My Surrealism Photoshop Project~

How to...

A nice surrealism tutorial.

Claymation~!

An adorable claymation from my childhood.

Such a pretty, tantalizing ligh--

My new favourite fish... Image not by me, though, it is royalty free. I'm only uploading this image temporarily so I can use it from computer to computer.

Don't mind me... ^^;

Animation before the lightbulb...

The Phenakistoscope ("spindle viewer")

The website, Exhibit of Optical Toys, Is a website run by Laura Hayes and John Howard Wileman. It is an entire collection of pre-20th century optical and illusionary devices and toys. On the 'home' page, there are links to the gallery, archives, 'about', art, etcetera.

The overall layout of the page is fairly simple and plain. There isn't much colour, or anything much to distract from the white background. However, I do feel that that this does add a certain professional charm... and that without any colour used in the background, my eye was automatically drawn to the few sections of colour that there were; the illusion gallery which the author provided. Though it is not the most professional or effective tactic, it was still somewhat successful in directing my eye.


After looking through the many links of different optical toys, I had finally decided on one that I liked. I chose the phenakistoscope, )also known as the spindle viewer. It was first introduced in 1832, by the Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau and his sons. The phenakistoscope uses the persistence of motion to create the illusion of motion. The phenakistoscope consisted of two discs mounted on the same axis. It was quite successful for two years, until William George Horner invented the zoetrope, which could be viewed by more than one person at a time and did not require a viewing mirror. I chose this toy over the others, because it actually reminded me of a toy I had myself, at one point in time. I thought it would be interesting to read a bit up on it, and to understand the mechanics.

And now, for my next trick...

Final act?

This is the practice surrealism piece I had done in order to get a feel for the program, before venturing into the real project. In this piece, I made a portrayal of a hand that appears to be reaching out of a top hat. (Which would, of corse, be impossible in real life.) I started by simply thinking to myself, "Top hat plus hand equals possible surrealist assignment...?" With some previous experience in mixing images in Photoshop and PaintToolSAI, I already had an idea of how I was going to mix and match each image, and what ever else I could draw in. Afterwards, I began searching google for the image of a top hat facing forwards. (A direction that would be able to properly show the hand peering through.) And then the image of a hand that would be facing outward, so that the palm clearly shows as a focal point. after getting two photos I thought to be compatible, I slightly cropped the hand, and moved it into place. Next, I selected the entire image as a whole and selected the 'Black and White' option. Unfortunately, the bottom of the hand had been missing, as it wasn't in the image to begin with. I created a new layer and selected black as a colour and the brush tool on the feather setting. From there, I filled in the centre of the hat and the areas around the hand as well. After a few more slight adjustments, I had finished, and the image above was the end result. Pretty good for a beginner, such as myself, I think.

Edgar Müller, My Prezi~ xD

The My (Surrealist Chalk Paint) Hero :DD

Link? ^^

My Chess Piece~

For my chess piece, I had used many different strategies and resources in order to achieve a realistic effect of lighting, shadow, and proportion. This was a process that took over the course of about a week and a few days. First, I needed to get a sense of where the center of the page was by dividing the page into two sections down the middle with a ruler. Next, I very lightly etched the outline of the chess piece in front of me, (I had been using a model reference of an actual chess piece.) but had left the section where the glasses were to break in front of the glasses blank, as I would be sketching in that part later to get a better sense of proportion. I had borrowed the glasses of a friend and placed them in front of the chess piece in order to get the distorted effect from the near-sighted lenses. That was a large part of my goal for this project.

I managed to create a 3D effect by stepping outside of my comfort barrier in sketching, and using darker shades. Normally, I would fear using dark shades as there is always a possibility I could mess up and not be able to go back. However, after a while I began getting used to it and using different shades more naturally while blending and creating a base. Had I used my regular colour scheme, (With lighter colours,) The initial POP of the chess piece would be much more difficult to see.

I used balance in this sketch with symmetry on each side of the glasses and chess piece. The shading meets in the middle, and is almost a reflection of itself on either side. This looks balanced because nothing really changes much except when your eye is led to the background. This is where I used the very darkest shades, which I personally think contrast nicely with the lighter shades on the chess piece. For the background, I had chosen to use "pattern," as the chess piece is fairly complicated on it's own. Had I chosen anything else, (Such as movement, perhaps,) It may have began overpowering the chess piece and become much less pleasing to the eye.

My Logos - Complete

These are the finished versions of my logo; plus the black and white variation I have designed. It was a fairly long process with much planning, thought, research, consideration, and believe it or not, maybe even the slightest bit of collaboration.

We first began by brainstorming adjectives and researching the meanings of our names. My first name, Vanessa, came up with only a single meaning that remained the same in each language I checked. "Butterfly." I had already known the meaning of my name from long ago, but decided to check again to see if it had changed what-so-ever. As I thought, it remained the same as always. For the meaning of a 'Butterfly,' I considered nearly everything... Everything that came to mind, that was suggested, and everything that may have even made no sense at all. From adjectives like fluttery, light, bubbly, carefree, spazzy, (Seeing as butterflies sometimes love to fly with a very random, seemingly uncontrolled motion.) peaceful, good luck, and even cracker. So I tried, and tried, and tried a bit more... However, I came up with nothing that really showed very well on paper. Yet still, I continued to brain storm.

When researching my middle name, Tiffany, I had come across a meaning that was no easier to work with. All of the hope I had gathered that I would be able to confidently muster the words, "Hey, dude! I think I've TOTALLY finally gotta thingy that'll work! Haha~! This'll be Epic--" Was dashed in one fell swoop. As I typed and browsed with google, I felt my curiosity rise, then peak, then simmer. Now, then... how shall I go about expressing a, "Revelation of god," on paper?

Wellington, Wellington... Hmm. Gender, male... "B-but I'm a girl..." Origin, English... "Oh, goodie!" Rating, two stars. "S-says who...?!" Meaning? N/A. "Not... applicable...?" Not again... I wanted to bang my head on something. With each search I had come across, either I had found nothing, or the meaning of the name Wellington was in fact, Wellington. I began wondering if i needed a dictionary. My last name seemed to have no meaning. No meaning whatsoever... My heart sank momentarily. I searched some more, and came across a single site. Only one. This time, there it was, staring back at me. It had a meaning! Now, now... Wellington, meaning, "Of wealthy estate." I smiled, and bragged to the friends around me who had doubted me. "Bwahaha!" I choked out. I then wrote this meaning down with the others triumphantly, and sat. "...Hey, dude! Uhm, how would you show... uh, "Wealthy estate," in a symbol? Well, back to the drawing board.

In the end, I didn't use any of the planning nor the thought  had originally tried to splice together in my sketch book... I actually ended up using the very first suggestion I had gotten; A rubber boot. Ah, yes... The mighty wellington boot. From a young age, many have told me to move to England and sell wellington boots for a living. I suppose we all have to start somewhere. And so, I googled an image of a wellington boot facing the side and a puddle splash. I made each picture opaque and traced the outline. From there, I added colour. My favourite colour, to be precise... (Turquoise.) I then later created a black and white version of my logo.

The Persistence of Memory

Salvador Dali, "The Persistence of Memory," 1913
Type: Oil on Canvas
Location: Museum of Modern Art, New York City.

Imitationalism and Literal Qualities:

The, "Persistence of memory," by Salvador Dali is a rather poor piece of artwork... When speaking in terms of imitationalism, that is. Imitationalism is when art is portrayed realistically, strongly imitates life itself. This style of art focuses on realistic representation and suggests artwork must be realistic before it can be considered successful. The "Persistence of Memory," By Salvador Dali does not portray 'real life,' or realistic themes. It portrays a scenery of many clocks melting in a desert... This is not a scene that can take place in the real world. (At least not in this day and age..) However, the use of colour and shading that Dali uses are fairly realistic and give the illusion that the objects portrayed above are really 3D, when they are simply 2D on a canvas. The question many imitationalists may ask themselves is, "How real does it look?" I believe this question can be answered at one glance of this painting. "Not at all."

Formalism and Design Qualities:

One question many formalists may ask themselves about a piece of art is, "Is there Unity?" Unity is one of the main aspects that formalist may look for in a painting. In other words, the visual organization of a piece of artwork. In Salvador Dali's painting, I believe that he successfully uses the 'unity' element of art successfully. He uses repetition and harmony in the clocks by drawing each clock similarly to the next, and placing them all in the same area. He uses unity in colour, as well. In this painting, composition is used and makes a balanced contrast between blue and yellow, and the value of dark and light. There's also a good balance in the positive and negative space.

Emotionalism and Expressive Qualities:

The emotions expressed in this piece are not happy, energetic, jumpy, or even particularly "alive"... I believe that painting gives off the emotion of... Well, I would say it looks pretty "dead," slow, sleepy, lethargic, stagnant, and even "melting." The colours are fairly smooth and blend into each other, none of them really pop. The atmosphere of the painting overall seems to be calm, and not in the least bit full of life. The melting clocks actually give me the feeling of melting on the couch during a summer evening, not wanting to move at all. All in all, looking at this image does not really give me the sense of energy, but sleepiness and the distortion of "memory."

Third Class Carriage

Our happy little Third Class Carriage~

The Mona Lisa in all her glory. Ah~ Wouldn't she be proud? C:

Stop Motion~!

Dude, dude! You'll never guess what I found!
I've totally got to get myself a whiteboard. x3

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol was a man who was born and raised in the ghetto of Pittsburgh. Even though he was a blooming artist who grew up in the time of the depression, he still managed to become one of the most well known artists of all time. With only the shirt on his back and $200, Andy made a bold choice in his journey to being a famous artist, and moved to New York.

To speed up the process of creating art, the method that Warhol famously adopted was the silk screening process. In 1973, he used this technique to create a portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong. This is one of the best known examples of his use of this process, as seen below;

In 1964, Warhol created a work that actually had to be painted over because many people were offended by it. It was a painting called, 'Thirteen Most Wanted Men'. It caused quite the offense, because most of the men in the painting were Italian.
Like many artists, Warhol also created a few, 'Not so short,' films. The first film that Warhol ever created was titled, "Sleep". It was a six-hour movie of a man sleeping. Many of Warhols movies were like 'Sleep'... I mean in the sense that they were plot-less, boring, and extremely LONG.

In 1968, Warhol was shot by the feminist, Valerie Solanas. Valerie Solanas was an ardent feminist. She was one among many who felt that Warhol was controlling and abusive, (She may not have been wrong, there...) and thought that he deserved to die. Warhol was pronounced dead, but was revived and began a slow recovery. Some said he was a martyr, and others felt that deserved it. He then recovered and lived till 1987.