Photoshop: Clone Tool

Following on from my 3D Object light photography the next step was to use photoshop to improve these photos and one such thing to improve my photos was to clean up the backgrounds as they weren't completely clean. They had smudges and crease marks and one of the best tools in photoshop to remove them is the 'Clone Stamp Tool'.
Even though I consider myself pretty adapt and know my way around photoshop I had never used this tool before. Typically when I wanted to remove blemishes I'd use the dropper tool and paint in and around the marks I wanted to remove till I'd looked right. However the Clone tool at least to me felt a lot faster and easier to use.

Above is just a quick side by side view of how i was working. Having the original up next to what i was editing help me get a good view on what I was working with.

Above is my original photos blemishes and all zero editing so far.

The final edited photo is now above. After a lot of zooming in and out in and out, I finally got the
picture to stage that I thought was complete. As you can see by comparing the original photo and this edit version, the background is much more clear. After that I gave the whole piece a little touch up with the brightness and contrast and then played around with the showers and It was done. I really like this tool as what would have taken me easier twice the time with the dropper tool the clone tool
has accomplished super fast and is something I will be using from now on.

Now the clone tool is very good for cleaning up photos but I wanted to experiment with it on a larger scale. So i increased my clone copy size to 2500+ and went to work manipulating and creating a very abstract sort of piece from my completed photo. I wasn't really aiming to create anything in particular but I ended up with what would could almost be worked into to create a cityscape.

Graphics: Hand Rendered Letterforms

Having done a lot of work on the Macs in college, that isn't all there is to graphics and as such I was tasked with producing an A2 sheet of hand rendered letters. I took that idea and wanted to try something else so I produced 3 A3 sheets instead. As I wanted to have one with the letters coloured, one with the background and one with my theme which has been running throughout my graphics work, 'Honest Is The Best Policy'.

Above is the first sheet I produced. To create these sheets, I used the light box in college with a large array of different printed out letters on a4 sheets in a wide range of fonts. With this first one I was a little hesitant to have a lot of overlapping letters as I wasn't too sure how it would look once coloured in but with each sheet I added more closeness between the letters. I found this sheet the easiest out of all 3 as I had the least inking in. But I like the way it turned out, but prefer the black background over the white as seen below.

The 2nd sheet I produced, was the opposite of the first. Instead of focusing on inking the shapes this time its was the back that I inked around the letters. I feel this looks a lot nicer in my opinion. As well with this piece I felt a little more experimental so I tried adding more letters which would overlap with one another. Looking back at it now it feels like I added just the right amount as the piece doesn't feel to cluttered. If anything I could have added another letter under the 'C' as that's the only space that really bothers me looking back at it.

Finally I produced a piece with my cliche phrase across it. I wanted to do this mainly because all my other work I've tried to do a piece relating to this. However I don't really think this piece works as the letters seem to cluttered together to really let the phrase pop off. It would have looked better if I had inked the background instead of the letters I think. But maybe its just my eyes thinking that as I prefer the clear letters.
If i were to do it again I'd make 2 phrase sheets each using different letters for the words to space them out alittle more and having 2 would also allow me to produce 1 inked letters and 1 inked background.
Overall I really enjoy working with markers and pens as its something I feel I'm adapt to having always had an interest in painting and illustration. It was very nice to step back from the Macs and work on something else, in a more traditional style.

Expressive Typography

At the start of one of my last introduction lessons to Graphics, as a warm up exercise I was tasked with producing an A2 sized sheet of Expressive Typography. Expressive typography in this sense was to express the meaning of the words given to me by only using the letters of said words. Such as the word 'Crash' could be represented by having the letters falling down or two words of 'Crash' almost crashing into one another.

As seen above I used such words as:
Space
Repetition
Elimination
Compression
Expansion
Popcorn
Imperfect
Addition
Echo
Separate
Mutation

As such I tried to use the meanings of these words to create some unique expressive typography. Some words were easier then others. Such as Expansion and Compression were pretty simple in the fact you could make the letters expand or be wrote closer to one another.
Mutation and Elimination were a lot trickier. Trying to find a way to show the meaning but also still allowing the word to be read. In mutations case I ended up writing the word twice but slightly ajared to the side almost giving it an imperfect shadow. Like it had grew extra letters from itself, which worked really well I thought. With Elimination, as I got closer to the end of the word I started not writing part of the letters, as if they had be removed through some sort of 'elimination'.
Over all I really enjoyed this exercise as it made me think and got my mind set to thinking straight away.

Fashion: Charcoal Drawing & Development

 In one of my last lessons in Fashion, I was tasked with producing 2 quick 15 minute sketches of paper manipulated dresses with charcoal. After producing two then I was to work into one of them with paints, inks, newspaper etc but keeping in the theme of Mono Mania. So black and white.

Above is the first of my charcoal drawings and the one I didn't work into later on. This was my first quick sketch and as such isn't complete as I missed judged the time I had to get down all the details I needed to make it fully complete in my eyes. It did help me though as it let me experiment with different stroke types and smudging techniques before moving onto my 2nd piece.

Above in my final piece I produced from the morning. It started off as a charcoal sketch very much the same as the one above but as I finished this one and had put more effort into it in the charcoal stage I wanted to take it even further. So I worked into this one more. First off I added newspapers to the scraps in the middle to give the piece more depth. As well as that I added wax [Which i had experimented with in my Batik work] to the bottom section of the skirt to give it some extra interesting detail I couldn't get with the charcoal. Next I added white paint around the edges of the main stem straps to help make it pop off the page as the original piece I worked from had almost highlights in those places from the natural lighting in the room. Lastly I added ink over the wax and white paint to bring back the original charcoal shading I had added on, finally going back over the piece with charcoal adding in details here and there.
I really like work with mixed media and it's something I consider to be one of my strongest strengths. I like the idea of mixing multiple techniques together to see what new and interesting effects can be made. Which I think worked really well with this pieces skirts. The mixture of Ink, Wax and Charcoal really bring the skirt to life.

Fashion Illustrations Developed

Having tried my hand at fashion sketches  I wanted to take my Ideas a little further along the route of fashion Illustrations, primarily down a digital aspect. So to start off I found a free image online and imported it into Photoshop and went to work adding in one of my prints which I photographed from my print work. From this point it was very much a lot of careful use of the lasso tool to select around the suit my male figure was wearing, after that inverting the selection and deleting away the excess from my printed images. I did this with 2 different prints which can be seen below.

                      

After completing these 2 styles, which I really liked the way they turned out. I decided I should take it one step further and instead of using 1 pattern. I decided on using 3 different patterns together. One for the jacket, one for the pants and one for the tie. So i set out to work in the same manner as the first two, lasso the sections I wanted to have the pattern then inverting and deleting the excess. Until I had a fine piece I really liked.

Unlike with the first two I feel this one looks a lot more complete for a fashion Illustration. As the different patterns for each section of clothing really helps pull the whole thing together. But as well as that I add subtle gradients to each piece of clothing the give the cut prints there own unique light source. As in the original photo I had the light source was coming from the bottom right so for the jacket i did the same thing, arching the light from the bottom right of the jacket, and then darkening on the top left to help bring back the original lighting in the photo. For the pants I did the same but I also added a 2nd layer in the top half of the pants to give a shadow effect from the jacket being over the top of them. Lastly for the tie I just added a single from top to bottom gradient, the top being the darker as when comparing it to the bottom right original light source it stood out more from jacket so I went with that.

Overall I am really happy with the way this piece turned out, as I really enjoying working in Photoshop. Even more so when I get to incorporate original techniques such as the hand made prints from a handmade print block and get to manipulate them further in a program like Photoshop. This is something I love to do and plan to take the print method I learnt here further in some of my future work.

Batik - Wax & Ink

The next experimental piece I had a go at was using the Batik keetle to drip wax onto card and after drying, then painting over it with black ink. To create this sort of ink floating on water effect. Once both the wax and ink had dried, I removed the wax my putting the piece in-between newspaper and then ironing over the whole thing to melt off the wax but leaving the design still on the card.

Having made 2 sheets of wax on card, I ironed one and then cut it up in a diagonal way and then stuck it down in my sketch book partly over black card to show off the different effects layer up this batik styled piece can have. For example as seen above having iron off the fax it has almost made the piece see-through and lets the black card almost shine through the piece, darkening it. The 2nd piece I made, As seen on the right I left un-ironed. So the wax is still think on the page and bulging up front he page. This gives a different effect to the ironed, as the wax hasn't been melted away so the piece is still thick and raised from it, giving the piece almost a sense of depth. 

Ink & Water

Using ink and water is a very quick and easy way to create some very cool effects. Its a very simple technique where you first apply water to your background and then apply ink straight after without letter the water dry. This creates some crazy ink spreading across your page. Straight after this I wrapped the card up in cling film and push down firmly on the card to create almost this lighting effect. Once dried I removed the cling film and the pattern remains on the card as seen below. This is a very nice technique for creating cool backgrounds.

Fashion Drawing / Sketches

Not my forte at all, I'd consider my drawing strengths to lie in a field that is much more abstract or closely confined. Such as drawing a head or a torso but drawing a full person in proportion is something I struggle with even with near daily practice.  So having to draw fashion sketches wasn't something I considered myself confident in but I went into it with an open mind as always a created a few quick sketches which i felt held some sort of female form.

As seen above I tried a few different styles First of all truing a very basic block style and then going for a more elegant head title which i feel looks very nice but I was still drawing the shoulder a little to broad. So on the next 3 drawings I wanted to try something a little different, so for the first I went with a different position. Instead of using a straight line for a base, i went with an expanded 'S' which allowed me to get a form in which I could crate a popped shoulder, hip and arm. I feel this came out rather well compared to the original quick sketches even if this was also just another fast sketch. Next I used a different material and tried to quickly sketch another front facing female, however this one I didn't feel worked very well as the charcoal smudge a little to much and made the sketch look very unrefined.
Finally is very much a Fashion Illustration I photocopied a female sketch out of an illustration book and then collage it into my sketchbook on top of newspaper to help break up what I did next. Which was to take another photocopy of my print work  and i cut it up into sharp smaller pieces which I then collage onto the photocopy to create a skirt. I really like the way this turned out as it is very crisp and sharp. If i were to do it again I'd like to make a full dress utilising 2 or 3 different prints to add depth and emphasise shadows.

Fashion Weaving

Carrying on from my work with printed images and manipulating them. My next task was to experiment with weaving. Which i had a little experiment with earlier in this fashion pathway as with my first work in Paper manipulation I created a twisted weave piece as well as in my printed image work i also used overlapping strips to form simple weaves. However this time I'd be using different materials such as fabrics and cloth to create different weaved patterns!

First I made this very simple weave by just cutting into a piece of dark fabric and then weaving into the base with a lighter fabric. Alternating the first point of entry (top or bottom) to give the full weave an effect of depth and not just the same pattern on either side. This was nothing special but more an expertise in its self to let my mind and hands get used to the method.
Next up I got some card and string and created a backboard for a much larger weave. Cutting equal length notches into the card and then wrapping the string around to create a basic grid to be woven into.

Once the string was tight enough I went to work cutting strips of woollen fabrics and cloth of equal length. Once I had 3 of each type (One cream fabric, one white wool, one grey and one pattern dark fabric) I went to work weaving in the same method as before starting one under and one over, but this time also alternating the colour of fabric so it had a light/dark/light/dark pattern. Making sure to keep pulling the strip downwards to keep the weave tight I did this till completion as seen above. The next step would have been to cut the string on the back of the card and tie up the loose ends of fabric but I thought it would look best in my sketch book still on card to show how i created the piece so I left it intact. I really like the way this turned out with the alternating colour. If i was to try it again I'd want to use just patterned fabrics to try and create a design running down the piece in one way or another.

Lastly I created this shag rug sort of piece in which I cut very small pieces of fabrics of 3 different light colours and one dark and threaded them through this rubber mat stopper material [which as seen below] is just a square gauze. Its work very well for this piece as cut perfectly I took 2 piece of white fabric and alternated pulling them through the mat material and once all the way around once. Came in 1 notch and did the same but this time with the other white and black fabric. I did this 4 times till I finished / reached the centre.
I really like the way this came out even if it was very time consuming, I'd love to see what a full sized mat or rug would look like. This one was only about the size of both my hands. The closer i got to the middle the hard it was to thread the fabric through the holds since the lack of space and fabric being everywhere making ti harder to see. But after a lot of fiddling it was complete.
I feel this is a very Victorian sort of piece and using different coloured materials you could come up with a plethora of designs and patterns.

Printed Images - Manipulation linking to Bridget Riley & Victor Vasarely

Following my Monomania foam printing work, once all the prints on fabric and paper had dried I went onto photocopying these pieces in A3 and A4 sizes and went to work with the scissors once again and taking what I learnt from the original paper manipulation and mixing that in with these new prints, I aimed to create a bunch of different unique patterns. Doing so by cutting the photocopies, mounting on card, weaving, overlaying and all round working with paper on paper.

So my main goal with these pieces was to try and recreate some of the techniques seen in Bridget Riley's and Victor Vasarely work. By using the same sort of line structure as them. Using waves and very sharp straight lines. To add my own spin on that I aimed to layer these techniques and using the original prints as back drops.
As well as doing that I added in paper and card to to help break up some of the more intense designs so not all the detail was lost. For example the first image, since I purposely used a waveform that went against the striped print it really pulls your eye in, very much like the OP art I've been researching and trying to mimic here. But by adding in the bland newspaper it helps break that down a little bit and once the viewer pulls away they can look into the less detailed part and this helps let the design pop out.
Following that the same sort of thing happened in the second image but the use of newspaper was more to pull the design off of the black back ground as the print was printed on black too. So by adding newspapers it helped further push the design to the front and lets the spaces between the cut strips go to work in drawing in the viewers eye.

Now for the last 3 they were the first 3 I worked on trying to recreate the very essence of Bridget Riley's work and how she used her lines to create movement. However I wanted to do that in revere with the first 2 prints. Having the prints as the background and working with cut paper to create a sense of movement in the work. I feel this worked best in the first piece as its a very simple overlay which creates this sense of stubble overlap that lets the design really pop off of the page. However in the second piece I feel the overlay is a little to extreme and the sense of movement is lost, but it came in handy as a learning tool to know what not to do next time. because of this when it came to having my sewing machine induction I used this piece to test out the different needle widths, lengths and zipzag spacings which can be seen below.
Lastly is a very simple but effort use of straight cuts of one of my black prints put onto white card which really helps break up the design and lets the white ink almost blend into the background. I feel this piece most represents Bridget Riley's work in my own style.

Creative Typography - Layered Photoshop Final Piece

Carrying on with my creative typography work in graphics after working in Photoshop and Illustrator, the next thing I was assigned to do, was to produce a layered image in Photoshop which reflected my chosen cliche: 'Honesty is the Best Policy'.

 

First before even looking online for photos, textures or any of that I jumped straight into my sketchbook and quickly sketched out with pins & markers a few test placements for what sort of image placement and text placement i wanted to work with. As I knew straight away I wanted to use the human form in some way with the text from my previous experimentation's in Illustrator/Photoshop.  

So after a quick plan I went online and I found a free high resolution image from the internet. In this instance I didn't want to have just some generic photo for my cliche of people just talking or someone being honest. I wanted to dive deeper into the meaning of the phrase as I've been doing with all the work. So I searched for someone who was distressed or looking down, as if they had been lied to or something dishonest had happened to them as I feel thats the true meaning behind the phrase. Even though Honesty is the Best Policy people still tell white lies or small half truths which spiral out of control. So I went on a search through www.freeimages.com and after finding a male [http://www.freeimages.com/photo/653183] and female [http://www.freeimages.com/photo/1044602] which i think both would work, i went on the search for a good texture that would work. Since I was thinking of human nature and how my cliche is very much part of human nature, lying and telling the truth etc it made sense to me on some level to use some sort of naturist texture such as trees, leave etc. After searching on www.lostandtaken.com i came across just what I was looking for [http://lostandtaken.com/blog/2013/9/10/giveaway-three-joomla-templates-from-templatemonstercom.html]. After a LONG wait for the college internet to download the high res wood and tree texture pack I started to edit away on Photoshop. 

 The first layered image i created considered of the male photo I found looking down or lost in this own thoughts. I didn't touch the image at all, however I did add a tree texture next. I chose a neutral coloured texture so its mainly just stripped back bark and I add a colour burn effect to it to help bring out the colour of that layer and changed the opacity to let the original photo pop through. At this stage I really liked the photos but next i faced my biggest problem and that being adding my cliche. I wanted to use my original cutout Photoshop piece of the cliche 'Honesty...' However i faced the problem that the colours were to vibrate and stood out for this piece so to try and counteract this I add effects. The main one being I changed the hue and saturation of the whole piece to a more rounded orange to bring up the dull colours and down the strong vibrate colours. This helped a little but not completely so I brought down the the opacity and got to the final piece above.
The only thing that I feel brings this layered image down is the cliche but that is down to the colours I chose in the original edit of letter. If I were to use this method again I'd make sure to choose and stick to a colour scheme from the very beginning or go crazy and have each one different.  

The second image works alot better I feel. This one is of the female image being suffocated and with that image I left it as it was off the website again like I did with the first one. Once again I added a tree bark texture but this time with the bark not stripped and added the colour burn again which with an opacity change really let the image below pop out and in this case it almost looks like the suffocating girl is trying to emerge from a trapping force or lie.

Lastly I went into Illustrator and quickly wrote up the cliche and added a brush stroke to it giving it a very rough feel which in my mind works very well with this piece and gives a final feel of it popping off the page but also falling back with an opacity change.

Out of the two layered images I created, and looking back at them both now. It is clear to me the second piece is mainly better than the first. This comes down to the use of text and how its not so abrupt and in your face which may have worked if I used an extremely striking photo but I was aiming for the more thought out approach where the viewer would have to think about this piece and the reasoning behind it. Such as why is the girl being suffocated by something and trying to break through this bark like wall.

Overall I like both these pieces and have learnt a great many things and can't wait to keep experimenting in Photoshop and creating unique and thought provoking pieces. 

3D Object Light Photography

Having created a 3D letter at home, in graphics we experimented with lighting effects and how they're cast on objects. My 3D piece as seen below and in my previous piece is of a letter 'H' as I wanted to relate it back to my previous work around the phrase 'Honesty is the Best Policy'. Because of that I made my letter in such a way that it was rough and loose to give the impression of a hidden meaning such as the same with my phrase. As not all things are true and lies are everywhere.

With this I used two different set ups both with 1 lamp each on full brightness. One with a white background the other with a black. The goal was to take up to 20 shots or more of different angles, shadows and focal points.

First here are two shots both with something wrong about them, the first is overexposed and the second a miss focus on my point. All shots were taken under manual focus and settings. The main problem I had was the yellow tint on the bulb and going back I would sort out my white balance after every other shot.

One of the main problems shooting in manual is without a doubt reading the situation wrong and getting an over or under exposed photo or rushing the shot and miss placing the focal point.

All 3 of these shots have zero editing on them for now and i will later do an edit to clean up the backdrop and such but first lets me explain why out of all 20+ shots these are the 3 I feel have the best composition for what i was aiming for.
First up with this angle i made the main focus on the back part of the letter to allow the depth of field to blur out the front portion and allow the shadow to really take form. I really enjoy this photo as its really captures the shape of the shadow and the object.

Next up in this almost central shot, This is a great shot in my eyes as as of the placement of the letter on the backdrop [very near the back] you can see the way the shadow bends its way around and up the white sheet and I really like the way its almost creeping out form behind the letter. The only problem with this shot is the white balance is a little off but i feel even despite that it really works well.

My 3rd favourite shot is this poorly framed but elegantly focused shot. A little off with the framing but can easily crop out the white wall in photoshop. What really shines in this photo is the focus of the letter and how faintly the shadows lay on the letter and escape from underneath it because of the black backdrop. 

I really enjoy photography and consider myself a keen hobbyist and love experimenting with new ideas and concepts such as lamp lights in these shot and playing around with shadows. I really look forward to advancing this shadow play with a live model sometime soon. 

3D Letter Make - Needle & Thread

Carrying on with the currently theme of typography in graphics, I was tasked with making a 3D letter that I would then at a later date photograph with a single light to look at how shadows work. First however i needed to make a letter and since my cliche/phrase I'd been using for the past few objectives was 'Honesty is the Best Policy' I went with the letter 'H'.
I didn't just want to make any old clean cut letter 'H' though as my phrase has a lot of hidden meaning. So i decided to go to Hobbycraft who sell single letters made out of brown tape and pick up a letter 'U'. Which i then tripped apart to have 2 long sections and a curved section which i cut out to be straight. Then i got out the needle and thread.

First I punctured some holes in the front and back of all the pieces so I had some sort of guidance to where I should be sewing

After a lot of back and forth I created a quick basic stitch starting in the front then the back. At this point I noticed the piece would look best nothing being a perfect piece so I didn't focus to much on making perfect tight stitches or having the same number on either side. As well as that i decided to wrap some of the thread around the piece as i had drawn a little to much.

Above is the final piece, After repeating the same method on the first second i did the same for the second. Sticking with the red thread. Once i had it all connected to the point I felt it wouldn't fall apart when stood up, i added some green thread just to help break up the mass of brown paper texture. I think for a quick object made for a photo shoot to play around with lighting this turned out rather nice and not being 100% perfect should give the shadow a few nice rough edges.