Heart on my sleeve

Preparation for the Mind Map / Collage project.  It's a bit of a mess.

Word list:

I couldn't do this in a sane manner.  It was either everything or nothing, so it ended up being everything.

note to self: 11x17 inches, CMYK.

Inspiration images:

Taken from "A Little Color Every Day"

"Paper Doll" by PearlIsabel

"Farbenspiel" by Loonaki

"snipingsniper" by plutonium

Patchwork

Final result. 

I've thoroughly enjoyed working on this project, as it finally gave me the chance to express something of what I love about Photoshop, dealing with a subject that interested me visually.  I think it shows! 

Stock sources:

• stormymay888
• HOTNStock
• RainaDayze
• Fahlaemee
• LydiardWildlife
• NefaroStock
• Falln-Stock
• ChrysocyonFrax
• SerendipityStock
• thiselectricheart
• galianogangster
• Tienna
• StockProject1

All these artists can be found at deviantart.com.  

Brighten

First draft of my zoo billboard practice!  I'm really enjoying playing with the saturation, light levels, and colours of this piece.  So far, I've darkened the background and cast a strong oversaturation on the snake, and I've begun adding all sorts of animal textures and skins as a mixture of hard lights and overlays, which I find works quite nicely for my purposes as it allows the scales to show through in varying opacities.

EDIT: oh gosh, forgot credits. *facesmack*  I shall add those tomorrow morning when I get back to working on this.  It's late and past my bedtime now. 

EDIT: Did some more work in class.  The background still needs work, but I'm quite happy with how the snake is coming along.  Still need to remember credits, because I'm incredibly dense and forgetful.

EDIT: Credits added, background blurred and darkened.

EDIT: Experimenting a bit with the background--lightened, threw a gradient over the top.

EDIT: Kept the gradient, removed the blur in favour of a posterized look.

EDIT: Fiddling with the background is just way too much fun.  In other news, added the Tulsa Zoo logo!!  I think I'm going to leave the right side open, because on an actual billboard it's likely there would be some amount of text, and maintaining space for that seems like a good idea.

EDIT: Just fiddling with logo size/location.

Repertoire

Just finished the latest lesson, learning a bit about filters and smart layers.  Not quite as exciting as paths, but hey, it was an interesting project, if the end result is a bit tacky for my tastes! :)

Consolidate

Mood board!

Essence

Zoo, for me, can be stripped down to just a few words out of the list I posted before in "Distill."  In its essence, it is sensory--textures, sounds, colours, patterns, smells.  The zoo is a place where many different things become part of a whole.  It's an epitome of diversity, where the senses are truly rewarded.  In essence, I think less about animals, and more about the things that make them up, distinguish them, and make them similar.  I tried to breathe that sense into my concept sketches, and I'm quite happy with some of them!

I think my favourites have to be the snake and the quilt.  Both convey the sense of the gorgeous patchwork that the zoo is to me, like a miniature version of the cosmos with all its curiosities and sights and sounds and experiences.  They also require a bit more of a blending type of Photoshopping than something like the tails or the city/junglescape, which are more about cutting things out and pasting them onto a common background.  I'm more interested in making things mesh together, rather than just plain collaging, so either will more interesting and challenging for me to work with, from a technical standpoint.  

Upwards

Sky Lands, by Ehecod

An artist I've started following closely in the past months is Ehecod, whose ability to capture landscapes of great depth, atmosphere, and emotional value is absolutely stunning.  In addition, he often puts together GIFs of his progress, giving some insight into just how amazing a grasp of forms, light, and shadow he has.  Not only is he amazingly talented, but his attitude is so friendly and down-to-earth that it's a joy to follow him and see his updates, because he's still learning and not afraid to ask for feedback, thank people for their comments, and offer advice of his own.  I'd say his work is well worth a look!