Jack Wilken "The Throne"

10"x8", Adobe Photoshop, 2020

My idea was to try and blend myself into a cool scene or something that expresses me. I started with putting myself into a classic old-timey photo but I couldn't find the right picture to put myself in. Instead, I put myself on a throne holding a Magic card. I got all photos from Unsplash.com, and I used photoshop to edit the photos. After using it a lot I got familiar with the select and mask tool and also the healing brush tool was a big tool for this project as I was always needing to clean up an area. The burn and dodge tool was used for a lot of the darkening and lighting effects. I put myself on the throne with a crown and am holding a magic card. The way I meant to interpret this piece was that the card I'm holding is hinting to the viewer that I'm 'King Magic Player'. Another way this can be interoperated is that it's a self-absorbed egotistical project. This wasn't my goal, instead, I'm expressing my opinion on Magic cards. The most difficult thing was making it look more realistic. It took a lot of time to make the chair blend behind me and making it look plausible. If I could change anything, I'd add more to hint at the card theme. I feel as though this project might give off the wrong message and I'd change that if I could redo it. This art is realistic with a little splash of fantasy. It's not too serious of an idea but I like the simplicity and message of this artwork.

Jack Wilken "Me"

10"x8", Adobe Photoshop, 2021

My idea was to make a silhouette of a person and then incorporate pieces of my interests and life inside of the silhouette. I wanted to express my hobbies and interests in a simple yet effective way. It started with a photo of myself and a shadow and I would edit all the photos into the shadow but it didn't look as plausible as I had wanted so I switched to a silhouette photo. I used photos from Unsplash.com and edited them On photoshop. I used a lot of the select and mask tool. I would cut certain parts of the photo and use certain sections of each. I changed the opacities of all the layers to make them blend and fit together real nice. I boosted the contrast on all the layers which gave it a cool almost retro style. Each layer holds a certain theme or interest in my life. The headphones represent my love for music, the books express my desire to read, and the forest shows my love of nature. Up top, a man kicks a punching bag showing my appreciation for mixed martial arts, a medieval castle shows my interest in fantasy-related games and art, and a set of cards and dice express my love of both card and dice games. The hardest thing was to accurately cut out the sections and make good blending points between them. It took some effort with the select and mask tool but by the end, it became pretty simple. Changing the brightness, contrast, and opacity helped with that a lot as well. If I could change anything, I'd change a few of the sections like the headphones one, and the books. They do express me, but almost everybody loves music and reading is also a little cliche, so I'd choose different and more defining photos. It's an expressive art piece. The one real goal was to express me and my interests. I love the look of the actual photo. I was pleasantly surprised how nice it was to look at when it was said and done