Update - Photoshop is difficult, but I'm getting the hang of it

Here's another update with how my final project is going.  I'm still struggling to get the hang of Photoshop and working with my Wacom tablet, but I've made the process easier by starting with a sketch that I scanned into the program.  Now I'm digitally drawing on top of that and blocking out colored areas and trying to figure out what to do for the background.  I've shown some friends and they have also made some suggestion about color and removing some elements that would connect my drawing to a club on campus, so I'm trying to appeal to what they want as well.  I created a Pinterest board of inspiration for this project, so here's a link to that:

https://www.pinterest.com/tessaamira/badass-self-portrait/

And here are just a few random selections from that board:




As far as my Photoshop process goes, it's a challenge for me to work on the right layer and not overdo it.  I currently have an ungodly amount of layers, but I'm trying to organize them by name and group.  I also have the tendency to select layers without realizing it and then do a ton of work and later realize I was drawing on the wrong layer.  So to prevent this, I've been locking each layer as I go.  I also make them invisible if I think they will distract me from other active layers.

Right now one of my main concerns is that my drawing will become too blended and refined, so after I'm done blocking in colors and shading, I'll go back in with a smudge tool or something and see what I can do.  If that doesn't work (because everything's on a separate layer), than I plan on printing this image out and working on it with pen and/or oil pastel.  I would love that sketchy, comic book illustration feeling that I had with the original sketches, but I also would love to play around with my pastels.   Maybe I'll print out two copies just to experiment with each.  I also am an art education major, so I've been working on unit plans for finals week as well.  I plan on using a slightly less gory and violent version of this picture for my unit plan as well (if my ed teacher lets me).  The problem is that it might be too violent to use as an imaginary student example (not something to show students, but something a student could hypothetically submit).  However, while trying to create this unit plan, I've been looking back at all my old artwork from high school and quite frankly, I'm surprised I was allowed to create any of it at all.  My senior work was particularly screwed up.  From stripper-leprechauns, to a drug/arms dealing Grim Reaper, and Lady Liberty pointing a gun at her own citizens - my artwork should have been censored by the school.   Coming from a school that let me create what I wanted, it's hard to envision what it must be like at Kingston High School (my observation placement) where they have constant police presence and heightened security.

I guess we'll have to wait and see where this project takes me.  I want to do so much more with it and do a collage of images, but I'm afraid I'll only have time for one - but I'm going to make it as detailed and awesome as possible.  Wish me luck, and I hope it turns out as good as I hope it will.

New Idea and I'm sticking with it

Hello,
As you all know, I have been more than a little indecisive about this project.  Just to give you guys an update, I've been dedicated to this idea since mid-March (wow so impressive!) so this is the idea I'm sticking with.  This comes from my experiences this semester and my friends are as always, my inspiration.  I wanted something risky in medium and subject matter.  My professors have said that I don't do well with theatrical, dramatic art and they think I should work more subtly, so in response to those opinions, I am doing this overly-dramatic piece for myself.  I wanted to make something that was all about me and that boosted my self confidence both in myself and my art, and I hope that I will achieve that with this piece. 

I can't let anything slip about it, but here's a little sneak peek at some of my inspiration:

So Indecisive

Hello everyone,
I know I've been absent for a while.  The truth is, I've been saving up posts as drafts, but not posting them because I kept changing my mind about my project.  This post is originally from March, just so you have an idea of the timeline:

So I've scrapped my secret mystery project yet again.  This time though, it was due to time constraints and changing feelings towards the nature of the video.  Since I'm no longer using this as my final, I feel like I can go into more detail about it. 

I originally planned to do a rotoscope for my final of a song I fell in love with.  My dance team FOCUS picked the song for us to dance to and it also reminded me of a friend.  I planned to create an animation showing the night we met - as a dance of course- with him as my ever-elusive Peter Pan.  I felt like this song would be something I could relate to for a while - since this past year I've felt like a "lost boy" and have had no clue what I'm doing.  I've been living day-by-day more so now than ever before, and it's been a challenge.  I hate not having a plan for the future and now I'm not taking anything for granted - especially my friends and the time I have with them.  It's nice to reminice about the past - like I'm doing in this video - but I don't want to dwell on it to much.  As nice as that night was, a lot of shit happened between then and now.  Friends were lost, I was ignored and isolated, and there were a lot of tears. 

Now, however, I feel like I am in a much better place.  Looking back, I know that I am stronger than I was, and in some ways, sadly more weary and less trustful.  I'm scared of getting hurt by my friends again, and I'm terrified this will affect me for a while.  I also lost my team FOCUS due to poor management, and isolation (yet again) as everyone else became so involved with Greek life that it felt like I was being left out of everything.  They cut my art section, refused to give me straight answers on anything, and there were many occasions when I showed up to practice and no one else came. 

Luckily, now I have only one dance team to focus on - Nachle and I am very content with that.  Nachle is more of a family to me than FOCUS ever was, and we all look after each other.  I'm joining their eboard next semester, so I hope to be even more involved with the club and put all my effort into something that works and makes me happy.  I also have five new friends that I've grown really close to this semester and on top of that, I have a kick-ass suite of 4 that I'm so excited to move into in the fall.  So with things finally looking up, here is what little I did on my rotoscope - maybe one day I'll actually finish it, who knows.  And I hope you all had as great of a St. Patrick's day as I had...see you soon!

 

Also, here's my last unfinished, scrapped attempt at this final - a rotoscope to the song "White Houses" by Vanessa Carlton:

Changing my mind again

Hi guys,

So this week is only my second week back and things have been pretty insane.  Way too much drama and I'm already struggling to keep all the balls in the air as far as my schoolwork and clubs go.  I worked on my project for 2 days straight this week and I brainstormed and sketched almost every day for it since I came back to school.

And with that in mind - I think I might try to change my project.  Yes- I would lose all the work I've already done on it - but I think it would benefit me in the long run.  The original project was so specific and time consuming that it would be insanely noticeable if I failed to complete it - and I'd really like to feel like I finished a final (For at least once in my college career).  So I've decided on an idea that's a little more vague - especially in its theme and meaning and it's a lot more creepy - which seems to be where my art's going.  My first two projects for painting and drawing are going to be really similar, so I think that's the new direction I want to take my work.  Here's some in-progess shots of my first few projects this semester:

Above: Advanced Painting WIP 

Above: Advanced Drawing WIP/Concept Sketch

Initial Idea and background Info

If you've perused through my other blog, you might have noticed that my life is pretty messed up at the moment.  I just lost my two best friends last semester and dealt with months of them shunning me and now they completely ignore my existence (despite having one of them in 3 of my classes...).  I've felt depressed, vulnerable, and I've had to reach out to others that I normally wouldn't for advice, fun, a shoulder to cry on - and it's been a struggle.  Right now I'm left with remembering the good old days and not really having any way to get myself back to that point at the moment.

For my project, I was inspired by a song.  I won't reveal too much in case my professor reads this, but it is a song that has been in my life long before shit hit the fan this semester.  My amazing dance team danced to this song last year and it reminds me of all the wonderful memories I had with them before they all graduated and moved on.

This project is definitely a risk for me in more ways than one.  I'm using a different medium than I'm necessarily comfortable with and since my art has been accused of being static - I'm pushing the limits of what I can create.  I'm also taking a risk with the song choice.  Technically speaking, the song is about a girl losing her virginity - which technically isn't the case with me.  The challenge is to not think of this as a purely personal project like I want it to be.  I have an audience to think about too.  I have to carefully select the memories I choose to share in this project and figure out just how much of myself and my private life do I want to reveal to the class.  I'm a very private person, so this terrifies me. I was able to get away with doing more artwork that pushed the limits of what I was comfortable with in Intermediate Painting last semester because Jen didn't make me explain my work at the end of the year.  Even though I'm grateful she did that because it was of a sensitive nature, if I create it - I need to be able to talk about it.

Going into this project, I'm also scared of my personal limits and abilities.  I am extremely hard on myself and a bit of a perfectionist - which I fear is going to kill me on the time constraints we have to create this project.  I started working on it for an hour tonight and already I'm questioning the feasibility of my final.  My final is INSANELY time consuming - just in the planning stages alone, so whether or not I finish on time will also be an issue- and it's an issue I've been struggling with for years.

Anyways, it's getting late and I need to do other homework so I'll wrap it up here.  Please check out my last few blog posts on my other page if you haven't already.  It will really help you understand the mindset I'm in when I'm creating the work.  I'll continue storyboarding until next class - see you then!

At the Beginning with You

So hi everyone!

This is the start of my new (and probably unnecessary) blog!  I have to document my progress on my final assignment for a drawing class this semester and it has to remain a secret to everyone in the class- including the professor.  I'll try to take you through my chaotic process, ideas, and all the bumps along the way.  The goal of the project is to challenge ourselves with an idea so out there that we might end up failing.  So without further ado - I start tonight! Wish me luck...I'm going to need it.