Theatre in a Nutshell: Word Cloud

This was created by using a website called Wordle. Wordle allows you to make really cool word clouds  by simply typing in a group of words, then you can change the color, orientation, and arrangement of the words to your liking.

The one I made was inspired by theatre, and all the crazy objects and things that become part of your common vernacular once you've been in it for awhile.

Self Portraits

This project was to create an image using 9 3x3 in pictures of me and adding a colorful border that is representative of you. I had several pictures that I really liked and turned out well because all but one was taken with a pro-quality camera so I used 5 different images instead of just one or two.

After choosing the pictures I wanted to use, I dragged them into photoshop and set up a ruler and a grid so I could scale them down correctly. I played around with arrangements of the photo order until I found one I liked. I wanted the picture in the center to be the only image there weren't two of and made sure two of the same images weren't right next to each other.

Then, I began looking at different filters I could use. Most were pretty subtle (ex. accented edges) , but I chose a couple of more abstract one like Note Paper. My main goal with filters was to emphasize the face, not obstruct it, since that's what a self portrait is supposed to be anyway.

Finally, I found an image of a board display someone had decorated in a cute and quirky way, used the color replacement tool to make it appear mostly blue (leaving it all pink didn't look very good with the colors in the photos I used), but left some pink in there on purpose, and used that as my border.  I chose it because I really like things that look old fashioned, but are very classy and quirky. I tend to dress and act in that style so I thought it was very fitting.

I really enjoyed this project because it was fun to be able to portray and express myself in a new and interesting way. I think this work really expresses my personality as a whole and I really can't think of anything I'd want to change.

Art News: Favorite Artists

Craigie Horsfield: 

I chose Horsfield's photo-tapestries because they seemed so alive. The images looked like they were coming out of the tapestry and spill out into the room, they draw you in and make you forget that you are in an art gallery and you think for a moment that you're there in that image. I love art that does that to you, and I think it's very powerful.  I can't believe these are made out of fabric, they looks so real.

Nick Cave:

Nick Cave's sound suits I also found particularly fascinating. I love the riotous bursts of color and the complex menagerie of objects that comprise the suits. Whether its the actual design or the idea of wearable sound-making art I like more, it's impossible for me to say. What I do know is how I love that something that seems chaotic and strange is still beautiful, but in an unconventional way.

My Life in Color: Purple Girl

This project was based off of National Geographic's "Life in Color" photos. I used my favorite color (purple, obviously) and selected images that had meaning to me, trimmed and arranged them. The background I chose because I loved all the different shades and the curtain and vase of roses reminded me of theatre. I used the color replacement tool on the sunflower, because where I was born there were lots of them and they've always been my favorite. The gorgeous sketchbook and mask I included because I love drawing and acting. Finally, I took a picture of my favorite shoes because I feel they're representative of me. They're quirky, an unusual color, funky, a little offbeat and covered in paint...

I wish the History Brush tool was working, because then I would have desaturated the mask and brought back the purple area around the eyes to make it pop more. I also wish I had come up with a better layout for the images rather than just shoving them all into the corner or sides, but I wanted the chandelier, vase, and curtain to be visible which limited my options. I might try this project again with a different color and include more original pictures, but overall I liked how this turned out.

Interning with Portals

This was something I made just for fun in between projects. I took items and objects from one of my favorite video games: Portal 2, and assembled them all to make it appear as if I was an intern at Aperture Science. The blue portal effect was created by cutting the rim of a portal out of a screenshot, and then merging the separate layers that contained my picture, the companion cube, and the background into one, then copying that layer, placing it behind the blue portal rim, and trimming the extra through erasing. Now it would appear there's an orange portal in front of me and the blue portal displays what you would see through the yellow.

It was fun to create some fan art that was just for my own enjoyment rather than working on a specific project.

Very Punny: Visual Pun Project

Play on Words: 

This project involved finding an image of a stage as well as silhouettes. After some simple cutting and arranging I used the text tool and typed in a list of random words to fit on top of the silhouettes and played around with their arrangement to make it look like the words were in their bodies. Finally, I used the threshold tool and decreased it so the stage was still distinct, but everything was in black and white so it blended in better together.  

Watchman: 

The Watchman was created through a similar process, although this one was the most time consuming to create because I had to find, cut out and arrange so many different watches. However, this time I used the color gradient map to change all the color gradients from red to black, so all the watch colors would be the same and draw emphasis onto the profile of the man's silhouette.

Snowmandy: 

A pun from on my own nickname, which comes from my tendency when I fist bump people, I put my fists above and bellow the other person's fist, making a "snow man". The background was created using the Overlay tool, I selected a Pattern Overlay and choose one I thought went well wit the image because it looked a bit like snow.

MANdy: 
This one was inspired by a joke from the As You Like It cast. During rehearsal one day as we were reading through the script everyone kept joking about how my character Rosalind disguises herself as a boy in order to escape to the woods safely, but my friend's character Phebe, thinks Rosalind is actually a boy and falls in love with her/him. At one point, one of the guys piped up "Mandy...are you a man?"
We all laughed and I replied: "Well there is a reason why I'm named MANdy."

So for this image I put my head on a man's body, and used the Posterize tool on the background so I would stand out more.


Overall, I'm very proud of this assignment, although I found the limit of the tools we HAD to use a little bit difficult and I had to change certain things about the images that I would have rather left alone...