Abstract: This mid-term portfolio in its entirety includes photos and artworks that have significant meaning to me as an artist. The photos themselves aim to evoke emotion and are meant to be interpreted differently by each person who views them.
Portfolio Log: As my portfolio progressed, I realized that I wanted to use pieces that demonstrated more technical skill with regards to digital imaging. For this reason I chose to include an abstract portrait of my friend Jess, a digitally enhanced photo composite of my other close group of college friends, and a manipulated photo of my friend Becky looking at a butterfly. The amount of time it took to produce each artwork varied greatly depending on what elements of the artworks needed to be retouched. I found for example, that my photo composite of my friends gathered in a kitchen took longer than the one of Jess.
To begin, the photo of Jess is undoubtedly one of my favorites. I included this piece in my portfolio because I loved the bright colors and raw atmosphere within the piece. I am strangely proud to say that this piece was a product of much random experimentation. I over saturated many parts of the piece and used curves and brightness/contrast to give it the edge and boldness I was looking for. However, I noticed that the white in her clothing was somewhat gray, so I went back with the paintbrush tool to erase and correct the dull areas. From there I added a very noisy shadow behind her with the burn tool. The end result was so fascinating and unexpected to me. I almost felt like I had created a pop art piece and needed to showcase it in my portfolio.
The photo composite on the other hand, required far less experimentation. I simply wanted to incorporate a friend of mine into a photograph that he had previously been absent from. I discovered recently that despite the fact that he is a major part of my friend group here at college, my girlfriends and I had very few pictures with him. I thought this unfair. The process involved in creating the final product largely demanded the many photo-editing and color-correction skills we learned in class. The original photo of my friend was taken in the dining hall, which gave the photograph and unsatisfying, yellowish tint. I used the color balance tool in Photoshop to counter this to the best of my ability, and then sharpened and brightened it. I became very good friends with the curves tool at this point, which allowed me to get the shadows I was looking for in the places where I wanted them. I also became very close with the shadows/highlights tool for the same reason. From there, I used a layer mask to remove him from the original photograph. I inserted him into the new photograph and made some minor adjustments to the entire piece to unify it in terms of color and composition. This is another of my favorite pieces because I think that from an outside perspective, some people would not realize that my friend had been Photoshopped into the picture, and I thought this to be a great indicator of what skills I have acquired with Photoshop.
The picture of my friend Becky is one that was slightly less challenging yet very fun to create. I remember one sunny day when she was wearing her tinted sunglasses, the art building across the street from her reflected beautifully into her glasses. I thought it would be interesting to remove all the color from the image, except for what was reflected in her sunglasses. This largely required the use of the black and white tool in Photoshop, but I also enhanced the black and white parts of the photo with brightness/contrast and curves. From there, I removed the image of a butterfly from another photo of mine via the layer mask tool, and inserted it into the new picture to make it appear as though Becky was looking at a butterfly rather than at the art building. To make the picture more convincing, I also put the same butterfly image in her sunglasses, (colored of course) and completed the piece with some last minute minor enhancements. I included this piece in my portfolio because I loved the effects that were added to it throughout the entire process.
Self-Reflection: As with any artworks I have ever done, I feel that some of my pieces were better than others. For example, where my self-portrait demonstrated considerable drawing ability, I feel that I should have focused more on the digital imaging aspect of the piece. I also felt that these pieces lacked unity due to the fact that I chose them all based on what I liked visually rather than grouping them together under a more coherent theme. These are things that I would like to fix about my pieces in the future. However, I also felt that my work featured some strong points as well. As I mentioned above, my last 3 pieces showed more digital skill than the other artworks in my portfolio. I really had to focus on what I had learned with regards to photo-editing in order to create convincing and interesting pieces of art. I did think that I was successful in this, especially in the piece featuring my friend Paul, since he was never in that photo but appears to have been there all along. I would like to keep honing my Photoshop abilities as this class progresses, and I would also like to develop my skills as a photographer, so I consistently have the best possible photographs to use in my work.
