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Bart
Thursday, 4 October 2012
My book covers for Beautifully Unhinged
Photographic experiment/ illusion
It was not an easy week...But I finally made it!
After spending many hours at home, at school, outside, inside, here and there and taking hundreds of photos, I finally reached the moment where I could select a few of them to use them as my final book cover designs. All my photographs have been taken with a Canon EOS 1100D, which I later transferred onto my computer.
I have been using two graphics packages: CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4, and Photoshop Cs4. However, I spent three quarters of my time working on Corel at home. To complete the book covers, I used several graphic techniques. One of them was the layer cloning technique which I used to create the blue cover. After adjusting the photo featuring the model to the background, I then took a template of some old bricks. Then, to make the wall look more worn and "old school", I copied the template and duplicated it with different opacities and different tonal effects. This made the bricks appear much more interesting. To finish off the main object in the foreground, I played a bit with the Brightness/Contrast tool, which can be found in Menu, Effects.
During my work with the photos, I was inspired by some of the book covers of novels written by Stephen King, the author of some of the most famous horror/thriller novels. Although his books have been published by many different companies, there were two in particular which inspired me the most. The first book was ''Full Dark, No Stars'' with the blue cover, published by Scribner. The same cover has also been published in the UK upside down, which gave the book, in my opinion, a completely new look. I also paid a lot of attention to the colours, which were very limited (mainly blue or black, if you can count black as a colour). The second book from which have taken inspiration is "The Stand" published by Signet. Although I read it many years ago, the book cover brings me some memories back, when I was in Highschool. I have also chosen this book cover because of its simplicity and "cool attitude". The colour is mainly red, and the front image shows the grim reaper on a horse.
I present four book covers, in different colour and texture variations. Some of the colour concepts are stronger than others. For the typography, I have also used various fonts, albeit of a similar style (Arial Narrow, Arial Black). because I wanted to keep the letters simple and elegant.The graphic topics of the book are also different in many ways, but all have one thing in common, a dark character. One design shows a skeleton, and yet another one tells a story of a depressed teenager. It seems to me that there is a lot pain and suffering in this book, which for me has a stronger message to the world than happiness and frivolities.
Altogether I am satisfied with my final book covers. There are of course places where I can say "I could do this better'' or " I would change this or that", but it is more important to me that the work has been done on time. It was also the first time that I have worked on one art piece using two graphic programs. In the near future, I would like to improve some of my skills using Photoshop. I also would like to discover new functions and tools on Corel that might enable my artwork to rise to a completely new level.
Photographic experiment/ illusion
It was not an easy week...But I finally made it!
After spending many hours at home, at school, outside, inside, here and there and taking hundreds of photos, I finally reached the moment where I could select a few of them to use them as my final book cover designs. All my photographs have been taken with a Canon EOS 1100D, which I later transferred onto my computer.
I have been using two graphics packages: CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4, and Photoshop Cs4. However, I spent three quarters of my time working on Corel at home. To complete the book covers, I used several graphic techniques. One of them was the layer cloning technique which I used to create the blue cover. After adjusting the photo featuring the model to the background, I then took a template of some old bricks. Then, to make the wall look more worn and "old school", I copied the template and duplicated it with different opacities and different tonal effects. This made the bricks appear much more interesting. To finish off the main object in the foreground, I played a bit with the Brightness/Contrast tool, which can be found in Menu, Effects.
During my work with the photos, I was inspired by some of the book covers of novels written by Stephen King, the author of some of the most famous horror/thriller novels. Although his books have been published by many different companies, there were two in particular which inspired me the most. The first book was ''Full Dark, No Stars'' with the blue cover, published by Scribner. The same cover has also been published in the UK upside down, which gave the book, in my opinion, a completely new look. I also paid a lot of attention to the colours, which were very limited (mainly blue or black, if you can count black as a colour). The second book from which have taken inspiration is "The Stand" published by Signet. Although I read it many years ago, the book cover brings me some memories back, when I was in Highschool. I have also chosen this book cover because of its simplicity and "cool attitude". The colour is mainly red, and the front image shows the grim reaper on a horse.
I present four book covers, in different colour and texture variations. Some of the colour concepts are stronger than others. For the typography, I have also used various fonts, albeit of a similar style (Arial Narrow, Arial Black). because I wanted to keep the letters simple and elegant.The graphic topics of the book are also different in many ways, but all have one thing in common, a dark character. One design shows a skeleton, and yet another one tells a story of a depressed teenager. It seems to me that there is a lot pain and suffering in this book, which for me has a stronger message to the world than happiness and frivolities.
Altogether I am satisfied with my final book covers. There are of course places where I can say "I could do this better'' or " I would change this or that", but it is more important to me that the work has been done on time. It was also the first time that I have worked on one art piece using two graphic programs. In the near future, I would like to improve some of my skills using Photoshop. I also would like to discover new functions and tools on Corel that might enable my artwork to rise to a completely new level.
Wednesday, 3 October 2012
Beautifully Unhinged ''Still life''
For this lesson, we were given the task to create a still life photo shoot about Beautifully Unhinged. We were working in groups, and we were given two pages with the words ''Beautifully'' and ''Unhinged''. Later on, we were supposed to take these pages, and photograph them outdoors, in different compositions.
The experience was instrumental to my understanding of what was expected of me.
For this lesson, we were given the task to create a still life photo shoot about Beautifully Unhinged. We were working in groups, and we were given two pages with the words ''Beautifully'' and ''Unhinged''. Later on, we were supposed to take these pages, and photograph them outdoors, in different compositions.
Our next task was a little similar to the previous one. This time we were supposed to collect different materials outside, like: sticks, leaves, stones and other useful materials we thought might fit into the topic.
We then had to compose a still life composition out of the pages, surrounded with the objects.
The experience was instrumental to my understanding of what was expected of me.
Abstract Photography
''Abstract photography is a process of using colours and patterns combined to create an image, with no true meaning or no clear subject involved. Abstract photography is not necessarily going to mean the same thing to everyone. Abstract photography leaves more to the imagination and helps us concentrate on texture and colour rather than the whole subject.'' taken from http://wiki.answers.com
This was one of our first lessons. We had been put into groups, and afterwards send outdoors, to make our own abstract photography. The images could be later on used in our book cover projects, as patterns. Since my group has lost the photos, I had to take some new ones, that you can see below.
Even though the objects are small, thanks to the high resolution, they apear enormous on the screen. Now when I look back on the photos, I still find details I haven't seen before.
Tuesday, 2 October 2012
Beautifully Unhinged
The lesson was divided into 4 parts, and every group was assigned to spend 15 or more minutes for each task. Everything we did in class that day had a purpose to be later on used in our book covers.
The first assignment was to take photos of a skeleton. We had been adviced to play with the shadows and filters, to create a more mortuary character of the photos. The second project took place outdoors. We were supposed to take various photos of trees, that reminded us of one of the main topics of the book. The third task was another photoshoot of some glass elements combinated with lights from different positions. And the last one was a photoshoot with a living object. We had used a shutter and different light strenghts for this one.
There are a few new things that I have learned during that lesson. First, we made a great use of the colour filters available at the studio (although none of these fitted on my camera). Then I have learned about adjusting the lights in the room. It was also the first time I have been talking to a model, during a photo shoot to achive different expressions and postures.
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