Digital Collage
Planning
Inspiration
The inspiration for this piece was difficult for me to find, especially since it is supposed to be a digital piece. For the longest time, I was unable to decide on an artist for this piece. I had planned to continue with my past theme of Self-Conflict, which I branched off from my overarching theme of Conflict. One day, I simply looked up "mental health artists" and came across a CNN article. Within that article, I saw people such as Salvador Dali, Edvard Munch, some of the works of Francis Bacon. I was not very interested in doing something with Dali, as I felt it would be much better suited for a painting. I then decided to look into Edvard Munch, and was intrigued by his painting "The Day After". I looked through a bit more of his works, and then decided to continue to look at other artists. I then looked at some of Francis Bacon's self portraits. There were two of his triptychs that really stuck out to me initially: "After Three Studies for a Self-Portrait (1983)" and "Three Studies for a Self-Portrait (1979-1980)". There were a few specifics that I had noticed within both of these paintings. The first thing that drew my eyes was the distorted and split face on each panel. Another thing was how the dark background of each panel allowed the faces to pop out at the viewer. I then settled on using these as my main inspiration.
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(Click to enlarge pictures)
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Planning Sketches
As per usual, I laid out all of my plans on a single page to help collect my ideas. I quickly settled on my usual theme of past theme of Self-Conflict, which I branched off from my overarching theme of Conflict. I then thought about my general concepts and ideas. I wanted to pay attention to ideas of mental health expressions or mental diseases, as I have been more recently. I then put out my two main artists and inspirations, those being Francis Bacon's "Three Studies for a Self-Portrait (1979-1980)" and Edvard Munch's "The Day After". Afterwards, I laid out my technical ideas for the actual creation. First, I discussed how I could go around creating the distorted/split face. I initially thought that I could possibly go about this by taking multiple different pictures of my face at different angles and lighting. Then, I thought about the background, which I wanted to be dark, maybe wooded or a hedge. I have many different plants and objects in my background which I could take pictures of at night. Finally, I thought that I could use the mixing brush to help create the blurred complexions on the face.
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This was the first actual planning sketch that I had created. It is a rather rough sketch, but it was helpful for me. It allowed for me to get an idea of the general shape of the piece. The inspiration was taken from the first panel of Francis Bacon's "Three Studies for a Self-Portrait (1979-1980)". One thing that I had also considered was using a combination of clothes vs one single clothing.
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This is the final planning sketch was inspired by the second panel of Francis Bacon's "Three Studies for a Self-Portrait (1979-1980)". This sketch gave me the idea to stretch out one of my cheeks to help create that distorted effect. I also considered using eyes and mouths from different pictures and different positions.
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Process
Experimentation
This entire process was very experimental for me, as I had very little experience with Photoshop. One of the first things that I had experimented with was different pictures to use for both my face and the background. I took about 12 different pictures of myself in different poses and also different pictures of the outside. In Photoshop itself, The first thing that I had experimented with was the removal of part of the left side of my face. After removing it, it seemed too rough and I wanted to smoothing it out a bit more. I then used the mixing brush to spread out the edges and create this interesting effect. Another thing that I experimented with was removing the glasses on the right side of my face. I spent about an hour using the clone stamp tool to take remove the glasses around there but my result was rather disappointing.
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Process
The first thing that I did was take dozens of pictures of myself. I ended up taking around 60 pictures at first, and narrowed it down to just a few. When I went into Photoshop and pasted my first picture into a new document. However, when I went to enlarge the picture, it was unbelievably pixelated. I then had to go bad and retake a bunch of different pictures using a better camera, which took a bit more time.
After all of that, I was finally able to start. I went back into Photoshop and pasted my first picture into a new document. I then went and cropped out my face and body from the background. I put that onto a white background and began to work on the left side of my face.
For the left side of my face, I first created a new layer in case I made any mistakes. Then, I used the Lasso tool to select a decent chunk of it. Next, I deleted the selected portion and shifted the figure to the left side of the page.
Thirdly, I decided to cut out my right eye and replace it with a different one. I chose to use the right eye from the third picture on the slideshow above. I used the Lasso tool to select and delete the eyes on both pictures. I then pasted the new eye into the open slot and used the mixer tool to blend to edges.
After that, I did two things, the right cheek and the lips. For the right cheek, I took the cheek from (I believe) the sixth picture on the slideshow above. I cut it from that picture and pasted it over the other cheek. I then slightly increased the size and shifted it over enough to where it looked "natural". I also used the mixer brush to blend the edges slightly. After that, I took the lips from one of the pictures (I cannot remember which one it is) and did the same thing that I did with the eyes.
Next, I work on the fading left edges, extended my hair, and I darkened some of my body. For the edges, I simply used the mixer too brush to spread out the edges so it wouldn't look as rough along the edges. I then took the clone stamp tool to add more hair on the right side of my head. I had felt like the blue was too bright for the picture, so I decided to take the burn tool and darken the bottom half of my figure.
Finally, I needed to add my background to the picture. I took one of the pictures from my background and cut out a part with a bit of blue and black in it. I then hid most of my body and pasted about 50 of the background portions to cover the entire background.
After all of that, I was finally able to start. I went back into Photoshop and pasted my first picture into a new document. I then went and cropped out my face and body from the background. I put that onto a white background and began to work on the left side of my face.
For the left side of my face, I first created a new layer in case I made any mistakes. Then, I used the Lasso tool to select a decent chunk of it. Next, I deleted the selected portion and shifted the figure to the left side of the page.
Thirdly, I decided to cut out my right eye and replace it with a different one. I chose to use the right eye from the third picture on the slideshow above. I used the Lasso tool to select and delete the eyes on both pictures. I then pasted the new eye into the open slot and used the mixer tool to blend to edges.
After that, I did two things, the right cheek and the lips. For the right cheek, I took the cheek from (I believe) the sixth picture on the slideshow above. I cut it from that picture and pasted it over the other cheek. I then slightly increased the size and shifted it over enough to where it looked "natural". I also used the mixer brush to blend the edges slightly. After that, I took the lips from one of the pictures (I cannot remember which one it is) and did the same thing that I did with the eyes.
Next, I work on the fading left edges, extended my hair, and I darkened some of my body. For the edges, I simply used the mixer too brush to spread out the edges so it wouldn't look as rough along the edges. I then took the clone stamp tool to add more hair on the right side of my head. I had felt like the blue was too bright for the picture, so I decided to take the burn tool and darken the bottom half of my figure.
Finally, I needed to add my background to the picture. I took one of the pictures from my background and cut out a part with a bit of blue and black in it. I then hid most of my body and pasted about 50 of the background portions to cover the entire background.
Reflection
Overall, I was not as big of a fan of this project as I have been with others. I would much prefer physically creating something in a physical realm. Albeit, there are still some things that I am happy with for this piece. For example, I am very pleased with the smooth blending of the right cheek and the fading edges on the left cheek. One thing that I think would have improved the piece is if I had been able to correctly remove the glasses on the left side of my face.
ACT Responses
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
I was very concerned with keeping true to Bacon's distorted style within my art
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
I think that Francis Bacon would have approved of this sort of work, as it is known that he dealt with a lot of personal issues himself.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Through my research, I discovered that there are a lot more artists that discuss this topic than I had originally thought
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
Overall, I have been trying to keep true to my overarching theme of Conflict
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
In the end, I inferred that it doesn't matter who it is, it could be just some random passerby on the street; they could be struggling with diseases like depression and it needs to be taken more seriously.
I was very concerned with keeping true to Bacon's distorted style within my art
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
I think that Francis Bacon would have approved of this sort of work, as it is known that he dealt with a lot of personal issues himself.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Through my research, I discovered that there are a lot more artists that discuss this topic than I had originally thought
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
Overall, I have been trying to keep true to my overarching theme of Conflict
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
In the end, I inferred that it doesn't matter who it is, it could be just some random passerby on the street; they could be struggling with diseases like depression and it needs to be taken more seriously.