When I was in high school, I was a huge fangirl, and by that I mean I was obsessed with pop culture phenomena like One Direction, Doctor Who, Sherlock, Vampire Diaries, you name it. I had a twitter fan account for One Direction and a Tumblr fan account for all my favorite T.V. shows. One of the skills that I developed as a result of this mania was a familiarity with Adobe Photoshop, which I used to create edits that I shared on Tumblr. Truthfully, I never became very good at it, but as I tinkered with Photoshop in this course I saw that these skills would’ve been super handy in high school. Maybe my obsession would’ve developed into something more productive.
Working with the software this time required more of a learning curve than I had expected. While I was familiar with some of the tools, it was like learning how to use it all over again. I had to watch and rewatch the tutorial on how to do a cut and paste over and over until I finally got it. (The layers shown in the video were really throwing me off). Using the Magic Wand tool, I was able to take cutouts of other images and make a collage of sorts. To be completely honest, I found no magic in the magic wand tool. No matter how much I adjusted the sensitivity, I had a hard time using it to make the selection I was after. Because it’s pixel based rather than line based, Photoshop is considered a raster software. Because I’m a perfectionist to a fault, I ended up zooming way in to enable me to manipulate the work pixel by exact pixel. This was time consuming, so I hope that I can find an easier way to work with it. For some more complicated shapes, I used the magnetic lasso tool, which helped tremendously.
The default action for Photoshop is to create a new layer for each item that you paste, resulting in a new layer for each component I added in Jacob Lawrence’s image. Fortunately, that doesn’t change the image; I am able to get rid of it if I change my mind by simply unchecking it. It also allows me to make changes to a specific layer without affecting the whole image. For example, in my carte de visite, I was able to make the background black and white while maintaining the color of my objects. I could also add a completely different filter to every layer. This is a major benefit of using Photoshop instead of hand-drawn art. If you make a move you don’t like, you can undo it with a click of a button and create something else.
For Jacob Lawrence’s Munich Olympics Poster, I replaced existing shapes with images I’ve made of flowers. The flower trend started in the winter of 2023, when I took up the habit of keeping a bouquet of fresh flowers on our kitchen counter, which I am constantly photographing. I keep flowers to boost my mental health. I used four of my favorite arrangements in this collage, which provided a wide arrangement of colors and textures to choose from. Although I matched the colors in the shapes of the original image with flowers of similar hue and value, the texture and particularity of the flowers transformed the image bodies, while I kept the original shapes and faces. I played with textures, to clearly delineate some rose spirals. In other components, you can make out petals and leaves. The skin tone of the runners was something I intentionally did not change, so I worked with dark red/burgundy floral hues to keep them true to their original color. While working on this piece, I made sure to save it as a .psd to preserve the layers in case I wanted to make changes.
For my carte de visite, I followed the theme I had devised as “Metaphorical Me.” I show myself holding up items that symbolize important aspects of my life. The gummy bear is symbolic of my relationship with my younger sisters. We’re very different people, but we share similar values and experiences, and gummy bear hand sanitizer is a fun way to express these relational bonds. As the oldest, I am deeply protective of my sisters, having grown up in the role of their second mom. My relationship with them is something I value deeply, but requires me to balance it alongside other responsibilities. An image of myself on my wedding day standing between my parents represents my responsibility as the oldest daughter in a family of immigrants to be available to the family and set an example for my siblings. A small note my coworkers wrote for me–the department administrator– on Administrative Professionals Day again shows me in a support role, a recurring theme in my life. Finally, my wedding ring, which symbolizes my role as a wife. The ring is not to scale because it plays a huge role in my life.
In terms of composition, I set a serious tone; I look away from the viewer and do not make a connection. I set myself and the background in black and white to draw the attention forward. I have the items balancing on top of my childhood album, a significant item to me since it contains all my memories of growing up in Mexico.The items are out of scale; I needed to make them feel like they were cluttered together and competing against each other. Ultimately, they balance themselves. I include my favorite plant, the albo monstera that I’ve nurtured from a two leaf cutting. Disproportionately large in scale, the plant’s leaves duplicate one another and stretch out on either side of me as they mirror my height. Although we don’t touch, the green plants accompany me and help bear my load.
