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Open Project — Final

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I decided to take my self-portrait into a slightly different direction. I had a rough idea for a title: "The Duality of Perception." Essentially, what I'm trying to describe in this image is my struggles with body dysmorphia. On the left is how others perceive me, which is being overshadowed by my own perception of myself (on the right). The background is a painting of my own. It was for an abstract project in my painting class, which I struggled with a lot. The painting, therefore, is associated with a lot of negative feelings.

Open Project — Beginnings

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I initially had no idea where I was going with this project. I looked at the assignment details and saw that a self-portrait was an option, so I decided to go with that. I took a photo of myself, warped it, and added the cutout filter. For the background I used an image of a painting that I did in Painting 1 earlier this semester and content-aware filled the empty space to make it a landscape image (rather than portrait). The left side seemed a bit empty, so I used a picture of my cat with the same effects as myself. Both images have the vivid light blending mode. I'm not sure where else I'll take this. After class 4/27/2022: I applied some of the feedback I received and I made my cat appear more normal as to not make her get lost in the background. I'm not sure if I'll keep this idea or take it in a different direction...

Visual Sequential Narrative — Final

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  For this image I wanted to tell my story: how anxiety feels to me. More specifically, when I go out in public. I always feel that everyone is watching me and judging me for how I act, or how I look. I wanted to try and express how this felt.

Visual Sequential Narrative — More Iterations

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I tried to create more contrast by making the figure a brighter blue and changing the filter on myself. I replaced the eyes in the background. I'm torn between two options: making the figure seem transparent or not. In the one that seems transparent (left), the eyes are a very low opacity; I tried to make them not interfere with the figure's own eyes. I also added a blur to the figure to make it seem a bit more ghastly.

Visual Sequential Narrative — Iterations

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During and after class on Wednesday (4/6/22), I made some changes to my image with advice from Ed. The suggestion was to add a main figure staring back at me. I felt that on it's own, it was a bit plain, so I kept the initial eyes behind the figure and blended a duplicate layer on top of it to make the figure seem transparent.

Visual Sequential Narrative — Initial Ideas

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I was struggling to come up with ideas with this project, but one of the first to come to mind was creating a few images demonstrating how anxiety feels to me. Here is an attempt at an image: I wanted to convey the feeling of always being stared at and judged by everyone around you. I need to make this image have a sense of time or motion but I'm not sure how. It's quite dark, and I wasn't sure how to change that and still keep an unsettling feeling... So I added a gradient to add more contrast between the figure and background. 

The Cyclical Nature of Things: Final

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I couldn't decide on one final image because these ideas were so different from each other. Therefore, I decided to include both. I made changes to this one, moving my cat Margo to the empty negative space that the nightstand was creating. I feel that the composition is more balanced this way. I wanted to include multiple perspectives in one image to represent the often chaotic, tiring aspects of a daily routine. Imposing my cat over these perspectives is hinting at small moments that bring serenity while dealing with chaos. As for this second image, I decided to create a duality of spaces. I wanted to keep the idea of a liminal space, but I wanted to contrast it with something a bit happier. My idea behind this, regarding my concept of "routine," is similar to a crossroads; which path will you take? This hallway is one I go down every day, and their endings suggest how the day might end. The path on the left is one of negative emotions: unsafe and insecure. The path to t