PHOTOSHOP SELF PORTRAIT
Objective:
In this project, you will learn the basics of photo manipulation as well as further exploring composition, elements, and principles of design. You will create a montage of images that communicates a message, opinion, thought, feeling, or narrative. The self-portrait project will be your first experience using Photoshop to create fine art. You will use a digital camera or phone to shoot a picture of yourself specifically for this project. You will also collect additional objects, photos, or images from the web. You will then fade those items in and out of the photo using a variety of Photoshop tools and techniques.
You will also need to use some text. You may use a quote, a passage from the Bible, handwritten notes and more. Be sure to look at the examples for good ways to integrate text. The text that you use should be fully integrated into the image. It should not function as a label sitting on the top of your artwork.
Your final piece should look very descriptive and very much explain who you are. You should not try to include pictures of everything you like. Instead, focus on portraying some sort of abstract idea. Think about how everything conveys that idea; everything from pictures to color choices and compositions affects the viewer’s response.
Gathering Inspiration:
These are my rough (very rough) sketches of starting my self portrait. I gathered several images off of Pinterest that I was inspired by. Many of these images consisted of shapes and drawings within a photo of the person. It was hard for me to decide what I wanted to do because I loved all of the following styles from the abstract shapes to the scrapbook look. I wanted to find a way to somehow tie these styles together.
My original image I started with was a photo of me dancing since I often come alive when I am dancing. As much as I loved this image and will save it, I wanted something more challenging and complicated. I tried for a while to find a way to incorporate this photo in my final, but I ended up scratching it completely.
The Process:
Inspired by the photos of the flowers coming out of the face, I wanted to learn how to do something similar, so I researched on YouTube the tutorial linked below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AiyIuyPXx4
This was a very simple and easy follow along video that taught clearly how to step by step.
After creating this image, I then collected images that displayed things I enjoy such as painting, art, dance, writing, fashion, and of course, corgis. I began layering these photos, creating clipping masks onto ripped paper images in order to give a scrapbook type of look, and used filters as well. At first, I had to play around with it because I wanted to use so many different photos, and being a girl, I am highly indecisive which resulted in many images collaged together, but there was no central focus.
My Final Product:
My teacher suggested that rather than having three images that were about the same size, make one of the photos larger than all the others in order to catch the eye of the audience, and then tie it in with surrounding images. As I experimented... a lot... with all the different layers and images and layers I had gathered, I began to build a focus and my self portrait finally began to have some direction that led to my final product.
How does this represent who I am as an artist?
The majority of photos I gathered simply represent places I'd like to go such as France and Paris, things I enjoy doing and want to do in my future such as inspire people through my writing, drawing, painting, dance, and the way I live my life. It also captures my artistic eye that has always been drawn to fashion, aesthetics, and the beauty of life. I do enjoy elegant styles and designs, but I also have learned the danger of idolizing worldly beauty.
It can be easy to be drawn to what is beautiful, and it is not wrong, where is becomes dangerous is when I allow these things of the world that surround me become the identity of my beauty. I can surround myself in fancy clothes, the brightest of colors, and the prettiest of jewelry, but they cannot change who I really am.
It can be easy to be drawn to what is beautiful, and it is not wrong, where is becomes dangerous is when I allow these things of the world that surround me become the identity of my beauty. I can surround myself in fancy clothes, the brightest of colors, and the prettiest of jewelry, but they cannot change who I really am.
So just as this portrait has photos of all the things I enjoy surrounding me, the photo in the middle is myself with paint splattered on me to represent that even though I present myself to the world as fixed and put together, I am still flawed. I still make mistakes. I am still messy. For the beauty of the world will fade, and I have learned that the beauty inside of us, beneath the mess, will last and must be cultivated even more than the beauty on the outside.
