Grunge1

Every time I think that I am starting to get the hang of PhotoShop, I find that I’m not even close. I am taking an intermediate class right now and to learn as much as possible I have been watching tutorials on Lynda.com and trying the tutorials in Photoshop User Magazine, and they have been helpful. But, when I learn a new tool, method, or skill, it brings lots of questions with it. Questions such as; Why did they do it that way instead of this other way? or Why doesn’t this tool work with that tool?

I’m also finding that because I’m immersing myself in PhotoShop, that a lot of what I learn blurs together. Often after trying more complicated techniques, I can’t remember the simple ones. I know that when a person learns a new skill that this is common, and that it is just part of the learning process. So I’ll keep on going and hope it all begins to click soon.

Here is my first attempt at a tutorial in PhotoShop User, Jan/Feb 2009 issue; “A Better Understanding of Blend Modes.” It is a grunge collage and it was fun to play with. I created all my own layers on this one, but I used “Trendy Swirls” brushes created by Susan Libertiny that I downloaded for free from www.brushportfolio.com.

Slaves of Debt

One of the final projects in a Basic Design class I took last spring, was to make a mask. The requirements for the project were; 1. that you had to be able to transport it to the college and 2. you had to be able to wear it.

All of the masks that were brought in for the critique were both original and different than each other. It was a lot of fun to see the unique ways that all of the class members approached the project. The assignment was the same for all of us, but each took that assignment and identified the problem in our own way, which then brought our myriad of  solutions.

Last spring was April of 2008,  is when we were all beginning to feel the effects of the sour economy, and when the credit fiasco was starting to be seen publicly. NPR (I’m an avid listener) was constantly reporting on the country’s financial state. My husband and I were also attending a weekly Dave Ramsey, Financial Peace University. So, it was with finances  on my mind that I began planning my mask.

I determined that the message I wanted to convey was something on the lines of debt being a form of financial slavery and that it chained people down to jobs and lives that were unfulfilling.

I decided that credit cards were probably the most visually recognized symbol of debt for most Americans, myself included, and that I could relay my message more clearly using credit cards for my project. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough expired or canceled cards, nor did anyone I knew. So I decided that the next best thing was credit card offers, after all, most of us get a garbage sack of them or more every year.

With my message in mind and a few ideas of what materials I wanted to incorporate into my mask, I headed to the craft store. At first I thought that I would be able to make the mask substrate from scratch out of  paper mache or something similar, but I didn’t really have anyone to help me mold it on to my face. So then I looked for a pre-made mask, and the only one I could find was out of a flimsy plastic, which I was going to have to make work. I bought 3.

At home, I took two of the masks and put a thin layer of newsprint pieces on the masks and glued them down with a matte medium, which is like Modge Podge, but better quality. After they were dry, I glued credit card offers that I had cut up on to one of the masks and on the other I glued down faces that I had cut out of magazines. When they were dry, I cut the credit card offer mask in half. My plan was to some how mount it on top of the people mask, without obscuring the view. This was the biggest dilemma of the project. After going through my husbands tools and hardware without finding a solution, I went to Lowe’s.

I ended up using small door hinges to mount the masks together and then small nuts and bolts for stabilization, because the finished mask ended up being a little too heavy for the plastic bases. The final addition to the mask was the latch, laced with a chain and locked with a padlock.

The finished mask isn’t pretty, It’s raw looking and has a disconcerting feel to it.

Do you have any suggestions on how you would have approached this project? I’d love to hear from you.

Johannes Itten's "The Art of Color"

Last spring I took Basic Design class as a required course for the Visual Art and Design program that I am enrolled in at my local community college. I loved the class and enjoyed the many challenges of solving a graphic design “problem”. The required text for the class was excellent and will be indispensable for years to come and I will post about it at a later time. However, the instructor recommended a few other texts that he felt were invaluable. One of them was, “The Art of Color”, by Johannes Itten.

“The Art of Color” covers the physics of color, theory of color, color contrasts and much more. My favorite section is on the spatial effects of color; the way that colors affect our perception of depth, make a shape seem larger or smaller depending on its color.

To be honest I haven’t read the book cover to cover yet;  It is about 150 pages written in an authoritative manner that puts me to sleep.  But Itten really knew his stuff and  his theories shaped the way that we think about color now.  “The Art of Color” is worth the $100 or so dollars that it sells for, and is probably a must for most designers and artists.

Have you read all or part of “The Art of Color”? What do you think, is it worth the money? Have you found it to be a valuable resource in your design education or work? I would love to hear from you.