WEEK 09: Lecture & Poster Design Progress

 DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY & IMAGING GCD 61204

WEEK 9: LECTURE & POSTER DESIGN PROGRESS

NAME: Adeline Wong Chyn Nee

I.D: 0344017

COURSE: Bachelors of Design in Creative Media

GROUP: C

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Going into our 9th week of lecture, I am looking forward to what the lecture had to offer as we are working on our poster for project 2 and we are learning about digital surrealism, so that will give us one or two ideas about how to improve our poster.

LECTURE NOTE:

This week, Mr. Martin introduced us to digital surrealism so we can make use of that knowledge in our poster.

Realism Versus Surrealism

Fig. 1.1 Realism example

Realism 

Takes subject matters of the ordinary and common world which we call "reality." It almost always takes a non-exotic and non-extraordinary subject matter and theme. There is no need to think outside of the box, as that is not "real."

Fig. 1.2 Surrealism example

Surrealism

A twist on Realism. It explores the subconscious mind, with subject matters concentrating on dream-images and often aims to distort the ordinary and what we call reality

Fig. 1.3 Surrealism example

Surrealism defies logic. Dreams and the workings of the subconscious mind inspire surrealistic art (French for "super-realism") filled with strange images and bizarre juxtapositions.

Fueled by the teachings of Freud and the rebellious work of Dada artists, surrealists like Salvador Dalí promoted free association and dream imagery.

Dadaism - An anti-war art movement with art works that is satirical and nonsensical in nature.

Fig. 1.4 Dadaism example

Salvador Dalí was a Spanish Surrealist painter and printmaker known for exploring subconscious imagery.

Fig. 1.4 "The Persistence Of Memory" by Salvador Dalí

So What Is Digital Surrealism?

Surrealism is a cultural movement focused on types of art to express the artist’s ideas themselves.

In this digital era, surrealism is one of the top digital art styles.

Fig. 2.1 Digital Surrealism example

How To Start Creating Surrealism Work?

We can start by coming up with dream-like scenes that are unexpected, illogical juxtapositions symbolic images, and design elements that are bizarre assemblages of ordinary objects.

We can also think of surrealism as a design created from a child-like thinking perspective.

One easy way to do this is to capture your dream!

Fig. 2.2 Dream sketch

1. Sketch It Out  

Take a piece of paper and pen/pencil or a tablet and start to sketch. Draw your vision out roughly. Don't finesse any details yet, but just lay out key points of your vision.

2. Find Reference Images

Gathering reference images will help you greatly in realizing your new idea. Gather images that directly relate to what you have in mind. 

When creating, we should have these two mindset:

Fig. 2.2 Digital Surrealism example

1. "Does this look real?"

Surrealism is at its best when it's convincing enough that it could be real, however, we obviously know that the subject matter you are creating is nonexistent, this is not real.

2. Make it happen to the best of your ability.

When you try to approach something challenging, you will learn the skills you may need for next time to make it work. The worst thing you can do is be afraid and back off from your idea because you would never learn that way. 

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PROJECT 2 - POSTER DESIGN

For this project, I am focusing on a topic related to teenagers'/ adolescents' mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

I did my research on how to create an impact on a topic like this and decided to go for a provocative concept to evoke an upsetting feeling from the viewers. 

These are some of my ideas and inspirations for this poster:

Fig. 3 Inspirations and ideas

My Progress: 

1) Shooting a photo:

To start this poster, I took a front-angle photo of myself in front of natural sunlight with an emotionless expression on.

Fig. 3.1 My picture

2) Quick Selection Tool and Masking

Next, I went straight to Photoshop and mask myself out from the background using 'Quick Selection Tool' and then 'Select and mask' to make sure I deleted all the edges.

Fig. 3.2 Quick Selection Tool

Fig. 3.3 Process of masking myself out

3) Creating Surrealism effect

In order to tell a story, I followed the video Mr. Martin left on my first poster review and created this Surrealism effect. This effect is created to show the hidden feelings of a teenager with mental illness and hide them from the people around them.

Fig. 3.4 "Making Inside Face Surrealism In Photoshop" by Rafy A

Fig. 3.5 After applying the Surrealism effect

4) Colour Correction and Background

After creating the effect, I used Colour Balance, Hue, and Saturation, and Gradient Map to set the mood of the poster. Next, I also added a background to create a scene for myself to be in.

Fig. 3.6 After applying filter and background

5) Other elements

After adding the filters and background, I added a mask hanging from my ear and tears streaming down my face to show that this poster is related to the pandemic, and not just a normal mental health-related poster.

Fig. 3.7 After adding other elements

6) Text and Details

To finish up the poster, I added a title, slogan, and other text that I have made beforehand and placed them following the visual hierarchy so that any viewers reading this would know where to look at first, the title which is then followed by the visuals, a slogan to encourage the viewers, then where to seek for help, which is stated at the bottom of the poster.

Fig. 3.8 After adding texts

Final Poster Design in PDF:

Fig. 3.9 Final Poster Design in PDF