Thursday, January 29, 2015

Off To A Good Start - The Photoshop Baptism

Welcome back to my small corner of cyberspace!

As you all know, I have fun with this graphic design stuff. But one of the things I enjoy most is when my students have just as much fun as I do, simply by using basic tools and techniques in the programs that I teach. So, with that being said, what I am gonna share are some samples of what some of my students have cleverly created in my Photoshop class.

Now, before I proceed, I must let it be known that these are all just fun, mock up pieces, nothing professional nor to gain any kind of monetary compensation. These are school projects. Simple, sweet and to the point. The best part of doing stuff like this is that you gain some knowledge of basic Photoshop tools... and crack up or cringe along the way. So, the instruction was to take one of your favorite musicians and superimpose them into a different background by using a clipping mask to edit the subject in question, bring them into a new PSD file, tweak the colors and eventually make it all a cohesive unit where it all looks as believable as possible. Something that would make people say 'Hey, is that Photoshopped or is it real?'

Well... with that being said, my class had some fun with some musicians...

... and upon seeing them, I was amused to the sheepish inner laughter that makes me think, wow... this is friggin' funny. Now, some projects created were very thoughtful, nothing really humorous about them, BUT that's beside the point. I am very proud of what my students did and with that being said, here.. lemme share some of these Photoshopped-Mocked Up-Thingamagigs with all of you.




As you can see, first we got Mr Ritchie Sambora, of Bon Jovi fame, doing his 'Guitar God' pose in front of the Grand Canyon. Dude... where the heck did you disappear off to? Seems like you and Jon Bon Jovi had enough of each other as to who was the better singer and you disappeared into oblivion, didn't ya? Well, no... you are soul searching over in Arizona right? Yeah, I thought so...

Then we got none other than the almighty Metallica with their true muse of inspiration... Mr. Barry Manilow. Hmm... now that I come to think of the latest trend in Metallica's music, ever since the Load album, it only comes to make sense that Barry Manilow had a lot to do with their songwriting procedures... It would only please me to hear Metallica cover Can't Smile Without You a la style of Ride the Lightening or hear Barry croon Enter Sandman with a nice lounge act sway... kinda like Richard Cheese and Lounge Against The Machine. Beautiful. hehe, I can hear James Hetfield now...
'I write the songs that make the whole world sing... YEAH!'

Next up is Parkway Drive. On stage. On a frickin' stage. Do you see them? Yep. They are performing. Hmm... who are Parkway Drive anyway? lemme check...

(insert Jeopardy theme song here)

Ok according to Wikipedia, Parkway Drive is an Australian metalcore band from Byron Bay, New South Wales, formed in 2002. That's in Australia. Yep. Hence Australian metalcore. I guess they give Midnight Oil and Silverchair a run for their money cuz I am sure they cannot touch AC/DC. But what the heck do I know... I don't listen to AC/DC anyway. They kinda lost my interest after The Razor's Edge. But I digress...

And last but not least... Method Man. Doing what he does best. Which is... Rap. And have the young maidens offer him praise for his nice poetic love stories. Ah, the joys of romance via spoken word, to the beat of a hip hop war machine. I wonder what the crowd is thinking well cuz that dude up front has fainted, the guy behind the chick at the podium is getting ready to pull out his sword and do some damage, and the dude behind Method Man is really glaring at him like he did something bad. Very... bad. Hmmm. Make me wonder what was in Method Man's words to cause such grief at the courthouse.


OK! So this is it. There were other pieces but they were not sent to me... oh well. next time.

See? Photoshop can be fun and it can be soothing, under the right circumstances... and last but not least it can sure get some people into a lot of strange predicaments.


See ya next time, and for now... you all be good.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

New Year, New Classes

Welcome to the year 2015, and welcome back to my small corner of cyberspace.

Yes, this is my blog. You know... the place where I log in every now and then and write a whole bunch of things related to creativity, teaching, and the occasional blurt of personal stuff. Of course, I am not a professional blogger, this is just a fun means for me to share my stuff.

So ANYWAY...

The new semester at the Nossi College of Art will be in full swing starting on Monday, January 12, 2015. I will be teaching two classes this semester... Adobe Photoshop and Basic Drawing. After the experience I had the past two semesters teaching Adobe Illustrator all I can say is that I am very excited and looking forward to more opportunities to teach and inspire.

Now, when it comes to Photoshop... this will be a basic class covering basic tools and putting them to practice with basic exercises. Simple, sweet and to the point. But what are the possibilities with this program? Well, I'll tell you what... let me take this time to show you some projects I did when I was a student. Yep... I still have them. So.... here we go...



Ok, so as you can see from the samples above, the options are endless... and the above compositions were done while I was still a student of graphic design at Nossi. Actually, the first one at the top... the Guitar Maelstrom, was the final project I turned in during my Photoshop class in 2006. Looks complex right? It really isn't. I will be showing my class how to create stuff like this, but catering it towards their vision and design style.

Now, I am also gonna be teaching Basic Drawing. Lots and lots of opportunities in this class, and plenty of ways to express oneself with pencil and paper. BUT, this isn't about teaching y students how to draw... no, this is about nurturing their talent and helping expand their knowledge of different mediums. So... how about some samples of what I created while I was in college... heh hehe... sure, why not...









All the above images were created during my time as a student as well, the majority during my Basic Drawing class. The main thing I want to show my students is how to use different techniques and mediums, expand their views on creativity without changing their own personal style. Y'know... help it evolve.

It's all about having fun with design. You'll get out of it what you put into it.

So, this is it for now. Not a very detail oriented blog, mind you, just wanted to say HEY NEW YEAR STARTED AND GUESS WHAT I WILL BE DOING!! Or something like that.

I'll be updating this blog periodically. Hope it is fun and entertaining.

See you guys around.