Class 16th June 2010

I would like you to go to flickr.com and do a search for ‘commons’, this will bring up a range of public domain images that are basically copyright free for our purposes today. Would like you to find an old B&W photograph for you to download and work with today. Usually photographs in the commons can be downloaded at larger sizes, try to get the largest size you can find.
We will look at colouring B&W photographs by painting in a layer underneath the photograph layer.
To do this you will need to make sure you have new layer underneath your photograph layer, and then set your photographic layer to the blending mode ‘Multiply’ (you can find blending modes in the layers palette)
Then simply use any of the tools to create colour underneath the images, paintbrush, paint bucket, pen tool, magic wand etc. You will need to be sure you are in RGB mode and not greyscale, you can check this by going to Image>Mode>RGB

Advanced options
Create a B&W collage with images you find on Flickr commons, create textures and layered effects underneath the B&W images. Create multiple images like this.
Basically just use the time that you have to make work that you are capable of.

Aims:
Look at flickr.com
Learn about creative commons
Think about the resolution of images
Downloading and saving images
Understanding colour modes
Working with layers and blending modes
Being creative within Photoshop and thinking of innovative ways to use the tools

New tab

Blogger has a new template designer for better or worse. You will notice that when you log into blogger now, instead of the 'Layout' tab there is now a 'Design' tab.
You may wish to have a look at it and see if you can update the look of your blog. Be warned though, some of the more fancy designs are harder to customise.

Class 9th June 2010

Merging layers and Blending modes

From your Pop Art image you created last week I would like you to take the black face layer and apply these blending modes,

Screen task
Create new layer underneath the art layer
Set top layer to ‘Screen’ mode
Paint bucket a colour, gradient, texture, or photo underneath

Invert task
Go to Image>Adjustments>Invert

Invert 2 task
After inverting the image play around with blending options

Screen & Multiply task
After you have screened an image though to the black art layer, merge the two then, create new layer underneath the art layer
Set top layer to ‘Multiply’

There are other blending modes which create interesting effects as well, feel free to play around with them and see what effects you can achieve.

Computers on level four

"Alister has asked if those who use the computers in the level 4 lab please delete as much work as possible as the computers are working very slowly. Could everyone please make time to do a clean up of 2009 work especially, and any work that can saved to other devices"

For our assessments I will need to have each student create a folder on the desktop with their name and the year, ie, 'Anthony_Woodward_Digital2010'
For those of you who use laptops, you will need to burn a disk with all your files clearly named and ordered.

Class 2nd June 2010

Today I would like you to make your own pop art portrait either of yourself of another person in the class. This portrait will be based on the work of Andy Warhol.Warhol worked with screen printing but thankfully we can achieve similar results using digital methods.

Put simply this will consist of two main elements
1- Top layer which has been contrasted in B&W
2- 2- Bottom layer/s which are segments of colour

This can be done in a number of ways, for example

The top layer can be made by,
Image>Adjustments>Threshold
Or
Filters>Sketch>Stamp

And the bottom layers can either be made by the pen tool or by using a filter such as, Artistic>Cutout

Personally I think it works better if you use the threshold option and the pen tool.

Post your finished image to your blog

Class 26th May 2010

This week I would like to look at the website illustration Friday
http://www.illustrationfriday.com
Create a digital collage with the same dimensions and requirements as
last week, except this time use illustration Fridays word for the
week. Once finished link your entry to the IF website.

Class 19th May 2010

Combinations of effects and tools (especially Opacity and Blending
modes)

Up until this point I have avoided looking at the filters in
Photoshop. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with them but
they can be overused and look cliché. I feel it is best to learn
Photoshop in a way that you can create your own effects using
combinations of various tools, including filters. In particular I
would like you to become familiar with the opacity settings and
blending modes in the layers palette.

I want you to look at creating a digital collage that use combinations
of things like,


Layers
Opacity
Blending modes
Filters
Gradient masks
Image adjustments
Rasterising type
Merging layers
Selections


One way to do this is to make a copy of a layer, then apply a filter.
You can then lower this new layer’s opacity and change the blending
mode to alter and soften the filter effect.

I would like you to create the collage from web images found on the
web such as google images or flickr. I would like you to stick to
using only photographs for this piece with the exception of using non
copyrighted artwork such as old etchings and clip art.


Size: 15cm X 15 cm 150 DPI
Program: Photoshop
Due: On screen, end of class

Note: If you would like a list of what all the blending modes do go here
http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Photoshop/10.0/help.html?content=WSfd...
Although it is best to just use them and get a feel for them.


During or after class:
Log into google groups and add a user pic and add a link to your blog

Add links in the sidebar of your blog

Create a bloglines account, subscribe to class members blogs