Sing Me a Self Portrait

Photoshop, from the word itself, suggests something that deals with photography. it was the genius solution to the costly, toxic, meticulous (though romantic and raw) darkroom process of developing photographs. what it does is it mimics everything (and beyond) possible in the darkroom without the actual darkroom. it made photography and the manipulation of it available to the masses - anyone with a digicam and computer can be a photographer, and more than that - a graphic artist.

now once the basic requirements have been met: computer, digicam, photoshop. the next step is creating great photographs or, if you intend to go beyond mere photography, creating great imagery/design. how does one become great at that?

take up a basic art course! but that takes time and money (though it still sets the basic groundwork for AWESOME MIND-BLOWING art). i'd say, start by looking at the things around you that call to you or inspire you. investigate and ask what about it makes it so great. is it the colors? the way it makes you feel? the story it tells? in the beginning you'll find yourself mimicking styles and ideas that have already been created. thats alright, repetition isn't a crime and to really learn anything requires a lot of PLAYing anyway. play with what you like, explore and express in "reckless abandon", as they say. originality comes naturally when you've played so much, enough for you to decide the kind of style or technique you want to stick with. for now we're just gonna have fun. =)

Sing Me a Self-Portrait

this week's project is about taking a source inspiration and translating it through a different medium. since music is always inspiring and always enjoyable we're picking any one song (of your choice) and creating a self-portrait inspired by that song. you'll be needing a picture of yourself, photoshop, stock photographs, drawings and/or textures that will go with the kind of song you picked as your source inspiration.

to submit your entries, email your portrait and song of choice to thesplotsproject@gmail.com on or before Sunday, April 16, 2009, 12 noon.

Space Samba by Sound

obviously i'm not part of the competition but to show an example, heres the song i chose and the feel i wanted to recreate was that spacey driving-around-the-city vibe. so i put in some moving lights, city elements, city lines, off-focus dew drops and some galaxy and star elements.

Space Samba - Sound