It is funny, of the classes I took this semester, I expected to get the most out of this one. I knew the basics going in, knew enough to not be intimidated by Photoshop, and had a great desire to learn it, but I don't think anything I produced reflect that. Now, I did learn quite a bit about how the program works and how to do a lot of new things, but I don't think the projects meshed for me.
Anyways, as with all the projects I am going to show on the page, the resolution has been lowered from their original state (150-300dpi) to 72 dpi (normal screen resolution), all layers have been merged, and they were saved in a format that was as close to the original but not necessarily accurate. All this was done to trim down size (some of these files are upward of 300meg).
The first project, Gradient/Path, was really just to get us used to the pen tool. We were supposed to take a page from a coloring book, separate each little aspect of it into a path, save that path, make a layer for that little aspect, and fill it with a gradient. As it turns out, this project ended up with 113 paths with 113 corresponding layers. Doesn't look that complex, does it?
Project number 2, the Merge, was supposed to take a series of pictures and "seamlessly" blend them together to create a montage kinda thing. I used a few pictures that Erin took in France, did some touch up work, and went to work. The end result really kinda sucks.
Project 3, Scale Confusion. The object was to put things together that obviously did not belong and make them fit together properly. I think this would have worked better had I taken outdoor shots, or if I had a much better digital camera (or started much earlier so that I could take real photos and use them). The ones I took were all here in the living room. Even though they were taken from the same angles with the same lighting the shadows did not really seem to mesh at all. Even with all the correcting I tried to do, it just really seemed off. The resolution is off a bit between me and the background, and if you look really closely, you can see the clip I used to compress the paint tube. Not too bad, but it could have been better.
Project 4, the Abstract. The only real limitations on this one were the lack of geometric shapes or overriding theme. I have a real problem with not using geometric shapes. I think I am too much of a math person and I have trouble getting away from it. I also have issues with using Photoshop as a wannabe painting program. Even the nicest end products just look like a filter fest and I lose respect for the piece... which also translates to: I have no respect for my piece.
