Kristin Becker's DTC Classes at WSU

The imagery used in this collage appear to come from my personal iPhone 7 plus, and on Google, by modifying the image – tool settings so that the usage rights are labeled for noncommercial reuse with modifications. I chose the image of my friends and I, along with the “Welcome to California” sign because I wanted to show where we were when we took the picture, hence somewhere in the world. . Along with the apocalypse and world photo, I wanted to kind-of create this dystopia of a destruction-type-world that we (us in the photo) are a part of yet show a unique spin-off to it.

A digital collage that I threw together for Project 1 in DTC 201. Collage created by Kaleb Parrish, September 2018.

The elements that I used in this project were size, texture, colour, and value. I wanted to make the apocalypse and world the main focus of the collage, so I made them the biggest. However, the cropped-out picture of my friends and I, as well as the “Welcome to California” sign, I wanted it to still have a big enough size to still play a part in the collage, so I had it scaled to a definite smaller size. The texture, colour, and value, I wanted them to kind-of intertwine each other so I played with the hue so that it would come off as a glossy collage. My eye moves from the center of the composition where the apocalypse and world destruction meet, but one could also look from left to right or right to left when looking through the composition because everything seems to fit together, especially if the image took a 90-degree turn, or even 180-degree turn.

As for Principles that were incorporated in my piece, I would say the gradation and contrast both play a part in which some parts of the collage transition from lighter to darker tints and vice versa. Also, I hope that viewers would interpret this collage like I mentioned before, I wanted to create this dystopia of a destruction-type-world, but also have a spin-off off creativity by adding my friends. To me, it means that no matter what is going on in our world today, we still can come together and make the most out of our lives by traveling and having fun. The specific tools and function that I mostly used in this piece were the eraser tool when I had to erase most of the photo where my friends and I are posing which took the longest to try to make it erase all of the nonsense that was already in the photo. Then I added another layer to the world and wanted to make that color, as well as the color of my friends and I the same as the apocalypse so I had to mess with the hue and opacity so it blended in. Same for the “Welcome to the California” sign so everything would flow but because of the original photo of the sign, I had to use the blending tool to help blend it in the background, so it would all flow.

This work needed to be constructed digitally because I wanted to make it seem as if it could be printed out as a poster. Granted, some of the artwork like the apocalypse and the world could be from a magazine or maybe drawn by hand, but I think it looked better digitally because I could bring out the colors and make it seem as if one.

For my digital collage project I wanted my collage to look like it was edited in photoshop rather than a more realistic approach. While working on this project I was back home with my nephew and he inspired me to make the collage have a childlike feel to it. All the images i used were from primary search engines with public domain sites such as Bing and Google. Wanting that child friendly feel to it i made sure that the pictures i pulled from the internet were colorful and and all different things that kids enjoy.

While creating this collage i started it with the young boy whom reminded me of my nephew. He has such a large smile in this image its almost hard not to smile back creating the emotion i wanted from the audience. I began asking my nephew what his favorite toy was and he said an airplane and his pikachu so i then decided to incorporate those in my image. I then began thinking back to when i was a child and how my brother and i used to catch caterpillars and bring them home to our nanny. The next image that came to mind was a giant lollipop because what little kid doesn’t like a giant lollipop? I also included my favorite flower the sunflower, Sunflowers are large, bright, and absolutely beautiful when in full bloom. The background of this collage is a rainbow with a man at the end and raising his hands in the air. While first assembling i wasn’t sure i wanted to include the man or just cover him up with another image. As i played around with the occupancy of the lollipop i decided it looked more interesting when you can see the man very subtly through the lollipop.

I hope when people look at this collage they begin to think back to their childhood and what they used to play with as kid. There is so much going on in this image that your eye jumps all over the place almost not sure what to look at and i did this because it made me think about children minds and how they are constantly thinking about 1000 different things at once. I also hope the audience recognize how colorful these images are and almost all of them including a yellow. Yellow is color in which brings hope, happiness, remembrance, and optimism which is exactly the emotion the audience should feel when looking at this collage.

The images I used came from google images and websites that allowed for re-purposing and reuse of the images. I chose these images because I believe they helped portrayed my message very well and they seemed to flow together nicely with the lighting. The biggest elements in my collage is the color and the shape. The contrast in color between the galaxy man and the background catches the eye of the viewers and for my collage represents the difference between man and nature. The shape of the galaxy is one of a man and represents the potential for humans. The size of the man also plays a role of making sure that he isn’t too big as to overwhelm the background but also not too small as to ensure it’s the main focus of the collage. For design I used balance and contrast as best as I could. Balance is used through the main image being in the center at a considerable size and it is offset with the castle towards the edge at a much smaller size in order to blend and make a difference in the background.

A photo collage to portray a freedom of mind from body and the world. Created by Timmy Huynh September 2018

When people see this collage I hope for them to see that humans are so much more than what is around us and what we are currently limited to. The galaxy man is to represent that we are capable of so much more than what our simple bodies and environment constrain us from. The castle represents two things, one is to convey an example of us being able to conquer mother nature with something great and impervious to nature. The other is to show that we can do better than our past as castle are considered impractical now and mainly used as art or a piece of history now. It was made small to convey that it is now a small piece of our ever growing lives and legacy. The magnetic lasso was extremely helpful with selecting and masking the silhouette of the man. As for the masking tool it really allowed me to pick and choose the man and how I wanted the galaxy image to overlay it. I also balanced parts of the background with the burn tool due to its high exposure and brightness. This collage could have been made outside of Photoshop, but it definitely made it easier. It could have been made by simply cutting and pasting the images onto the background, but it would not have looked as clean as the images were retouched for the lighting and contrasts. There were a few collages that influenced me, I knew I wanted to portray humans as far greater than we are but wasn’t sure how. This is when I saw an image of a galaxy through the silhouette of a building and immediately I decided I wanted to do the same, but with a person.

A digital collage for the first project. This collage brings emphasis to the curiosity and mystery in children’s minds. Collage created by Tori Bredy, September 2018.

For my collage, I chose to create a landscape and make it realistic using Photoshop. I am quite familiar with Photoshop so I wanted to challenge myself by creating a collage that could be perceived as just one photograph. Prior to enrolling in DTC 201, I had done research and learned a lot about famous photographer Ansel Adams. Adams created amazing black and white photographs of landscapes which is where I got some inspiration from. When designing my collage, I wanted to curate a piece that was in black and white because I found it more helpful in creating a natural-like collage if the images are within the same color scheme.

The imagery used in this collage comes from the Internet. I chose to use images from online instead of my own because I wanted to use variety of different landscape images.

Elements of design used in my collage are organic form with the abandoned car and the two boys in the distance, color with the emphasis on black and white images, texture is seen on the car and the viewer can feel the rusty, grainy coating. For principles of design, there is proportion/scale with the location of the car and with the two boys in the distance, and there is balance with the location of the car being in the middle. All of the elements and principles of design are being used to understand the image as an abandoned car on some old railroad tracks. With the children in the background running, it brings the understanding of the image that the car is in a location where children run off to play in.

My hope when viewers look at this collage is that my work is interpreted as what could be a real life image. I enjoy using my creativity to make pieces that can be interpreted as actual reality. This piece has meaning to me because I love the work done by Ansel Adams. Even though Adams didn’t use collages, I wanted to create a piece that was a real-life looking landscape. By adding the picture of the two little boys in the background, I hope it is interpreted how children have such an imagination and are curious explorers when they are able to roam around outside playing their make believe games. My goal is to share through this collage how youth, mystery and curiosity fall hand in hand.

For this collage, I relied on using layer masks for most of my images, but for a couple, tried selecting and feathering the image to place into the main Photoshop document. I used the Hue/Saturation tool to make the car look more realistic and the same with the children and the curves tool.

This work did not need to be done digitally since I gathered all of my images from the Internet. I could have printed off the images and manually cut and pasted them together but the digital aspect helped me make it as realistic as I could.

For my project, most of the images i used were from a website called Pixabay. This website described itself as a collective of creators that share their content for freedom of use. I chose these images because they helped to form the narrative I was trying to put together for this artwork.

A digital collage created for the first project that tries to bring the feeling of vulnerability when opening up to someone, to an image. Designed by: Jessica Harja, September 2018.

In terms of elements of principles and design, there are varying degrees of lines, shapes, textures, and colors. There are the lines of words that overlap each other and fall behind the hands. The haphazard layout for the repetitive shapes of the words create a kind of unsettled mood combined with the actual words themselves. The heart, the object with the most color, is placed in the center of the image to place an emphasis on why it is important. This heart, with its rough wooden textures, looks worn and used. When the two different subject matters are combined, it helps to understand the purpose of the image a little better by directing the viewer throughout the text and the image itself.

What I hope that viewers get from this image is a sense of what we all feel when it comes to being vulnerable with others. Originally, it was intended for romantic relationships but could also be applied to platonic ones. We all have a wall of insecurities we may be hiding behind when we first get to know someone. Sometimes it takes a long time in order to get through that wall that we’ve built to protect our damaged hearts; to offer up a bit of ourselves to the person we are getting to know. So the words are representative of that wall of insecurities that we’ve built to protect ourselves from while the hands are meant to be reaching out from that wall to offer up the heart of vulnerability to the reader.

Most of the tools used for this project were the use of layers, the magnetic lasso tool, move tools, opacity, and eraser, blur, and smudge tools. At first, this project didn’t really need to be constructed digitally until I started playing around with the opacity, blur, and smudge tools. It’s very difficult to use those techniques with printed images rather than with other materials. In the end, I tried to create a semi-surrealist landscape of how someone would feel with the internal battle of trying to open up to people.

Collage created by Kameryn Skillingstad

1. My collage started with an image of the sky, in the clouds, then I slowly added picture of squirrels, a gumball machine filled it with nuts, and pennies laying around. I chose these images to create a humorous yet dream like feel to the collage.
2. Color is a prominent element present in my collage, the yellow and purple hues of the sky draw the eyes attention. Along with color, the contrast of the squirrels and nut machine against the white cloudy background make the squirrels stand out. Also, I think my piece has balance because the nut machine is in the middle amongst the clouds and the squirrels and pennies lay around it which creates a nice balanced collage. Lastly, I have repetition of all the squirrels which creates interest in the viewer.
3. I hope viewers interpret this collage as a piece that is light hearted and humorous. While creating this piece I was inspired by the scene in Ice Age of the squirrel running through squirrel heaven to find his nut and I put my twist on that idea. To me this piece resembles that everyone, or every animal, can find their happy place.
4. While creating this piece I used quick selection to cut all my objects from different pictures, eraser tool to erase the left-over background from my images, layers and masks to insert the items I cut into my sky background, adjusting the brightness to make the items look like they fit better with the background, and the move tool to adjust where all my objects are.
5. I think this piece could have been drawing by someone who is a very skilled artist, however I don’t believe it would have the same dream like effect had it been created any other way than digitally.

1.  These Images appear from Day N Night festival (2017), I attend a lot of music festivals and concerts and happened to take this image while in the crow of Travis Scott’s performance. I chose these images because of my passion for music and witnessing artist’s perform live. With that, I always like to use my own images, paintings, hand constructed items when creating any sort of piece; whether it is for class or for something personal, and I thought this imaged captured what artists don’t like seeing at there shows, everyone on their phones
2. Repetition and direction are used heavily in this photo. The stacking of layers (people) in a circular fashion lead the eyes around the photo then to the empty center. Texture is in this photo as well, I burned the inside of the image with a lighter then tore and taped over ripped edges to make the poster seem more authentic.
3. I will hope viewers view this image as a creative/unique way of someone telling them to get off their phone and enjoy life. This photo means a lot to me because it came very organically and similar but not perfect to what I had in mind. I titled this piece “what is your purpose? because I certainly do not believe that it is for us to be taking pictures/videos of everything and posting them, because what do they matter anyway.
4. Selecting and masking were pretty much all I needed to use in the photoshop application.
5. Yes, I needed to use a scanner to really compose the full image and add and take away things with the masking tool, however the deconstruction of the image with fire, tares, and tape needed to be done without a computer.