cut paper conflict

Based on what we saw of Kara Walker, talking about the complexity of conflict, personal & local history, and narrative, consider your own history. I’m still new enough here to not really understand this vacation destination and the animosity towards vacationers that I hear from most students, but it’s clearly a complex dynamic. This community depends on the influx of money & visitors, and yet holds them in obvious contempt.

Using three simple silhouette images, create a narrative that explores that conflict. As always, I’d recommend starting from a point of personal experience, and then embellish beyond recognition if necessary. Build your images in illustrator, and we’ll project onto large sheets of paper, to be cut later. Your image will include:

• Two interacting figures of varying scale
• A clear figure/ground relationship
• Three objects that relate to either/both figure or ground

Unity principles	effort/carefulness	Line quality of cut paper	Met requirements	Total 30 pts
10	10	5	5

using photoshop with illustrator...

This may get a bit messy, but here's the basic process:

Importing vector images

1. open photoshop
2. file - open - select your illustrator file - open
3. pop-up window will ask you about resolution & file size - choose 300dpi and make the file size somewhere around 8x10" so it's not an enormous file
4. it may take a moment to rasterize your vector image, but it will pop open a new window with your work visible
5. save your file as a .psd (photoshop document, which preserves layers)

Selecting shapes

1. use the wand tool to select your shapes
2. adjust the tolerance to select more or less (default is 32)
3. click on the shape that you want selected
4. if you want more shapes to be selected also, hold shift and select again with wand
5. to deselect, hit apple D

Importing textures

1. file - open - select your texture scans or photo
2. these will open in new windows
3. select all (apple A) and copy texture
4. click back to the day of blood file
5. paste texture (apple V)
6. this adds the texture as a new layer

Using opacity, blending modes & inverse selection to create texture as an overlay

1. select the layer which has the original drawing (click in the layers palette)
2. use the wand tool to select the shape you want to add texture to
3. go to select - inverse
4. now everything but that shape is selected
5. in the palette layer, select the layer of the appropriate texture - shape selection should still be visible
6. hit delete, and all the negative space of the texture will vanish, leaving only texture in the shape of your drawing
7. on the palette layer, adjust opacity & blending modes until you're satisfied

So you wish your texture didn't have color?

1. in your original texture file, go to image menu - mode - grayscale
2. this tosses out the color info, and allows you to add texture as a grayscale value image

Saving work files

1. save your project as a .psd which preserves the layers
2. when you go to post it online, you need to flatten layers & save as a .jpg (layer menu - flatten, then save as)

That should give you plenty to play with. Keep in mind that you'll be submitting the original illustrator drawing, this .psd with texture, and an actual hand made collage next week, so we can compare the three versions.

texture!

For our next project we'll be experimenting with texture, and dabbling in Photoshop briefly. We'll also be working in the physical world.

For homework, you'll need to locate a variety of textures - some to scan, and some to use as collage elements. Scan a variety of objects/textures so you have them on hand. Scan at 300dpi so that you have a decent resolution & size to work with.

You also need to begin the vector based illustration that responds to the Day of Blood. That illustration will be the foundation for the texture variations, so be sure to start it, and it would be great to have it finished.

Next week will be a studio day, so you can really work. We'll aim to have the vector & raster versions complete by the end. The collage version will be completed outside of class.