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Memories in My Skin picture

Memories in my skin reflection

Memories in my Skin Reflection

Stephanie Brighton

Photoshop.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Technical

There were various techniques new to me that I used. This includes altering the hue and saturation of images, altering the opacity of images as well as their layer blends. I used various layer blends on almost every image so that they looked like they belonged and playing around with the opacity helped with the layering.

Idea or Concept

Originally I didn’t really have a concrete idea; I had a memory and ideas of pictures I wanted to use. However it took me a long time to actually come up with an idea on how to combine the two elements I already had. Working on this piece was basically a big game of trial and error for me. The one design idea I actually thought I did have, which was a background, was the aspect I actually had to change because it was too busy and that none of my pictures went with it. Once I had a simpler background to work with then I felt like I had more space to work with without worrying that my piece would be too crowded. I also found it easier to work once I had collected a bunch of images and then started to play around with them instead of “perfecting” an image then searching for more.

Influences

I had no particular influence from other artists for this piece. This piece is focused around my own memory and I therefore felt that because it is personal that I should design it the way I would and not the way someone else would.

Composition

I tried to balance this composition by having similar structures offset from each other; for example, the birds flying at the top and the footprints in the sand at the bottom. Each structure isn’t just one big picture, but is a combination of many little images. These small images keep moving one after the other and helps with the movement as well. I also offset the more powerful pictures in my piece so that attention would be focused on each side instead of one side being overwhelming.

There are various ways that one’s eye can move around my picture. There are a couple pictures that are focus points in my picture but a good point to start at are the hands holding the sunset because it is quite prominent. From there, the eye follows both the curved birds and rounded pool of water which lead to another prominent picture, the earth. The pieces of the deteriorating earth falling brings the eye downward and the way the way the earth is almost grabbing at the picture of the person brings the eye to the left. This is continued by both the footprints in the sand and the rounded bottom of the pool of water. The eye then travels up with the grey butterfly morphing into one that is more colorful flying back up to the sun. I find that the eye can easily move around because there are structures on both the top and bottom that are rounded which gives the piece a smoother transition from picture to picture or side to side. Each picture has emphasis because of what it’s paired with. For example, the colored butterfly has emphasis because of

Motivation

My motivation for this piece was that I wanted to express my feelings in a new way and to have images that really connected to me personally. I’m so used to expressing myself with words and music that to express myself with pictures seemed like an intriguing challenge. I wanted to really dig deep and focus on how my memory of Nicaragua truly made me feel and I feel I was successful with that.

Critical Assessment

My favorite element of this piece is the man walking towards the keyhole within the deteriorating earth. To me, this feels like one of the most powerful parts of the piece and really communicates how I feel about my memory. This part feels like a real portal to another world. It expresses that we as humans are the key to a better tomorrow and are the only ones who are capable of rebuilding the earth which is slowly falling apart. I’m proud of this particular part because I feel like it is really profound. I’m also proud because it makes me feel like I succeeded in understanding the true meaning of a mission’s trip.

The most surprising thing about creating this piece, for me, would be how long it actually took me to come up with an idea. I had thought that because it was my own memory that I would know exactly how I would want the layout to be; the part of the process was actually rather time consuming. I also found it difficult to fill the center of my background without having just one picture that would be focused on in the middle. It also surprised me how much time had to be put into this piece; because I’m not much of an art student I’m unfamiliar with things such as how much time a piece takes to create. Overall, if I had more time I think I would try to acquire and layer my pictures more and maybe even be a bit more adventurous with my ideas.

Memories in My Skin: My Mission's Trip

Memories in My Skin.

My mission’s trip

Nicaragua: a patchwork of societies rich and poor. When I was in grade 9 it was always my goal to venture to this beautiful country on my school’s mission trip and lucky for me, it became a reality once I hit grade 11. Never having done anything like this before, I truly did not know what to expect. I was the type of person who worried about everything and had never really been the adventurous type. I did know, however, that I wanted to make a difference in the world. So I left my comfort zone and journeyed to a land of uncertainty; I just never knew that it would become my second home. I didn’t realize how great an impact this journey would have on me but I am extremely thankful every day that it did. Otherwise I would not be the person that I am today.

I had so many new experiences there that still seem too good to be true. 29 of us worked and stayed at an orphanage, doing maintenance, farm work, building a sidewalk and teaching English. Some days we would have day trips to different villages and on our last day we went to the beach. We went zip lining and got to explore the Nicaraguan culture as well. Although these day trips were fun, we also got a taste of the poverty in Nicaragua. It makes you realize how lucky you are and that in retrospect our little everyday problems are quite insignificant compared to them. We had kids come up to us and beg for food and money which was devastating. It’s easy to forget that this is how people live when we don’t see it every day in Canada. But I was happy to at least make a difference in the lives of some kids, the kids of the orphanage. We would eat lunch with them almost every day and would hang out with them after they were done school. Going into this I thought that they would have been miserable in an orphanage but in reality they were happy, healthy and just one big family. It was impossible not to be happy when around these kids. Each kid was unique and no matter who you were they treated you like family. It was difficult to go home because I knew I would be missing these kids every day. But I’m ecstatic to say that I will be seeing them all quite soon once more; I’m counting down the days.  

What I got from this experience will stay with me forever. I wasn’t even back home for five minutes before telling my mom that I needed to go back. I believe that I am a very different person than who I was before I stepped onto the Nicaraguan soil. Being in a different country for two weeks doing charity work made me look at my own life and realize that I needed to make some changes; that was a big year for me. I truly found myself and realized what I wanted from life. Now, I feel outgoing, willing to take risks and not so judgmental. I made bonds with people that will last a lifetime and I even still keep in touch with them to this very day. It’s hard to explain an experience like the one I had. It was like I shed my skin or broke free from the chains holding me back from my true potential. Each day I feel freer than I ever have and like I actually made a difference in someone’s life.

9 of Me: Heath Ledger Edition

Hue and Saturation

Layer Blends and Erasers

First try at brushes