Crumbled Lion Face

BEFORE: As you can tell in this picture, my face is obviously photo shopped a bit. What you don't know, is that I took this picture without makeup, and I was sick that day. Also, when you look at the picture, my eye on the left is a copy of my eye on the right. I didn't like the way my eye looked so I changed it, and luckily it worked well and looked rightly placed and real. I used the cloning brush to cover the original eye and eyebrow, then used the largest and highest quality smudge brush that I was able to use, and smudged the skin smoothly together. Afterwards, I blurred everything together to make it not look very choppy. Yes, I know this picture looks off, and that it doesn't look totally realistic, but I don't feel comfortable putting a picture of myself up that looked the way it did before I photo shopped it a bit. I hope you can respect that.

AFTER: It took a lot of effort and small details to concentrate on to make this picture end up the way it did. I had to find pictures of a lion, a henna tattoo, (Yes, I know that part doesn't make sense but I have a weird sense of style. No one really sees henna on a lion) and a picture of high quality bark. I changed the colour of my eyes, from... well whatever colour they are, to a blue colour. To do this, I painted a whole new eye over the existing eye using the paint brush, and used different shades of blue. Then, for the other eye I just copied the blue eye I had already done, and pasted it, and flipped it to fit into the right eye. Then to make it look like it was real-ish, I overlayed it onto my existing eye. Then, I added the henna tattoo. I had to erase the background colour using the paint bucket, and then overlayed it onto my forehead. I do not know why I did this, but this picture kind of reminds me of someone from NARNIA. I wanted to do something different with my face, so I found a picture of bark, and overlayed it on my face as a mask. I had to erase around my face and neck so that they were the only areas of the picture that were "barked." After, using the lion's head, I had to cut around the head using the eraser, and then I transformed it, and sized the picture to it well into my face. I had to burn this picture onto my face. Unfortunately, there was a set back. The face was too orangey and dark to match with the background of the picture, my neck and my hair. So, I found a way to make it work. I went to the Enhancing button, and changed the brightness and contrast. This worked perfectly, and I managed to make it all the same shades and colour. Then, the neck was a bit of a problem. I missed a couple of areas of the neck so I used the lasso and coped and pasted tiny areas into the non-barked areas. Then, to make sure it didn't look so copied and pasted, I blurred and smudged it a bit. I think it worked out well because it brings a bit of depth into the picture. I had some problems with my nose as well. Due to the fact that the lion picture was overlayed, the nose stuck out a bit, so I had to use the smudge brush, and I smudged my nose down and out, to give it more of a lion face, and to match up with the lion nose. I thought my picture was finished but something was still missing. Then I realized, I had a cat on my face but no whiskers. In the end, I used the airbrush in white to brush out whiskers onto my face, which I think was the finishing touch. Hope you find this picture intriguing.

You can think of this picture any way you want it to be, but for me it is that we all have animals inside us that our dying to get out, only, mine is ripping and crumbling to get out. We are all different. Also, if you noticed the lion I used was a male instead of a female. I have nothing against the female lions but I just prefer the male lions. They are fluffier and a lot cuter. :P

- Gorecki.

GORECKI SURREALISM

"The World Around Us"

When you read the title of my surrealistic picture, I am guessing you are thinking to yourself, this is NOT the world around ME. This is where you are wrong. We make the world how we want it to be. We see the world how we want to see it, so when you read this title and look at my picture, this is just a small interpretation of what I see in the world around me. So now let me tell you a little bit more about my picture, and why a rabbit is stabbing a nail into a heart, and why an elephant is hatching out of an egg. Let's start with the elephant. The question is always there, what came first, the chicken or the egg? Well, what about elephant? Did they just appear in our world fully grown? Were elephants born from an egg and then populated our world? How did civilizations occur and how did we become known, and how long did it take to have our own thoughts and feelings? As you notice, I am asking a lot more questions than answering them, but that is because our whole life and world is about questions. These questions we will never be able to answer. To make this picture, I had to find a picture of an elephant and an egg and crop them out using lasso tool, and copying and pasting them into my picture. Then I had to change layers and put the elephant in front of the egg. Next, I had to crop around the elephant so it looked like he was actually coming out of the egg. To do this, I took the lasso tool again, and went around the area I needed to delete, and then deleted it. I tweaked around the edges a bit so it would fit better using the eraser. Then using the burn tool, I created a shadow on the ground. Also, to make ti look like the elephant and egg belonged there, I had to change the lighting and contrast using the Enhance button.

Moving on to the rabbit stabbing a nail into the heart. For this I had to find a picture of a bunny standing up, a heart that looked somewhat real, and a nail that would suit the picture. Once I found these, I cropped them out, using the lasso tool, and pasted them and tweaked them a bit as well to make it fit together. Next, I had to add shadows to the pictures to make it look like it was actually happening, so I used the burn tool and put shadows all along the nail, heart, and rabbit's hands. To add a red eye to the rabbit, I made a new layer and tool the paint brush and painted around the eye, and changed the opacity to make it look somewhat real. Let us be realistic here, there is no devil bunny, only ones in Monty Python. Again, with the burn tool, I put shadows on the ground so that it showed they were really there. Then, I burnt around the ground to make it look like the bunny was coming out from the ground to surprise attack on the heart. This is saying that you can't always trust yourself or anyone, you could be stabbed in the back by someone else, even if they look very innocent. Also, you have to live your life day by day cause you never know when it will end. Just have fun with your life and imagination.

Now, the clock in the sky. It obviously represents time, that it is melting away. Sometimes when you aren't paying attention, your life can flash before your eyes. In turn, you lose track of time. We always look at the clock and ask ourselves, when will this be over? What we never do, is look at our position and realize that we have it lucky, and we should cherish every moment we have together. To make this clock, I found a picture of a click I liked, using paint bucket cleared the background away, and melted it by going to filter and liquefy. Then, I just changed it around to make it look interesting, and fitting for the picture.

You can ask yourself, why is there a woman in a wedding dress kneeling on the moon? Well, let me answer that for you. She is the one who had lost someone she loves, she is the one that is lost to the ones that love her. We associate shining stars or the moon, with relatives long past, the ones we miss and hope to see again. When we think of them, we think that they are always looking upon us and they are thinking of us as well. Sometimes, something that is sad is only contentment. Not everything that is lost has to be a bad thing. No one ever looks on the bright side to things anymore. Be optimistic, because no one is ever lost to you forever. To make this lady, I found a picture of her kneeling and lasso-ed around her and cut her out, then pasted her on top of the moon. To make her look like she is fading, and sort of distant, I lowered the opacity, so you can see through her but you do not know what is on her mind. Then, I used a brush tool to make clouds, because I thought this brought everything together and took away the empty space on the picture.

For this project, we had to have a lamp post in our picture. I chose an old lamp post, which I am pretty sure everyone else did as well. They are beautiful in their history, and are our lights to see the world. I found this picture, then took the paint bucket and deleted the white background around it. Next, I made it smaller to fit the screen by transforming it. Then, I placed it in front of the small purple light from the sky in the background. This is just to make it look interesting. Then to create a shadow from the lamp post, I used the burn tool and burnt the ground to make it look shadowed.

Lastly, you see the doorway, opening with a bright shining light on the other side. This is our hope. We go through birth, life, death and a new beginning. (At least this is what some believe.) We have hope that once we die, we go to a happy place, and get away from all the bad, where in the end we will live happily-ever-after. We take the steps to get to where we want to go, and to who we want to be. If someone is hurt, they want an escape from their reality. We can just step through the doorway and find ourselves again, see what we want to see. To create this, I had to find a picture of a doorway that was not copyrighted, and stepping stones that would get smaller and smaller, which would end up leading to the doorway. I took the lasso tool and cut around the doorway frame, and the steps. Then, I cut it out and pasted it to my picture, and sized it so it fit perfectly. I had to transform these images. Next, I coloured the door in with white, with the paint brush, to make it seem like there is a bright light on the other side. After that, I copied one of the doors and placed it to open on the side with the light, this will make it look like the door is opening. Then, I transformed it to make it look like it was actually opened, and not a floating door on the side of the frame. I sized this picture as well. To make the light beams coming out of the doorway, I used a brush and made little light strokes throughout the area with the door. Then, I changed the opacity of them to make it look like actual light beams. I also changed the lighting and contrast of the doorway by using the Enhance button.

The background is what ties this picture together, I found two pictures, one was of the moon and stars, and the other was the pasture. I changed the colour of the grass with the Enhancing button to make it look a bit orange and dead, and I cut it so the trees would fit nicely over the background of the moon and stars. I changed that picture as well, by using the Enhancing button. I just played around with different buttons until I found something that I liked and thought fitted the picture well. I cut around the trees with the pasture picture by using the lasso tool and drawing around it, and fading it by 10px. I hope you enjoyed reading this. Sorry you had to. I can't help myself sometimes. It shows in my writing and my work. :P

- Gorecki.

NIGHTSHADE (Andrea Cremer) Book Cover Contest

This Contest is Hosted by THE BOOK VIXEN. Contest is open to everyone! Go check it out!
So what do you think? (This is for an out of school activity please ignore this Mrs. Reidel.)

Gorecki Silk Screen

For this task, we were to take a picture of ourselves and turn the picture into an "Andy Warholl Style Silk Screen Effect." I took a picture of me looking away from the camera because I am the type of person who just doesn't want to hear it. I prefer to be off thinking in my own little world and get bored easily. My imagination just goes on forever and and has endless possibilities. While choosing colours for this picture, I started off with one that I really liked at the time; the blue-green colour. Then, while choosing the other colours, I tried to find ones that complimented each other, using a warmer colour and another that went with the cooler colour. I chose bolder colours because I am a bold person. I feel that I am happy with this picture because it just doesn't look very realistic. This just isn't my type of art I enjoy. A problem that I had with this task was to find a picture that had enough shadow to show my facial features and would transition nicely after using the Threshold button. I just had to take a million pictures until I found one that would work and one that I liked. Once I picked a picture, I cropped the background out of it. Then, I used the cloning tool to fix any blemishes I didn't want to see. After finding my colours to use and using the Threshold button, I added all the colours in. I also added another fourth colour to each of the pictures, and that was a lighter colour on my face and neck to show where the light would be hitting me. (Not literally) I used colours that would compliment the whole picture and bring it together. Looking back on this picture, I find it interesting to look at but I am not a professional. I know this picture isn't perfect but I did the best I could in the amount of time I had and I hope you enjoy it.


( IGNORE THIS PLEASE : TO STEPHEN: Hi there this is Jenna Gorecki reporting from the computer in the media arts room. )

- Gorecki.

Advent Posters to Keep Christ In Christmas

Our task was to create an advent poster for the Wellington Catholic District School Board that would be "Keeping Christ in Christmas." To get inspiration for this task, I went over to Church of Our Lady to get some pictures. Unfortunately, after waiting for about an hour, they would not let me into the church. So, while the sun was setting, I decided to take advantage of the situation I was in and get some pictures of the church. We are only supposed to be submitting one poster but I will be submitting three. The pictures were only okay so I decided to photo shop them a bit and change them to make them more interesting to look at.
ADVENT POSTER ONE - THE GLORY OF CHRIST
For this picture, I changed the saturation, brightness, and shadows and hue. Then, I lassoed around the lamb and the doorways and brightened the colour and hue. For this, I used the Enhancing button. Next, I created a box around the bottom the the stairs and changed the opacity so it wasn't very noticeable, and that it all flowed right down the stairs to the quote. The box also changed helps show the quote and makes it readable. Lastly, I changed the little details and took the Wellington School Board logo and using the clear paint bucket, deleted away the background and fitted the logo into the corner. This makes everything look more glorious. This picture is given the feeling that God is always around in plain sight, even when others do not notice. The doors represent that the church is a safe place, and if you want a clean start to your life, it will happen if you have faith. The Lamb over head represents that Christ the Lord is always looking out for everyone, even if it takes a little push, they will find their way through Heaven's Gates. The doorway for eternal happiness. Christmas is a time where we all come together, and celebrate our joy in life. Christmas is not about presents, but what the church and our faith does for us. Love and Faith are the biggest present of all.

ADVENT POSTER TWO - THE GLORY OF GOD
For this picture again, I changed the saturation, brightness, and shadows and hue. The sun beam is all real, and I did nothing to change it. Then I added a border at the top of the poster, colouring it yellow and changing the opacity so that you can see the clouds in the background. Then I added the font, and changed it around a bit and changed colours so that the word Christ was well seen. Lastly, I changed the little details and took the Wellington School Board logo and using the clear paint bucket, deleted away the background and fitted the logo into the corner. I think that this picture shows that God is always in the church, and always in our hearts. God can be found everywhere we look and can even be our inspiration at times when we do not feel like he is around us anymore. God creates beauty, and he creates a hope for us, that we will be with him soon. Even in the hardest of times God will be with us, and will help us through our journeys. Christmas is a time where we all come together, and celebrate our joy in life. Christmas is not about presents, but what the church and our faith does for us. Love and Faith are the biggest present of all.

ADVENT POSTER THREE - THE GLORY OF THE CHURCH
This picture I also changed the saturation, brightness, and shadows and hue with the Enhancing button, along with every other poster I had made. I lassoed around the whole church and made it look more glorious. Then, I added text and changed the shape and size and colour of each of the words so that they fitted together and looked good. Lastly, I changed the little details and took the Wellington School Board logo and using the clear paint bucket, deleted away the background and fitted the logo into the corner. The picture taken looking up shows that the church is a big community and we are all connected. The sky above shows that God brought everyone together, and brought us our favourite things in this world, and he wants us to be happy. One day, we will be with him and be able to watch down on others, and see others who have passed before us. The church is glorious and we will always be together, and it will take a lot to try to tear us down. We stand tall and proud, and we are proud of our faith and our God. Christmas is a time where we all come together, and celebrate our joy in life. Christmas is not about presents, but what the church and our faith does for us. Love and Faith are the biggest present of all.

-Gorecki.

WHAT IS PERFECT?

Everyone is faced with the same question they ask themselves everyday. What can I do to make myself perfect, or what is perfection? I say that you don't have to look like a supermodel or a model in a magazine because in reality, it is photoshopped and no one really looks like that. So, I decided to take a woman, Megan Fox, who is always talked about because of her beauty. Here is a secret, she has had a lot of plastic surgery aswell and has insecurities problems of her own. I changed her into a woman who is even more plastic than her. Is this true beauty? Take a long look at both of them. Do you envy these women? Why?

- - - - - - - - - BEFORE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - AFTER - - - - - - - - - -

HOW TO OF HOW I MADE THIS WILL BE POSTED SOON. POST NOT FINISHED!!

- Gorecki.

BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY AT SCHOOL

The imagination sees what it wants to see. Art can be found in anything in our lives everyday. If you look at the school, you may think it is a boring school, but sometimes you can find inspiration in the oddest of places. When you find your inspiration, you change the way it looks and can make it into something completely different.

THE CROSS - Since this is a Catholic school, I decided to add an element of our Christianity into this task. If you take a look of this picture, the first thing you see is Jesus on the cross, but what is so fascinating about this picture? It could actually be a picture taken from up high and the mountains formed this when you change the picture around.

For this picture, you could find inspiration in seeing Jesus on a cross, even if you are not religious, (hopefully no morbid ideas come to mind.) Religion can be a form of art. If you care a lot about it to the point where you can express your love about it, then it is a form of beauty, an art. Art doesn't have to be about something you HAVE to create, you can also appreciate it. Having an appreciation for something is an art.

I created this picture by well going into the chapel and taking a picture of the cross. Then once I got it up on Photo shop, I converted it into Black and white and changed the filter to Note paper, and changed the contrast and shadows on it.


THE CEILING - The element I wanted to show was art. The art room came to mind because well, it is an art room. Again, everyone has their own ideas and imagination and can get inspiration from anything, even another person. So, as you can see in this picture, anyone can have a good idea and make it work, even if it doesn't seem right to one person, it may make sense to a different person.

I had to change the picture to black and white and changed the filter to Note Paper, because I wanted it to match and go together with my picture above. THE CROSS. I had to cut some ceiling tiles and paste them onto blank tiles and areas with lights to make the picture more artsy. Sometimes, the whole ceiling doesn't have to be covered for you to be touched by the artwork. Once I put them over the blank areas, then I used feathering and deleted some parts around the picture so that it would fit in the area better and not look like I photo shopped it. Not all artwork has to look beautiful or pretty. As long as there is someone to acknowledge it, then it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is if you are happy with your work, and you can have at least one more person appreciate what you have done.

- Gorecki.