Lens Based
"When the drops stop dropping, then the storm starts stopping"
Photoshop
50.8cm x 76.2cm
December 2019
"When the drops stop dropping, then the storm starts stopping" reflects on my childhood and how it has shaped me into the person I am and how I see the real world. It blends reality and fiction, using one of my favorite places and inspiration from one of the most influential children’s authors.
Photoshop
50.8cm x 76.2cm
December 2019
"When the drops stop dropping, then the storm starts stopping" reflects on my childhood and how it has shaped me into the person I am and how I see the real world. It blends reality and fiction, using one of my favorite places and inspiration from one of the most influential children’s authors.
Inspiration and Background
My inspiration for this project was (Photographer) and Dr.Seuss. For this project I wanted to incorporate my childhood, the main image is the waterfall my mom would take me to all the time as a kid. We would spend hours walking around the park and we would sit by the waterfall as long as we could. The waterfall is in Whitnall Park, here in Milwaukee, the same park that the willow tree from my Dry Point from semester one. I also used Dr.Seuss as inspiration because I had, and still have, most of his children's books. I loved his style and how weird his animals were. His art style is very warm and friendly, it help inspire children's imagination and I love that about it. |
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Process and Sketches
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The first thing I did for this project was thinking of what I wanted to do. At first I wasn't sure what I exactly had to do for this projec,t but once it was explained I knew I wanted to use the waterfall as my background image. Initially I wanted to make the image of the waterfall black and white, and only have the trees and greens in color, since those are my favorite things there. I love how the plants and trees create a frame for the image and help focus the image. When I tried to execute that plabn, itproved to be really challenging and time consuming. I liked the Idea, but I thought there could be an easier way of doing that, or just a better idea. That is when I thought of Dr.Seuss. I was listening to music I used to listen to when I was younger, and with a lot of changes happening in my lifre at this current moment, I was reflecting on my childhood and this house I'm sitting in as I write this. I thought about when we first moved here I was very scared and didn't like this place at all. To calm me down my mom would read Dr.Seuss's books to me every night, and she wrote one of my now favorite quotes on my white board, and it has been there ever since.
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Once I had my final idea I had to draw the animals I wanted edited into the picture. I drew fish, and a purple deer, and then I started to edit them into the picture of the waterfall. I only drew half of the deer since I wanted him to be peaking through the trees and didn't want his whole body. It was a little hard drawing him, since I couldn't find any deer that Dr.Seuss had drawn, so I used a moose character and a picture of a real deer. I also drew the fish and the flowers, this was easy since he is known for those illustrations. I drew them and snapped those photos of them to add them into the final image. I used photopea to finish this project. I erased the backgrounds of the deer, fish, and flowers and added them into the piece. I placed them where I thought the real versions of the animals would be. If you were to take a picture of you would most likely see the fish in the water, maybe jumping in and out of the water, if it is sunny that day. You would most likely see a deer peaking it's head into the fram of the picture, curious as to what you were doing. So, I put the animals in those areas, and I placed the flowers in random areas throughout the image. I also had to adjust the brightness of everything. I made the original, background image a bit brighter, just to make it look more happy. The deer and the flowers in the shadow or darker area of the image, on the left side, I made them darker so they blended in more, though no matter what they do not. With the fish and the flowers I had to brighten them to make them fit more as well. With everything adjusted and placed in a good spot I thought this was done. I did some last looks and touches, and was okay with the result.
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Reflection
I started this project at a crazy time. Everyone had just went into lockdown, school was essentially over for that year and I had a lot going on in my personal life. Work-wise, this was one of my first times digitally manipulating an image and I had no idea what to do. I was playing around with the background image which I had taken earlier and eventually got it to look how it does here. Then I was trying to think about what I wanted to do to it more or add to it. I then remembered the quote that my mom always says to me when I'm in a tough situation, which I used as the title. I added my Dr. Seuss-esque animals and flowers and played around with it until I liked it. I'm not too sure how close it is to anything I could have used as imspiration, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out for this being one of the first times of me working with this.
ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
I think its really clear that Dr. Seuss was an inspiration for this project. I think I executed his style as best as I could.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
He's a children's writer, so he tries to entertain and connect with the kids. I was always read his books and I think that is reflected in my personality even now. I can at times see these random things that aren't there and make a game out of it, like a kid would.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
There's a lot of crazy weird things in everything, no matter how normal it seems, if you look and think hard enough you can find anything.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My general theme was chaos and creativity being found in the ordinary.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I could infer what he was trying to teach kids, and what they got from it and how it affects their creativity.
I think its really clear that Dr. Seuss was an inspiration for this project. I think I executed his style as best as I could.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
He's a children's writer, so he tries to entertain and connect with the kids. I was always read his books and I think that is reflected in my personality even now. I can at times see these random things that aren't there and make a game out of it, like a kid would.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
There's a lot of crazy weird things in everything, no matter how normal it seems, if you look and think hard enough you can find anything.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My general theme was chaos and creativity being found in the ordinary.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I could infer what he was trying to teach kids, and what they got from it and how it affects their creativity.