Value-Added Portraits: Phase 4

At the beginning of this project I was first introduced to the concepts of high key and low key value ranges. After finding examples of both concepts within the CityTech area I had to explain the tone that each example gives off. I learned that with high key ranges there’s usually a happier tone while with low key ranges there’s a more mysterious and dramatic tone. Next I learned the concept of a broad key value range by making a grayscale. Also I learned that high key and low key ranges are known as narrow ranges. By learning these 3 concepts I had to make 2 collages which consisted of one being a narrow value range and the other being a broad value range. After the first critique I pretty much had to redo both collages. The successful part was that my collages were distinguishable in terms of value range. What was missing was providing a clear focus and path within the collages. After seeing my peer’s collages I got a better sense on how to improve my collages. The next assignment was to make a painted version of the broad range collage and a digital version of the narrow range collage. When I first heard painting I was really excited but when it came down to actually painting I was scared because we had to mix white and black paints to create broad ranges of gray. This task was pretty tedious and I tried my best to make the shades really close to the collage. I got a kind of bitter-sweet feeling when I finally finished because my painting wasn’t in exact detail as I would’ve wanted it to be but for my first time doing something like this I at least learned how to handle paint more. I got a bit discouraged during the critique because there was painted collages that I thought looked better than mine. But I’m coming to terms that I’m still learning and through more practice I can improve. Since the next project deals with paints I feel I’ll get more satisfying results since I learned how to deal with paint through this experience. With the digital collage I was more comfortable because I at least had some experience of Indesign from Type and Media even though the program was Photoshop. The next assignment was making a 3D Anaglyph from my portrait which was fun until the 3D started bothering my eyes.