Colorizing the Ocean

Well things are finally picking up steam for our new semester. I just started 2 projects ( one in each class) so I hope to have some new stuff to post soon. For now though I thought I would post another one of the projects I did last semester.

I'm particularly fond of this image because my husband, Bryan, and I contributed to it. In 1990 on a family vacation to California Bryan took this gorgeous picture of the California coast. Then last semester I needed a picture to for a Photoshop project. The project was colorization and I wanted to use my colorization to make a bold impression on the viewer. When I found this photo I knew it was the one I needed to use.

I took Bryan's original color print, scanned it into the computer and adjusted it to the size and resolution required for the project. Then I used Channel Mixer to convert the color image to gray scale. From there I colorized the ocean with various shades of blue and green that mimic the original photograph. I chose to leave everything that was blue (or green) water Black and white, including the white heads on the waves. I felt this gave the image the drama I was looking for. We were also asked to find a piece of poetry or a quote of some kind that showed the statement that we were making with the image. I wanted to show that sense of drama so this is what I chose:

"The shattered water made a misty din
Great waves looked over others coming in,
And thought of doing something to the shore,
That water never did to land before."
-ONCE BY THE PACIFIC Robert Frost

Thanks Bryan for the amazing photograph to work with and for all of you support!!

In Honor of The King of Horror

Today a new book is coming out by my favorite author. Those of you who know me also know that A) that author is Stephen King and B) that I will likely have the book in my hand by days end. In honor of the new novel, Duma Key, I thought I would show a piece of King inspired art which I created. I designed this poster in my Adobe Illustrator class last semester.

The assignment was to use Adobe Illustrator to create a poster of a fictional Halloween event (a haunted house or haunted graveyard). The event had to have a cooperate sponsor whose name and logo appeared on the poster . Also the poster had to include the important event information, date, place, cost, etc. From there it was up to us to come up with something that was believable, eye catching , and would make people want to come to our event.

Being a King fan my brain went straight to him and his work. After all any King fan knows a Pet Cemetery is much more frightening then your standard haunted graveyard. Mostly it gave me an opportunity to tip my hat to a man whose work I have enjoyed so much over the last 20 years.

For a number of reasons I did take a little liberty with the title, spelling cemetery as it appears in the dictionary instead of semetery as it appears in the title of Mr. Kings book. This was noticed first by one of my best friends. The poster was out in my living room because I wanted to show it to some friends who where coming over. Before I got a chance to do that I heard one of my friends asking my husband if he thought the person who created the poster had spelled cemetery with a "c" to avoid being sued. He didn't realize I had created it until I told him that I spelled cemetery with a "c" so my instructor wouldn't think I spelled it wrong. I was very pleased when he told me he thought it had been done by a professional. There is no better compliment that having some one think my class projects is the real thing.

Okay so here is the part where I do cover myself to avoid being sued, so pay attention. This poster was intended as a school project only, the event described on the poster is fiction. The poster was not endorsed by Mr. King or Scribner publishing.

First Day Of School - Spring Semester '08

Well today is the first day of the new semester. I decided this time I would only take two classes to make things a little easier on myself and my family. The 2 classes I picked seem like they're going to be good ones though. My first class is Typography & Layout and my second class is Adobe InDesign so there kind of on the same theme. Text and Layout are the big things that my work is missing. I have hardly any idea how to pick the right font or where to put it. So far I have done fairly well going on instinct and picking what looks good to me. Up to this point that's been okay but it isn't going to cut it for higher level classes or for a job. So I'm glad to spend this semester getting a getter idea of how to make those choices.

I think this is the last big gaping whole in my graphic design skills. Don't get me wrong I certainly won't be an expert by any stretch of the imagination but I think I will have tried a little of everything. That's good because then I can give some serious thought to what I really want to do with all of it. It seems weird that less than 2 years ago I wanted to work toward a career but I had no idea what I was even interested in anymore. Now I've found something I love and there are so many possibilities that I'm not sure how to narrow it down. Boy, when things change around here they change big time.

I'll keep you posted (no pun intended) on how the classes are going and I'll post some of my projects so you can see what I'm up to. Hopefully this semester will be a lot calmer than the last one.

Your Comments

I didn't realize when I originally set up the blog that I had it only allowing comments from people with G-mail accounts. When I realized that I wanted to change it so that anyone could leave a comment because I would really love the feed back, however there are problems with opening comments up to users how are able to remain anonymous. So here's what I've decided to do, I am going to make comments open to everyone as long as it isn't abused. By that I mean stick to the topic and don't don't post links to to sites that aren't of a PG nature. If it stays like that I'll keep it open if not I'll close it back up again and that would be ashame because I'd love to hear what you think.

Grampy Doughty's Train Room

So far a lot of the things I have worked on for other people are web sites. Actually when I started working on my graphic design degree I was sure I wanted to be a web designer. Now I am interested in so many of the things I'm learning at school all I really know is that I want to be a designer. I did start with web pages though and I continue to work on them for people.

After reading that I said I wasn't doing much work right now, my Dad thought it might be a good time to get me to add text to his Home page (a very smart idea). We started the site awhile ago but all we had gotten was a very basic shell of a site. We had two pictures posted, a header, and colors we wanted to work with and that was it.

Today I decided to put the text he sent me for the home page up but I hadn't looked at the page in at least 6 months. Since then I have taken a Web Design class, and an Adobe Illustrator class so as soon as I saw it my mind started racing with improvements that I should make. It is amazing to me how much I have learned in such a short time. When I set up the shell of the site for my Dad I thought it was great and I used almost all the skills I had. Now I still think it is a good start but I'm looking forward to all that we can do with it. Today I made some minor alterations but for the most part I stuck to entering the text. You can see it at http://www.stevestrainsite.com

When I work on it next I would like to improve the header. The current oval just doesn't fit with a train site and with my new Illustrator skills I can do much better. I would also like to change the template to would also like to change the layout. It would flow so much nicer if I was using CSS for the layout instead of tables but I probably won't change that until I upgrade from CS 2 to CS 3. One of the things I like best about design is that my mind is always swimming with ideas and that is certainly true today.

Right now Dad and I have a good start to the web site. You should check it out when you get a chance. The text I put up today is a really interesting narrative about why trains are in his blood. When we are done it is going to be a great site full of stories and photos. We hope you'll check it out then too.

If you would like to see another site I've designed check out http://www.jujustx.com. This is a site I worked on this past semester as part of an internship. The site is for a small company in Highlands Ranch, CO and they make flavored toothpicks that people use to stop smoking.

Contest Entry

Well right now I'm between semesters at school so I'm not doing a whole lot of Graphic Design work right now. However, I did recently enter a Photoshop contest. One of the categories was Student work and I thought this project was good enough to enter.

This is my final project from the Photoshop one class that I completed this Fall. Our assignment was to do a collage that used at least two photos and a number of the techniques we learned during the term to tell a story from literature or depict a current event. I chose to make a statement about the war in Iraq.

I used two copies of the Hummer picture, a picture of the art board, and a picture of the hand holding the pen to create this image. It is hard to see in the small image but the text on the left side of the picture (the color portion) is an excerpt from the Patriot Act and the text on the right (the black & white side) is the preamble to the Constitution. I also used a number of masks and adjustments to achieve this effect.

The winners of the contest won't be announced until February 1st. Whatever the out come of the contest is I'm just glad that I put the picture out there. It is hard to put a lot of effort into something and then let it be judge by others. Right now most of my work is only seen by my friends and family (who are more than a little biased) and my instructors and classmates. Although my instructors and classmates do give there opinions and there is constructive criticism it still feels like a very safe environment. If I want to be a designer I need to see if I can handle my work being seen by people who may not like and feel free to say so.