Artist Statement

Throughout this portfolio you will see artwork that I have done pertaining to all projects dealing with the camera and its special effects, Photoshop and its tools, and pictures I have taken and or created myself. This portfolio is an example of a “before and after”; last semester vs. this semester and I feel much more confident and proud of all the work I have done this semester. One thing I experienced in class that was my favorite would definitely have to be using a tutorial to create fire/flames that look realistic. I used the tutorial to help but I changed up the directions and made the fire my own way.

Over the course of this semester/year I learned that using your imagination, personal experiences, and dreams can become real in Photoshop by using tutorials, special effects, tools, and also by using pictures you took yourself; you can create/do anything you put your mind to. I feel I was most successful with Photoshop, learning all the tools and techniques. It took me a great while to get it all down but I finally got it and I learned new tools and techniques on my own as well. I think the thing I struggled with the most in all my artwork was figuring out how to put things together on Photoshop and creating things to the extent of it looking real because there were some things that I couldn’t figure out what to do with it or how to transform it into what I wanted. It was sometimes difficult choosing what tools or techniques to use also.

Some of my influences that helped my with my artwork were colors that I loved, which could have resembled a mood or feeling, my moods and feelings I had as well, and surrealists because of their crazy ideas that they put onto paper or in a photo. I have seen growth and improvement in mainly this semester on my composition and craftsmanship as far as understanding it and putting it throughout my artwork. I could improve my artwork in many ways, but the main way would be to practice, practice, and learn new tools.