This assignment was completed mostly during my class time. For me at least, it marks a true progression in terms of my overall understanding of Photoshop. I felt with my first assignment, I was sort of just playing around with different tools until I did something that looked cool, but for this one, it was way more purpose driven. Using tools such as the hand tool and zoom tool to ensure that the blades of grass legitimately appeared as blades of grass was very satisfying. The two aspects of this assignment that really stood out to me were the facts that I myself had to create both the foreground and background. Combining a stock blue background with an actual sky and blending the two do the point where it appeared as an actual sky was really fascinating to me. I also really enjoyed combining the marsh grass with the sand. It was cool to see how much potential these programs really have!

For my Netflix poster design, I started off my looking at the art from the .PSD file. After making the background transparent using the “Lasso Tool” , I had to take my time and carefully scale the art being used. I figured it would be in my best interest to make the background something that is on the darker side. This is to ensure that the objects in the poster such as the spaceman and earth really pop. To match the space theme, I thought it would be best to make the background something of a galaxy like sky. In order to do so, I really felt myself utilizing the “Magic Wand Tool”, as well as messing with the layers in the “Layer Panels”. I also used the “Zoom Tool” quite a bit as it was important to ensure that the images were completely rid of their previous background in order for the poster to look at its best.

Layer masking is an essential part of being able to make different designs in Photoshop. I found that this adds to the quality of my work tenfold, and my projects have been significantly better since I learned how to do so. Being able to navigate my way through the different panels and learning how to seamlessly edit backgrounds in a way that doesn’t look rushed or unfinished was a really satisfying experience for me. For the birthday card, I used a photo from Granite Links, a local golf course close to my house that I used to work at. They hold a lot of parties and events so I figured it just made sense. For the Maine Coast line, I wanted to be able to match the sky and the water so they have the same glare. I had worked with galaxy’s before, so this was rather easy for me. Finally, the surfing photo was really fun to create as I decided to blend three different type of water wave textures and 2 different sunset skies as my layers. This on top of the surf/island typography made this one of my favorite assignments yet as I was able to incorporate a lot of my personality into the piece.

The Boston Bruins are hands down my favorite sports team. Charlie McAvoy is a defensemen on the Bruins who I have been following for a while as he played for Boston University, one of my favorite college hockey teams. In short, making a poster about Charlie McAvoy just made sense. To start, the color pallette that I decided to work with directly stems from inspiration from the Bruins Instagram page. I used the droplet tool to exacly match the colors they use in order for the most authentic outcome possible. The layers in my poster consist of several differet photos of McAvoy, all edited to display only their black, yellow and white colors. My favorite part about this whole piece is the Boston city skyline part that was honestly a rather late addition to my poster. It felt really well balanced in every aspect besides the bottom third, so the city skyline really helps tie the whole poster together. It also recognizes both theBruins home city, as well as Charlie's roots to Boston.

Pinterest Research:

https://www.pinterest.com/cassiusclayrae/hockey/