C18 Digital Imaging & Computer Art

For my self portrait collage, I wanted to create a sort of timeline about the journey that I’ve had. My love for video games has lead me through many different activities and lead me to learn a variety of new skills, which is represented by the cord connecting all the circles together. Video games lead me to discovering Wikia, which helped me to think about games more critically. Wikia lead me to want to learn about coding games. Coding games then lead me to other fields in the game industry, such as art. It then leads to a question mark, meaning that, while I don’t know what I will be learning next, I am positive that it will further me along my path in the field of video games. I wanted to show my progression through all this because it is something that I hold dear. I’ve put an absurd amount of time into these activities to further my knowledge of video games, so I hold them in high importance in defining who I have become. I wanted to show this timeline approach rather than simply putting in a lot of video game pictures because my appreciation for video games goes beyond just playing them.

The silhouettes of the people are different pictures of me throughout the years, again to represent the timeline idea and the sense of progression. I constantly look upon everything I have done to improve myself for the future. Each picture grows in size and darkens in color to represent how I have grown in my abilities. There is also a large amount of space left blank on the right, because I know that I still have a long way to go in this field. The simple colors simply represent my taste for simplistic art design, while the purple color scheme represents a sense of mystery. I love to analyze new things and try to predict how things will play out, so the sense of mystery as to how things will roll out is exciting for me.

Source Images
https://pixabay.com/en/the-background-game-abstraction-2819000/

https://jackspade2012.deviantart.com/art/Gamecube-Controller-Vector-423441148

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Binary_Code.jpg

https://freeclipartimage.com/article/top-67-paintbrush-clip-art

My collage consists of 5 total images. I wouldn’t quite say this photo describes me quite that well but it certainly has a few things I like. When I set out to make my collage, I wanted to avoid having a mess of different things all jumbled together. In order to achieve that, I’ve taken a slightly less expressive route to instead focus more on the overall composition. I enjoyed working on this piece and my favorite aspect is its color palette. I guess now I’ll explain all of the images. The background is a city because I like cities in general. I blurred it out because I thought it looked cool. My glasses are from a nice picture I found with a nice looking starry sky because, ya know, space and all. The shirt is a retrowave desktop background because I love the style. Finally, the backpack straps are that old pattern that was on the cups because who doesn’t love that.

Sources:

https://ih1.redbubble.net/image.449149759.3655/flat,800×800,075,f.jpg

https://rafael-de-jongh.deviantart.com/art/Retrowave-Neon-80-s-Background-4K-699082710

https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/005/578/767/large/jan-urschel-gis-ju-0005-g2.jpg?1492132222

View post on imgur.com

For my self-portrait, I tried to include the multiple facets of my WPI career.  Currently, I am a mechanical and robotics engineering dual major.  One of my primary reasons for this came when I was about ten years old and saw Iron Man for the first time.  After finishing the movie, I knew I wanted to make my own suit, like most children who watched it, however, that is not a realistic career path.  Instead, I’ve chosen to pursue a career in the development of defense technologies- essentially working for the military from the civilian side.

In order to portray that goal in my collage, I inserted the iconic Iron Man mask under my face to represent the desire that is always with me as well as speaks to my analytical mindset. In addition to this, I placed the Empire symbol from the Star Wars franchise and the symbol for Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity on opposing shoulders in a mimicry of the patches and tattoos that soldiers wear in order to identify themselves to others.  Finally, the cavity in the center of my chest is supposed to be a comparison between the power station of some building or large robot and what I use in order to stay awake and functioning every day.

Below, you can find the pictures and links to all of the reference images I used.

http://www.tke.org/

https://www.intersil.com/en/applications/led-lighting/small-lcd-panel.html

https://sanjanicia.deviantart.com/art/San-Janicia-Room-Metal-508427988

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fc1.staticflickr.com%2F9%2F8248%2F8650741214_2f99b34311_b.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2F8050182%40N06%2F8650741214&docid=Ecau533T1rcVRM&tbnid=EJZKNH6IvuibwM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwjQnYXosITZAhWGrVkKHRixAr8QMwiKASgCMAI..i&w=768&h=1024&bih=735&biw=1517&q=iron%20man%20helmet%20front&ved=0ahUKEwjQnYXosITZAhWGrVkKHRixAr8QMwiKASgCMAI&iact=mrc&uact=8

 

https://californiahandyman.com/hot-water-heater-installation/

Here is the original photo I used (I’m not entirely sure why it’s upside down):

Additionally, I took inspiration for my face from this picture:

https://mobile.digitalartsonline.co.uk/tutorials/photoshop/cyborg-revealed/

 

 

I chose to make a portrait that really focused on one aspect of my life. When I came to WPI, I was introduced to the game squash. I got all my friends into the game and enjoy it a lot. We play almost every day and whenever the clock strikes 9, I walk around the floor and yell very obnoxiously “Trynna squash?!” This gets all the boys out of their rooms and we then go down to the courts and enjoy the game.

I had a few challenged with this creating this. Firstly, the picture of me was extremely pixilated and the background color blended in well with my skin and shirt making it very difficult to crop out. Then the image I have in the background of the squash player going to hit the ball was originally going to replace my shirt, but it looked really weird after I had finished it so I got rid of it and made it the background instead. I also filled in the background with the red lines of a squash court. It made for a very interesting pattern which I liked. Then I added a squash racquet which I took the strings out of because they were very pixelated. Also, there is a squash ball inside the racquet. Finally, I added the words, “trynna squash?” because it’s what we always say when we’re getting ready to go play.

Player background: https://www.pinterest.com/explore/play-squash/

Squash ball: http://www.fangcan.com/product/fca-06/

Squash racquet: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Squash-Prince-Sports-Outdoors/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A324062011%2Cp_4%3APrince

Squash court red outline: http://www.sundek.in/portfolio/squash-court-2/

 

My self portrait collage is mainly based off of one of my senior pictures. In the background of my body there are 4 main photos, 3 of which are photos that I had taken on my phone. These four places represent some of my most memorable and/or aspired places in the universe. I love camping, I love the beach, Niagara Falls is one of my favorite tourist sites, and as anyone would, I would like to one day visit Mars. The rest of the small images in my body are logos that best describe my interests and what makes me who I am. I purposely kept my body faintly in the background and the right side of my face uncovered to get the feeling of myself emerging from all of these things. My favorite part is that the longer you look at it, the more there is to see and it serves as a great representation of who I am and where I come from.

 

The only source I felt was necessary was for the picture of Mars. All of the others are either taken by me or are logos that can be found anywhere on the internet.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/space/life-on-mars-nasas-drastic-plan-to-make-mars-more-earth-like.aspx

I don’t personally have a huge affinity for photos of myself or for collages, so my concept was relatively straightforward: find things I like, and see how well I could piece them all together. Represented are World of Tanks, Mobile Suit Gundam, music, Solidworks, and the Razer brand.  I’ve blurred and desaturated the background for a depth of focus effect and to de-emphasize its importance. Many of my passions seem to be contained in another world apart from reality, be it digital or fantasy altogether.  I wanted to show that by comparison it can be easy to find the real world somewhat lacking in vibrance and imagination.

Material credits:

https://worldoftanks.com/en/media/8/july-2013-desktop-wallpaper-clear/

https://www.hawkridgesys.com/sites/default/files/promotions/solidworks-logo-large.png

https://pixabay.com/p-2820989/?no_redirect

http://elementalcheese.blogspot.com/2016/08/gunpla-review-rg-1144-gundam-00-qan-t.html

https://img.talkandroid.com/uploads/2016/05/razer-logo.jpg

 

For my self-portrait, I decided to highlight my love of travel. In the foreground, I included an image of myself and I overlayed an image of a map onto my face. In the background, I collaged together several images of places I have either been or would like to go. I wanted it to look like I was taking a selfie in these locations. I included the Hollywood sign because I live in Los Angeles, St. Pauls in London, The Eiffel Tower in Paris, and the Great Wall in China. There were lots of other images I wanted to include but I didn’t want the image to get too crowded.

Images:

• https://www.wur.nl/upload_mm/8/d/2/b223d9fb-1217-432f-8e52-7bb4908d4fba_wolken_lucht_shutterstock_193491221.jpg
• http://www.sassandbelle.co.uk/Images/Product/Alternative/xlarge/WRAP034_C.jpg
• https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Hollywood_Sign_%28Zuschnitt%29.jpg/1200px-Hollywood_Sign_%28Zuschnitt%29.jpg
• http://img.jakpost.net/c/2017/02/10/2017_02_10_21340_1486708892._large.jpg

For my collage, I wanted to keep elements of me in this picture which is why I kept my hair and neck visible. I tried to create a point of symmetry with my face. I replaced my face with TV static because, in the past, I watched a large amount of TV. My shirt masks some of the shows I used to watch all the time. My eyes are vector art on top of the static. My cat and dog are also balanced with one on each side of me. The background is meant to feel distant and disconnected from the rest of the image as it is a sunset of the beach I grew up on. It is the element of the picture that is unrelated to all of the others as I usually went there when I would leave all of the other elements at home.

 

Here are the sources for my used images:

http://www.wallpapermaven.com/cat/miscellaneous/TV-Static-96.html

https://scdn.nflximg.net/ipl/47800/7a28b6ed06ed9b4766573725c70425999e3174b9.jpg

http://camplazlo.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

https://scdn.nflximg.net/images/0438/11190438.jpg

https://aminoapps.com/c/cartoon/page/blog/revisit-review-the-grim-adventures-of-billy-and-mandy/N4Bh_Muaj3DznXNMKkPDXN0EYGwZNXL

I don’t have a whole lot to say about this because I’d like to leave a lot up to interpretation. But starting from left to right with the pictures in my head.
A bear, because… you know why.
The Monster Hunter 4 logo, because I love the Monster Hunter series.
A D20, because I play a lot of D&D.
The Evolution Fighting Game Champion Series logo, because I enjoy playing and watching people play fighting games.
And finally, a pirate ship, specifically the ship of a certain character I like, but mainly just there because I dig pirates.

Bear:
https://wallpaperclicker.com/wallpaper/Angry-Bear-Face-Closeup-Pics-in-High-Definition/16868902/

MH4 Logo:
http://monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/File:Logo-MH4_Symbol.png

D20:
http://www.freeiconspng.com/img/34409

Evo Logo:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/36/Evo_Championship_Series_Logo.png/200px-Evo_Championship_Series_Logo.png

Golden Wild Hunt (Pirate Ship):
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/typemoon/images/b/b3/Wildhunt.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/350?cb=20130821220456

Stock Vortex Image:
https://pre00.deviantart.net/a72f/th/pre/i/2013/087/b/e/vortex_stock_by_wyonet-d5zm8an.png

Collage:

Original:

This was a photo taken when i was volunteering in Sri Lanka to take care of turtles. It took me a while to create separate masks for me and the turtle. Also this is the first time of my trying the double saturation effect, so i just  played round with different blend modes and image adjustments until i got the effects i want. The turtle turned out pretty good in my opinion, but i couldn’t find a good blend mode for the torso and legs, so those parts ended up to be pretty much entirely covered by the fill images.

The illusion i wanted to make is a turtle flying in the air, where there is a night background right above and a land background right below.

The grass field background for the legs is taken from juliefletcherphotography.com, and the torso background is one of the cover artworks form the music game Deemo.