Our computer art class was to make a cover for Mrs. Works literary and visual arts Writers’ Block magazine. This cover was to display the theme of the magazine,

"Use Your Brain"

"Spill Your Heart"

"Get Published"

The cover needs to include the title "Writers’ Block" and it must relate to literary and visual arts. If we were to use any pictures off the internet we must make 6 distinct changes to it to make it our own. My piece is unique in the most subtle idea.

Layer1.) Layer one consist of a dark blue and metallic black ball of cold energy.

It is very noticeable and bright in contrast and color. Yet it is very bright compared to the other layers it isn’t the focal point or even a quick notice at all.

Layer 2.) This layer is also a ball of warm energy. This ball is dark red and metallic black and shines with a thick outer glow. The ball draws the viewer to notice it and continue to follow the inner lines and their directions. Since this ball is bigger the viewer will see it before layer 1.

Layer 3.) This layer is a baby dragon with its wings out. It is duplicated 3 times there is a center vertical layer, a left horizontal layer, and a right horizontal layer.

All of these layers are very transparent and very hard to see unless the viewer knows what to look for to see the dragon. Each dragon has an opacity of 33%.

Their really isn’t that much I can describe about these layers because they are so subtle.

Layer 4.) This layer is a picture of Leonardo Da Vinci.

This is a light brown painting of him this picture is not originally brown, the colors have been matched. This picture is as well transparent in a way.

Layer 5.) This is a picture of Vincent Van Gogh. This is a painting of him and the colors are not being matched, this is the original color all that was changed to the color situation is the brightness and contrast. And his body is cut up into a bust instead of seeing to his waste. Which a bust is a picture/sculpture of where the viewer can only see on the picture/statue from the shoulder and up.

Layer 6.) Layer 6 has a picture of William Shakespeare a famous author, play writer, and poet. This picture will point your eyes diagonal toward the top left because of the direction of his forehead and hair.

This pictures opacity has been changed and the size of the picture, it has been changed to a bust.

Layer 7.) Portrait of Kahnweiler: This piece being my background is a good example of cubism by Pablo Picasso. This portrait has a great amount of movement.

It also has low opacity and is very subtle.

Layer 8.) Emily Dickinson she is a famous poet from the 1800’s.

Her picture is transparent and matched with other pictures that were existing in the cover before her mainly with Van Gogh.

Layer 9.) Geoffrey Chaucer: He was an author of middle English literature.

His original picture being used was b/w and had no color but I matched it together to give it a sepia tone.

Layer 10.) This layer consist of a banner like round reef with a dark dragon growing on the side. This object was changed in many ways. The color was changed to be brighter, the scale of it was raised very much, the angle of it is changed.

Layer 11.) Geoffrey Chaucer’s layer consist of sepia tone 43% opacity, brightened contrast and a very small amount of inverted colors to make the picture sharper.

The way I went on making this piece look the way it did was by matched colors, I made the idea of the piece, for all of the layers to match in some way or have to connect with one another. The only type of filters I used were blur effect and text out line.

The colors I used in this is dark brown is shown a lot and black, white and dark red.

Most of the shapes in this piece are circular or round in some way to keep the objects in the pattern.

The texture shown in this cover is very rough. But as the viewer looks toward the middle It gets softer to make the movement seem not even noticed.

The balance of the cover is symmetrical because it has two portraits on each side to show balance and has a picture in the middle to even the middle section out.

The movement is shown after noticing the focal point which is the middle energy ball. After noticing the middle the text under it causes the viewer to look down and then to the left picture and then to the top right and then to the top left and then to the bottom right, this is all shown because of the lighting shades and the direction of the portraits and the way their eyes are looking. This picture in all honesty is trying to show skill. Mostly because it has some of the most popular and well known authors and artist.

And it tries to tell the viewer that there is no better, and to keep attached to this cover.

I think that I did well in this cover by showing how well I am at matching colors and blending things together. And I think it deserves to be noticed as a unique creation.

Sincerely,

The Writer

Throughout making this cover for the Writers Block magazine I learned more about the program (Adobe Photoshop CS) I was using and I have built to the knowledge I had already had about this software. I have begun to understand more about the filters on adding them to the layers and using them to distort or manipulate the picture into making it appear as what I want.

I can now make just about anything I want. I can make Washington look like Lincoln, I can make a cow on a batting cage, I can make you look like a goat.

I am very skilled in using this program and it didn’t take long.

When my art teacher Mrs. Johnson told me I would be making a cover for a magazine, I thought this would be pretty easy. Now in most pieces like you are reading you would expect the writer would have written, when I was told I would be making a magazine cover, I thought this is will be very tough. But no this isn’t most pieces this is mine and you are still reading it because I have caught your attention and that’s a good thing, isn’t it?

Let me go back a little bit and tell you how I begun my journey on the CS program and art itself.

Throughout the year in my 4^th block class I have been given assignments to do. The first 7 assignments were fairly easy and below my skill level, most people believe that to get better you have to challenge yourself with more complicated task yet that is true and I believe it, I finished my work so quickly that I had extra time in class to play with the program and make whatever I like. The reason I have adapted to this program like I have is because I taught my self instead of reading the website or asking for help every time I don’t know how to make something. Even though teaching myself takes longer it is easier to figure out other things while trying to fix a problem. If I was to be looking for a certain tool to make something even though I might come by a lot of tools I don’t need but I will experience how to use them and what they are for if I might need them later to make something different, so as you can see new things were old.

Throughout my life I have been very influenced by art. The time I really started to be changed by art was 07/01/1988(my birth date).

Art has really changed the way I am. For example I hate it when people trace, I hate it when people make fun of abstract art. On the computer art has deeply changed me, I am more expressive when it comes to making computer art pieces. From my experience in art it has taught me to look past the focal point and all around for the hidden thought. I now look deeper into whatever it is I catch myself starring at continuously wondering when I am going to go on with my life and ignore the fact that I don’t know what I see but yet I understand it. Art has put a big separation on the timeline I sprint by every day. I’m not only talking about class room art, this is about art everywhere. If you don’t understand what I am talking about just refer back to reading this paragraph again.

From the beginning of this artistic pathway I have taken, I have encountered many obstacles. Like drawing a certain object correctly for the fist time, or making that perfect shadow that one time. Or throwing away a piece of paper that has nothing than a scribbled mess of aggravation written all over it, and yet still missing the trash can trying to make failure a success. Art has really made me who I am and the person I see every morning and I am proud of my artistic ability and what I have grown to. I’m not sure how to end this, but can anything really end anyway. Its just like my art, I’m not finished until I sign it.

By: The Writer