Surreal Project: "You are what you eat... literally"

The lighting worked out pretty well for my final image (thank you to my fellow classmates that made it happen!) The main issue that I had was with color, since each miniature version of me had different colored lights reflected off them. I decided to change it to sepia in order to unify the colors. It also gives it a look that reminds of a classic monster movies like King Kong and Godzilla, since there is a giant centered in the background terrorizing little people who are trying to runaway into the foreground.

Surreal Project: The Shots and the Idea

The idea behind my surreal project is to take the saying "you are what you eat" literally. The finalized image will have a sense of humor to it. The poses shot against the green screen will be scaled and placed on the shot with me at the dinner table. The green screen shots will be scaled down so that they appear to be miniature versions of me running around and trying to escape the more larger me. The miniature people will be placed in the plate, cup, soup bowl, and running into the foreground.

Surreal Project: Inspiration - Pedro Meyer

My surreal project is inspired by the work of Pedro Meyer. An element that he uses that I wanted to use is the way he used scale. In some parts of each of these example compositions are scaled so that they create a hierarchy of foreground and background. Objects or people that are normally small look larger based on how they are scaled and placed in the scene.

Final Panorama

Original Panorama

My 4 Shots: Final

4 of what I think were my best shots

Assignment 1 (Final)

One of the problems I had from the previous version would be that the color of the background (behind the large self-portrait) was competing with the portrait picture in the foreground. I decided to push the whole background by making it monochrome and adding a filter that resembles a hand-drawn sketch. This effect brings the elements of the background together by grouping them using the same colors and forms throughout in so that they no longer blend with the now more colorful self-portrait picture.

Deciding what to do with type was kind of a challenge, because at first I wanted the artist name and album name to fill the top and bottom. I added boxes behind the type on because some of the elements showed cropped out areas. It was not the solution since the type was sitting horizontally and it didn't show any unity. Instead, I decided to create a round path for the text so that it unites the elements within a round shape. I also added a black border so that it could create negative space for the type to be pushed forward. The type I used is called "wide Latin", and I used this font to give the type more visual weight.

Notice that I have also reversed the image of the elements as well. This is mainly due to the fact that the faces (self-portraits and the front of the car) were pointing outwards and created an invisible line pointing away from the composition.

Another thing to note about this album cover would be the reasons why I chose the artist name and album cover. The artist name is "Dan-B", since my friends call me that due to the fact that in high school there were multiple people named Dan (Dan A., Dan B., Dan C. - I'm not joking!). I decided to name the album "The Focus" since the black border reminded me of a scope or a viewfinder, which the user has to point at something they are focusing on. It also points toward the focal points of the composition as a whole.

Assignment 1: Progress (part 2)

So far I have managed to add more elements to my composition. I added the car that I drive as well as am additional self portrait. I might have to do a re-shoot of the car since I want a better length and angle on the view of the car as well as a way to over up the bottom half of the second self-portrait I added, since the legs are not visible.

The next element I want to add is my scanogram. I illustrated my name in the form that references graffiti art, and I'll either add this image to the wall in my composition or use it as part of the album's type.

I notices that the car seems to have hotter coloring than even the larger self portrait has, so I think I will have to reduce the amount of colors used. I also need to push the car and the smaller self portrait back by applying cooler colors to them.

Assignment 1: Progress

So far I selected myself from one of the self-portrait pictures that I shot and hid the background with a mask. One problem spot that I had to address was that the background can be seen through the glasses lens of my left eye. I had to use multiple masks within the small area in order for the lens to be show anything that would be placed behind it in the future (such as a background).

Eventually I want to create an album cover that suggests that the music within the album is hip-hop. One idea I thought of is to split the composition into 3 area of interest. The focal point would be myself as pictured above. Second will be an object in the background which would fill the current empty space to the right of me. The text that includes the artist and album name would be third area of interest.

ARTISTADAY: Levi van Veluw

As I was looking through the ARTISTADAY website, I came across a unique self-portrait. The artist, Levi van Veluw, takes portraits of himself and adds different textures to the face. In the example shown in the first picture, the face is covered in trees, grass, and other greenery. The focus of the composition then shifts from the face itself to the surreal landscape created on the face. One can also see that this creates more space within the composition since the greenery wraps around the face and adds interest to the shape of the face.

Levi van Veluw is a photographer from the Netherlands. He is an award winning photographer who was showcased in several locations across Europe and the United States. Many of his works so far are one-man made self-portraits using the same concept as the picture I shared.

More information:

ARTISTADAY

Levi Van Veluw's Official Site