Little Things Matter - Weekly blog post 3

As a basketball player I've heard the phrase "ball is life" many times but have not given it much thought. From a very shallow perceptive, ball is life refers to playing basketball every day from dusk to dawn. However, if one were to give to more thought to the figure of speech, then the theory arises that life is connected to ball. Meaning if you don't do the little things in life, like making ones bed, then on the court, one would not do the little things, like yell "shot" when an opposing player shots. In other words, your persona and attitude towards life, reflects your play style on the court. So next time when someone says ball is life, he/she may relate, not to the dedication towards ball, but the correlation between ball and life. This may also mean eating healthy, and having an organized lifestyle may improve you game.

Self portrait

This will be the self-portrait I will be painting. This self-portrait will reflect the art style of surrealism. The art style of surrealism illustrates some elements of basketball, as it is a game of deception. Surrealism often times portrays a dreamlike visual which is the point of a crossover in basketball. A crossover in basketball is suppose to trick the opposing defender into thinking you are going one way, but you are actually going another. My favourite crossover in basketball is named after "Allen Iverson", which I tried to imitate in this piece. In surrealism, artist often try to mess with the viewers mind, saying something that cannot be real be real, which in my opinion also reflects the crossover in basketball. There is also more fakes in basketball such as pump fakes, and jab steps to throw the defender off balance. I believe that surrealism can also create an off balance illusion to the viewers. In my piece I fragmented myself to try to achieve that effect. The position I am in also gives a false sense of movement, which attempts to throw a dreamlike effect to the audience. In basketball I tent to use a lot of these fakes, which reflects the art style of surrealism.

After every basketball game I do not even recall the what exactly happened in the game, as everything goes by very fast. Thus for the surrealism design I lightened myself, as a suggestion of reflection, but also the give a sense of urgency, as that is part of the game.  

I choose a forest as a background, as the famous chess grandmaster Mikhail Tal, once said "You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest, where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only big enough for one". I also enjoy playing chess, and I love the king's gambit which leads to a lot of complication. So metaphorically I like to take may opponent to a dark forest, and leave him/her stranded there. The mirror will be the escape of the dark forest. I choose a monochromatic design scheme for the mirror and the forest, to camouflage it. 

Art poster

Here is my star wars project. I used photoshop to create it. 

Land art

Type-Mask - My inspiration in life is to be Happy - Weekly blog post 2

original picture provided by http://www.hdwallpapersinn.com/asian-girl-hd-wallpapers.html

"My inspiration in life is to be happy"- (Beyoncé) is a quote from her music video "Pretty Hurts"(written by Sia).
The song explores the emotions of being a beauty pageant, and implies that being a pageant may not be the golden dream. However the title of the song "Pretty Hurts"  refers to that of beauty being, not an essence of life, but a poison of life. However if one is happy about themselves, than they would be immune to that poison, as being seen as a "beauty" may not lead to the healthiest of lifestyles. If you are happy with yourself, then perfection, often associated with beauty, will translate to "imperfection is our perfection".

My poster, which I designed with filters and type-mask in Photoshop, tries to illustrate that message in digital art. The poster may contain an Asian beauty, but with the tools I choose to make the poster may convince you of another message. I assume the majority of you are not associated with Photoshop, and even I am just trying to explore the surface of it. Astonished by the tools of Photoshop, the artist, I, will tell you their story in creating this illustration.

I first started with a background image provided for me by "Hdwallpapersinn". Then I went to the Curves to altered the red, blue , and green to my liking. After, I went to the gradient map to play further experiment to a color effect for the theme. I choose I bright blue to orange, with the opacity at 11%. Then I duplicated that gradient, and blended it with "screen"to make to image brighter. I wanted to convey a bright image, to illustrate a mood of joy, and happiness. I felt that when I was changing the opacity, that I was able to change something so aggressive, to something so passive. It was almost like the true emotions of the image is hidden.

Finally I created I new layer, and filled it with pitch black. It was almost like  million gallons of tar were poured on this beautiful women. Then I went to the filters gallery and selected the sponge. I also went the pencil folder to play with more filters. Eventually, I had the perfect amounts of dots on that layer. That layer literally look like a smokers lung. All it took was one blending option "screen" to make it look like beautiful dirt particles. I even fiddle with the hue/saturation to make it even more pleasing. If I was just to take away these few steps then the true face of the image would be revealed.

The type-layer mask is also fixed, like something that is sketchy; never to be changed; unlike a clipping mask. It implies that someone can  cheat on the phrase for another their own gain. Is the emotion happiness contained? In fact, type layer mask is practically never used in the Photoshop world, simply because it cannot be edited. In brief, even if the Asian model is a beauty, illusions can be put in place to enhance her look.

Light bulb (illustrator)

"Adobe illustrator" vector Image 

Adobe illustrator is renowned for creating images with shape. The light-bulb may not look photo-realistic, as I was just grasping the concepts of illustrator, such as the gradient tool, and pen tool. In the end, I would say I am content with the process, but the result is not the greatest compared to the original image. Many people more skilled with the process, can make photographic copies of the original copy.

In this copy, I used to pen tool, and the gradient tool to get a basic value effect. During my experimentation, I got a better understanding of the pen tool as how it works. In the end, when I able to illustrate the highlights in a finer detail then when i first started with the contour of the lightbulb. I was able to utilize tricks, such as only using outlining half of the matter, and using Edit-Transform-reflect to do the other half. After, I played with the gradient fill to try to illustrate some basic value to the light bulb.

Original Image