I believe that I do use the software’s potential often, and by often I mean that when I have to do serious work and when I really want to try and make a design. Because usually since I’m still learning a lot of programs such as Photoshop, I have fun with it and just mess around time to time because sometimes just messing around gets me to new places I haven’t used or seen before and I believe it’s a good way to explore. That and learn and take away a lot from many great tutorials out in the Web. For my Art piece I used a lot of techniques I have learned in the last year ever since I took designing really serious, I used layer masking, gradient maps, played a lot around with adjustments such as levels, brightness and contrast, image exposure, etc. My work always comes as it goes, I never have an original plan or idea when I start working on an image or design. I’m always making changes and after I think im done I always look at all my layers and check if the certain effect on the image is too much or if I need to increase effect on it.
I mean, the reason why I chose to work on Photoshop to work on the project is because I know what it’s capable of and how I can use it to my advantage. Also because I’m still getting familiar with it, I am no where near knowing Photoshop 100% and I doubt anyone is because this software is always being modified and every time it does it has even more features than the previous and it takes a while to really get familiar with all its tools. That’s why a lot of designers I believe is why they develop their own style because each get comfortable with different settings, filters, techniques and its all developed on how you get to learn Photoshop or any other program in general.
I Believe that my work compares with other artists because when I’m working on a design I actually enjoy doing it because I have enjoyed art all my life. Its not the fact that I know but I think that there are a lot of good designers out there who don’t do it for the joy of doing it, they don’t really have the passion as other artists that I know when it comes down to creating a design. To the designers that don’t enjoy creating designs as much as I do, to them its just another day, another job, and of course the money. But I don’t see the money, I know it’s there but that’s not why I do it. I do it because I get to learn new things and get to work with different people to the point where you meet people you would expect to never meet and hopefully build good friendships because you never know who you’re going to meet and anyone can be a great benefit to you. Whether it’s financially or personal.
Well, one night I was browsing for space wallpapers on a website and I came a cross a high resolution free to use image of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and as I was still browsing I found a couple of images where some skies in them had the moon added to it. And an idea struck me out of no where and I decided to download a high resolution space image that was originally meant for my desktop wallpaper and the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge picture I came across with and I decided to test both pictures in Photoshop and test how they looked and I just like how everything really flowed and decided to take it further and created a wallpaper with the images. Unfortunately I don’t have any screenshots of the process but as I went along with the images I tried a lot of new techniques and tricks to get the results I got. I was going to go on and on with this new space themed sky in different cities but Typography grabbed my attention and totally forgot about the space theme sky on different cities I had originally planned for my project, so instead I went on to finding more images done by other artists to find out what Typography was and the history to it and also a few designs to get a some-what inspiration for a Typography Wallpaper/Final Art Piece I wanted to do for class. After a lot of experimenting and placing the text here and there I was satisfied with what I came up with and all the new techniques and tricks I learned by trying something new and giving it an original look to it.
I believe that the quote pretty much explains the message that I was trying to get across to any possible viewers. The quote states “I’d rather be rich and unhappy than be broke and miserable.” By Immortal Technique. The reason why I chose this was because everywhere I go I hear people talking about the same thing, which is basically what it says in the wallpaper. Also I highly agree with the quote because those who are rich might have the money, cars and jewelry but underneath they are really unhappy with their life which money had consumed. And in the other end those people who are broke (poor) truly have it bad and really wish that they would rather be unhappy and miserable because not that I truly know about that certain situation but living from pay check to pay check, barely afford rent, afford clothes, food, healthcare. Of course anyone in a situation like that would rather be unhappy any day.
Both my pieces of art that I created have a clear message of what I think art is. I believe my view of what is art are evident in my art pieces because they both say something different but at the end they are very similar because my space theme says that no matter what world we live in, whenever we look up when can see anything we want, whether we see it or imagine it the world can be whatever you want it is to be in your mind and on my other piece I expressed that everyone has the same goal. Nobody wants to live in a community that doesn’t progress, that never changes, and the situations get even worse. Everyone wants to make it and be unhappy one way or another,
I have explored art ever since I can remember, art can be expressed in anyway necessary but it has to have a reason behind, because in my personal opinion if you don’t have a reason why you create something art related which can be pretty much anything these days you are not creating art. Even if it’s the best art piece or design ever created, if there was no feelings or expressions behind it than it’s just a waste of time and a disgrace to artists who really put their very soul on every piece they create. I put a lot of emotion into my art pieces believe it or not because whether it’s for fun or not I always make sure I do my best and enjoy doing it.
Usually I get ideas out of no where and get down whether its on a piece of paper with a pencil in my hand or getting on the computer and be creative as possible as I can and put in my best effort and quality into my art. But for some reason while we started the 2nd semester my ideas were hiding from me for a while and I couldn’t come up with anything really fresh, so I looked around the web and think of something that I would think be meaningful and still be creative and thoughtful as possible and still be learning more Photoshop at the same time. I always double check all my layers when I’m done with any piece that I do to make sure that is what I was going for and everything I can improve is improved. I check all my layers try out another color and see it that works better and if I find that color better I literary delete all the adjustments I had before and start over because I hope that the second try would turn out better than the first but if I ever regret it, I make sure I have all the layers from before grouped just in case. And I learned all this from mistakes on other designs that I regretted and I couldn’t do anything about it because I had already deleted them. To make my art pieces possible I used all the told necessary and trying out new ones to experiment which one would be much easier to use, to accomplish more, or if it can even save me time so I don’t get so distracted and stay focused.
I believe that my definition of art grew over this project but I wouldn’t call it enough for me to stop there, art is continuously growing and expanding and its hard to know everything about in a lifetime but of course that is just my opinion. My knowledge about what is art really grew and expanded and I think that it would really take me a few years before getting down my own very definition. A few setbacks I had while working on this project was pretty much coming up with ideas in the beginning and the difficult steps I went through in order to make my designs the way I want them to. I spent a couple of days on the golden fate bridge manipulation because I really wanted to try new things with it and I tend to do that with every project that might come my way. Of course learn as I go because like I said every project I tend to do I always use a different technique to keep it interesting for any viewers and also for myself. I didn’t get a chance to get any feedback from my peers but whenever I have the chance I will try to because its always great to hear what other think about it and I always look forward for any feedback possible. yea.
