Catherine Pickle's Digital Imaging

 

 These were my final iterations: However, after receiving feedback, I will be making revisions. The text will be made the same all throughout the series to help tie it together, and the vines will be animated to make the motion more compelling. Update: Final project is posted, not sure if the animation is too fast; .2 seconds feels too fast, yet .5 seconds feels too slow. Here is a comparison:

 For my third and final piece of the series I drew this in procreate: Having emerged the black hole, bringing back in the green vines from the first image, showing growth and becoming at peace with oneself. This is the animation:

 I chose to explore the concept of home and personal growth, since there are so many different ways I can incorporate this theme into an abstract art piece. I started by taking a picture of a few pages of my journal, and drawing in vines to symbolize the growth that comes from this process for me, and how that has helped me grow into feeling at home with myself.  I want to animate the letters "Home is not conventional" or "Home is found within" overtop of this... I just wonder if that isn't enough? Can I push this further, is it too simple, would making a series add to this idea?  Update: I chose to animate the words "HOME IS FEELING LIKE:" (I plan on making a series), I played with color schemes but settled for a hot pink because I felt that it stood out the most.  Alternative color scheme: I really liked the texture and variety the newspaper theme brought in my previous progress works, so I chose to use it in the other parts of the series for home. (...

 Inspiration comes in many forms. A lot of my inspiration is additive; I start a creative process, and find inspiration along the way, and I continue to add to the piece I started as a blank slate. I want to pick something personal, because I believe some of the most powerful, intentional work comes from a personal place.  Journaling: This is something I use as an outlet. It's something I've done since high-school; 5ish years ago from now. It's where I share my innermost thoughts, feelings, problems and stories. It evokes a feeling of home, and has been a source of personal growth.  Home: I feel like a lot of people see home as a place, or maybe even a person. I think home is more of a feeling, or a state of being; something that can be found or associated with a person, place or thing. Home (in my opinion) is the feeling of belonging, content-ness in oneself, a comfortable, peaceful feeling. A place to relax, or be yourself. Home for me is the desk that I sit at to draw ...

 Using Procreate, I picked a textured brush and created a 16 frame animation. I'm pleased with the way it looks and created it with the intention of layering it on top of the newspaper print image, however that hasn't solved my dilemma of message or purpose. This is where I began to brainstorm; did I want to make a piece about identity? Love? Passion? And how can I represent these themes/topics through an animation similar to this? I have come to realize that while jumping straight into creating a piece to see where it takes you can be incredibly fun and creative, it isn't always the best approach for making a piece with intention. So, I decided to do a bit of research.

 I decided to try to approach some kind of a theme to have more of a message or purpose behind my final, and ended up trying all kinds of different directions. The first stab I took at it was a spring themed project; I went outside and took a series of photos (more than I will be showing here) of some of the growth of spring. The original photos I used are the first and the third; the middle image was one of the beginning of "spring" iterations that I found myself abandoning. I chose to abandon this idea because (1) computer issues, but most importantly (2) I really want to push myself to explore a theme or skill that I haven't yet with this class. I thoroughly enjoyed the idea of combining media and textures, so I decided to explore that concept. I started by creating a collage of newspaper  and then layered another (larger) newspaper on top to blend them together. Here are a few of the different blending modes I liked: I decided to use the third picture. I intend on cre...

 While being able to choose my own direction feels great, I will admit I'm overwhelmed at the endless amount of possibilities I could pursue for this project. Having gotten my second vaccine shot (lost 3 work days due to side effects) and with the portfolio review coming up, I was having trouble getting started with ideas, so I decided to just jump in head first, completely blind to an end goal or purpose.  These are some fun first iterations- may change my mind and start over! Going to see where this takes me first. Using these two images to begin with:

 

  I wasn't happy blending the bridges into the space image, so I decided to try blending the space image into the two bridge iterations. It still felt unfinished, so I decided to play with disorienting filters to show how little we really know about the experience of passing on and how that reality may work. (using mezzotint, mosaic and pointilize) (using crystalize and mosaic) (using tiles, oil paint and emboss) (using solarize, facet and fragment)

 Moving forward, I decided to add some symbolism. I added an angel and devil statue, two icons/symbols of Christianity (from my knowledge; I am not religious so I tried to pick very broad/general symbols.) \ and then blended the one of the previous layers of space (the purple variation) with pin light (top) and divide (bottom.) I additionally blended the angel and devil statue into the layers to make the image more cohesive/seamless.

 I decided to ditch that iteration (for now) and try something new.  I used the bridge picture from my earlier selection of bridges, then selected an area of the forest in the back and inverted it to give it a whimsical/trippy look. In this iteration I'm trying to hone in more on the concept of afterlife and passing on, as bridges are sometimes used as metaphors for this. I then tried blending two different layers of space into the bridges by putting it in the layer behind the bridges (top layer hard light, bottom layer pin light) using these two different space variations (in  order with the images above):

Added space to the portal along with a spaceship- thinking of making maybe 2 other photos to go with this in a series, loosely around the idea of combining two worlds/themes.