Week 5.1

Things are starting to get busy now. It is not so much the work load as a whole, more keeping track of all the bits which make up the whole. Perhaps if I try to list everything here it will make more sense.
Hard copy Journals are required for Photoshop, Illustrator and Drawing (all A3). A colour reference file (A4 binder) for Colour Theory. A multi page PDF for Design History, likewise for Photoshop & Illustrator being photographic & design portfolios respectively. Industry Knowledge requires an A4 journal and a digital document covering six topics - these can inform one another and is due week 11. Everything else is due week 13. There are also digital and written submissions for OHS along the way and written tests for Photoshop, Illustrator, Industry Knowledge and Colour Theory to prepare for. That doesn't look so bad now.
Below is an image from my photographic portfolio showing before and after manipulation. I'm not entirely happy with the result as it felt like manipulation for the sake of it, but it was a good test of the advanced masking techniques covered in the course.

Week 4.1

The following is an example of how I used Photoshop layers for a recent rush job. A bit of context, a Wagait Beach local friend needed a domain name and associated email address in a hurry for inclusion in a printed directory. I registered a name and proceeded to build a place mark page for which I needed a banner with the words 'site under construction'. I started by opening a copy of the clients logo for a colour reference, eyedropper (I) the predominant colour. New document (command N) 800x400 pixels, 150 dpi, fill with foreground colour. Type tool (T), stencil stu bold (matching the type on the logo), centered and white. Text creates a new layer, adjust the font size of the top line of text until it matches the width of the bottom line, rotate slightly via Edit, Transform, Rotate. Next I open an image to use for texture, a stock image of an old wall, ramped up the contrast and tweaked the curve. Random, non contiguous magic wand selection (W) on a dark area, copy (command-C). Back to the text image, paste (command-V), scale to fit via; Edit / Transform / Scale. Control click thumbnail / Select Pixels, Copy, then select the text layer and add new layer mask and the text gets a nice grungy feel while remaining editable.

Week 3.1

This weeks lesson corresponded with lesson three from the Adobe CS5 Photoshop - Classroom in a Book. It covered the use of selection tools and the various approaches used to to select differing objects or areas. I also completed lesson four, the result of which is to the right - whose copyright is presumably owned by Adobe Press, so please consider this as a reference to their material. In future posts I shall endeavor to duplicate the exercises with my own images. Lesson four covered the use of layers and touched on layer effects. The most interesting thing I discovered was the previously ignored or avoided contextual menu when the thumbnail (as opposed to the title) of a layer is control or right clicked. Which includes the option to create a selection from just the pixels on that layer. Previously I would use the magic wand to select the transparent area of the layer and then invert the selection. We also started on the O.H.S. requirement for the course.

Week 2.1

The first day of this week in photoshop was a continuation to the elementary navigation of the software. This is necessary as there are several ways to do any one thing in the program and the lecturer needs to at least touch on each of those in order to give the student the knowledge to find their own way to complete a given task. These tasks included; 'undoing actions in photoshop', 'tools panel overview' and 'resolution & image size'. Each of those are chapter subtitles from "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Classroom in a Book" released by Adobe Systems in 2011. I use a combination of keyboard shortcuts, button actions and menu operations to gain the results I require. What I use for which task has been dictated by my memory and experience with the software, so it was refreshing to see different approaches to old habits.

Key points to remember, there is more than one way to skin a cat - especially in Photoshop & a pixel is a pixel - nothing more (resolution).

Drawing was also a continuation of the exercise begun last week. This was to enlarge via a grid in contour line a photograph of old Renoir and likewise for the drawing Picasso made from the same photograph. The Images to the left are the original photograph and my attempt at the first task. I screwed it up a little by blocking in shadow, but stopped when Steven busted me and after I felt the drawing had reached a concise end. Again I found this to be a refreshing return to basics. Simply drawing is something I find extremely rewarding no matter what the subject is. There is something therapeutic for me about dragging and pushing a piece of led about a piece of paper. Latter Steven asked us to draw an irony and then a metaphor.

Week 1.2

As the dust settled on the first week, this is the result of my first run in with Illustrator - a piece of software where my skills require much more development. This was also the first design brief we have received, to create a logo for a Darwin City Council initiative to form an Arts Skills Bank. A directory of sorts connecting local government bodies, charities and possibly small businesses with local artists on a less than formal basis. With design briefs filled in a mostly competition environment and obviously coordinated by the Arts Skills Bank.

I simply could not resist this when it occurred to me, who better to steal from than a bank? I spent about an hour on it in class and about the same at home tweaking the text. I wanted the text to move from an 'artsy' feel to a 'bank-ish' one. To achieve this I used differing fonts beginning with Arial with no serif, to Optima with a slight serif and finally the nobly serifed Times New Roman - all of which are deliberately generic and recognisable fonts. Copyright issues aside I think it is an effective logo.

This week has been an introductory everything. I have enjoyed it and am looking forward to getting into the work. The primary assessment pieces for this semester are four A3 visual journals which can be divided basically as; Photoshop, Illustrator, Drawing and History. There is also a reference file in A4 format required for Colour Theory. The mostly weekly projects within each subject are intended to inform what happens within the journals. There is of course a lot more detail to it, but this is the nuts and bolts of it.

Week 1.1

The image above is what I have gleaned from today. I made the drawing during CUVCOR09B, scanned the image at home into photoshop. Selected the negative space between the pencil lines and refined where necessary with lasso. Invert Selected > Copy > Paste - gives a layer of just the pencil lines. Create a layer beneath the pencil lines and import anything you like (for the image above I chose an old plaster wall - you should also rename it background). Select the pencil line including the negative space within letters > copy > new layer > add vector mask (icon bottom right palette menu - square with circle in middle). Fill the layer with a colour - one that will tone the background, play with the blend mode and drop the opacity. Invert selected in the above steps to achieve the same for the text itself (with white).

The advantage of using layer masks is that you can achieve a much finer control over how each element within the composition interacts.

Thank you Steven Moore for having us draw with actual pencil on actual paper today, an activity I should do more of. You also gave me the inspiration to mess with an iconic brand - I think with the appropriate text from pepsi this could make an effective add in some form. Just saying.