Powerpoint on Christopher Bucklow by Kyle Krainski (Marvel Kyle)

 Artist Reflection for Project 5     

     The strongest technical aspect would be the use of circles to create different shapes. Circles are a constant theme in each of theses pieces in varying ways. Those bingo chips are first used to create a creature that resembles a dragon/wyvern flying at night (landscape - bottom left). Due to my lack of experience the clouds and wings didn't turn out to make it appear like said mythical creature(s). In the picture to the right of that (symmetry) the circles are used to create something like that of crosshairs on a scope, and the corners attach to that figure like spiderwebs. In the top picture (magazine) large reels are in the corners that create angles upon angles in the for of a broad cone, as it can not be accurately described as a full circle or a triangle. The smaller chips reappear here in a smaller amount around the mildly curved diagonal. they serve the purpose of adding more white to the blend, in a more-or-less unexpected fashion to the pattern. What I could improve on was my weakest technical aspect, the use of grays.  I knew that tissue paper would create grays, but I had not anticipated that multiple layers were needed. That is why there are no large clouds or wings on the landscape, and that led to the happy accident that the moon had experienced, which turned out different in the least. The grays had turned out exactly as needed for the magazine project because the enlarger was set properly for it, 10 seconds on F-11, which has the same F-stop as the other projects but longer duration. The additional time was needed to penetrate the magazine as it was a thick substance that was still able to let it a portion of light.  

     The easiest part was timing the chemicals and agitating them in the dark room. Just keeping track of when you put it the specialized paper and add the time that is instructed above the containers was all there was to it. Planing what to put on as blockers of light was much harder, as I was not sure how much tissue paper to use to create some good grays, on top of that I had to plan something without color, but just using white, gray, and black. The symmetry was the easiest to plan because it would be even on both sides so I had to only play with half and then duplicate. The hardest part would be trying to rearrange the blockers in the dark room because with the lack of visibility I could only get a general idea where I was placing things.

     The objective is demonstrated in the landscape only barely, with grays occurring sparsely. I want to redo that with more grays so that my imagination lines up better with the end product, but I didn't because I was instructed to use this result and learn from it because my progress lagged behind others. The white worked perfectly, with just more black than intended. The symetry picture had achieved its goal with less deviation due to being easier to reconstruct. The extreme right and extreme left have differences due to the tissue paper not being perfectly shaped, as it is hard to shape, and then replicate so it would it the same on both sides. The magazine project had filled its mission as the light penetrated the sheet and the image transferred onto the paper with additional blockers complicating the image. For the first project I would redo it where the grays show up as intended with more tissue paper; the wings and clouds would then be able to appear as gray. Redoing the symmetrical project I would use bigger pieces, as there would be less to balance on each side making it simpler and easier to do. I would use scissors to cut multiple layers of the tissue paper so it would be able to be more perfect clones. To redo the magazine image I would create a small message to write to go with the elected page. 

Artist Reflection for Project 4

     My strongest technical aspect for this project would be how well cut the edges are done, when things were in contact with something else they become hard to separate. Examples of things that are hard to separate in particular would be the light sky on the lemurs' white fur or the lemurs digits from the log. The earths had a white background when they were inserted in and now none of the copies have any of the void background showing. The technical aspect that could be improved in this piece would be choosing a better theme for the background. The current theme ties in well enough, as recycling, and the image of the planet are related to nature as this animal is from.
     The easiest part would be duplicating the layers. It is simple to select a layer, click layer, and hit duplicate layer. The background with the Earths and recycles symbols have multiple layers to it. Sometimes the layers had to be move forward or backward as not to overlap improperly. The hardest part is the same as my strongest part, being the erasing. If you erase too little, then the it creates too much of a distraction. The earths mentioned earlier are a good example of this. If you erase too much then you destroy the image you are meant to enhance.
     The objective was to paint the polaroid's in the scenario that they have been thrown on the table, and how mine are laid out it looks like they have been thrown with a thrust motion. There also are multiple points of the animals are reaching out of the photos onto the background. And the background consists of "3 layers" with the recycle emblem, green color over that, and Earths in the middle of the emblems. There is air quotes because each layer is duplicated to span the entire frame. I have learned the difficulty of separating fur from skin and which to count as a border to the sky or other object. With this knowledge I would stray from my nature theme that I prefer to use for photoshop and use something else, like a president in a photo. It would be fun to have a background with eagles, the flag, or fireworks, there is room for imagination depending on who is chosen and what they have specifically done.

(The Altered)

(The Original)

Artist Reflection for Project 3
     The best technical aspect was using the spot healing brush tool to remove the blemishes. Using this I was able to use the normal looking skin and use those colors brushed over the freckles and irritated skin spots. The result is that she looks like she had no skin disorder. Although this was my best technical aspect, it could have been improved some. If someone were to zoom in on the picture and investigated it closely, the patterns that I used my healing brush for can be seen. Maybe if I were to experiment with more sizes of the brush and use different patterns to mask blemishes it would create a more authentic looking result.
      The easiest part would be to use the tool to simply cover up the blemish. Click from one spot and drag is easy. The harder part is to be careful on what sort of displacement it creates with the colors. Sometimes the hair is on the very edge of the range and would create an orange streak through the skin. Other times it is the shadows that affect the tool. To see if a questionable stroke helped, I would quickly hit the "command" and "z" buttons to undo and redo, and a good portion of the work was left undone due to the difficulties I mentioned, and tried a different angle. This made the project easier by helping me understand how the brush worked better.
     I had achieved the goal of removing the blemishes by making her natural skin tone go over irritated skin points and freckles (and at one time an annoying strand of hair). Another objective was to change the eye color, but that would in the end make the picture worse because in her eyes the observer can see the bride and groom. Changing the eye color would distort the reflection in her eyes. This was an enjoyable activity in which if I had to do it again I would use another picture. I would also dabble more with the paint brush. In this project I didn't use it more than a few times, and it proved to help with spots that the healing brush couldn't seem to fix.

(The original)

 (The altered)

Artist Reflection for Project 2

     The strongest technical aspect would be choosing what to highlight in the picture. The intent of what to emphasis was the cat's intention to eat the small bird. Recoloring the eyes and tongue on the cat shows the cats desire, and highlighting the bird was pinpointing its target. This project was really simple so it is hard to improve upon it in this picture. To improve, a more complicated picture may be needed to challenge what is the most important aspect.

     The easiest part of the activity was filling back in the color where I desired. Making the picture black and white required a short process was also really easy when I had technical difficulties and had to repeat it. The most difficult aspect was to see exactly where some borders were to restore, but do to simply undoing, it was not an obstacle for long, just reoccurring. It proved challenging choosing a good picture for the project, but I knew what I wanted to choose for a picture, but many didn't have color in the right spots to make my objective clear.

     To demonstrate the objective I created two focal points instead of one. Both animals are the focal points of this picture, as explained earlier. If I were to repeat this activity, like I would say for most, I would use a new picture. Outside of my usual nature theme I would do something like highlight the main dish at a dinner set (example, the chicken and pasta in a bowl).

(The Original)

(The Altered)

Artist Reflection for Project 1

     With the picture of the bee, the strongest technical aspect would be the bottom the left flower. it started out as a plain yellow flower and through the use of a couple layers, it was transformed into a light purple flower. This flower stands out by being the most natural fitting adjustment to the picture, with similar colors already exhibited originally. Would I could have improved in my work would have been to choose better colors for the bee's abdomen to seem more natrual like an exotic species. had better shades been chosen, and opacity experimented with, it could be more believable.

     Several aspects of this project was easy, like filling in the color of choice on my target. Changing the degrees of opacity was simple and took little time to fidget with. Lastly it was easy to add a layer, the click of a button and it couldn't be easier. It was much more difficult to think of what I had wanted to edit, so I started with the flowers, because it was an easy place to start. this was also my first time using a Mac computer, and photoshop, so understanding what the layout was was a challenge in itself. It shouldn't be left out to say that editing the bee itself was not full of options to edit to a novice such as myself.

     The object was to simply edit the picture through the use of the paint tool, and I had done little work that was not with the paintbrush tool. If I could redo this I would have fun with making more colors in the flowers. It would also be fun to practice with other photos, most likely with more wildlife because nature has many beautiful shapes already, and to change those colors would make for interesting results in the very least. With different photos, I should try to to photos that have more objects in it that I can dabble with, and simpler pictures with fewer to edit.

(The Altered)

(The Original)