J.L.K Writes - First time on Photoshop

Entry 16 - Saturday and Sunday’s were always fun

This bed couldn't hold three but we made it work on the weekends

There’s crumbs between the folds but our troubles are released as the episodes begin

The house is always quiet, particularly the kitchen

In these hours, we can can do more than grin

Facial piercings, acne scares and the tendency to stim

Our attributes overlap, it’s a shame we can’t all sing

I no longer believe in ‘god’s graces’, but I’ll still harmonise during our favourite hymn

You’ll poke fun that my hand’s are just like mum’s or I have dad’s composure

And I’ll poke at the fact you’re still on hinge

Seven and ten years separate us but there’s not an ounce of space left

I was the youngest and there was an external pressure to protect

I was the only boy too

When our parents said jump, they  didn’t just ask how, their eyes crossed mine, then leapt

I’ll crack a smile in the mirror because you wouldn’t fill your features with regret

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Reflections

In a task in class, I was assigned with producing a monochrome portrait on my blog from photoshop. I wasn't in for the class they had started, so I was behind, however, once informed, I had a clear idea of what I wanted to accomplish. I was working on the poem in class, therefore I had to, at first, use photoshop from my desktop.

Uploading the picture onto photoshop

I, then, took the 3 pictures I had taken of myself and my two sisters and uploaded them onto 3 separate tabs.

I used discord to help store them

Afterwards, in photoshop, I completed the main task which was switching the colours from their natural warm tone to a washed-out gradient. This was done by altering the saturation and then turning the hue down to 0.

Turning the picture monochrome

After this, I had edited out my sisters mouth by selecting the object then backspacing and replaced it with my other sisters mouth. However, after looking at the reference pictures and what I was doing, I realised the result was still far off.

My first attempts vs The reference

Failing once, I took a new angle. I decided not to take body parts but instead selected chunks of the image to edit out and plaster on top of the already-existing image rather than slotting it into a deleted space. It was at this stage that I began cutting out my cheek and nose. Then, my sister's lips and cheek. After putting these as layers on top of the image, I managed to create something closer in creation to the model,

The final product

I struggled with placing a rectangle beside my image. My intentions were to put the poem I had paired for the image within this rectangle however, I couldn't manage to get the background to switch a different colour from the text so the words would show. After this second failure Ii had realised I wasn't playing to my strengths or using the people in my corner to help me. Belbin's team roles (2010) would suggest something similar as I used my innovation in photography and writing to come up with an idea but failed to console a professor with any simple issues I was having.

I learned to rely on my teachers more, moreover, I would rely on help during my other tasks. Especially new endeavours, like using Adobe Photoshop.

Citation

Belbin, R. M. (2010). Team Roles at Work. Routledge

Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by Doing: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods. Oxford: Further Education Unit, Oxford Polytechic.