For this project, we had to use a scanner and Photoshop to create a poster that was similar to the one that we had to do for the Book of Change project, however this one was not allowed to have text. Every part of our picture had to be scanned into the computer, but they could be manipulated and combined in Photoshop to create our piece. I had little experience working with Photoshop coming into this project, so it was definitely a challenge trying to create something while trying to learn the program at the same time. I had a lot of trouble coming up with an idea and produced many failed attempts before this final piece. After exhausting new ideas and topics, I decided to go back to my original idea of making a poster against glorifying self harm. This poster hopefully brings the message across that even though self harm may look desirable or pretty online or in pictures, the reality behind the lens is nothing to be desired and is in fact a serious problem.
The things that I scanned for this piece is my own hand, a t-shirt, a phone, blades from my x-acto and box cutter, my bright green pencil case, glitter star stickers, and pages from a magazine.
After this project, I have learned that Photoshop is definitely not my preferred tool to use. The program frustrated and confused me and I don’t see myself using this again unless it is required for another project. However, I did have a lot of fun scanning things in and seeing how they turned out on the computer. It was fun scanning in objects with different textures, reflective qualities, and it was also interesting to see how things turned out if you moved the objects during the scan to create wavy and blurred effects.
Felicia G. Art 