Photogenic

This month’s Pupil Spotlight is on a pupil from my Int 2 Photography class. Jenna M (OLSP) didn’t really think she had a skill for photography, though I completely disagree. Her shots display a level of layers that peel apart, the more you examine the image.

The above image is Jenna’s Manray inspired image. Several different poses were photographed and each variation on the left eye was placed and merged onto her cheek using Photoshop. This photo reminds me of the work of Charles Burns, expecially his ‘Black Hole’ graphic novel. It’s got that mutant feel, though still looks very pretty.

Below, Jenna creates a single cover for the band ‘Passenger’. Using a variety of different photographs (taken herself, no Google Images here!), composited together and then, looking at the type of David Carson, she laid out the image (finding and downloading her own free for use fonts). It’s absolutely brilliant and one of the best designs I’ve seen from a pupil. It’s things like this that make me happy to be a teacher. Great work!!

Deery Me

I haven’t updated in a while due to increasing workloads and a little bit of being ill. I am trying to get everything up and running again, and trying not to focus the site’s updates too much on Instagram and Twitter. Sadly, the social networks get more traffic, so if you would like daily updates, follow the blog on my Instagram account, or my Twitter one (links found down the right hand column).

I’d like to show you a nice photoshopped image by Ashleigh McK (S6/OLSP). She has created an image for a Manray unit as part of her media photography course. Images were taken and then manipulated in photoshop to create a surreal feel. I love that it is a nicely dressed deer hanging out in a tree.

‘And In The End… I Did It Manray!’

I’m currently teaching Intermediate Photography with a mixture of S5 and S6 pupils. A good starting place is to look at the work of Manray and try to put his ethos into your own photograph. Pupils looked at the way he objectifies parts of the body, often making them look like a still life and how he composes multiple photographs together into a single image. They then have to compose their own Manray image. The image above was my exemplar, taken of my friend and colleague, Miss McInnes (OLSP, PT). It was created by taking a shot of the stool on it’s own, then taking a shot with Miss McInnes and photoshopping the  images together to form a surreal composite.

Shopping For A Dress

This week’s ‘AOTW’ comes from Stephanie (OLSP, S5). Stephanie created this fabulous design with Mrs Nicholson for her Higher Design Unit. She worked with me on the final piece, creating the idea using Photoshopping techniques. It was amazing to see Stephanie learn the application within hours of tutoring. Something that had taken me weeks, even months to learn, was grasped by her in under a day. Remarkable work from a remarkable student.

Do Judge A Book By Its Cover

This week’s AOTW comes from Hanna M (S5,OLSP), I’d shown her work around a year ago. It’s developed a lot since then. She’s currently working toward finishing her expressive and design units for her higher. The image above is actually her final piece for her design unit. It’s based around a book cover design on ideas that she has developed herself. Hanna uses her drawings and her creations in Photoshop via a graphics tablet to produce her work. This gives her work an incredible finish, one of the most professional I have ever seen for someone her age.

You can follow her through her Deviant Art Profile:

http://burakotka.deviantart.com/

The Art Four’s ‘Tam O’Shanter’

The Art Four has put it’s ‘Tam O’Shanter’ animation up on Youtube for public access. Created by Miss McInnes and her S1 (OLSP) classes, it a tremendous feat of Photoshop Stop-animation. If anyone has ever tried movement or animation in Photoshop, you’ll understand how fantastic this short is, if you haven’t tried, you’ll still see how amazing it looks. My apologies on the narration… I tried my best.

Living Without Prejudice

I have finally finished the book I made with pupils from Lochgilphead Joint Campus. It’s full of wonderful digital imagery and quotes from the S3 pupils. It’ll be on show at the Scottish Learning Festival 2010 accompanied by short films of the images and text. I am very excited about it.

House

This week’s Artwork of the Week is an incredibly strong image composed by Samantha-Jane L (Lochgilphead, S3). The image has been created for Argyll & Bute’s presentation at the Scottish Learning Festival. Samantha, along with sixteen other classmates have been involved in a series of digital workshops with me to create a Blurb book and some short films.

Samantha was able to conceive her idea very quickly, planning and prose was completed within ten minutes. She then proceeded to paint some resource materials along with photographing some of her classmates, to use in the Photoshop composition. Her final image is incredibly detailed and strong, mixing basic painting techniques with complex Photoshop selection techniques to arrive at this dramatic and thought provoking image below. Well done Samantha.

Qic Time

Connor M from Oban High School is very busy indeed. Busy creating websites, busy making packages, busy taking photographs… busy, busy, busy. You would think with all this ‘quantity’ that the quality simply wouldn’t be there, but you’d be very wrong.

He is creating industry standard work while still currently studying in S5, not only is this amazing, but it’s also very annoying, he’s so young, talented and brimming with ideas. It could make you angry, he’s so good.

Spending a little time browsing through Connor’s work you’ll soon see that he has a very distinctive design style. He likes clean lines that are usually juxtaposed with a little messiness or something unexpected. It’s this combination that makes his sharp design ideas even more dynamic.

Not limited to software and design, Connor also takes a huge range of photographs, each image lingers in the viewers mind as either something a little humorous, tongue in cheek or provoking.

I am incredibly impressed by his photographs, though it’s Connor’s design work on Illustrator and Photoshop that bowls me over. His ideas and ability to design diverse and varied shapes, from dirty, grimey illustrations to simple and clean logos, is just staggering. Keep an eye on this pupil. You’re sure to see him again very soon.

To see more visit:

http://www.qic.deviantart.com

http://www.connor-macdonald.deviantart.com

Learning The Tools Of The Trade

I had to do a little filler lesson with some S2 pupils from the all girl school Notre Dame High in Glasgow. I decided to let them have a go at Pixlr and Glogster to learn some of the basic tools of Photoshop, an essential in any creative industry.

Lauren M attempts the above Frankenstein creation by putting a Retriever’s face onto a Chimpanzee. I guess you would call it a ‘Donkey’ or a ‘Mog’. Alexandra M creates a ‘Lady Bobo’ below.

Alexandra C G tries a similar slant with Gaga, though with a much bigger monkey below, I can’t help but laugh at this picture.

Above Cheryl G shows us her workspace using Pixlr as she creates a Justin Bieber/Pig amalgamation, while below she lets us view her workspace while using Glogster during the creation of a retro poster.