Reflection
Since I didn't have enough time for this project, I was not able to make full use of the clone and brush tools.

Reflection Essay

For this specific project, the magic wand tool was essential in helping the project come together. I used the magic wand tool to focus on the specific areas I wanted to shade in, with each area being shaded in with a different color. The magic wand tool was very helpful because without it the images would be one solid color rather than many different colors in different areas/layers. To make my portraits unique, I tried using really bright colors and some dark colors mixed in.

Reflection Essay

For this project, my composition is not as good as it could be. I had a limited amount of pictures and the pictures I took were not very good so the clone wars didn't come out as good as they could've. When I was working with the opacity between two pictures, the pictures were not lining up as well as they were supposed to. I attempted to do the pictures in different orders to see if they would align but that still didn't work. With using the layer mask, it was difficult to be precise with painting the other pictures in without erasing the original picture. Some of my pictures look very transparent compared to the others and you can see through them and some look very blurry.

 

 

      The strongest part of my finished art piece is the background and the different forms my letter (letter form) is shaped throughout the piece. The white center makes the piece look like a frame and it brings more focus to the outside rather than the center. I think my composition can be improved. More layers would have added to the appeal and I could have gotten more creative with the how the letters are positioned in the piece and also with the color scheme. I also could have gotten more creative with color theory and put more colors on the piece and not just one solid color. To create my work, I experimented with many different tools. I used the "horizontal type tool" to write in my letter, the "warped text" tool to create various versions of my letter, and I also experimented with opacity and different swatches and different brightness and gradient levels until the color came out to how I liked it.

      There wasn't really any specific way in which I used the tools. I just experimented with what I liked and didn't like until I ended up with the finished product. So for example, when I was experimenting with opacity, I used the mouse to decrease and increase the opacity and see how it looked. I did the same with everything else. The easiest part of this project was finding different ways to make your letter look. You could have it be arced, upside down, horizontal, vertical, in a fish style, etc. The most difficult part about this project is finding different ways to be creative, especially since there are so many options and tools to choose from that it becomes hard to choose which ones work best and finding out how exactly the tools work and what they do. For example, I wanted my piece to be 3D and have many different colors all around but I wasn't exactly sure how to do that.

     I met all of the objectives by at least incorporating most of the requirements when working with Photoshop, like color scheme, shape, composition could have been better, and I also didn't focus on the center or put a letter right in the center. If I were to do this assignment again, I would experiment more with color theory and work more on my composition and try to make my art piece more appealing to the eye. I would rate my project a 7 because I did put effort into it but I didn't know what most of the tools were for so it became very difficult for me to make it more appealing.