MET Digital Photography Exhibit

I found this piece by Nancy Burson, titled "Warhead," to be one of the more interesting works that are on display. Made in 1982, Burson combined five pictures of world leaders, each portrayed proportionally to the number of nuclear bombs or warheads that their nation owned. I think having an identity or face to represent such a catastrophic weapon is a unique idea, and doesn't heave blame upon a real individual. The almost sinister expression is also very fitting. It's as if Burson was saying to fear this man, not only by his power, but also fear becoming a part of him. I'm also very impressed because this is one of the earlier works with the invention of digital imaging.

Little Sister

This is the second part of the project where everything in the image is 100% original content. I sketched the girl with a mouse in the free program, GIMP. I used a picture of a Little Sister from the game BioShock as a reference image, and I found a picture of a porkpie hat to also use as a reference image. I  did the faint blue brush strokes in the background with a tablet in Photoshop. The sketch itself is only black and white. I wanted to focus on shading and ripples in clothing. Overall I'm happy with the outcome, part of me wanted to draw her from head to toe, but I think I like it ending at the dress more.

Sky Hook

For this assignment, we were to combine a photograph that we took, as well as a drawing of our own. I decided to make it look like I was holding something iconic from a movie or game. I chose the Sky Hook from BioShock Infinite, and sketched it on paper. Then I scanned it and did the coloring and shading digitally. Afterwards, my sister helped me set up a camera with a ten second delayed shot, so I could take my own photograph. I also went up onto my roof and took multiple pictures of the clouds in the sky. After settling on one, I began putting all the pieces together. I outlined myself and got rid of the background, I set up the sky background, and I positioned the Sky Hook over my arm. Then I realized that both my hand and the handle for the device were not positioned correctly. So I erased my hand, and replaced it with my hand from another photograph. I also cut off the handle, resized and repositioned it, and fit it along my fingers. After that, I did some more shading and editing until I was satisfied.

I wanted to keep the colors on my drawing consistent with the actual Sky Hook, and the shading helped make it more three dimensional. I still wanted to make it apparent that it was a sketch, so I was not aiming for realistic looks. I'm pleased with the outcome, there are a few more areas I could have shaded, but I'm happy with everything else for the most part.

The sky background

 Me posing

Me posing with correct hand placement

 The pencil sketch of the Sky Hook

The digital coloring of the Sky Hook