Post #4

The big idea I'd like to focus on, is loss, memory, friendship...how we hold on to the memories and connections we've had with those no longer with us. Friends, relatives, loved ones all connect with us in certain ways, and those memories live on long after they have gone.

Also true of the connections we've had is that certain environments or activities remind us of that person. So being in these situations again or taking part in these actions make the memories vivid in our minds once again.


The visual strategy I'm using reflects a somewhat dreamlike vision or world.  In no way is it a literal representation of any real environment but a mash-up of real photos taken at different times.  The environment itself is high up in the clouds, which reflect a dreamlike world.


An image of this sort, perhaps not using the personal influences that I have, could still be used to represent the imagination, dreams, or memories of someone...perhaps in a movie poster or an advertisement trying to build a strong and emotional connection with the viewer.


Influences include the digital artist mOsk, otherwise known as Maciej Mizer as well as Joker84 from deviantart.com, both of whom I've highlighted in a previous post.  Joker84 makes excellent use of skyskapes and outer-space elements to create dreamlike environments.  And mOsk uses very skilled photoshop techniques to create emotion and exciting visuals within his work.  Specifically, mOsk's image titled "Afterlife" has interesting elements combined to create another world in the sky. This setting influenced my final project which takes place high up in the clouds.

A specific technique I used and researched heavily to develop my skill was the used of selecting clouds in a different way to place elements within them.  Using the Channels tab as well as "calculations" to target a specific color channel made it much easier to "grab" the clouds that I wanted as opposed to hand selecting along the cloud edge.  I also looked into creating elements in space, such as a shooting star or comet and included that in my image.   The youtube links are here:

The digital artist I'd like to highlight is Maciej Mizer aka "mOsk".  He seems highly regarded among some of the different sites I visited, and his work was highlighted on the cover and within the pages of the popular annual "Web Design Index" Volume 8.

Here is an interesting example of his work.  This image is titled "Reawakening" and is linked from the Behance network site.

This iamge is very bright, exciting, flowing, kinetic, explosive, colorful, and has a very lively feel to it.  At the same time I get the sense that the subject within the frame is struggling to break free of something, perhaps his own emotions or circumstances. I perceive a subtle religious influence to the orientation of the person's body, specifically in the style of Jesus being crucified. This is maybe just a desire to present a connotation of spirituality or maybe that if the message is reawakening, then many religious individuals associate commitment or devotion to a spiritual path a sort of reawakening of their soul.

Stylistically, I admire this artists techniques because this image is both, dark and contrasting, yet bright and colorful within the center of focus which really sharpens the focus of the viewer towards the action of the center of the image.  His use of light to "spotlight" the subject works well here.  I'd imagine to even be able to approach something like this, I would have to master among other things my use of paths.  Many elements within this image are artificially created and added to a real picture of a person.  The flowing nature of these elements looks as if paths were drawn all around parts of the image of the person.

Here is a second image from mOsk titled "Afterlife":

I love the way this elaborate digital image is centered within a frame presenting the perspective of "the artist" who has "painted" the colorful image within the canvas.  This works as an attempt to mix reality with fantasy, with the overlap of these two realms blurred by the fact that elements such as the planes are flying out of the painting.  In an inverted sort of way as well, things from the "real world" like McDonald's restaurant, have found there way inside the fantasy world depiction of the afterlife.  Perhaps this is another riff on the art-imitates-life-imitates-art concept, or the artist wants to ask the question what is real and what is imaginary, and maybe he believes it's  hard to tell.  From the perspective of this image being presented as a depiction of the afterlife, it is telling that he chose to include the explicit imagery of the tools of the artist (paint, brushes, canvas, etc).  I'd presume this is his way of highlighting that any concept of an afterlife is fundamentally someone's personal depiction or work of art, and is simply a creation of their imagination and should not be taken as fact or absolute truth.

The second artist I'd like to highlight is Joker84, who I found on deviant art when researching the big idea of "freedom".  I feel many of this artist's works revolve around the emotional and psychological feeling of being free.... many of his/her images are of expansive, fantasy-themed landscapes that evoke an epic dreamlike feeling.  Also present within many of these images is a small, silhouetted figure gazing off into the abyss of some elaborately created horizon. 

Here is an example titled "I feel free":

Another called "Enjoying Freedom 4th" :

A third called "Enjoying Freedom 3rd":

I like that the artist used a universal blank subject to play an "everyman" gazing off into his own imagination.  Freedom can come in many forms, but ultimately and fundamentally one wished to obtain freedom of thought, and freedom to pursue one's dreams.  There are so many emotional evocations coming from these images.  There is some overlap in the ideas of freedom and dreams within them. I like how there is a natural element present in these that most likely is part of real photos of landscapes that is then merged with that created imaginary parts.  I would love to incorporate these types of elements and themes in my work.  A mastery of blending and selecting techniques would help to create the wonderful skylines and landscapes.

Clone tool tutorial

From worth1000.com, a tutorial on using the clone tool to remove a large element from an image.

Link:  http://fxb.worth1000.com/tutorials/161615/removing-things-from-your-pictures-with-clone


Starting with the image of the dog as they have used in the tutorial we have this desert image:

As noted in the tutorail, I looked for consistint highlight lines to guide my paint strokes and to anchor the clone tool's sampling location.  Starting from higher to lower, I deviated from the tutorial by using a slightly larger brush size for the blurrier areas higher up, as this avoided sharp details sticking out in the soft focus areas of the image.

 So it's easy to see that the highlight lines of the sand don't go simply horizontal but rather at a lightly angle top right to bottom left direction.  Tracing over these areas, resampling from random points as the tutorial instructed, and decreasing the brush size gradually as I moved down the image...

The most tedious and difficult portion of editing this image was in the sharpest focused porions right at the ground level where the dogs feet touch the ground....repeated resampling helped apply a randomness and avoided obvious patterns in the cloning.

Just to experiment with some more editing, I added this hastily selected meerkat from another photo....not a great source as it's missing feet...

Blog Entry #1

The digital artist I'd like to highlight is James Wolf Strehle.  He creates digital imagery with very interesting sceneries with an epic feel to them.  Below I will highlight three images of his.

The first is titled "The twisted room"  It is in essence a view inside of a young boy's room, presumably late at night during perhaps a long video-game-playing marathon.  The denotations are a somewhat scattered and messy room, typical of a boy's room.  In the foreground we see a weary, zombified young boy playing video games that has it seems either been possessed, or is just in dire need of sleep.  In the background, through a window of the room we see a collection of monsters struggling against each other and the glass of the window to break into the room.  Some of the connotations of this imagery are that the atmosphere of the room is a metaphor for the ideas or state of the boy's mind.  Perhaps the room being twisted highlights the twisted state of the boys mind.  Maybe the connotation is that despite the typical scene of a boy playing video games, with this particular boy there is something sinister brewing beneath the surface "struggling to break through".  Or perhaps the imagery intends to portray video games as a something that twists the minds of children, and in this case the denotation of monsters in the window and a zombie-like child are references to the imagery the boy is seeing on his television screen.  As a digital artist, I would guess that actually Strehle could be simply showing how certain art, entertainment, etc. are very immersive, and therefore the imagery the boy sees onscreen pulls him into that world so completely the connotation is that the universe of the game has come to the boy's room.

This next image is titled "In search of humans".  The image denotes a larger than life, human-looking figure in the middle of the image, standing in a yard or garden outside of a house.  In the foreground, from within the grass at ground level we see a small, oddly-dressed, miniature, human-like creature observing the large figure in the background.  The impending angle and stature of the human has a connotation of the smaller creature likely fearing or watching with caution.  The title's reference to a search for humans creates a connotation of some fantasy or epic science-fiction adventure, which is supported by the odd futuristic clothing of the smaller figure.  The perspective being focused from the ground has a connotation of the viewer identifying with the smaller figure, giving the image a powerful, emotional feeling similar to that of curiosity or even excitement on the part of the other-worldy creature as you are along for whatever journey he or she has embarked upon.

Source:  http://www.cromoart.de/wordpress/2010/12/external-design-inspiration-the-art-of-james-wolf-strehle/
Jamie Strehle Gallery