Evaluation

For this assignment, we were told to create a movie poster based on the 7 Sins. To start the assignment, we were first asked what sort of influence or help we were going to base our pieces of work from, I chose to use Michael Oswald, an artist known for his ability to edit images and completely alter the appearance of his models so that they may look like monsters or robots, and to do this, he never uses filters or effects and creates all his work through the use of paintbrush, pencil and other such tools which I thought was really interesting as it was almost giving the artist a challenge when it came to creating his images by limiting his use of tools and abilities and this can add to the unrealistic and otherworldly appeal of his images.

Once the artist was chosen, I then had to come up with the idea, and with image manipulation being one of my weaker subjects; this was probably the hardest part. So to start, I decided to list off the sins and try and come up with an idea that would look effective and not be too straining on my skills in the subject, I originally looked at Wrath, however I then realized that this sin was also being looked at by the majority of my classmates so I decided to go with a Sin that would be different and far from the norm. I looked at Sloth but after trying several attempts, I realized that my best attempt was very mediocre looking at best and this was not what I wanted so I decided to look at several other sins. I eventually drew up scamps for each sin and I then went to choose from there, after small speculation, I then decided to stick with Gluttony, a sin that was simple and yet far from the norm. When it came to drawing up the plans for the final image, I wanted something that had some sort of social or political commentary, something that could reach out to those viewing the poster, it was here that I wanted some sort of tie in with McDonalds.

Once this was all done, I eventually began to start the final poster, to do this I grabbed several images related to McDonalds and hell and I began to cut them out and put them together, once this was done, I began putting effects onto the layers to make the image more shocking and demonic. After this was done however, it still felt empty, something about the image wasn’t quite as interesting as I had hoped. To fix this, I then began to place real images of bloodied hand prints and spray to make the image even more shocking and a dead cow, this was something that would definitely catch the viewers eye and make them think twice about eating a McDonalds which was the exact feeling that I wanted my image to create. After this was all done, I then added a title and a hellish McDonalds background to add to the movie poster effect.

Overall, I rather happy with the outcome of the image but I still feel that there was much improvement and change that could have been made but I feel that these improvement would be done if I had a larger variety in skills with photo manipulation. But otherwise, I felt that with the skills I possessed, this was a pretty good attempt at creating a poster based on the 7 Sins and I would definitely be willing to try this assignment out again should it ever be given out again.

Final Piece and Work Process

For the final piece, I decided to go with Gluttony, the reason I chose this image was because I felt that it would be far away from the regularly picked Wrath and Lust and I just felt that the sins like Sloth would just be too basic to work on and Gluttony also gave me a chance to put in some proper social commentary on the way big food chains act and how they treat their animals. So to start I began by collecting a number of images of Ronald McDonald, once I had chosen the right images, I then began to edit him so that his entire body was a bright red apart from his face and shoes.

Once this was done, I then began to distort the character and add details such as blood and a filter that would make the character look far more terrifying than he really was, this was done by lowering the contrast and making the red look like a much more evil dark red.

When this was done, I then had to create something demonic and evil, and I had to relate it to McDonalds in some form, I did this by finding an image of the McDonalds logo and then creating a pentagram and by mixing the two, I made it look like the clown was being summoned from one of the seven circles to feed.

With this done, I then had to create a setting, and what better than the convenience of a McDonalds within fiery pits of hell, I didn't want to stretch the image so I placed the image on the top half of the page and then by using the eye drop tool, I then used the concrete colour to paint in the lower half so that the image had a consistent sense of colour to it. After this was all done, I then placed a darkened filter over the top and placed a wall of flame behind the image, this really made the image look hellish.

 When this was done, I then added a couple of small details like burgers and blood but I felt that the image still lacked a punch, something about the page was still empty, and in order to fill this, I placed a dead cow with a bloodied throat to make it seem like Ronald had torn out the cows throat with his teeth, this sort of horrific image was perfect in order to grab attention and eyes. I was really happy with how it was turning out, in order for it to suit the image, I also had to place a couple of filters over the cow itself so that it would not look like it was just shoved in.

After this was done, I then tried to just find a suitable title and subtitle, something that would be humorous and yet serious, I wanted it to really catch the eye and maybe even make some of the viewers chuckle. Overall, I was happy with how the image went but I feel like there was a lot more I could have done but it was difficult to come up with what to do without making them seem out of place or just shoved in.

Here is the final piece.

Scamps 2

Wrath - This would be someone slashing out and unsuspecting victim through rage at humanity and the world itself, there is no real reason behind this as I felt that wrath doesn't really need a reason.

Pride - This would focus on a character who is stood atop a pile of bodies and people, and knowing that he is able to stand on top of those below him, he poses heroically despite most likely being the villain of the story.

Sloth - This is the story of a man who just slept through a war, he felt that it was unnecessary to provide any action when he could have just rested and slept and now, when the world ends, he still just sleeps throughout the entire conflict.

Lust - Lust is about a female character who lures their victims into death through the promise of sex and other such things, she would clearly be portrayed with a sly smile, knowing that her next victim is already well within her grasp.

Scamps 1

The plan for this assignment was to create a image manipulation poster based around the seven sins, it took some time but I eventually came up with a plan and multiple scamps based around these seven sins. These are the scamps that I had designed:

Greed - The idea for this scamp would have had to rely on some sort of commentary, with the main character of the image being sat down on a large mound of money, which had been shaped into a seat whilst others crawled and begged for help but he was too greedy to leave his seat of pound notes.

Gluttony - This was just a regular image of a disgustingly large fat man who was covered in horrible remains of animals and blood, I was also thinking about having some sort of commentary on the state of  McDonalds and their food products.

Envy - This was going to be a sad, pale man who was too busy being jealous of others peoples things to really care for his own well being, and the image would show the devil in a red sports car and the character feeling incredibly jealous of the driver and the car.

Research 2 (Michael Oswald)

Michael Oswald is a 30 year old Photoshop artist who lives in America, the majority of his work is all made through Photoshop with the exception of a couple of images which had some small editing done through illustrator. To create his work, he takes images of any female model of his choice in a wide variety of poses, he then puts these images into Photoshop and begins to heavily edit and manipulate the images so that the models or characters look almost inhuman and robotic.

In terms of creating the image, Michael mentioned that he used a program called Art Rage as it uses rather unique brush strokes and patterns. He began using Photoshop back in 1998 with the 4.0 edition. In an interview, he stated that it is good to have Photoshop skills, however it is equally important to have traditional drawing skills.

All of the work he performs is made up brush strokes and drawing over the characters, he stated during an interview that he has never upgraded from his original Photoshop 4.0 and doesn’t intend to and this is the reason for his lack of any editing in terms of effects.  I want to use some of his effects in my work as the models look completely unrecognizable after his extensive editing, and this is the exact feeling I want for my work.

Research 1 (Erik Almas)

He started the business of photography around the age of 12, around the age of 22, Erik moved to the US to study photography, he soon spent 4 years in the university of arts and in 99 he won the best portfolio in the Spring show and in 2004 he received a honorary degree of outstanding alumnus.

He has now lived in San Francisco for 13 years and is still continuing his photography career and enjoys every moment of it.

He goes all around the world as he wishes to take in the feeling and emotion of all these different locales.

When asked what equipment and software he would rather use for photo manipulation, he insisted that there is never any preference and that there is always a need for the many programs used in photo manipulation.

However he does say that Photoshop has become the main extension of his imagination and in some way is really the main reason that his work pieces are so famous, it is, in most ways a more streamlined version of film, filters and the darkroom.