Typeface Project

For this project I went out and took pictures of my hands making different letters (this required a little practice with the self timer on the digital camera). Then, I brought all the images into photoshop and desaturated them. Then I went back with the history brush to color back in the areas that made up the letter so the letter would stand out more from the background and the rest of the hands. Then I went into each image and selected the area around the letter formed and put that in its own layer. This way the letter was the center of the image and much bigger and more noticeable. Finally, I arranged them all as 2x2 in squares with the help of the ruler tool and voila.

Chair Project

For the first image I took samples of past projects of my own and dragged them onto the same canvas as the chair. I turned down the opacity of all layers, except the chair layer. so I could see the contours of the chair which I would have to warp the other images to fit. Using the warp tool I adjusted each image to fit the body of the chair, then went back using the dodge and burn tools to create highlights and shadows. Then I created a shadow for the chair by using the drop shadow effect and played around with the settings until I found I shadow I liked. Finally, I re adjusted the opacity of all the layers and voila. 

I think this chair turned out okay overall, I felt obligated to use multiple projects in the chair for some reason, but I would have much rather just used one. I think the multiple images made it look too much like a patchwork quilt.

I followed the same process for this chair, only I left the opacity a little on the light side, because it made the Peanuts comic strips feel more vintage and faded. Unlike the first chair, the images here seem to flow together more nicely so it doesn't feel as "patchwork-y". This time I added in a floor and wall also using the warp tool to adjust these. It was really difficult to even get it to look vaguely realistic. The shadow also ended up being a bit of a mess, but overall I'm pretty proud of it.

Comic Project

So this project was inspired by my friends who taught me how to play this weird card game called Mao. The rule seems pretty simple at first: "The only rule I can tell you is this one." but it quickly gets pretty complicated. The game basically functions like Uno, but with some other odd rules thrown in. For example, there can be verbal cues you have to say, or actions you have to perform when you put down a certain type of card. Every round the winner gets to add in a new rule, but doesn't tell anyone what it is. Weird and frustrating as this game can be, I always have a good time. 

Unfortunately,  the idea of having a good time did not apply to the process of making this project. I had the (what I thought was a) brillant idea to draw my comic out by hand from scratch, since that's a hobby of mine anyway. I felt like I was wrestling with this project tooth and nail the whole way. Nothing seemed to want to go right, and granted that it's hard to color on a tablet you're not used to, by the end I was so frustrated with myself I had considered throwing something across the room a couple of times. 

But that's just how some things are sometimes, luckily, I did manage to finish and now I can move onto to something new.