Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Last Post Ever (For Now)

It's done. I finished the skyline vexel. It took all quarter, and I've been coming to school  the last few days for the sole purpose of finishing this piece. I was unsure that I'd finish it, but it's done and I'm proud of how it turned out. I might add a little more detail to the sky and horizon, but as far as I'm concerned, the piece is complete. I've had a great three years in graphic design classes, and I'm going to miss working with Mr. Runge and all my classmates who have helped to guide me along the way. No guarantees, but depending on my courseload, I may continue this blog throughout college. I think this piece is a great way to end, considering that I'm leaving St. Petersburg, where I've lived my entire life, and the sheer amount of time and work I put into it. This piece has tested nearly every skill I've learned in graphic design, and my patience as well. I consider this piece my greatest acomplishment, and hope to possibly print it out big. For the final time, thanks for looking.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

The Devil in The Details

This week, as school for me is coming to a close, I really focused in on the details of this piece. I finished the Vinoy, a few other buildings and began work on the remaining buildings. I think I'll probably finish before the end of my year, at least I hope to finish.

Friday, April 25, 2014

More Skyline

This week I did more work on my skyline piece. I started working on the windows on the Vinoy that I'd neglected to do before. They're turning out pretty good, and I think I'm gonna finish ahead of time. I can't wait to see how this turns out.

Friday, April 18, 2014

SKYLINE AGAIN

This week I made a lot of progress. The trees are getting to look very strange, so I should probably fix that. I'm finding this piece to become increasingly difficult and my patience to be wearing thin. However, I still enjoy the piece and can't wait to finish.

Friday, April 11, 2014

This week, I continued work on my piece, and I made an insane amount of progress. I spent quite a bit of time on the boats, but I really like how they turned out. Unfortunately, I merged most of the layers for the left half of the piece, and afterwards I realized that I had a few mistakes, so I've had to fix those in a roundabout manner. Overall, the piece is going very well, and it looks like I'm on target to finish ahead of schedule!

Friday, April 4, 2014

Skyline Week 2

This week I continued work on the skyline that I talked about last week. Despite having a concussion and not having class every day because of the new schedule, I've managed to make a significant amount of progress! I may just be able to finish this piece! (Don't worry Mr. Runge, I'm kidding, I will finish this piece!) By sacrificing some of the detail on things like trees and other organic materials, I'm able to have more progress. Depending on the amount of time I have after I finish all the buildings, I'll probably go back and add details that I intentionally left out. Regardless, the piece is coming along and I'm still very much excited about it!

Friday, March 28, 2014

Skyline Week 1

This week, I began a project that will likely span the entire 4th quarter. I wanted to make my last works be somewhat of a legacy, as this is my last quarter in high school. After making many vector based works over the course of the year, I've become fairly proficient in working with the pen tool in Photoshop. Following in the theme of the drawing I did of the St. Pete pier, I decided to undertake a project that a classmate had begun but not got far due to the sheer volume of work involved: creating a vector drawing of the St. Pete skyline. I've made a lot of progress this week, but I still have a lot to do, and two of the buildings you see were created by Dylan, although I did touch them up a bit to make them fit my style a little more. I'm super excited about this piece and I have high hopes that I'll finish it!

Thursday, March 6, 2014

This Week in Space Travel

This week, we were allowed to do whatever we wanted so long as we were working on something. Last friday, I don't know what possesed me to do this, but I began work on a vector drawing of the space shuttle. That became my focus for this week, and I was able to finish it in record time for a vector image (they usually take me far longer). I like it a lot. I had a lot of trouble getting the color to work together in a satisfactory manner, and I think it probably could still be improved upon, but I don't think I'll do that at this point in time.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Time For a Little Cross-Curricular Jellyfish

This week, we had no official assignment other than to roam free in photoshop, so I made a jelllyfish. We were talking about phylum cnidaria (jellyfish are a part of this) during AP Biology this week, and I was inspired by just how beautiful jellyfish truly are. I took a picture of a jellyfish that I found online, made it black and white, and used the pen tool to recreate it as a vector and bring color to the jellyfish, while placing it on a background almost identical to the one that resulted from the black and white adjustment. I spent a lot of time making the tentacles just right, but I'm really happy with the end result.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

#sunset

This week, we took photos indoors and made them look like they were in sunsets. I didn't look at any tutorials, I kinda just winged it. Using various adjustment layers and doubling up some layers I was able to make Cole look like he was in the orignal sunset photo.  It was hard finding the right sunset background for what I wanted. I also had trouble getting the levels where I wanted them. The photo looks different on here than it does in Photoshop, it looks more realistic there. #coleissunset

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

GIFs!

The last two weeks have been incredibly productive, despite only being in class a few days. I revised my original GIF of Cole smashing clay on the ground. I hand colored the clay, so when he smashes it, you can follow all the fragments, making for a much cooler GIF. I also finally finished my CB450 vector drawing that I've been working on for a while, and decided to GIF it. I originally wanted to make the wheels move with the bike, however, the way I made them, I'd have to redo the piece in order to accomplish that, so that will have to be something that I work on in my free time. I really am happy with both of these pieces. (They load faster when you open the images in their own tab by right clicking on them and selecting "open in new tab")

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Portraits....AGAIN????

This week, we were assigned to make three portraits that told a story. After realizing my initial idea was not doable, being the apathetic senior that I am, I decided to tell a story of seniors suffering through their remaining days here. In photoshop, I first made the images black and white. I then made corrections to get the levels and exposure just right. Next I went to the filter gallery and would experiment with layering halftone pattern filters and note paper filters. After I got those where I wanted, I went back and adjusted levels again until I was satisfied. The reason I chose this look is because earlier this week I saw a music video, Liar (It Takes One To Know One),  by the band Taking Back Sunday, which uses a similar stylistic approach, and it looked cool, and after accidentally stumbling across the halftone pattern filter and note paper filter, I decided to go with this look.


Friday, January 24, 2014

Painting poorly

This week, I did a painting tutorial. Needless to say, it went poorly. Very very poorly. I feel really bad about what I've done to the photo of cole that I painted. I'm used to painting on top of pictures, and I've never painted anything "from scratch" like this, and I clearly need some more work in this area. I think I'll stick to painting over things for future paintings.

Friday, January 17, 2014

Cole...Again!

This week, we did more portrait based pieces. For this one, I followed a tutorial that showed how to use Photoshop to add more elements to portraits. I started with a portrait of Cole, then removed the background. From there I kind of strayed from the tutorial, cause I really didn't have the vision of that kind of piece in my head. By some accident, I accidentally managed to give Cole long hair. After that, it all came together. Using various noise filters on water drop textures as well as the original portrait I was able to create a cool portrait loosely based on the tutorial.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

COLE SMASH!

This week, we were instructed to create 3 portraits. I was stumped, but decided to photograph Cole. He suggested that I attempt to get a photo of him smashing leftover clay pieces on the ground. I had little to no luck with that, so I decided to try a video, and create stills from that. What resulted was  a gif that shows him in the various stages of smashing, each frame a portrait of him. At the end, I had a little fun and added the popular Doge meme for comedic relief. COLE SMASH!