Class Task #9 – The Art of Printmaking

Class Tasks 8a, b, and c – Adobe Illustrator

Illustrator Intro - 8a

The Pen Tool – 8b

Pathfinder Palette – 8c

Class Task #7 – Layer Masks…Like Face Masks

What happens when you paint part of the layer mask…black? …white? …grey?

When part of the layer mask is painted black, the image on top disappears in order to reveal the image underneath. When it is painted white, the image on top reappears as you paint the selected sections. Grey is anything in between. Therefore, when the colour is grey the opacity of the image that is either reappearing or disappearing will depend on how dark the grey is. 

Class Task #6 – Photo Editing Challenge

Problem #1:

Your friend’s cat got the eye back. Keep her away from any violent raccoons.

To put the eye back, I selected and copied the eye that is already on the cat. Then, I flipped it horizontally to make it the opposite eye. After that, i blurred out the edges of the square so it blended in with the cat’s fur. Lastly, I smudged it a bit and yes, here it is ! =)

Problem #2:

Well first of all, this was HARD. The bottom of the picture seemed pretty symmetrical. Therefore, I copied those parts and flipped them horizontally. After that, I created several layers (20 to be exact) in order to make sure the colour was flowing and not darker than it was supposed to be at some spots. I copied the top left of the picture and pasted it on the bottom to get the same effect. And yup, I’m done. =)

Class Task #5- Born Into Brothels

1) How did you enjoy the film? What stood out for you?

This movie was very touching and it made me learn a lot. One thing that stood out was the excitement of the children. I never thought about it before, but when it could be something so little for us, such as taking pictures. However, for those less fortunate, it was very interesting to see how they reacted to this new opportunity that they had. I enjoyed this film because it made me realize how lucky I really am to be where I am today. The movie portrays the hardships of other people, but also that “impossible is nothing”. If hard work and determination are put in, even if you have no experience, it is possible to learn something new.

2) Did you learn anything new about photography, life, people? What?

Many things came to me as I was watching this movie. I learned that people in the world are cruel. Well I knew that, but I gained further understanding on how people could be so evil to something so innocent, like a harmless child. Life is a journey, and friends and family members should help each other get through it. Especially, if they are living this hard life with prostitution, the parents should try to shield their kids from all this. However, when watching this movie, I realized that is not how “the real world” works and innocent children are expected to do things I could never even imagine.

3) How do you think the world needs to change? How important is this?

The world would be a much better place if people showed “empathy”. If any ordinary person put themselves in another’s shoes, world peace could possibly be achieved and maintained. The world needs to change drastically, and phenomenon such as prostitution should be the first to go. No woman should be giving up her dignity for any man. In order for the world to change, everyone should understand what it feels like for anyone going through this kind of discrepancy.

4) What are you willing to do TODAY to be a part of that change?

I don’t know if there is much that I can do on this exact day. But in the future, I’d like to help children around the world and those living in poverty, especially in developing countries such as India, and some places in Africa. If all my plans work out well and I have a successful career, it would be my pleasure to donate to those in need. Adopting a child has always been my future plan and helping more than one child would be a dream come true.

5) Do you know a good song/rap/poem with good lyrics about change in the world? Post a link or lyrics to share it with us.

The song is If I Ruled the World by Nas feat. Lauryn Hill.

6) Pick a non-profit organization that is important to you. Why is this important to you? Do they have a website?

A non-profit organization that is important to me is World Wildlife Fund Canada. This organization helps animals that are in need, and I believe it is just as important as any other foundation that helps people in need. It is important to know that there are animals in need as well, and if people donate to this, they could be helped and less species will be extinct. The website is:

http://www.wwf.ca/AboutWWF/WhatWeDo/Success.asp

7) What ideas do you have for media arts projects that we could do individually or as a class to help contribute to these organizations that are important to us?

As a class, we could put together all the organizations in the class and create a page on the school website to get the attention of the students in the school. Then we could try to raise money by taking donations for each foundation, in order to help them even if it’s only a little bit.

Understanding Resolution

1) Will a 300 dpi image or a 72 dpi image be clearer when printed out at the same size? How come?

When printed out at the same size, a 300 dpi image would be clearer than a 72 dpi image because the dots per inch would inch would be more compressed, therefore, creating the image with more detail. The image that has more dots will be clearer. With a 72 dpi image the dots per inch is 72. But with a 300 dpi image there are 300 dots per inch once again creating a more accurate image.

2) What would a picture created at 1 dpi look like?

A picture at 1 dpi would be difficult to make out because there isn’t enough detail. It would be hard to make sense of what the picture is meant to be because of the large squares and the limited amount of lines that could be used.

The Selection Tools

Fruit_Lasso

Fruit_Wand

Fruit_Combo

1. What combination of tools did you use to isolate the fruit in “fruit_combo.jpg” and where in the image did you use which tool?

To isolate the fruit bowl, I used a combination of the magic wand, the rectangular marquee tool, and magnetic lasso. It was easy to get rid of the top part of the picture with the rectangular marquee tool. The magnetic lasso helped take off the few parts that the magic wand did not delete.

2. Of the methods you used to isolate the fruit in the 3 pictures. Which method did you find most effective in this case?

I find that it is easiest to use the magic wand tool because it takes off a huge chunk from the picture, considering that the background is a completely different colour.

3.

a) Select > Modify > Expand

b)Select > Modify > Contract
 

c)Select > Feather

What do these do? Post a fourth image indicating that you know what feathering does.

Expand makes the image bigger by a certain number of pixels, and contract makes it smaller, eliminating part of the image. 

4. Optional: For the [magic wand] Did you figure out what “contiguous” does? Yes.