Recreating Childhood Photo

Surrealistic Theme

For my surreal photo montage, I'm going to make a tattoo come to life. I really admire the artwork tattoo artists come up with especially those who specialize in making natural tattoos like trees and flowers. The photos needed for this project are a photo of a tree from the park, a photo of myself either punching the ground or holding my hand in the air whilst underneath shade, and a picture of a park or forest for the background. Depending on the type of tree, the positioning of my arm will change.

1) If I choose to do the photo with me punching the ground, I want to be in a shady spot. I will be kneeling and my arm will be bent at 90 degrees so my fist is on the ground. The tree tattoo will be from my wrist to my elbow. However, at my wrist, the tattoo will come to life by turning into roots that bury into the ground. At my elbow, the branches will become real branches with leaves that will provide shade over me.

2) If I choose to do the photo with my hand raised high above my head, I will still be in a shaded area. My forearm will face towards the camera and the tree tattoo will stretch from my wrist to a little above my shoulder. The branches of the tattoo will stretch up, turning my fingers into branches. The branches will stretch to the "roof" of surrounding trees.

Surrealistic Artists

René Magritte
http://www.guastalla.com/en/artisti/rene-magritte

René Magritte-

René Magritte was born on November 21, 1898 in Lessines, Belgium. He studied at the Academie des Beaux-Art in 1912 which was around the time of his mother’s suicide. In 1922, he married Georgette Berger and took on many small jobs to pay the bills. Early in his career and marriage, he spent most of his time creating different art pieces. During this time, he became very interested in the concept of surrealism. Most of Magritte’s works were described as cavernous, bizarre, and his work also had recurring themes or similar scenes.

Magritte has his first solo show in 1927 at the Galerie la Centaurie. Following the depression from harsh critics at his solo show, René Magritte befriended an artist by the name of Andre Breton and became involved in a surrealist group. René Magritte lived and worked most of his life in Brussels, but has had his works in exhibits around the world. Magritte died of pancreatic cancer on August 15, 1967 in Lessines, Belgium. He is known for being a leader in surrealism and his works can still be viewed at many art museums and exhibits.

Frida Kahlo-

Frida Kahlo
http://www.fridakahlo.org/


 

Frida Kahlo de Rivera was born on July 6, 1907 in Coyoacán, Mexico. Kahlo first began painting after she was severely injured in a bus accident. She was impaled by a steel handrail and suffered injuries such as spine and pelvis fractures.  Not only did this accident jolt Frida into becoming an artist, she also became politically active; eventually marrying a communist artist in 1929 by the name of Diego Rivera. In her paintings (most being self-portraits), she used surrealistic, realist, and traditional Mexican elements. Frida Kahlo died (possibly due to pulmonary embolism) on July 13, 1954 in Coyoacán, Mexico at her iconic Blue House. Kahlo’s legacy lives on in her Blue House which opened as a museum in 1958, becoming a feminist icon during the feminist movement of the 1970s, several biographies, and a 2002 film entitled Frida.

 

 

Artist’s Name: René Magritte

Title: The False Mirror

Date: 1928

Description: The piece depicts an eye with a sky strewn with clouds in the iris. The pupil of the eye is just a dark circle. Also, the eye lacks of eyelashes.

Analysis: This piece is fairly symmetrical vertically and horizontally if you don’t account for the clouds in the iris. It seems that Magritte avoided concepts such as rule of thirds to enable viewers to really analyze the concept of looking into the eye while the eye looks back at the viewers.

Interpretation: I interpret this piece as Magritte blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. Though the sky catches the viewer’s attention due to its color palette, the viewer snaps back into “reality” once they realize they sky is the iris of an eye. This also brings the question of who’s looking at whom: the eye staring at the viewers or the viewers staring at the eye.

Judgment: I really like this piece especially how realistic it appears to be despite the distinctive iris. I also admire how the sky is painted just as realistic as the entire eye.

 

 

Artist’s Name: Frida Kahlo

Title: The Wounded Deer

Date: 1946

Description: Frida depicts herself with her head on the body of a deer. The deer’s body is struck by 9 arrows. Though Frida’s face appears emotionless, the deer’s body seems to be in the motion of running away. The background presents a lifeless forest with cloudy sky in the distance.

Analysis: This piece is asymmetrical and uses dark, to some extent muted, colors to set the tone of this painting.

Interpretation: Considering prior knowledge of Frida Kahlo’s hospitalization after a bus accident, I find that this painting is reminiscent of the pain Kahlo endured because of the accident. Frida Kahlo suffered severe back pain because of the accident as well as several spine and pelvis fractures which are depicted through the placement of the arrows on the deer. I believe this background was chosen because the scenery gives a sense of isolation or desperation due to lack of bright colors and other forms of life.

Judgment: Ultimately, I believe this work of Kahlo’s is very successful. However, I feel that viewers won’t really appreciate the artwork unless they are aware of Kahlo’s hospitalization.

 

Though the previously featured works of René Magritte and Frida Kahlo both depict the surrealist art form, each artist exhibited different styles, tones, and imagery in their work. Considering Frida Kahlo is not a surrealist artist, The Wounded Deer exemplifies surrealism in illustrating Frida as a wounded deer. René Magritte, on the other hand, has practiced and consistently painted surrealist art. Though experience in the field would provide more success in work, Kahlo’s surrealist painting is able to be amongst artwork of Magritte’s by use of inspiration from unfortunate experiences. Magritte’s experience was coping with his mother’s suicide and being harshly critiqued for his art. Kahlo’s experience was being hospitalized. Something very similar between the two artists is that they both use very natural colors and keep their artwork as realistic as they can along with their fantasy aspects. Ultimately, both artists successfully created art that descends reality.

 

 

Removing Heads in Photoshop

Photowalk II: Primary colors

Pixlr Express App

Pixlr Express is a free photo editing app created by Autodesk Inc.  Pixlr Express is available on Android and iOS. The app not only has cropping, resizing, and filter capabilities, it also has specialized tools such as spot healing and blur/sharpen/focus. You can take photos straight from the app or from your existing photo gallery. Overall, this app was a great find and is very useful for photo taking and editing.

 

When you first open up the app, you see Camera, Photos, Collage, and Fresh. The Camera feature allows you to take a photo directly through the app. Choosing Photos allows users to access existing photo galleries to choose a photo to edit.  The Collage item lets users to arrange their photos in a combination to save as one photo. The Fresh selection is a shortcut to your most recent taken photo. Also, in the upper left hand corner, there is an options gear manage the app’s settings.
 In the editing section, the menu options are Adjustment, Effect, Overlay, Borders, Type, and Stickers.  In the screenshots, you can see how each option opens to show more specific selections. In my personal experience, the most helpful feature is the Adjustment tab.  Tools like Stylize and Heal are easy to use and as precise as Photoshop.

Like any app, there are pros and cons to using this system. Some pros are that this app is the mobile equivalent of Photoshop, you can take and edit photos without leaving the app, all actions run smoothly, sharing capabilities are instant, the in-app camera has amazing quality or overlay options, and the app has never crashed since I downloaded it. The only con I can have for this app is that it needs more variety in editing themes.

In my personal experience with the app, it is a great addition to my phone. I always open this app rather than use the original camera app. The clean layout makes the applications easy to use so even people picking it up for the first time can maneuver through the app like a pro. Pixlr Express is so much fun to use and should definitely be downloaded immediately.

 

David Hockney Inspired Collage

 Hockney Inspired Portrait

 

 

Reference Photo:

 

 

For this portrait, I had my model, Caitlyn C., sit against a wall with a window on her left side. I had her wear a light colored shirt to contrast her hair color and the beanie to help connect the photos better. To capture the photos, I started taking photos of her face and worked my way outwards. Next time, I hope to take more photos of her face so I could break it up better.

 

Hockney Inspired Landscape

 

Reference Photo:

 

For this landscape photo, I used a room filled with distinct colors to bring the photo out. I stood in one spot and took photos in a panoramic manner. The hardest part of this photo was the bookcase and, next time, I hope to pay more mind to final composition. I also added layering effects to certain pictures to give the photo more depth.

Photo Walk

I'd Rather Be

For this photo, I tried to photoshop myself walking on the campus of Chaminade University. Some problems I ran into were cropping my hair into the frame and matching up the brightness and shadows. Next time, I will take my picture on a more contrasting background to make editing easier.

Partner Portraiture

For this photo, I had Marissa sit on a ledge to create the view of her sitting on the edge of a CD. Some complications I faced were that the original CD caught the reflection of everything in front of it and the window behind Marissa lightened her hair and face too much for the photo.

Reflective Photography