Evaluation of Negotiated Studies 1

Throughout this module, I feel as though I have been able to express myself a lot more within this module compared to any previous modules because I’ve had the freedom to do what I’ve wanted and set up the tasks in my own way. Also, I’ve been able to work at my own pace compared to having constant deadlines even though we have deadlines they are ok to work with they don’t put too much pressure on you to finish off work that you’ve got left to do.

Within this module, because I’ve had that freedom, I’ve been challenging myself to do a lot harder things within the editing process compared to what I have been doing previously, as I’ve retaught myself how to edit on photoshop (only basics), as I ditched photoshop for a while after discovering lightroom, but by restarting the process of using photoshop I found myself enjoying it a lot more than I used to.

Because before this module I probably wouldn’t have even gone anywhere near photoshop because I had lightroom, I didn’t feel as though photoshop was necessary for my needs when lightroom was so much simpler to use. But now I’ve learnt that with a bit of practice and determination you can do anything within photoshop or lightroom.

What I have also done is gone out of my depth a bit really because I feel as though I’ve matured more with my work and I’ve improved a lot within my own field and my own expertise, mainly because of practice and experience. But by doing this I feel as though my horizons can go even further within the experience I already have.

The reason why I’ve done the work I have for this module is that I want people’s opinions to change when it comes to graffiti and street art because it is one of the main types of art that I am really passionate about because of how expressive it is. So within my work, there is a lot of meaning that is within it that you don’t actually see because of how expressive the art can be, and it shouldn’t be frowned upon just because it’s on a wall where it shouldn’t be it should be appreciated for that very reason.

Artists within the industry feel as though it needs to be heard or seen so that is why they post on social media of the work they have produced in various cities or towns because they want you to see it, and that is one of the main reasons I enjoy taking the photos that I do because I also want to broadcast there work to as many people as I possibly can because it is a passion of mine taking photos of the incredible street art and graffiti that is spread all over the world and within this module, I feel as though I can express this a hell of a lot more through my work and as a whole.

 

The Skate Park Idea

The main reason I wanted to reuse this image was that I wanted to make aspects of it unique and make them my own by putting my own twist on it by adding cutouts of myself or previous models and maybe some different art pieces I’ve created to make it completely different from the original photograph.

The difference is that within the original photo there are no people there is just an empty skate park plastered in graffiti and I thought the colours were really interesting so that’s why I took photos of it. I want to make it my own by adding bodies in there by maybe changing a couple of the original pieces on the walls to ones that I’ve created myself within photoshop.

A couple of silhouettes and cutouts are ones that I have used previously in other pieces but by using them I believe that it makes the pieces unique to themselves by using them all again in a completely different environment in a completely different photograph.

These three images are just examples of the cutouts I may use within the image to add more depth into it to make it more appealing to the eye with the amount of colour that is being used within the piece.

This is the skate park photo that I will be using mainly as a background of the main piece but I am going to try and incorporate a few different bodies within this piece to make it unique and make it look like artists are spraying there.

So as you can see there is a difference from the original one as I’ve added cutouts of myself and others to make it unique it may need a bit of fine tweaking but that can be done when necessary, but I’m happy with the way the idea has turned out as it has pretty much turned out exactly how I wanted it to.

A series of masked graffiti

This series of photographs is the base of the actual manual way of taking photographs, with the graffiti and masks being used together within one photograph. I wanted to do manual shots of this idea because I thought it would make my content of photographs for negotiated studies 1 and I thought it would widen out the possibilities of where I could also go from that point.

So the photos within this small set are a few different shots from different angles of a friend of mine modelling but hiding his face so you cannot actually tell his identity from any of the photos, which is the base idea behind my work because the whole mystery behind why some artists wear masks or hide their faces or identities really intrigues me, and I thought that this idea would work really well for a photo set.

As you can see in the photos above you can see the person but you can’t see their face and you can see that they are in front of graffiti with lots of colour surrounding them to bring out the silhouette of the person with the mask on.

The process behind the image

The final image is created from two separate photos as the concept behind it was to make the outcome look like a piece of graffiti on the wall, the two images are one of myself on a black screen so I am able to cut out my body and head to make the stencil for the graffiti piece and the other is a stock image of a wall I used to grant the effect that I had done it myself in person compared to making it look photoshopped.

This image above is the original image with the base idea behind it to use it as a stencil, for a piece where I wanted to make the graffiti look realistic and hardly photoshopped by cutting my body out from the background of the image above.

This is the cutout of the image above that I wanted to get and the outcome of the cutout worked out a lot better than I expected it too and the images of this work really well with filters and the colour on the hoodie and the mask pop really well on a darkened background.

This is the stock wall image I used in the photo to make it look very realistic whilst also looking original and two different images stuck together with it looking like graffiti rather than an edited photograph.

This image above is a first attempt at editing the photo idea with using different filters, sizes, colours, saturation and more to make it look as real as I possibly could, but then messing with it, even more, I came up with a better image that I preferred compared to this one.

This is the final outcome of this idea and piece, as I found a filter that worked really well after messing with all different other filters and layers, I’m really happy with this outcome as you can see the difference from the previous image above. The main differences, I’ve cropped the floor out, added a filter to make it look more like a drawing compared to a photograph which I’m really happy.

The Ideas & Processes

The whole idea behind the photos I am going to be using for the negotiated studies 1 module, is the simplicity but secrecy behind why some graffiti and street artists wear masks or face scarfs or hoods to hide their faces.

I liked the idea of being able to create a photo set using this idea because it makes it really interesting and opens up a massive amount of options and different varieties of shots and whether you do the shots in the day or at night, so the whole reason why is very deceiving and that really interests me into what I could do with this idea.

So what I wanted to create was a set of photos that had either looked like graffiti shots of me where my body in a mask has been sprayed onto a wall or photoshopped images of me where it looks like I’m stood spraying against the wall in different locations of the photo.

But the basis of this set of photos will solely be the idea of graffiti and identity within graffiti and how artists use tags or nicknames to broadcast there work through social media and when they make a piece.

The main reason for my work is the amount of colour that I like to use a lot of colour within my work as I feel as though it brings out a lot of different expressions whilst you are looking at the photos that I have taken.

The Reason Why

So, this post is going to be based on why I take the pictures I do, and why I don’t physically do the graffiti art myself.

So the main reason I take photos of graffiti are the amount of colour intices me into the pieces I take photos of, the reason behind it, the mystery behind who has done it, where and why it has been done, the whole reason behind the pieces it really interests me.

The reason why I don’t actually do the graffiti myself, as in the area there aren’t any legal locations close to me to be able to do graffiti and I also can’t afford to travel to go to legal places for graffiti, I believe it’s not also worth the risk factor of getting arrested for vandalism, and I am also not confident in my spray skills to be able to paint.

So photography is my way of showing appreciation to the world of graffiti and how it has affected me in a way that I can be passionate about it as I have always been a fan of art and graffiti has always been the best way to see art in my opinion because rather than having to go in a gallery where every other piece is, you can see on a side of a random building anywhere and that’s what I really like about it.

Some brief Ideas

Some of the ideas I have, I wanted to try and use a lot of photoshop within my work when it comes to graffiti, in a way I wanted to place myself into the scenes that I had already taken and made it look like I was actually spraying the pieces myself.

So I already have a few pieces that are depicted a bit further back than straight at the wall like I have a few where it is based within a skate park and one within a tunnel, where every wall within them is plastered in graffiti new or old.

So what I am going to do is place myself within the scene to make it look like I was actually there spraying. I’m going to make it into a self-portrait type series in a way where I depict myself but also conceal my identity within the photos, as most graffiti or street artists hide their identity by using an alias or wearing a mask or something to hide their face.

The whole idea behind the series of photos is the fact that there will be no identity within the photos just a body, so another idea that I could try is change the opacity within the photo of the subject to make it ghost like and then it looks like someone has been there but you aren’t sure who.

Trying out Ideas

the idea I had was to make myself look like I was spraying on a wall but then proceed to get rid of my head and my hands to make it look like I was not actually there, as the idea is about concealing identity within the photograph as most graffiti artists want to hide their identity.

So I have used a lot of dodging and burning as I wanted to make it look more realistic and make it look like I haven’t photoshopped it. So, within the photo, I wanted to change the perspective more, but this is mainly just a first test of the idea and then I want to work on it more and perfect it a lot more if possible.

As you can see above, I’ve added myself, the paint cans, the shadow in the bottom right corner, and the light in the top left, and then I’ve had to dodge and blend to make it look more realistic, so I’ve made a lot of changes to add shadows to make it look like I’m actually stood there.

Ideas for Negotiated Studies 1

One of my main ideas I want to try and achieve is that I want to continue with the idea of people hiding their identity or hiding their face from other people seeing it, but now I want to pursue this is by taking a photo and then editing it so there is no face and hands at all there are just the clothes they have left on so it is like a ghost type figure in the shadows.

above is the video of a tutorial on how to do this, but I want to try and pursue this idea in my own way by using graffiti in this way as well, by having a dark background with graffiti in the back so it is still focussing on the subject of graffiti with a sort of vignette where the subject in the foreground is focussed on but you can still see the graffiti linking the ideas together.

Tate Gallery Visit

In the last week, I decided to take a trip to the Tate Gallery in Liverpool to see what was on, some of the work there was really interesting, especially Keith Haring’s work, unfortunately I didn’t have time to go to his paid exhibition upstairs, which I probably would have really enjoyed, because Keith Haring is classed as a street artist.

So these pictures above, are some of the free exhibition pieces including some of the pieces that are changed regularly within the gallery, but the long sheets were based on Keith Haring’s work made by other people.

I’ve known about Keith Haring for a long time, as I studied his work whilst I was in high school and got really interested in it because of the amount of colour and how simple his work is but also how effective it is. As his work has also been used in adverts for the change 4 life adverts, as they appeal to kids because of the amount of colour and it makes you want to carry on watching and they are all about healthy eating.

He has also done adverts for absolut vodka, swatch, and certain hotlines as his colour appeals to the eye a lot more and makes the adverts a lot more eye-catching.