Digital Portfolio Design

The intent of this project was the generate a digital art portfolio website, and I came up with the following design.

***UPDATE***
Due to some suggestions by my professor and other classmates, I have revised the portfolio and the below are the updated versions.

Avatar project (first Avatar creation)

Welcome back!  This week's project was to design an avatar from a portrait.  Here is the final submission, along with a before/after side-by-side for comparison.

First, let me show you the final version.

Here is a side-by side comparison (for some reason, the conversion process darkened the main image in this one - the final shows better colors - see below):

Side-by-side

Here is the final version:

Avatar creation

Here are the photos used in the final creation:

Credit: Beautiful Waterfall in the Jungle by iCandyGirl

Credit: "Elod-Eye" by Frédéric DUPONT is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0. 

Credit: Kutia kondh woman uploaded by Kitkatcrazy~commonswiki is licensed under GNU

Creation of an Avatar - Part one (sketches)

Welcome back!  This week's project was to design an avatar from a portrait.  Here are the photos that inspired this design along with the initial sketches.

I thought this background would work well on this project:

Credit: Beautiful Waterfall in the Jungle by iCandyGirl

The basis for my Avatar will be the following image:

Credit: Kutia kondh woman uploaded by Kitkatcrazy~commonswiki and licensed under GNU

Here are my initial sketches for this project.  In the interest of full disclosure, due to my lack of artistic ability, the first sketch shown (from which the modifications have been made) was a tracing of the above image.  I felt that was the best way to visualize the modifications in a discernible fashion.

Initial Sketch

Modified as an Avatar

David Garrett Book cover final project

Welcome back!

This week, our assignment was to create the finalized version of our book cover project.  Without further a due, here is the final version:

Final Book cover for David Garrett

In this design, I leveraged the concert set background along with the concert lights and "blue" color to help delineate David Garrett's violin genre from just being a classical one, to more of a cross-over feel to align with his musical styling.

Here are the sources used in this effort:

Credit:Illustration of a treble clef by zeimusu is licensed as public domain 

Credit: David Garrett - Rock-Anthems Tour 2012 by Sabrina Andexer is licensed by CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Man Candy Monday #228 by loreleijames

QR Code Generated from: http://www.qrstuff.com/ 

Book cover concept sketches

Welcome back! This module has us creating a book cover for a jazz, folk, or modern classical musician. After speaking with one of my daughters, who is an avid violinist, I have selected David Garrett as the musician for this project.

David is a German Pop and cross-over violinist who has been playing since age 4.

As stated previously, I am not adept at sketching, please excuse the poor quality. I am hopeful that the design still shows through.

Self Harm Awareness Poster (final)

Welcome back!

**************************WARNING*************************

The below concept is provocative and could be triggering to those who have either experienced these types of events or currently self-harm.

If you engage in self-harm, please seek help immediately!!

*************************************************************

I have completed work on my Awareness poster submission, and you are about to witness it's unveiling.  Drumroll please!

Self-Harm can come in many forms - one of which is "cutting".  This is where a razor blade, knife, fingernails, or other sharp object is used to cut into the skin generating pain that some people believe masks their emotional pain.  Don't mistake this as a suicide attempt - typically persons who self-harm like this are not yet to the point of a suicide attempt, but could be close.  Get them the help they need right away.

The awareness poster reflects a self-harming teenage girl, who had previously been as pure as a white rose until bullying drove her to start "cutting" on her arms and thighs. She is shown fading into the flower as she reaches the point of an actual suicide attempt due to the fact that no one saw the warning signs and thus no help was provided. Once that point was reached, she takes a handful of pills (which also could represent the alternate path to mental stability as the pills shown are Prozac).  Unfortunately, her overdose attempt is successful and she is buried at a very young age (around 14).  At the bottom of the image, a banner warns viewer to learn about and recognize the warning signs such that others may be saved from a similar fate.

This image was created using multiple Photoshop techniques and 12 layers.  Besides the images shown below, I've applied Curves and Vibrance adjustments, three overlays, multiple layer effects, and several text layers.  Tools used include crop, brush, pencil, clone stamp, text, erasers (multiple), and others.

Now to provide you with the original source images used in this project and give credit to their artists...

Credit: "Self Harm" by Nikki Avery

Credit: Fluoxetine HCl 20mg Capsules (Prozac) by Tom Varco is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

Credit: "Blank Tombstone" by Jo Naylor is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Credit: "Blood 1" by vasyndrom

Credit: "Suicide Note" by definiteserenade3 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

I hope you enjoyed this week's posts!  Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks.

Self-harm Awareness Poster concepts/sketches

This week's assignment was to come up with concepts for an awareness poster.  Given events close to home over the last year, I chose the topic of self-harm and how if not recognized as such, it can lead to suicide.

**********************************WARNING*************************************

The below concepts are provocative and could be triggering to those who have either experienced these types of events or currently self-harm.  
If you engage in self-harm, please seek help immediately!!

*********************************************************************************

Before we get into the concepts, I would first like to share a photo that I ran across earlier in the week, and which, along with personal experiences, helped inspire me to choose this topic.

Credit: Jamari Fox (http://insidejamarifox.com/choke-me-slap-me-pull-my-hair-the-bully-life/)

As you can see in the above image, the artist does a great job of tying together the source of depression (bullying/name calling) along with the effects of this behavior (self-harm).  I hope to do the same with my concepts and also with the final project once completed.

Ok - now on with the concepts....

Concept 1:

In this concept, I am portraying a girl who has been self-harming, through the use of a razor blade on her thighs.  When this type of behavior goes unaddressed and help is not provided, self-harm can lead to suicide attempts as depicted by the pill bottle.  As you know, there are many ways that suicide can be attempted, however, pill overdoses seem to be a prevalent mechanism that is used.  The tombstone reflects the unfortunate results of a successful suicide attempt - death.

Concept 2:

In this concept, the first image again shows someone who has been self-harming through "cutting".  This version is more provocative by showing a direct correlation between this and suicide.  While not always true - especially if help is sought - I have found that many awareness posters leverage this type of correlation to draw extra attention to an issue.

Concept 3:

Shifting the message a bit, in this concept I show the causation between bullying and suicide.  Many children who experience bullying become depressed, which can lead to suicide.  If we ban together and stop the bullying, we could out a huge dent in the number of youth suicides.

Concept 4:

In this concept, there are quite a few subtle nuances that I like and as such, I am building my concept around this one.  On the left, it shows a girl who has cuts on her thighs.  Above her is a white rose covered in blood and to the right of that, a knife.  In the top right, there is an open pill bottle which lead to the suicide note and eventual interment represented by the tombstone after a successful suicide attempt.  Had someone recognized the signs of self harm and sought help for this individual during the first stage, it is quite probable that the results would have been significantly different.

Concept 5:

In this concept, I chose to do something similar to an infographic, presenting statistics associated with bullying and suicide attempts.

Concept 6:

Concept 6 would have been very provocative if pursued.  In this concept, it shows a young child (7th grade based on the graduation year) who has just pulled the trigger on a handgun pointed towards his head.  The bullet has the word Bullying on it, which allows the viewer to conclude that bullying was the cause of this child's desire to kill themselves.  The text at the bottom makes a very clear statement that Bullying = Death.

Tune in next time, when I'll be providing you with the final version of Concept 4.  I have already started working on it, so you shouldn't have to wait long!