Pioneer Inspired: Execution and Craftsmanship

Design 1: Screensaver

Before

This is the original sketch that I imported into photoshop. Before I opened the picture, I created a canvas on photoshop with the dimensions of 16x20inches with 300pixels.inch. Because my picture was not as big as the canvas (seen below), I had to transform the picture (Ctrl + T) and stretched it until it fit into the canvas then I pressed enter.

My imported sketch was too small for the canvas.

After the image was stretched, I started with the wall first. I used a wall texture I took from Google images to get the correct hues that I wanted for the wall. After importing the picture into photoshop, I used the eyedropper tool to select the colors. I made a mistake here to paint directly over my piece without creating a new layer, but I liked how it turned out. My final work looks more like a plakastil piece now because of the white spaces as you will see later. (Hue of bricks: R. 168, G. 84, and B. 73. Hue of Spaces between bricks: R. 181, G. 159, and B. 146.)

Image taken from http://ftextures.com/Red-bricks-texture.html

You can see that the color pencil strokes were not deleted as I painted directly on the art piece itself. I used the Magic Wand Tool to select only the wall then colored in the bricks. I later used the Paintbucket Tool to fill in the bricks. For the "screen", I painted the sky with R. 0 G. 64 B. 163, the clouds with R. 255 G. 255 B. 255, and the mountains with R. 153 G. 51 B. 0. For the sun I used two hues which are R. 254 G. 255 B. 50 and R. 255 G. 152 B. 49.

I searched for a phone from the internet and selected the one that matched my sketch.

Image taken from http://imalaysian.com/2010/06/08/apple-iphone-4-malaysia/

I used the magic wand to select only the first phone then I used the move tool to drag this picture into my canvas. I used the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select the screen and deleted the screen to reveal the background of the bricks that I earlier designed. There was one problem: The top-right side of the phone was somehow ugly. I had to touch it up. I used the Clone Tool and Brush Tool to make the unpleasant part more presentable.

If you zoom in you can still see some blemishes but I am rather satisfied.

After all these were done, I added filters to places where needed. For white spaces at the top and bottom of the canvas I added a Craquelure texture. I also added the Craquelure texture for the bricks.

I did not like the white spaces so I painted the white spaces with R. 255 G. 255 B. 204. To make the phone harmonize more with the whole canvas I used the hue: R. 185 G. 227 B. 165 and Brush Tool to add light spots on the phone to make it more poster-like.

After

Design 2: Suicide

Before

I started with the ghost because I thought it would be the hardest. After launching photoshop and fitting my sketch into the canvas, I started on the spirit. I used three shades of blue (1st shade: R. 204 G. 255 B. 255, 2nd shade: R. 153 G. 255. B. 255, and 3rd shade: R. 102 G. 255. B. 255). The brush tool was used with different opacity so that the colors would blend together. I later used the Smudge Tool to mix the three colors and used the Liquefy Filter to further blur the spirit. Lastly I applied the Sumi-E Filter to give the ghost that effect.

The "ghostphone"

The next step I did was to make the rope. I found a picture of a rope from Google Images and used the rope by inserting it into photoshop, selecting it with the Magic Wand Tool and dragging to into the canvas. The noose was too short to I selected the end of the rope and copied and pasted the rope until reached the top of the canvas. I then used the Eraser Tool so erase off the messy sides, and merged the many layers created by the rope. Lastly, I applied the Dry Brush Filter to make the rope more plakatstil.

Image taken from: http://media.photobucket.com/image/noose+/14biggy/noose.png

Next I started work on the Grim Reaper. I used the Brush Tool and two hues (1st Shade: R. 0 G. 4 B. 96 and 2nd Shade: R. 0 G. 2 B. 64) to color in the reaper. First I outlined the Reaper with black and then used the Magic Wand Tool so that I would not color outside the area. I used different opacity levels and when I finished coloring in the whole reaper, I smudged the clear lines away. I then used black to outline the hands and face and used the Paintbucket Tool to fill the remainders with white.

Outline

Completed

I then moved on and started with the scythe. I colored the scythe with black and white. Then I applied the Neon Glow filter to switch the colors of the blade.

I then started with the main component: The phone. I first outlined the whole phone with details then used the Magic Wand Tool to select the parts I was working on first - the phone body. I colored the body with R. 255 G. 66 B. 66 and then used the Water Paper Filter. For the buttons, I used the Chrome Filter. For the screen I used the Linear Gradient with black and white colors to do the job before adding the grey "X"s to symbolize the eyes. I then used the Smudge Tool to "extend" the ares where the "spirit" would be coming out from.

I lastly had the background to work with. I chose two hues for the "sky" (R. 255 G. 153 B. 51 and R. 255 G. 102 B. 0). I colored it with different opacity levels to give it a less obvious color change. I then used the Smudge Tool to lessen the fade. I did the same thing with the "ground" except I used three colors (R. 0 G. 0 B. 153, R. 0 G. 0 B. 102, and R. 0 G. 0 B. 51) When everything was put together:

After

Design 3: Funeral

Before

After I launched photoshopped and scaled my sketch to the canvas size, I decided to start with the background first. I painted the sky with the same hues I used on the "Suicide" floor except the light was focused where the moon would be. I then started on the grass which I used three hues (1st shade: R. 0 G. 102. B. 0, 2nd shade: R. 0 G. 51 B. 0, and R. 0 G. 0 B. 0). After shading both the sky and grass different opacity levels, I started on the moon with two hues (R. 204 G. 204 B. 51 and R. 153 G. 153 B. 0). Then I used the Smudge Tool to take away the sharp hue changes and then applied the Grain Filter.

The next thing I worked on was the first tombstone. I started by outlining it with the Brush Tool and then coloring in the "screen" of the tombstone with three hues: R. 153 G. 153 B. 153, R. 102 G. 102 B. 102, and R. 51 G. 51 B. 51. The "Contact Picture" of the screen also used the same hues minus the last one. For the phone body I used an extra hue which is black. The Craquelure Filter was applied after the coloring was done. The Quick Mask Mode was very helpful in selecting the exact areas I needed to work on.

I then worked on the coffin and the grave. I tried my best to follow my sketch. For the grave-hole, I used two hues of brown (R. 102 G. 0 B. 0 and R. 51 G. 0 B. 0) and black. Different opacity levels were used to give a more realistic feel and a texturizer filter was added before blurring out some parts. For the Coffin, I used two hues of Red (R. 255 G. 0 B. 0 and R. 204 G. 0 B. 0) I used no layers for this because I wanted to leave a shine. I used a Reflected Gradient to give the coffin more shine. I then worked on the face. The hues I selected were dull colors. For the blue "pillow" I used R. 102 G. 204 B. 255. For the inside walls of the coffin is used R. 255 G. 102 B. 102. For the skin color I used R. 204 G. 153 B. 153. I then created a new layer the size of the screen and colored it in with a dull blue (R. 153 G. 204 B. 204). Then I changed the opacity of the "screen layer" to 57% and changed the Blending Mode to Screen.

The gradient effect

I then worked on the grass to make the coffin and tombstone match the background. I started by outlining the grass and then painted in the grass by using the Clone Tool to match the texture of the background.