PSA - Prevent Youth Reckless Driving

Youth reckless driving is a huge problem in our society today. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for teens in the U.S. (Source: NHTSA). Fixing this problem rests in all of our hands. Teens can take the initiative and drive responsibly, and others can encourage teens to drive safely. Eight in 10 teens say that if a friend told them their driving behavior made their friend feel uncomfortable, they would listen (Source: Ad Council). If you are in a car with a reckless driver speak up and you can be the difference. To do your part visit impactteendrivers.org, or call 916-733-7432, today. Promote safe driving. Reckless driving isn't worth it.

 

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol

·         Real name is Andrew Warhola (8/6/28-2/22/87) (Became Warhol after a misprint)

o   Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Parents from Czechoslovakia (does not exist anymore)

o   Father worked in a coal mine

·         In High School, kicked out of art club because he was “too good”

·         Graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (Bachelor of Fine Arts)

·         Graduated with degree for pictorial design & wanted to become a commercial illustrator

·         Designed advertisements for women’s shoes

·         Used Polaroid camera

·         Fear of hospitals and doctors, hypochondriac

·         Favorite print making technique was silk screening

·         Friends & family described him as a workaholic

·         His sexuality was speculated upon and how this influenced his relationship to art is “a major subject of scholarship on the artist”

·         First solo expedition in 1952

·         Coined the term “15 minutes of fame”

·         1960s: iconic American products (pop art)

·         Created The Factory, his NYC studio from 1962-1968

·         Celebrity portraits developed into one of the most important aspects of his career

·         Made films (first one called Sleep – 6 hours of a man sleeping) (1963)

·         1965 said he was retiring from painting

o   1972 returned to painting

·         Designed cover for the Rolling Stones’ album Sticky Fingers (cover made out of real jean material)

·         Produced Velvet Underground’s first album

·         Started a magazine called Interview, worked for Glamour Magazine, Vogue

·         Shot by Valerie Solanas 3 times for being abusive and “too controlling” (6/3/68)

o   Solanas authored the S.C.U.M. Manifesto, a separatist feminist document

o   "Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there – I always suspected that I was watching TV instead of living life. People sometimes say that the way things happen in movies is unreal, but actually it's the way things happen in life that's unreal. The movies make emotions look so strong and real, whereas when things really do happen to you, it's like watching television – you don't feel anything. Right when I was being shot and ever since, I knew that I was watching television. The channels switch, but it's all television."

·         Marilyn Monroe = favorite model (not painted until after death)

·         Wore silver wigs until he dyed his hair silver

·         Practicing Ruthenian Rite Catholic who described himself as a religious person

·         Died of a heart attack brought on by a gall bladder surgery and water intoxication

·         $100,000,000 for one of his paintings (highest amount paid) (“Eight Elvises”)

·         Referred to as the “Prince of Pop”

Photoshop Piece

Photoshop

(Photoshop Piece)

        A photograph reflection usually contains the process, outcome and purpose of whatever assignment is being written about. However, this reflection is simply going to describe the process of making the picture seen above.
        First, I had to find a good picture to start with. In doing this, I generally like to work with pictures that have a lot of open space so there is room to copy and past various things into the picture, while also making sure the photo doesn't get too cluttered. Also, I skimmed through basically all of the pictures I had saved in NDR Zero, our classes folder, to make sure I picked a picture that I liked. However, in the end, my process of choosing a picture ended with me choosing one of my Little Toy pictures. Mainly because Pikachu is a very photogenic subject to have in a picture, of course. I chose the picture I took with Pikachu popping his head out of one of my mom's Ugg boots.
        My next step in the process of making my final Photoshop piece was one that sounds simple, yet took a majority of my time. I basically had to decide what effects to apply to my image. I knew that I wanted to apply the threshold effect somewhere in my picture, so I decided to get it out of the way. Initially looking at my picture, it was hard to decide where to add the effect. I decided to change the bottom of the boots. The process of applying the threshold effect takes a few steps. First, I selected the area I wanted to change. Next I pressed Ctrl-J ten times to create ten layers consisting solely of the selected area. Next, starting at the top layer (turning all the eyes off on all the layers except for the one I was working on), I changed the threshold of the layer. In doing this, I was able to chose whether the image was all white, all black or somewhere in between with various degrees of black and white. Starting with the top layer and working down, I changed the threshold of the pictures (starting with all white and working to all black). The second to last step involves once again working with each layer, one at a time. On the layer, I selected all the white area (with the magic wand) and deleted it. I pressed Ctrl and clicked on the small image of the picture in the layers menu, which selects all the remaining black area. Then I went to the color squares on the left of the screen and changed the bottom square to a color of my liking. Lastly, pressing Ctrl-Delete, all of the black area changed to the color I chose. After doing this with different colors to each layer, I clicked on all the eyes and made all layers visible. The end result was a rainbow effect applied on the bottom of the boots, created by changing the threshold of each image.
        The process of making my image then became simple. I made a duplicate layer of my initial image. First, I found a cool picture of my boy Tim Lincecum, used the magnetic selection tool, and selected Timmy. I copied him and pasted him in my picture, moving him to make it look as if he was popping out of the other boot. After feathering the bottom of his jersey, I did the same copy and paste effect with the airplane found at the top left of the picture. Using a wavy, flag-like, text box, I put "Go Giants!" in the banner. Next, I used the gradient tool to put a dark tint in the bottom left of the picture to take away some of the extreme brightness from the sun. Lastly, I merged all the layers together and used my favorite effect. I blended the image to have a Giants picture making its presence felt in the photo. World Series Champions...they had to make their presence felt!

Extra Credit

This was the first Photoshop picture that I made using the copy and past effect. The background image is my shot of the Crystal Springs Reservoir that I took for our Landscape assignment. I first placed the blue building in the picture and changed the opacity so it fit in with the landscape a little more. To practice my copy and past skills, I then placed a chandelier in the shot. Lastly, I figured, its a water picture and all, I might as well place a boat in the shot as well. 

I feel that this is one of my best Photoshop pieces. My original shot was taken during our Fall Sports assignment and I chose it as a good copy and paste shot because there was a lot of open space to add some stuff. What better linebacker to tackle a speedy running-back than Patrick Willis? After finding a picture of Willis online, I saved the picture and opened it in Photoshop. I then selected Willis, copied him and pasted him in the shot. After making his body and realistic size, I placed him in a spot that it looks like he is about to tackle the running-back in the shot. Because he was too light to fit in the picture, I altered the lighting and darkness of the shot to make it look more realistic. To make the pedestrian in the background more acceptable for my shot, I Photoshopped him into Justin Timberlake.

For this shot, my original image was a picture I took of the beach. After learning how to blend images in class, I thought it would be cool to blend my football shot, with my beach shot. To do so, I first opened both picture in Photoshop. Then I made sure they were both the same size (4000 x 3000). I then went to the beach image and clicked on "apply image." After selecting the football shot as the image to blend into it, I then took most of the color out of it and changed the opacity. My end result was the above image. A picture that Not only took into account how to blend images, but also how to use various blending effects to make the shot look even better. 

Little Toy

Cope & Paste / Blend

Fishing