DPI // Project 2B

 

21.09.2020 - 19.10.2020 (Week 5 - Week 9)

Fann Man Ling - 0344623 (BCDM)

Digital Photography and Imaging // Mr. Fauzi

Project 2B : Self-Titled

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LECTURE

Week 5: Project 2B Briefing and Lecture (Exposure: Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO)

Week 6: Consultation Progress

Week 7: Consultation Progress

Week 8: No class (ILW)

Week 9: Final Consultation 

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INSTRUCTION

Module Information Booklet

In this project, we were tasked to make a collage that expresses ourselves.

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PROJECT 2B: Self-Titled

SELF-TITLED

An exploration project for the students to express their own individuality and reflect their personality into digital art self-expression. The main idea is to build up self-confidence and discover their interest.

IDEATION

Before I started working on this project, I seek inspiration on Pinterest. I looked for collage works that have different compositions, namely, medium shot, medium shot in wide-angle (whole-body) and close up to see which composition is to my liking. 

Fig 1: Inspiration_Research

IDEA #1

I have this idea to compose my favourite things that complete my life when I continuously thinking who I am. Initially, I wanted to produce a collage that related to only music as I believe it is what I like the most. However, I couldn't come up with a good idea with only one element, so I tried to figure another way and eventually came up with this idea.

I sketched my idea out:

Fig 2: Idea 1_Sketch (04/10/2020)

Then, I started to find the available best photo for this sketch.

Fig 3.1: Photo of myself

I've decided to use half of my own photos taken by myself and half of the other photos taken from the Internet as my materials for the work. After that, I cropped all the images taken from Google that I'm going to use for IDEA #1.

Fig 3.2: Design elements 

I also downloaded the image of the magazine alphabet fonts and the old paper texture and used them to design the typography for IDEA 1.

Fig 3.3: Typography design

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IDEA #2

I got inspired by this collage work from Pinterest Fig 1, I liked the artwork not only because I like the music style of the rapper Mac Miller, but also I wanted to create my work with a colorful and playful vibe similar to it. I also eventually came up with the idea to show the positive persona that I believe I have, in my work. Hence, I started off with a sketch of the composition.

Fig 4.1: Idea 2_Sketch (04/10/2020)

After that, I initially went to find the available best photo to be used in the work, and then made effort to take other photos to be used as my material for the work.

Fig 4.2: Photos of myself

For other supporting elements, I've decided to use half of my own photos taken by me, and half of other photos taken from Google.

Fig 4.3: Design elements

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PROGRESS

I've decided to work on both ideas and choose the final decision when I consulted with Mr. Fauzi.

ATTEMPT #1

Firstly, I composed all the elements according to the reference of my sketch.

Fig 5.1: Progress_Compose all elements

Secondly, I added the planets, music notes, astronaut, and flowers to make the composition more interesting with the combination of organic shapes and geometric shapes in the work.

Fig 5.2: Progress_Add more elements

Thirdly, I added strokes by using pen tool and ellipse with opacity adjusted to give it more depth.

Fig 5.3: Progress_Ellipse and strokes

Lastly, I did some adjustments to the work, namely, hue & saturation and brightness & contrast. Then, I filled the background with a suitable colour.

Fig 5.4: Progress_Adjustment & background colour.

Result:

Fig 5.5: Outcome of Attempt 1 (10/10/2020)

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ATTEMPT #2

Firstly, I composed the images that have cropped into pieces with Rectangular Marquee tool and Lasso tool in Photoshop.

Fig 6.1: Progress_Compose elements

Secondly, I applied the blend modes such as 'Multiply' and 'Darken' on certain elements like the sky image added on the top right and the newspaper image on the left middle side.

Fig 6.2: Progress_Blending Modes

Thirdly, I added the elements like the tree, flowers, branches, and butterfly that have been masked using Quick Selection tool.

Fig 6.3: Progress_Add masked elements

Thirdly, I added the available photo of myself into the composition after I flipped it horizontally and applied Black and White image adjustment on it.

Fig 6.4: Progress_Add available photo

After took the rest of the photos of myself, I added them into the composition with some image adjustment, namely, hue & saturation, brightness& contrast, colour balance and vibrance.

Fig 6.5: Progress_Add other photos of myself

Then, I changed the colour of the hat to blue colour by using Quick Selection tool to mask it and adjusted its colour balance, so that it fits the colour setting of the overall composition (bluish). Additionally, I've added a circle at the back of the focal point (the me holding oranges)'s head with the golden wrapping paper texture and I've done some colour adjustment on the texture.

Result 1:

Fig 7: Outcome 1 (10/10/2020)

The comment that Mr. Fauzi gave after I submitted it (Fig 6.6) on Google Classroom was to submit the IDEA #2 instead of IDEA #1 as it was somehow more appealing because of composing it into full-frame.

Hence, I've decided to further proceed it.

I tried to add a pair of eyes at the left side of the focal point as I felt that was quite empty and also the eyes were looking at the focal point, thinking perhaps it helps the viewer to know the focal point is the me holding oranges.

Result 2:

Fig 8: Outcome 2 (13/10/2020)

However, Mr. Fauzi told me the eyes were kind of disrupting the eyeflow, making the overall composition visually unbalance. This has realized me the importance of eyeflow and I should pay attention to that. 

I've decided to remove the pair of eyes and the butterfly as the eyeflow should go from the focal point (me holding oranges in bright shirt) to the B&W me who looking down and it leads to the blue me who looking at the Spotify playlists indicating my favourite song genre, in which leading the eyeflow to the bottom and surrounding then finally back to the focal point.

Fig 9.1: Progress_Remove the eyes & butterfly

Moreover, I slightly reduced the saturation of the background to avoid it being too harsh to the viewer's eyes.

Fig 9.2: Progress_Reduce saturation

After ensuring the final work consists of rhythm and story-telling through eyeflow with the use of Golden Ratio suggested by Mr. Fauzi, I applied filter and grain texture to the work.

For filter, I saved the completed work in JPEG format and reopened it. Then, I applied some image adjustments such as colour balance and hue & saturation to make it bluish.

Fig 9.3: Progress_Ensure eyeflow with Golden Ratio

Final Work:

Fig 9.4: Self-titled_Final .jpg (19/10/2020)

RATIONALE

I wanted to show the side of playful, vibrant, and cool of me who appreciates art, nature, knowledge, and music through this artwork.

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FEEDBACK

WEEK 6 // 50% Progress (28.09.2020)

General feedback: 

• In terms of composition, the photo can be in medium shot, medium shot in a wide shot (whole-body), or close-up.
• The materials to use in the project should be 50% photo taken by yourself, and 50% from other resources.

Specific feedback: Mr. Fauzi said the words that I combined from cropped magazine alphabets that I downloaded from the Internet were interesting, he suggested I can do something like doing magazine’s elements kind of collage. -IDEA 1

WEEK 7 // 80% Progress (05.10.2020)

Specific feedback:  Mr. Fauzi felt that the second idea Fig 7 is more appealing because I have composed it into full-frame, so he suggested me to submit the second idea. -Attempt 2

WEEK 9 // 100% Progress (19.10.2020)

Specific feedback: The image of eyes added besides the oranges is confusing the viewer's eye flow Fig 8. It is important to ensure the composition design consists of a natural flow. The previous (80% progress) is better than this one because it guides the viewer's eyes from the oranges to the B&W of me to the me sitting at the bottom, to my favourite music playlist, then to the whole image. -Outcome 2

 

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REFLECTION

This project is totally an enjoyment and joy for me. I got more familiar with the shortcut keys in Photoshop and I was happy that I found my interest in image manipulation and collage work. Additionally, I also learned the importance of eye flow and the application of the Golden Ratio through the explanation of Mr. Fauzi and this project which are certainly vital in improving my work. Undeniably, this project helped me know myself better and allowed me to explore my creativity and imagination and turned them into my work.