Color Correction

For this week, we needed to do color corrections on photos. I took some photos on my phone and came up with these:

Original Photos

          

              

The first photo is a shot is in my friend's kitchen. The second photo is in between Loser Hall and the Business Building in the evening.

Correction #1

The first photo did not have nice color. The brightness was very high and the image was very dull. I added saturation to the image to bring out the colors. I also used the Levels tool under adjustments to decrease the range of colors to help make the colors more rich. I also corrected the blues and reds using the color balance tool to make them more rich as well. I made a minor adjustment using the vibrance tool to make the image come together. I also added a slight warming filter to the picture to help bring out the color of the cup. Overall, I feel that I revived this picture to my memory. All of the objects in real life were very bright. I was very happy with the way this color correction came out.

Correction #2

 

For this photo, I noticed that it was very dark. You couldn't see a lot of details in the photo. I first adjusted the contrast in the photo to brighten the shot up. I then some selections and used the curves tool on each of the selections. It helped bring out more of the true colors in the image. With this tool, you can now see the detail in the road, the field in the background, and the bricks of the building. Adjusting the color helped to bring out the sky a little bit more without making it too overpowering. Overall, I enjoyed working on this photo and I think it came out much better than the original shot.

Week 3 Compositions

For this week, we needed to make 2 compositions that try to focus the eye to certain areas. We have to use the idea of thirds and lines.

Composition #1

In this composition, I took an original painting I have been working on and put some cars on it. I wanted it to look like an original hot wheels track. I added a motion blur behind each of the cars to add a direction to the cars. I did this by copying the layer that had each car and then adding a very heavy motion blur to them. I then placed the blur according to the direction I wanted to show the car moving in. I used the blur tool on the end of the car to help add the illusion in. I also used the idea of perspective to show a direction as well. The bottom car is longer than the orange car to show that it is closer to the eye. Overall, I am happy with the way this piece came out and I look forward to working on similar pieces in the future.

Composition #2

For this composition, I started with a picture I took one evening. The sky was a color I had never seen before. I then got the idea to put Zeus into the photo and turn it into a picture of worship. I drew the lines from the bottom corners to the middle point to make sure I had the direction correct. I then made sure to put the main focus in the center of the piece. I then took the silhouette of a man worshiping and clone stamped a crowd into each one. I then added a drop shadow to help outline the figures. Under each figure, I clone stamped in some burning candles to help add to the worshiping idea. I played with the opacity of each image to blend them all together. I am happy with this piece and I look forward to doing a more original version of this piece at another point in time.

Week 2 Compositions

For this assignment, we needed to make 3 compositions. With one, we needed to take 3 abstract photos and put them together. The other 2 were our choice. First, I will post my three photos:

Staircase in Eickhoff Hall

Staircase in Eickhoff Hall - From the Top

Ceiling of the Student Center

All three pictures display different abstract qualities. They all show some kind of collectivity, but they lack an overall pattern. There is an unusual angle involved as well. These pictures, though, lead to my first composition.

Composition #1

In this composition, I based it around the first photo. I took the staircase and then cleared out everything besides them. I left the railing as well as a divider. I then took my other pictures and made them parts of the whole. I used the magic wand tool to make most of the selections. Under the staircase is the ceiling of the student center, under the railing is a restaurant on campus, and above the railing is my 2nd photo. I used the clone stamp to put the photos in. I used the blur tool to smooth out some of the edges. I am very happy with the way this came out. 

Composition #2

This picture started with my friend Colin leaving a restaurant on campus. He was walking into a hallway. I decided to make my friend walk into space. I used the marquee and magic wand tool to select the window in the door and the space around Colin. I then took a picture of space and used the clone stamp to put the picture in. I then used the clone stamp on the door itself. I used the linear dodge (add) option to paint over the door. I wanted the door to look like it would have a reflection (kind of like a shadow) of space. I think it helped to tie the piece together. I also used the blur tool on some of the edges to kind of show a piece or two of the door falling in as well. I was happy with this composition.

Composition #3

Note: I plan on reloading this image, it got a little stretched out in the upload. The original picture was my friend Keith walking up the stairs. I decided to change the background (the floor of the stars) to the beach. I used the magic wand to select the area behind Keith and then used the clone stamp to paint in the beach. Once the beach was in, I decided to make a few more changes. I took the color of the sand with the eyedropper and painted part of it onto the brick wall. I used a lighter opacity to kind of show some light entering the stairway. I also took a light gray with a 10% opacity and painted a shadow for Keith. Overall, I was happy with this piece, but I would like to revisit this in the future.

TCNJ Art Faculty Exhibition 2011

I am really glad that Professor Sanders wanted us to go see the Art Gallery for the Faculty. It's nice to see the techniques that we learn in class used by our teachers. It helps produce a true value to them and it helps inspire me to be a better artist and designer. Overall, everything in the gallery was very nice and very visually exciting. I really enjoyed seeing all of the different styles and materials used to make the art. These are some of the artists that I can truly remember their work:

Chung Chak's two contributions Floral, Tokyo and Sunset, Montreal are a great example of composition. He used the same and similar images to build  landscapes that flows all together from far away. Upon closer inspection, you can see the individual pictures used to build the images. The two were both very impressive and a style that I very much like.

Professor Sanders' Disembarking starts with three simple photographs, but then turns into works of art. Throughout the three pictures, you are walking off of something that I think is the Staten Island Ferry (that orange color is something very distinct and can be spotted from a long way away). I like the effects and strokes thrown into the shots. Even though the title is Disembarking, without the name I wouldn't have known which way to go.

Bill Nyman's two pieces The Apples of Charlann and Floral Visions were both breath-taking paintings. They were both very enjoyable and ones that I could see for sale in a store like Target; something that a casual art enthusiast would enjoy.

Betsy Alwin's Herkimer Hammer helped fill the room with a rhythmic thud. When discovering what was making the noise, I was very excited. The piece, on a simple level, was a hammer hitting a rock. The device was powered by solar panels, which I thought was a very much over looked piece of the puzzle. I think that the piece had many meanings. I think it was a jab at the way alternative energy is looked at in the United States; its something readily available that can do the job for us, but we wish to overlook it. I also saw it as a way to think about life. The hammer isn't going to break the rock on the first hit, but the more the hammer hits, the closer it gets to its ultimate goal. Alwin's Volksgeister caught my eye as well. I liked the different components as one, especially the Ronald Reagan commemorative coin.

Bruce Rigby used a variety of materials to create his works. I liked that it was a combination of all different types of things onto a wooden background. The wooden background helped both of his pieces pop.

I did not understand Liselot Van Der Heijden's dissonance. This was a series of TV screens featuring different angles of a stuffed deer head. I thought that it was very thought provoking, but it went over my head for the purpose. But, then again, is that the purpose; to inspire thought and discussion? I look forward to talking about that with my classmates.

Overall, it was a very rewarding experience and I look forward to seeing more galleries.

Paintings

For our assignment, we needed to make 3 original paintings: a landscape, a self-portrait, and something else. We were supposed to take 15 minutes on one, 30 on the next, and 60 on the other. It was an interesting experience to say the least, but I enjoyed challenging myself to paint.

Landscape

 
This is the landscape painting that I made for the class. This was my 30 minute painting. I first painted the green grass background. Then, I painted the blue sky. I used solid, basic brushes for these. I then used a thin, long stroke brush with dark green, yellow, and dark red to paint the grass on the green background. I used a wide but thin brush with white to make a slight presence of clouds in the sky. Overall, I was very happy with the way this one came out.

Other

 

This is the other one I made. This was my 15 minute example. I took blues, purples, and black background and threw them all together. I wanted to make a very random, but expressive piece. I would call this piece Lost in the Dark because people see a lot of different things when they look into this piece. Some see a face in the middle. I used a variety of brushes while experimenting with different sized brushes. I was very happy with the way this came out.

Self-Portrait

 

This is my self-portrait. This one took more than 60 minutes. I had a really hard time getting started. I tried to just wing it at first, but my first draft looked like a three year old trying to paint daddy. I then took a photo of myself and used that as a guide. That greatly improved my skills. I drew myself a blue shirt along with my body. I didn't have too much trouble with the project when drawing the basic shapes. I had the most trouble with my ears and nose. The picture cut off the ears, so I tried to replicate that, but I'm not sure if I captured them enough. It took me a while for the nose, but eventually, I just used a basic shape to help finish the picture. Overall, I would like to learn how to do my nose again. I am not 100% happy with this and I would like to revisit this concept once my skills improve.

About Me

Hello! I am Dan Lisi, a junior Marketing major and a double minor in Graphic Design and Interactive Multimedia. I am really interested in design, advertising, sales, and marketing. When I'm out of school, I hope to pursue a career in Digital Media, Interactive,  and/or Advertising sales. Hopefully I can find some kind of combination between the three. I took this class because I am really interested in learning more about digital media, photoshop, and film. They were always strong interests of mine, but I am really looking to refine my skills.