Student Work: Surreal Composition

Student work by Patricia Green
Commentary by Instructor Cori Ratliff

While not a huge fan of skulls and “dark” imagery, I really loved this particular piece of work by former student Patricia Green. This assignment is a surreal composition project where students take a series of images and place them into a single background scene. The goal is to make the scene look natural, with realistic lighting, shadows, and perspective. Many of the photos used in this piece were taken by Patricia herself. I thought Patricia did a really great job creating a surreal scene, and one that is highly creative. Her blending of objects and the subtle use of imagery gives this image a wonderful overall appearance. I love the reflections in the orbs, and I really liked the overall lighting and the ambience of the atmosphere. I think one of my favorite elements is how Patricia blended the skulls into the rock formations. I also enjoy the lighting on the goldfish, they really pop out to me, but they seem so real, they look like you could reach out and grab them! This was an outstanding piece of work in the Digital Imaging class. Definitely a fun assignment!

Postcard Design

Another round of postcards for Cerro Coso College. Again I presented 4 designs all created in Photoshop CS2 (since I'm waiting for my CS3 to arrive). The design selected was the one with the multiple small thumbnail images with the blue footer that says "Education, for your world." My personal favorite! It's always nice when your personal favorite is selected and you get to see it come to life. The other designs were also liked and it was said would likely be transformed and repurposed for other productions. Not surprising since nearly all of last years postcard concepts have also come to life in some form or another in a variety of different designs, from theatre advertisements to the inspiration for brochure designs. Enjoy!