Saturday 21 February 2015

Montage reflection

Allison Wilson
Memory in My Skin

Photoshop for Computer
February 21,2015

     The main things I used during the making of the piece were the layer blends, he and saturation, brushes, transformation tools, color replacement tool, cut and paste tool, feathering, and many images from the internet. The idea was to make a piece that symbolizes an important memory, I struggled to pick a memory because each one seemed just unusable. I never found one that I really liked so in the end I just picked one. I struggled with the theme of Anime North. Not to be too obvious but I picked Toronto as the background because that is where Anime North was held.
     The mask is supposed be representative of the people in costumes. The steam punk locket depicted all the awesome steam punk stuff we saw and how I totally fell for that style their. There's a compass because of the symbol of the conference is a compass pointing north. The skeleton with footprints is the reflection of the long wandering that we did. The straw hat the skeleton is wearing, well, I thought it could represent a character that was the most popular one that people dressed up as at the conference.
     I put a lot of different multicolored things in the picture, like the pencil ends and stars and sparkles. The books are supposed to represent the diversity of characters at the con which are generally book characters. The fire that looks like it's burning the books is to represent the hot temperatures that day.
     I tried my best to get the eye moving around but I don't think that the eye moves around the picture. The piece is asymmetrical to be unpredictable. I used emphasis on the mask by making it brighter, bigger and colorful with lines pointing to it. I tried to have the eye start at the mask and follow skeleton down to the footprints up through sparkles onto the books.  I think together the individual pieces don't work well. Together all of them are trying to be the one thing that catches your eye, expect for the footprints and they more clash than work together.
     There was no other motivation; I felt absolutely no passion or emotional feel for this piece and I simply don't really like it. The only real excuse I can think in regard to it was that I enjoyed the pure experimental things to try with photoshop.
     The visual idea is kind of trying to find what works with the memory; however, I guess I just couldn't find an idea that I liked to illustrate the memory. My favorite part of the piece is the book on the left-hand side. The fire on the books is burning out of the fanning book; it's one of the only elements that just worked together and has just a good flow to them. The sparkles surprised me; I didn't think that I would get so carried away with them.  And in the end they did not help at all in bringing the piece together.
     With additional time I would brainstorm a little more and look for more ideas for way better inspiration. I might go through my memory box or old photos to find a better memory. Maybe I would still go through with same idea but thinking more about what I wanted to show about the memory and look at better symbols for the elements that I wanted to show.  I would just use better planning for the symbolism in the whole piece to improve the flow of the piece.

Friday 20 February 2015

Art montage


Story

Anime North 2013
                We had gotten up early so as to get to the Toronto Congress Center in time to get our tickets. As we drove, I still couldn’t believe that I was getting to go to my first convention!  I was buzzing with excitement as I watched the countryside fly by and the sun rise. I was half expecting Courtney to say ‘no’ when I asked if I could go with her. She usually does things without me. As soon as we get within a couple of blocks of Anime North the atmosphere becomes apparent. You can see fans walking down the sidewalks in colorful, detailed and beautiful cosplay outfits. It was kind of magical, at least to me. It was like seeing characters walk right off the television screens or the pages of your favorite book. One saw everything from super heroes and anime characters to Doctors and various Disney princesses. They were just causally walking down the sidewalks. Courtney and I were acting like little kids, giggling and naming the characters walking by while we ignored dad’s pleas for help in trying to find a parking space.
                By the time we get to the center there is already a ticket line that seems a mile long snaking out of the main doors. To our surprise, there were more cosplayers than people in casual wear. While waiting in line it just couldn’t be boring. The characters made the cold morning colorful and creative. There were all different the types of cosplay around us, from the bought to the handmade.  Some were very realistic and others were just people starting to learn how to cosplay. A few memorable ones were the female Dead Pool, the very realistic Iron Man and a couple of anime characters.   It was a cold morning, but that didn’t last long when in the Center itself the amount of humans waking around in one area brings up the temperature and just walking around artist alley was like a trek through a sauna. It was so cool to see people just stop and pose for pictures with just a polite request. Anyway, after entering the actual building and getting passes, the hard part was navigating through the sea of people to where you wanted to go.
                I remember the artist alley where handmade art and prints of art were sold by fledgling artists. There were original pins, hair clips, stuffed animals and much more that were sold around this area. Next, because we were kind of lost, we found ourselves in the dealers’ room. This was the most memorable entrance as you have to get your pass checked by a convention staff as you walk by, and well, the staff was dressed as Jesus. I kid you not. He stood on a chair and checked our pass as we walked by. The dealers’ room was the biggest and busiest room. It was lined up and down with people selling everything a fan could ever want. That year there was a steam punk theme at the event so all the dealers were selling the old Victorian out fits with leather touch-ups and goggles.
                One of my favorite parts was the food. They had a lot of foreign fast food like pocky, soft drinks and so many other various food types you never see in Canada. As we exited the main building to search for real food  we met an army of ice cream and fast food trucks lined up for our convenience. I had never seen so many ever before; it was like a fast food invasion.

                All in all we had a great day and we vowed to return next year!  I knew that when we came the next time it would be even better than this time because we would be better organized and prepared.  I knew the next months would be worse than waiting for Christmas to arrive but I also knew that Courtney and I had work to do!!   

BrainStorming

Brainstorming
Memories:public school I remember it as the first week of October it was like entering a strange and confusing world, so many people I just never seen before so many kids in one place it was strange , so many things done in strange ways,the teacher was so nice and  classmates even more so, however the rules were so strange, the kids asked me if I just moved to Kincardine and insisting against it,figuring out what a test was, getting glass, the only classroom in school with a smart board, getting to understand the world was a little bigger than I  Thoughts, and trying to figure out why school wasn't like it was on TV, rules were so weird and i did not get any of them, games that every knew (expect me) and meeting my two best friends who will guide me through the unknown
Summer with the Wilsons,it was summer I had just come back from camp mom had decided to stay home. everyone else hoped in the car and we made the longest most boring car ride up to thunder bay, my aunt Tracy and uncle Dave had just kinda finish their new cabin more like a mansion it had was big and fancy like staying it what felt like riches the bedrooms and decor just beautiful, of coarse it was not complete and the entire stay their would be hic up here and there where it was the kitchen not working or the electronics, mostly the worst part was the spiral staircase i have a fear of stairs and they put me on up stairs why? oh well  Sunny warm,belonging, discovery of family, over coming fear, books, superheroes.escape
cadet camp, anger, sadness, freedom, lots of people, survival, different, educational, weird, short , friendship,escape  
Anime North 2013, excitement, belonging, sunny, fun, freedom, understanding, inspirational, escape
Camping years,
biking
winter in Montreal
moving
cabins