Digital Art Final Project

Public Service Announcements

Public Service Announcements (PSAs) are messages in the public interest with the objective of raising awareness, changing public attitudes and behavior towards a social issue.

Your Final Project for this class (worth a Final exam grade!) is to create a Public Service Announcement Poster.

The Project will be graded in 2 parts:

- The actual PSA Poster, graded using the same sort of rubric we've used all trimester (appearance, effort, photoshop technique, image quality...)

- A written component at the beginning and end of the project (blog posts)

Step 1:

• What is a social issue that you feel you should call attention to?
• Create a BLOG POST that is a sort of brainstorm/journal entry about this.
• What's your topic?
• Why do you care about it?
• What do you want to say?
• How do you intend to portray your message?

Step 2:

• Create your poster.
• Gather images you could use in your design.
• Research your topic- is there a statistic you can include for emphasis?
• Make your canvas- be sure you have a high quality printable poster! Shoot for 300 resolution, and a size that's in the 1,000's (we used 4,000 x 4,000 for our typography projects!)
• Make sure you use the following:
• Text
• Layers
• Color Alteration OR a Filter
• at least ONE image/object you've photographed or drawn yourself.

Step 3:

• Finished Your Poster? Before your flatten your layers, make sure I check it. This is your final! Let's make sure they're perfect!
• Once you've gotten the OK from me, Hand it in on a flashdrive as a .jpg
• Complete a Final Blogpost reflecting on your project:
• What is a PSA?
• Did you learn anything new about your topic?
• How do you feel about your final product?
• What was the most difficult part of the project?
• How are you feeling about your Digital Art Skills now?

The projects will be due during our Final Exam block on June 13th.

Seniors, You leave before this, you  may complete the project before you leave and hand it in on June 6th, or you may take the extra time and bring me the finished project on June 11th on a flashdrive. It is YOUR responsibility to remember to do this! (You have to be here for marching practice anyways!)
That being said, Seniors, you may want to avoid an overly complicated or labor intensive design.

Typography Blog Post

When you have completed your typography project, please save it as a .jpg and upload it to your blog.

Answer the following questions for a SELF CRITIQUE (Quiz!) Grade...

• What is your typography piece about? Why did you choose this subject?
• Did you choose specific words for your piece? Why did you choose the words you did?
• This is a tedious process, be honest! How are you feeling about typography now that your done? Hate it? Enjoying the final product? Was it worth your time?
• What might you try different next time?

Reminder... this self critique will be a quiz grade, so put some effort into your answers :)

Please hand in Typography no later than MONDAY 6/3 at the beginning of class, and have this blog post complete as well.

Typography How To

Typography!

We are going to making TYPOGRAPHY designs. These are essentially really fancy Wordles- which means I'll be nice and let you off from Wordles for the rest of the trimester :)

Good typography uses layering, changing of fonts, changing of colors and opacities to really make the image stand out. All of the words used should enhance your subject.

HOW TO:

• Create a NEW document in Photoshop:
• Set the dimensions to AT LEAST 4000 x 4000 pixels and the resolution to 300 dpi. Bigger is better!

• You will need an image to use for this project. You can take your own photo, or use one from the internet. You want something with an empty background, and with an interesting shape that will work with the text. I'm going to use this eagle:

• Open your saved image in photoshop, cut it out if you need to remove the background. Place your subject in a new layer in your empty canvas you made in the first step.
• You should now have TWO layers. An empty 1st layer and a second layer with a guide image in it.
• Resize your guide image. Use the "show transform tools" button to drag the corners and center your subject. It doesn't matter if it's kind of blurry because we're going to delete it at the end!
• Familiarize yourself with the TYPE TOOLS.
• Press the "T" button. Now you should have a type menu at the top of your screen. You will want to use all different font sizes, shapes, colors and styles. Make sure you know how to change these things!
• Create a NEW layer for EACH text box you create. Make one now to begin.
• Create a text box over a section you wish to work on. I started with the Eagle's beak and zoomed way in so that was all on my screen.
• Type in words that work with your subject. Shape, color, and stylize them. Keep doing this until it looks appealing to you.

 

You can check to see what it's looking like by "hiding" your subject layer. In your layer window, "close the eye" on your subject layer and it will show you your words!

This is a LENGTHY process if done properly, but highly rewarding in the end. I expect you all to use your class time wisely for this. In the end, you should have well over 100 words in your typography projects.

These Projects will be due at the end of NEXT week.

On Thursday, May 30th for Period 3, and

on Friday, May 31st for Period 4

That will give Seniors 1 week for their FINAL PROJECTS and Underclassmen a week and a half!

There is no Final "Exam" for this class- but you will have a final project worth the same amount as an exam. It will have a project and written componant. We will go over it at the conclusion of this project.

Digital Art QUIZ coming soon!

We will be having a QUIZ on Wednesday May 29th, 2013.

Here's what we've learned, or will be learning, that you might want to know!

1. Digital Media
2. Depth of Field
3. Rule of Thirds
4. What are some of the AUTOMATIC modes on a camera?
5. What are MANUAL modes on a camera?
6. Silhouette
7. Contrast
8. Composition
9. Pop Art
10. Who is Andy Warhol?
11. Layers (photoshop)
12. 3 ways to change color in photoshop
13. What is OPACITY?
14. Portrait
15. Self Portrait
16. Photomontage
17. Typography
18. Wordle
19. know what makes a great photo.
20. how big should a photo saved from the internet be to use in photoshop?

BLOG POST: Portraits

PLEASE POST TWO (2) of your favorite Portraits you just handed in to me in a blog post.
One sentence about each would be lovely- more if you want :)

WE WILL BE CRITIQUING THESE- SO PLEASE POST THEM as soon as possible (In Class on Tuesday 5/21)

Saki Takahashi's Self Portrait

Critique Guidelines:

• Critique FIVE (5) classmate's portraits. post as comments on their blog posts.
• Be sure to type in the secret codes!
• Please do this by the end of class TUESDAY 5/21.

Wordle Wednesday! Portrait

Picaso- by Cory Smith

Wordle.net or Tagxedo.com

15 words or more

The Digital Portrait

Up Next:

Expression of the Human Form

The Digital Portrait

What makes a successful portrait?

What can artists convey through portraiture?

Self Portraiture

Self-Portrait, Judith Leyster, 1630

Self-Portrait, Gustave Courbet, 1843

Self-portraits are representations of an artist crafted by the artist themselves- drawn, sculpted, painted, and photographed.

Self-portraits have been around since the earliest times, but became more frequent in the mid-15th century when better and cheaper mirrors became available.

_______________________________________________________

PHOTOGRAPHY:

Things to Consider what Capturing the Human Form:

• Who is your subject? What do you want to say about them?
• What's going on in the background?
• Pay attention to lighting- do you want a silhouette? side lighting? subtle lighting? What kinds of moods will different lighting create?
• Think about clothing. Clothing can make or break the mood/effect of a photo. Same goes for props.
• Do you want a candid shot or a traditional portrait? Candid shots can create emotions and stories that a traditional shot can't.
• Cater to your subjects personalities!
• Keep in mind... a portrait isn't always a face... just usually :)
• A portrait can also be a SERIES of portraits... nobody said you have to tell a story with only one shot :)

______________________________________________________

PHOTOSHOP:

(like this one? :) There's a tutorial here if you're driven!)

Things to Consider When Processing Your Photos:

• Photos can use a touch up in photoshop 95% of the time. Even if it's just a minor lighting adjustment.
• Filters can be used to bring out elements of your portrait that help to tell the subject's story.
• We know how to select objects, put things in new layers, and fill in the color of certain areas. This technique can be used to make a poster-like effect like the last one by Shepherd Fairey above.
• You can change the backgrounds, or add in other props, but make sure they're adding to the portrait and not taking away from it...

________________________________________________________

YOUR ASSIGNMENT: 

Create a collection of portraits, including at least 1 self portrait, using any or all of the tools we have learned about so far. This includes the tricks we learned about photography AND photoshop! (A "collection" is at least 6.... although you may choose to do more)

• At least 6 finished portraits
• at least 1 of the 6 should be a self portrait
• portraits can be abstract representations, artistic representations, traditional representations, repetitive representations... if you're not sure if something counts, just ask!
• portraits should be QUALITY photographs taken by YOU with good lighting, composition, and technology (don't use crummy cell phone cameras... some are high quality- make sure you know the difference).
• portraits should undergo some kind of photoshop process, whether it be lighting/color alterations, background changing, filter application, or intense layering.
• At least 1 portrait MUST use layering.

Due on Flashdrives at the end of class on

Monday, May 20th.

(all 6 images)

Wordle Wednesday!

WORDLE WEDNESDAY!

Wordle.net or Tagxedo.com

15 words or more

Pencil Bullets

artist unknown

CRITIQUE #4

Monday 5/6

We will be critiquing each other's iPhrases, the same way we critiqued the concentration photos.
That being said, please make sure your iPhrase is uploaded to your blog prior to class on Monday 5/6.

Please choose 5 of your classmate's iPhrases to comment on. Follow the links from this blog to other students in your class period. Please complete these comments TODAY (Monday, 5/6) as I will NOT BE ACCEPTING LATE CRITIQUE comments this time around- it got far too complicated. I am giving you class time to do it today, so there is no need for lateness.

Remember- you have to type in the codes at the bottom of your comment posts otherwise they wont post- many people missed this last time.

Critiques are Quiz grades, so be thoughtful with your posts! Try to choose iPhrases from other tables other than your own- it's more fun to see what everyone else is doing than just your friends/neighbors who's you've already seen! :)