eleni sketch, once you practice with the different brush strokes, it's addictive

For my photo essay, I chose four pictures from an area in my neighborhood, Woodlake. In the evenings, I can walk through the neighborhood across the street and down a footpath into this serene marina.

The first set of images were taken on a very calm day. In the manipulation of the picture, I changed the hue and gave the image an antique feel. In doing this, it achieves an almost timeless quality. Could this photo have been taken thirty or forty years ago? I then used the smuding tool and instantly a storm moved in. The trees are now in motion, bending with the wind. Even the ripples on the water are much more pronounced and disturbed.

The second set of images are of what I jokingly call the ‘canoe parking area’, a housing area with rows upon rows of canoes, kayaks and small john boats. I cropped this picture and then altered the perspective of it, which put the canoes in motion. There is now a visual pull to the canoes cutting through imaginary water. The long, sleek lines of the canoes are contrasted by the soft, bushiness of the trees behind them, which are also now in motion.

In the third set, while I liked the image, it seemed a bit dull somehow. I altered this by adjusting the brightness, intensity, and contrast. This gave the sky an ethereal quality, bringing out the contrast of the treeline. The boats are now at a point on the horizon line, which is hard to distinguish land from water.

The last set of images are actually the left side of the third set from above. While I love the serenity of the setting sun’s reflection on the water, I felt it took away from the rest of the information on land. So I cropped the picture, thus slightly elongating it and taking away that reflection. I then pulled up the brightness which now gives the viewer more insight into the detail of the dock shop and walkway.

digital image crit

This image is of an instruction pamphlet for a video game. I think the first thing I noticed personally is the limited use of color. Other than black and white, there is really only 3 main colors represented: blue, red and yellow.

The blue is carried around through the image in the tv set the rabbit is holding, the tv at the end of the title, and the Wii symbol in the top left corner. The eyes of the rabbits are also blue which is slightly harder to notice in the back two rabbits, (but looking at the instruction booklet in person it is more apparent). The red in the wall is mimicked in the 'screaming mouths' of the rabbits and the yellow in the sofa is paralleled with the border around the title of the game, and woodgrain in the foreground tv set, (notice light wood grain along the right side).

Aside from the limited color scale, the characters or rabbits are also very simplistically designed, not what we would imagine, or what we are accustomed to seeing in video games. This is also supported by the basic font that is only highlighted by the yellow border. While the actual composition, color scheme and illustration all seem very elementary, together they still seem to have the eye-catching effect that draws potential customers.

Lastly, the image does follow the rule of thirds. While the rabbit face in the tv is possibly the first thing our eyes land on, or are drawn to, it is not set dead center. There is also the diagonal rule that the image follows as well. This is exampled by the diagonally-set sofa and the perspective of the foreground tv set. While both are not on the same diagonal plane, they do mimic eachother as well by the directional similarity.

As a visual, I don't feel this image is very strong- it doesn't offer much to me to really draw me into it as a purchase, but I can see how the simple imagery could be overlooked once the game is played!

assignment 1/22

Super Heroine Story

To: B. Obama

From: former U.S. President- George Bush

Information status: Extremely confidential!!

Dear Barak-

It occured to me after I got back to Texas and warmed up infront of my fireplace yesterday, that I forgot to mention somethin I like to call ' Operation Wendy'.

Now, your not gonna find any information in the White House on this "op" except maybe a note or two that got wedged in that top drawer on the left, (you gotta watch for that, I lost a memo from Marget Thatcher in there one time and I'd like to never found it), anyways, oh yeah, operation Wendy. Your a smart man, but lemme take a minute and give you the story on this little girl...

It all started some time ago in Asia somewhere, I think it was in China, yeah, it was....anyways, this little girl is some kinda super hero.

Now, you may think I'm crazy by sayin that, but I'm as serious as a heart attack, and there is proof of this. Her actual name is 'Wen Di' which comes from some Dynasty name oh, couple thousand years ago in China, the Hand Dynasty.

Well, Dad told me that the Chinese folks were the first ones to make noodles and they had found some datin back to 2000 BC!! Boy I tell ya, I wouldn't wanna eat them! But they weren't even moldy! Anyways this little girl runs around, I think she flies actually, and feeds all these starvin children all over the world! Somehow, I think she has this secret magical bag kinda like Santa Clause, that she keeps a whole bunch of noodles in and she can 'sense' when theres some hungry kids somewhere, and she feeds them. I told Barbra she was a super hero cause she can sense stuff too, but she says its a 'womans intuition' or somethin. So, Wendy can sense when there is some kids somewhere and she flies out there to where they are and whips up some noodles for them in a bowl. She even has steak, chicken, seafood and somethin called tofu that she will mix for them if they want it and leaves them leftovers too!

Now here's the real super part I think, she can speak every language in the world! And when I say every, I mean to tell you EVERY, from anywhere. Can you imagine how much schoolin she had? How do you learn all that in one lifetime? Well, course she is a couple thousand years old, but she doesn't look it, no sir-ee! Get ahold of, oh, what's his name, over there at NASA and he's got a couple satellite pictures of her. She wears all green and looks like she has noodles for hair. I tried to make that as my Christmas card one year, with her and the dogs, but Barb and Dad wouldn't let me. There's also some pictures of old cave paintings the folks down the street there at the Smithsonian think is her. They said she wears green cause it's some kind of world peaceful color. Makes kids real happy and content or somethin. Well, they've got some real neat pictures of rock drawings in green berries or something, cause you know they didn't have paint back then. I wanted to chip off some of that rock to bring home with me when I was there for the Olympics, but I got caught doin that too. (By the way, did you see those openin ceremonies?? Wow!)

Anyways, you might find some pictures I drew that are also in the wedged-in spot in that left drawer I did of her. There's also some crayons I left for you that your gonna find comes in real handy during all those down times as President!

Hey, now give my best to Michelle and the girls, Barb says she wants to come up and do some shoppin with Michelle after yall get settled. Oh, and since this is what Condelessa likes to call a 'sensitive matter', you might wanna flush or even eat this email after you read it a couple times, that's what I always did.

Yours truely- Georgie

first day of class

wow, i don't know what of most he is talking about, should be pretty interesting.