and very colorful. I hope you approve. :).)

No Place Like Home!

This week Jason and I finally moved into our apartment in Ashland. YAY! We have spent hours unloading boxes and unpacking endless gifts. It feels like we atually got married now. :). Unfortunately our furniture is two weeks behind us, so we are roughing it and laying on the floor on some coushy blankets and pillows. Okay, so we are not napping this weekend...
For our first meal we made Macaroni and Cheese and then went to bed early. The movers are worn out!
I will post pictures when we move our furniture in. :D