Operation Stylization

Independent Study: PhotoshopArtist Statements and Creative Reflections Beware: Highly classified

operation

Layelle Bridgeford, 11/24

Cont.

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Hollywood Inspired Portrait

Table of Contents

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Pawloose

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Kayla the Admin

side note:anthology resources

Independent Study, Mrs. Bashore

Hollywood Inspired Portrait Edit

My first official Photoshop project is an edit of myself looking into a vanity mirror, inspired by classic black and white Hollywood portraits. Attempting to replicate this style appealed to me because I thought the unapologetically Photoshopped look would be easy to imitate. Isn't that what the program was made for— smoothing skin to an uncanny perfection? As I have learned though, virtually nothing in Photoshop is simple. It is a constant cycle of problem-solving for any desired result. I initially tried using Photoshop solely for the entire process, but adjusting the levels, contrast, and color in Adobe Lightroom proved much more effective. Once those adjustments were made, Photoshop's Clone and Healing tools were used for erasing flyaways and minor skin imperfections. I made generous use of Dodge, Burn, and Sponge to eccentuate shadows and highlights. Regarding the final product, the background is over-edited and the flyaway erasure is not at all convincing. But my goal was to reference a photography style, and I believe I achieved that even if everything isn't perfect.

Creative Reflection

Movie Poster Edit

My second Photoshop piece features my muse and overly willing model, Jasper the family cat. He is in the place of Kevin Bacon on this recreation of the Footloose poster, appropiately titled Pawloose. Classic movie posters inspire me due to their timeless, intentional composition and design to market and represent the film. As stylization was the chosen theme of this collection, the goal was to accurately translate as many elements of the original Footloose poster using Photoshop. I accomplished this by using the Gradient tool along with color picking the original poster for the background. The yarn, brush, and subject were edited with Photoshop's Filter Gallery, a feature I will be using regularly from now on. Masking was used to paint lighting onto my subject and to create the distressed borders. Two textures are overlayed to create the illusion of paper. The title and PG label were created in Illustrator. This file is unnecessarily huge. Next time I will use a much smaller canvas size.

Creative Reflection

Comic Book Style Edit

Artist Statement

Creative Reflection

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Kayla the Admin

My final project for operation stylization could fittingly be described as the "final boss". It features my friend, Kayla, in the style of a comic book villian. She is mischieviously smirking in front of a wanted poster offering a reward of $20k for anyone who can capture her. The Infinity Gauntlet is on her left hand, known in the Marvel Universe as a weapon of mass disintegration. I chose purple for the background to reference the character of Thanos, most closely associated with the Infinity Gauntlet. I used halftone filters and posterization to create the effect of a comic strip. The commentary bubbles and wanted poster were created in Illustrator. This project was an intense undertaking. As a whole, I don't think it works together. I was too focused on each individual part, each element by itself, but they are not cohesive. Better planning would have helped immenslely, but that wasn't the objective of this particular project. I was instructed to let my imagination run wild and have fun, and that is what I did, maniacally chuckling to myself as the piece descended into madness.

Creative Reflection

This process was by far the most expensive. One third of the way through, Photoshop froze completely; I was informed that I could not save anything until my laptop had enough space. I bit the bullet and ordered a 2TB external hard drive to pick up the next day. I will admit the program runs a lot smoother now. I should have purchased additional storage when I first purchased the Adobe suite. I am proud of this piece in the context of it as an inside-joke. It is certainly not portfolio worthy, but I did hone some portfolio worthy skills. I feel much more confident in my masking and layering abilites. I was aware of adding shadows to new elements I brought in with the Burn tool. It was a surreal experience to have a new thought and make it happen within 5 minutes, and that cycle kept repeating. New thought, new art direction. I'm proud of the storytelling— there's certaintly a story being told with the editing, no matter how silly it may be.

Background

Creative Reflection

This was a good photo to use for the style of photography I was trying to create, and an excellent exercise with Photoshop's basic tools. I especially enjoy the process of analyzing a picture to see how I can convincingly stylize my own. Collecting and referencing a handful of photographs regularly was invaluable for those little details. This project took me much longer than I would have liked, but I have to offer myself some grace. I wasn't using the right tools for the right jobs, and that's because I'm still learning the program! Even typing this reflection up after two weeks of more experience, I feel a lot more confident in my skills to create this same product with double the efficiency.

Original Photo

Creative

Well this was a doozy...

Reflection

This project gave me a glimpse of what a real graphic design job is like. Searching up SVGs, stock images, and Adobe help forums for a simple function. Exiting out of said forum just to go through my history to find it again because I already forgot how to perform simple function. Following a YouTube tutorial and troubleshooting why certain options are not available to me. A real hands-on experience with this one... educational and eye-opening. But most of all, rewarding!