Continuing along with the magical theme of my first artist post, this project rendered very similar outcomes. This is the first serious project I have ever attempted using Photoshop, and only one of few serious projects surrounding art itself. In all honesty, I did not have a clue on what my theme was going to be when I started this digital remix. Our class was told to make a surreal photograph and that’s it; not inspiring a lot confidence given such a broad topic. But the more I thought about it, the more I become absorbed in the idea. It’s surreal, which means it does not have to look real. It can be a picture of anything. The way I approached this topic was still to maintain some semblance of reality, while incorporating the more obvious surreal objects with a touch of subtlety.
The original sketch that I have drawn in my notebook is relatively the same as this finished product despite the amount of alterations and revising that I have accrued over the past week. The title of the sketch is called “Nature’s Beauty”, which gave me the basis for this project. I knew it was going to be centered on some sort of scenery or landscape but I was still lacking the aesthetic creativity that I knew would be displayed in other students’ pictures. A couple of mountains layered over a river were not going to suffice. I needed to draw upon what I knew would really stand out as bizarre, and that is when I came up with the idea to turn the road leading from the house on the mountain into the river stream as well.
For the longest time I could not decide how to finish the road; it kind of just ended without any purpose. I wanted to try and layer the road over the water as to create a feeling of the road coming towards the viewer, but I was never satisfied. Then it hit me that I should just make the road the river. The only beef I have with this part of the picture is the transition from the road to river. I am still unsatisfied with the overall unrealistic look; I wanted this part to appear the most realistic out of everything to bewilder the viewer into wondering if that were really possible, which is what brings me back to Julian Beever’s theme of misdirection. Most of the images in my picture are of real things and it was my intention to make the picture look as genuine as possible. The misdirection comes into play with the detail.
As I keep studying the photograph I realize how much activity is going on inside of it and how easily someone can get lost. Although I do not believe I am on the same level as Julian Beever, this is what he does so brilliantly in all of his sidewalk art. He includes so much detail that you convince yourself that what you are looking at is real. I have been working on this project and looking at the same picture for so long that I am beginning to convince myself that this picture looks terrible and I will never be happy with it, but one thing I know for certain is that is lacking some major depth. However, I am not exactly sure where.
From a far everything looks fine but when you look closer you can tell that there are some tricks I just am not familiar with yet in Photoshop. The transition from the bottom of the mountains to the beginning of the water keeps catching my eye, so I really need to work on making those transitions smoother. People can assess pretty easily what is real and what is not, and when a piece of land comes to a sudden end, it raises some questions. Then again, that could also appeal to the surreal nature of this project. Still, my focus on the surrealist aspect of the assignment is highlighted in subtleness. Though there is nothing subtle about an alien, his size is not overpowering and he does not immediately steal your attention. The sniper waiting behind the big rock is being sneaky per usual; nothing out of the ordinary there, but it is not every day you see one using a house-key as his firearm, nor do you typically see aliens with batteries. These images not only add a dimension of surrealism to the picture, but also add a story to what is being viewed, which is why I titled this, “What is going on?”
Other than being more technically gifted with the Photoshop software, I wish I had a more interesting theme to build off of from my original design. It was not very well thought-out and could have been even better if I had an actual idea of where I was going with it. Where you gather inspiration and develop your aesthetic understanding is crucial to your final product, and in this picture it is not hard to tell that I was a little undecided. Not taking away from the effort I put forth, but I hope I can be more precise in my next projects. All in all, it was a fun assignment with a decent turnout.
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