Laura's Blog

Music Manga Part 3 - iPod image.

sing809 — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 16:07:14 +0000

I’m thinking about adding this image to the Windjay site to add a little color.

Music Manga part 2 - Electric guitar image.

sing809 — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 19:17:00 +0000

Here is part 2 of my mixed media, music and manga inspired photoshop final. The drum and amp background was hand drawn, scanned, then digitally colored. Same with the character.

sing809 — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 06:20:38 +0000

Music Tree - An acoustic guitar themed image.

This is part 1 of my advanced photoshop final. I did three mixed media images inspired by music and Manga drawing books.

sing809 — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 18:09:19 +0000

Lattescape- A mixed media image involving a kitchen utensil.

Design Log for “Lattescape”

After drawing several kitchen utensils for this assignment, I finally decided on an apple slicer for my utensil. While I was very happy with my apple slicer drawing, I had so much difficulty composing an image with it that I decided to switch themes once again. I decided to choose my object based on a theme that I knew I would find inspiring, the latte. I drew pictures of mugs and the filter utensil on my espresso machine. I took several pictures while I made a latte for additional material, and also scanned my espresso filter. I went to compose an image, but I was still stuck. I decided I needed a background to work in. I did a quick watercolor to use as a background for my image. Finally I started to make some progress.

First I scanned my watercolor image. I played around with applying artistic filters to it. I applied a film grain effect, then ocean ripple. I extracted the image of milk steaming, adjusted the opacity, and centered it in my image. Next I imported the scanned image of my filter. I extracted it and adjusted the opacity. I didn’t decide on the final placement of the filter scan until I was nearly finished. I isolated the lines from my cup sketch, duplicated them, and used them to frame my main image.

For a centerpiece I chose the image of espresso being poured into steamed milk. I extracted it. I added a watercolor effect to it, then faded it to make it very subtle. Now it was time for some finishing touches. I imported the line drawing of my filter. I ended up placing it on top of the filter scan. I warped the scanned filter to align them a bit closer, then adjusted the opacity. I applied a warming filter to the background images to help blend them together and make my centerpiece stand out. Then I added the cafe latte text. I made a new brush out of my espresso filter sketch. I added a few very small, subtle accents the image with the filter brush shape. I used a brightness/contrast adjustment layer on my centerpiece photo, and a curves adjustment on the background images to enhance the final image. I finished off the image by extending the canvas size to create a border like effect.

New logo for Windjay

sing809 — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 05:26:41 +0000

It’s been a while since my last post. I spent the last month working on logo development in my photoshop class. I decided Windjay needed a new logo too. Here is the new logo that Erik and I have decided on. Check out www.windjay.com in December for a new look, and some new features as well.

The bridge.

sing809 — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 19:39:05 +0000

I started this image with the photo of a child on the covered bridge. I experimented with it for a while. I used the channel mixer to convert it to grayscale, but I ended up just using a curves adjustment layer on it. I used a clipping mask on it for practice, even though it was my background layer. Next I added the image of autumn leaves on the ground. I used a hue/saturation adjustment layer with a clipping mask to intensify the colors. I used a layer mask to alter the opacity so it blended with the overall composition. I placed the flower image so that it would frame the child on the bridge. I used a layer mask to blend the image, then applied a curves adjustment layer to the whole image. Even though I wanted the child to be the focal point, the top of the image looked barren. I experimented with a duplicate of the flower and another layer mask to balance the composition. I applied a hue/ saturation adjustment layer to give the colors a more magical feel. Then I topped it off with another curves adjustment layer.

Guardian of Heaven

sing809 — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 05:10:52 +0000

Here is my latest for photoshop class.

Design Log for Guardian of Heaven

I started with the image of clouds. I had an image of a giant slide that I tried to incorporate into the photo. I used extract to select it, but it didn’t seem to work when I brought it into the cloud picture. I decided to use the stairway photo instead. I liked the imagery of the stairway and the slide next to the heavenly looking clouds. It reminded me of a reoccurring dream I used to have as a child. I cropped the photo of the lion statue and added it. Then I used the photograph of the grass sculptures to tie everything together with a more earthly element. I put layer masks on all the images and did a lot of work to blend them. The left side looked like it was missing something. I duplicated the staircase, flipped it horizontally, and added it to the other side of the photo. When I was working on this picture I was feeling very disturbed by a local murder case. A pregnant woman that worked at my local grocery store was murdered. While I did not know her well, I live in a small town and was greatly affected by this news. I added the text elements while thinking of her. I liked the look of the font , Symbol(T1). It looked familiar and obscure at the same time. I labeled the lion’s head “Guardian of Heaven.” I added the words “fear” and “uncertainty”. I stretched and transformed them. On the stairway I dedicated the picture to her. “Goodbye Asha…..Blessings.” I had already done some adjustments with levels and curves on the individual photos. At the end I added an adjustment curves layer to the final picture.

Serenity

sing809 — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 02:42:17 +0000