GRAPHIC DESIGN

DIGITAL PHOTO ART

"Through the Looking Glass" by Mikayla MacDonald

This digital art photo is a creation formed from personal photos, downloaded files, and Photoshop effects. The project was built around the topic "Secrets Within" which was given to me from leaders of art department at Holy Cross Secondary School. The poster was set on display in the library with the work of many other students. The poster was created in Adobe Photoshop. I first created the ball with the eclipses tool. I created a perfect shape, then traced it carefully with the paint brush tool to give it the outer glow. To create the cracked lines around the ball i zoomed in very closely and with size  brush painted small lines as cracks.I them brought in two images from other photos, added 3D and simple effects to change the look. I divided the images with brushed lines. I found two images on Google for the background. I re sized them and placed them into the document. Changing the transparency so they weren't as bold as the original. When I found the background to be empty I added text which portrayed the idea of the poster. The text was black but b y changing the transparency on each one I was able to have each word different colours. The flower was also brought in from Google. I discarded colour so it was black and white then cropped it from the rest of the photo. The hand, face, and rock image were all taken by me using a Sony A200 camera. I imported the photos into Photoshop and began removing any parts of the photograph unneeded. By close cutting with the eraser tool I was able to obtain a picture of  hand and a head. I placed the hand in the exact location so it was holding the glass ball and the face so it is as though it is looking from the glass ball. The face is less transparent then the rest of the image so it is as though it is in the actual ball. Overall the image portrayed the theme given by my arts department as no one knows your inner secrets better than yourself.

PERSONAL LOGO

 

Logo by Mikayla MacDonald

My personal logo was made in Adobe Illustrator CS3. To start my logo I first had to brainstorm ideas. I thought of a logo which would best represent who I am. The "MM" are my initials and the pink and purple are my favourite colours. From these two facts I began the creation of my personal logo. I sketched out six ideas and in the end this was my favourite idea so I begun illustrating my logo. I started with the purple circle background, created with the eclipse tool. By holding shift while sizing my shape I was able to create the perfect circle. I then changed the colours so when I repeated the steps I would have only a pink outline around the circle. Once I was happy with the look of the background I moved forward to creating the "MM". These letters were very easy to create, I simply choose the font which gave the look I was searching for. I made one the create size then copy and pasted the object. Because the logo looked so plan I added mul,tiple effects to each object. First i started with the purple circle. I added an inner glow to the circle so depth was added between that and teh outline. Then I moved to the letters. I added the 3-D effect to the right letter and tilted it towards the center. I then repeated this until the left looked similar to the right. At this point I believed to be finished my logo, I took a step back and realized my logo needed a little more. I added my name to the bottom so the "MM" was understood. The text was given a drop shadow effect so it would jump from the page. A frame was added around the text so it was brought into the logo. The square in the background, created with the eclipse tool was added last so the logo and text would be tied together. So the box wasn't plan I added a outer glow to to make the entire logo have depth. At this point I felt my logo looked the best it could be and finished the final project.   

CHRISTMAS POSTCARD

"Christmas Card" By Mikayla MacDonald

This Christmas card was made in third year of Com Tech courses in Adobe Photoshop CS3. As it was Christmas time around the school we were instructed to create a card with a quote, background and personal image. I researched quotes about Christmas until I found one I liked. I copied the text in into a blank Photoshop project. I found a text which matched the quote and gave the same feeling as the quote. I changed the colour settings so the text was a green outline and white center so the the text would pop from the card. I changed the colour once again so the center was red for the title of the card. Then using a Nikon D5000 I had my photo taken in front of a blue screen. I took the photo from the camera and opened the image in Photoshop. Using the magic wand tool I selected the blue background and deleted the most of the blue. using the eraser tool I close cut all the left behind blue to I was all the was left from the image. I dragged and dropped my image to the Photoshop document with my text. Once I was placed nicely so all aspects of the card were noticeable I began looking for a background. The background was an image from Google which was re sized in Photoshop then placed onto the document. I sent the layer to the back and my postcard was complete.I had all necessary aspects and I felt it looked the way I felt was right.