My New Hair Styling Trick...I Mean Design Skill

Selection and layering— while it sounds like something that you would ask your hair stylist to do, it's actually a digital design skill. Selection is the process of outlining something to move it, change the size, edit, and basically anything else you could possibly do to a photo. Layering is just what it sounds like, putting things on top of and below other selected items. Layering is easy if you have a clear vision of what you want the final product to look like. Selection is a tad but more interesting because there are MILLIONS of ways to select something. The magic wand tool may be one of my favorite ways, because it's really easy and I like things fast and simple. The Lasso tool is the biggest pain in the neck; because God forbid you click the mouse anywhere by accident you’re screwed.  If you don’t click the lasso exactly where you want it, you’re screwed.  If you even try using the lasso tool, you’re screwed!  But I indeed did have to use the lasso tool and I that might have been the most agonizing part of the project.  And in the end I shrunk the item down so small you couldn’t even tell how much work I put into it—I digress.

So my first design is called Kitty Jones’s Diary.  It’s a satirical parody of one of my personal favorite movies, Bridgette Jones’s Diary.  This would be my big selection piece.  I used some drop shadows to give the poster/book cover some depth.  I also used a little bit of layering when it came to giving Kitty Jones her little flower in her fur.  I also used the layer duplication with the possible suitors, the fish.  Kitty Jones’s Diary 5 is coming to a theater/ bookstore near you soon!

This second design is not my favorite but I took so long to do all of the selecting and layering in this project that I couldn’t just scrap it.  Each item in this design was carefully selected and layered to give this table the design aesthetic that comes with a dining room table.  By the way, it was the forks and knives that required the undivided and undying attention with the Lasso tool.  And because I feel like it’s still lacking I think I want to go back and maybe add some hard wood floors and something to make it look like it has a wall for dimension.  Enjoy.

Ian J.

Ian J, the Na'vi

So this by far is my favorite piece of art that I've created in Photoshop (that includes all the stuff I did in high school.)  This was amazing!  The process wasn't that hard at all, because i did was read the directions and create.  At first I was a little skeptical about this and it being the second assignment, but this was a great intro assignment because it got us straight into using all the tools.  I haven't used Photoshop since junior year of high school, but once i got into the flow it all came back to me.  I guess it's kind of like riding a bike.  Now while I think this is amazing, there are a few flaws.  One of my eyes is slightly bigger, but what makes it worse is that its the eye that should be smaller due to the positioning of my face in the photo.  But they still look really good.  One thing i tried but refused to do was change the nose.  I tried for a very long time and came to the conclusion that my nose is big enough and kind of alien looking anyway, so why change it.  I really wish I could have done the whole iris thing, but my eyes are too dark.  Altogether I believe this is an amazing piece of art and I love it (and so do my friends on Facebook, and all of my residents who I made look at it.)  Enjoy.

Before:

 After:

Ian J