From Photographs (no pets):
Portrait, Flower, Landscape, & Abstraction

Since the earliest days of the Renaissance, artists have been using optical tools that assist with the capture and reproduction of reality. The camera obscura is an amazing tool whereby the outside world projects itself onto a wall, in full color, full motion, and upside-down! This device is the direct precursor to film cameras and is the principle behind digital cameras as well. The camera obscura is, in fact, a near replica of our own eyes.

Before the camera obscura, people had a very difficult time understanding spacial relationships and the phenomenon known as perspective.

With the invention of the photograph came the (almost) demise of art for record sake. Paintings no longer were needed to convey reality. Photography allowed painters and other artists to develop new ways of seeing, beyond visual duplication, and into abstraction. Truthfully, all art is an abstraction in one way or another. All digital photographic images are gridized abstractions when examined in detail; analog photography is granular abstraction.

The benefit of using photography in art is that it provides compositional reference. We develop our sense of composition and proportion from reality. Forms in an image that are out of proportion are noticed easily because we have an innate and unconcious understanding of space. Without this, we would not survive in the world for very long. Our sense of abstract form is based upon our natural proportional understanding of the world. Included in this is our understanding of how gravity affects matter (or more correctly, how matter attracts matter). Does this matter? (pun) Yes, as a matter of fact, it does! (double-pun)

  • Thought Experiment:
    In your house, walk with a constant motion from room to room. Observe the continuous changing scene: spaces change, walls fall away, doorways envelope you, rooms appear and disappear, objects change size (faster when close up, slower when at a distance). Notice how your moving point of view shows you the left side then the right side of an object (the continuous transition is smooth, very smooth). Notice the vastness of change and the smoothness of distortion that is observable while in motion. Horizon lines are only illusions because perspective changes in all directions simultaneously. Observe that your mind normally takes all of this in subconsciously and makes sense of it while still having time to contemplate art and dinner and life.... Simply amazing!

    • Project Defined:
    You will either digitally photograph, or bring in photographs of your own creation (three). From these you will make four (4) unique works (per photo): one will be an abstraction of the image in such a way that it is clear what the image originally depicted -but with the method resembling traditional art media; another will be abstracted so thoroughly that the original image is no longer important (or noticable); and two (2) will be cropped and enlarged areas of the originals abstracted (in this phase, use the crop tool in Photoshop to great advantage).

    Work with the existing formal elements that are naturally present in the original photograph.

    Use your own work. Internet images or source images from anywhere other than your own creation are not acceptable. Remember this: GIGO! (Garbage In Garbage Out). Better quality images produce better quality results.

    RESOLUTION: Your overall image should be 8" x 10" at 240dpi.

    Painter and Photoshop have many tools that will be useful in working with your photogaphic elements. In Photoshop, these include the IMAGE-ADJUST menus including LEVELS and CURVES. In Painter these include EFFECTS menu items like TONAL CONTROL, SURFACE CONTROL, and ESOTERICA.

    Save additional versions of the project as you go along. I want FOUR (4) versions EACH of a PORTRAIT, FLOWER , and LANDSCAPE (amounting to 12 total pieces) by project end! Turn them in by saving as JPEG (level 5 quality setting). Name them as in this example (but with your last name and correct project number), "mcginnis2a.jpg", "mcginnis2b.jpg", etc.