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Mr. Hicks' Shout Outs
(A Selection of Top Digital Art and Photography Projects with Student Explanations and Artist Statements)Mr. Hicks' Shout Outs
Emma Ujlaki
Emma Ujlaki
Digital Art and Photography 2 - Real Life Origami Project
"I started with my plain photo of the origami chair I created. The first thing that I did was change it to a more realistic, less vibrant blue color by making a selection of the chair on a mask. I added a solid color layer to that mask and selected the color blending mode to allow the shadow and highlights of the image to come through. I then used a metal textured brush to add the texture to the base of the chair. I also used a wooden texture brush on the seat and changed the color to a dark brown to have it appear to be a wooden seat. To replicate the chairs, I used the clone stamp tool which allowed me to copy one chair. I edited the perspective by using the edit option on the specific chair I wanted to adjust. To make the image more cohesive, I used the Dodge and Burn tools to add shadow and highlights. As a final touch I added the wooden floor by adjusting an image of a wooden floor to fit the perspective of my image and adding a mask with a gradient to fade the floor out. "
Jacob Mancini
Jacob Mancini
Digital Art and Photography 1 - Photo Walk Project
"In this project, we had to go out on a 'Photo Walk' and take pictures of what was around us. This picture was one of the ones I took, and I decided to edit. I learned about adding layers to the image so that I could make the colors more vibrant and make spots lighter and darker."
Katie Schultz
Katie Schultz
Digital Art and Photography 2 - Photo Walk Project
"This project had a simple concept, go on a walk and take photos. Anyone who knows me would know that this is right up my alley, this is the kind of thing I do for fun. Because this project was something I was used to I decided to use it to experiment with my editing style and even with how I took the pictures. I decided to use a closeup of these leaves to create an interesting pattern. This was also my first time attempting a lens flare and I used the white of the lens flare to break up all of that green and blue and to sharply contrast the dark shadows in the image. I also tried to step out of my comfort zone and I started to experiment with the vibrance and saturation of this image, something I had been nervous to do beforehand.
Emma Gati
Emma Gati
Digital Art and Photography 1 - Quote Project
"I made this image by setting up a spotlight and taking the picture. Them, I edited it to play on the word 'dark'. I learned lighting can have a big impact on your images."
Alexis Smerek
Alexis Smerek
Digital Art and Photography 2 - Abstract Project
"I had a lot of fun with this project because I felt free making it and I loved that we got to take pictures of whatever we wanted. I liked the fact that all my pictures were pretty simple because then when I edited them they came out really clear, clean, and not too edited. I learned how to make a really good vignette, how to adjust my levels and curves good in this project. "
Owen Wilkinson
Owen Wilkinson
Digital Art and Photography 1 - Character Design Project
"In this project, I learned to use Gravit to design my own cartoon character. I learned to utilize the line and shape tools to create my rock creature. As I went along in making the final copy of my character, I would think of something else to add to it and it was hard to stop coming up with more ideas."
Audrey Kovanitz
Audrey Kovanitz
Digital Art and Photography 2 -Geometric / WPAP Art Project
"This is a picture of my cat, I used different shapes and color to match the different values on his fur. I learned more about Adobe Illustrator and the tools it has available. I learned about the pen tool, anchor points, and different values of color. I enjoyed this project because it was different and fun."
Lexie Holland
Lexie Holland
Digital Art and Photography 2 - Double Exposure Project
"This image is a double exposure with an overlay of an image I took on a trip to Italy of colorful buildings. I made the decision to use this image because of all the bright pops of color that really adds interest to the project. I felt that because there was so much color in the overlay, I couldn’t just leave the background a plain white. Therefore, I added the pastel pink to compliment the image. From this project, I’ve gotten a better understanding of how to successfully create a double exposure image. Not only has it helped my skills in photoshop, but also helped me with my photography skills as well. I feel like I can always benefit from a project such as this one because it has helped me improve on many different aspects of the class."
Elena Franklin
Elena Franklin
Digital Art and Photography 2 - Photo Walk Project
"During my Photo walk, I attempted using different compositions for each image, including framing, rule of thirds, leading lines, and contrast of color. One of my favorite compositions is framing, so, it is used in multiple of my images, for example, the leaf. As I was walking through the park I saw that the sun was hitting one leaf. This was a great opportunity for me to use framing because my focal point, the leaf with lighting cast on it, was surrounded by the other leaves in the tree. My favorite image is the web, this is because I love how the natural lighting turned out in this image, and the contrast of the color you can see. One of the leaves caught on the web is a burnt orange color surrounded by greens which draws the eye right towards the leaf, which was my intended focal point.
Ryan Bentkowski
Ryan Bentkowski
"There was a lot of thinking about when making this picture and there was a lot I learned from making this photo. When I was taking the photo I made the dog the main subject so I put him off to the side and dropped the fishing pole into the background to add a little bit more there instead of just a tree. There were a lot of things I learned to make a good photo like you don’t always need the object in the middle of the photo but you will need to try and find ways of adding things into the background to make it complete."
Mackenzie Hershbine
Mackenzie Hershbine
Digital Art and Photography 1 - Abstract Animated Portrait Project
"This piece was created by taking a picture, cropping out the background, gray scaling the figures, and adding bright colors with digital brushes and assets. This project taught me how crop out a background and make an appealing color."
Student Vote Awards!
Student Vote Awards!
Students throughout the six Digital Art and Photo classes this semester each submitted a few of their favorite images. These students then vote on their favorite images. The following projects were recognized by their peers as the best projects of the semester.
Alexis Smerek
Peer Vote - 1st Place!Alexis Smerek
"The first decision I had to make when creating this image was what kind of background I wanted! I choose clouds because butterflies are usually flying around outside and the clouds also gave the image a sense of happiness and brightness. After choosing the background I had to make it fit into my image well so I used about a brush with 30 percent opacity to blend the small stuff and then I set it to 70 percent to really blend my background well. I then found a butterfly image online that faced the same way as my origami butterfly to make my texture match. I placed the texture onto my origami butterfly and turned down the opacity to blend the texture into the origami. Then I turned the opacity back up to about 65% to make the butterfly pop just enough."
Ava Flood
Peer Vote - 2nd Place!Ava Flood
"I made this image by rearranging my props several times until I found the one that best fit together. I learned that with every image you can place and explore arrangements to make it look better each time you change it."
Addison Sponseller
Peer Vote - 3rd Place!Addison Sponseller
"I was on my way home from a cross country meet and we had to get some flowers for our house. I thought this would be a good place to do my photo walk so I started at the front of the place and walked around for a little. It was fall time so there were a lot of pumpkins around the place so I took a couple of photos. In the middle of the place there was a small building where you would cash out. On a shelf was a bunch of glass balls with plants inside them and lights around them. I wanted to get a picture of it. Taking photos of this really made me learn how to get the right amount of light and make it look good without any weird reflections."
Student Vote - Honorable Mentions
Student Vote - Honorable Mentions
Hailey Raitz
Hailey Raitz
"For this project I really focused on getting a close, accurate cut-out so the background was able to have a clean look. I also changed each layer to a different monochromatic scheme for color pop. I learned how to create layers with color and turn it into a gif."
Andrew Schuller
Andrew Schuller
"My Double Exposure Project was probably the most fun and interesting project to do. Taking the pictures and setting up the layouts were very intricate. The idea for the project was to have my face not be there and really capture the blue sky and trees from the background. I really like how this turned out and it was very fun."
Alex Mann
Alex Mann
"This one was a rollercoaster, honestly. I never knew about the warping tool until this project, and that tool is what allows the little origami dragon to be the fierce scaly beast he is in the image. This project also helped me learn more about the masking tools, and just about go wild with my options on how to make it look the best that it can."
Sarah Silvestro
Sarah Silvestro
"For this project, I cut the background out from my model, creating a white background. Next, I created my color scheme for the photo. Finally, using this color scheme, I created a drip like effect, creating different layers to make the photo move."
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