Digital Photography and Imaging

2023.11.23 / Week 9

Velicia Raquel Dewi Setiawan / 0369188 / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media

JUMPLINK:

LECTURE

Week 9 - F2F Class (Nov 23, 2023)

DIGITAL SURREALISM

1. REALISM VERSUS SURREALISM

Realism: Takes subject matters of the ordinary and common world which we call "reality." It almost always takes a non-exotic and non-extraordinary subject matter and theme. There is no need to think outside of the box, as that is not "real."

Fig 1.1 "Daily Bread" (2008) by Jim Gola, Week 9(Nov 23, 2023).

Surrealism: A twist on Realism. It explores the subconscious mind, with subject matters concentrating on dream images, and often aims to distort the ordinary and what we call reality.

Fig 1.2 Surrealism by Gennady Privedentsev, Week 9(Nov 23, 2023).

Surrealism defies logic. Dreams and the workings of the subconscious mind inspire surrealistic art (French for "super-realism") filled with strange images and bizarre juxtapositions. Fueled by the teachings of Freud and the rebellious work of Dada artists, surrealists like Salvador Dalí promoted free association and dream imagery.

Fig 1.3 Surrealism by Salvador Dalí, Week 9(Nov 23, 2023).

Dadaism is an anti-war art movement with artworks that are satirical and nonsensical in nature.

Fig 1.4 Surrealism, Week 9(Nov 23, 2023).

Salvador Dalí was a Spanish Surrealist painter and printmaker known for exploring subconscious imagery.

Fig 1.5 Surrealism by Salvador Dalí, Week 9(Nov 23, 2023).

2. WHAT IS DIGITAL SURREALISM?

Surrealism is a cultural movement focused on the type of art to express the artist's ideas themselves. In this digital era surrealism is one of the top digital art styles. How to start creating Surrealism artworks?

Fig 2.1 "Parade of the Dreamers," (2009)by Jeff Huang, Week 9(Nov 23, 2023).

Dream-like scenes and symbolic images
Unexpected, illogical juxtapositions
Bizarre assemblages of ordinary objects
Primitive or child-like designs

1. Capturing your Dream

1. Sketch It Out

Take a piece of paper and a pen/pencil or a tablet and start to sketch. Draw your vision out roughly. Don't finesse any details yet, but just lay out key points of your vision.

Fig 2.1.2 Sketch, Week 9(Nov 23, 2023).

2. Find Reference Images

Gathering reference images will help you greatly in realizing your new idea. Gather images that directly relate to what you have in mind. If you're looking to create a certain style of art, gather certain pieces by the artist you like.

2. Mindset During Creation

1. "Does this look real?"

Surrealism is at its best when it's convincing enough that it could be real, however, we obviously know that the subject matter you are creating is nonexistent, and thus is not real.

Fig 2.2.1 "Meditative Rose," by Salvador Dali, Week 9(Nov 23, 2023).

2. Make it happen to the best of your ability.

When you try to approach something challenging, you will learn the skills you may need for next time to make it work. The worst thing you can do is be afraid and back off from your idea because you would never learn that way.

Tips

Keep a sketchbook: This allows you to quickly capture ideas that you may have come up with suddenly.
Patience: Take your time, no one is rushing you!
Buy books and observe: In this case, Surrealism, is to buy books of artists whom you are interested in.
Zoom out: it's important to zoom out to see the piece as a whole to see how convincing it looks. A lot of times artists focus so much on one area that they fail to notice that it looks off in conjunction with the piece as a whole.
Experiment: Play with Photoshop, and go crazy, You'd be surprised how much you could learn by yourself if you just jump in and play around!

EXAMPLE:

REFERENCE:

We got a task to make a "surreal" product of our own, we made a couple sketches of the product with stuff that we have and 2 sketches will be approved by Mr. Fauzi and we will bring the component with us next week for a studio photoshoot.

TUTORIAL & PRACTICAL

1. RESEARCH
1.1 Reference mood board

Fig 1.1.1 Moodboard, Week 9(Nov 23, 2023).

Fig 1.1.2 Moodboard, Week 9(Nov 23, 2023).

Fig 1.1.3 Moodboard, Week 9(Nov 23, 2023).

1.2 Write a summary of your idea

We were given a task to combine 2 similar shapes things, but I wanted to have things that have vastly different functions and see how would work together. These are the 2 ideas that were approved by Mr Fauzi.

#1: Juice Box and Laptop Charger - I want a Charger with the power of juice like strawberries, blueberries, chocolate, and grains. I thought that would be cool, maybe a translucent cable with the color of the flavor of the juice.

#2: Hand Sanitizer and Canned Beans - The combination will be weird but instead of the hand sanitizer smelling like beans, I thought that instead of opening a can of beans to eat it, you can pump it instead!

Scrapped Ideas:

#1 Pencil and Carrots - Having a pencil that you can snack on is nice!

#2 Tomato and Ringing Clock - Inspired by the Pomodoro tomato clock, I just thought that it was a good design.

1.3 Sketches
Fig 1.3.1 Sketches, Week 9(Nov 23, 2023).

Fig 1.3.2 Sketches, Week 9(Nov 23, 2023).

Fig 1.3.3 Sketches, Week 9(Nov 23, 2023).

2. MOCKUP
2.1 Photoshoot

We were taken by Mr Fauzi to a studio with professional light photographers use and he taught us how to use it. How to reduce the lights and use reflective surfaces to counter the shadows. Also to warn us to be careful handling the lights as it's very very hot (I learned it the hard way aha).

Fig 2.1.1 Photoshoot Place, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.1.2 Photoshoot Place, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.1.3 Photoshooting, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.1.4 Photoshooting, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

When I photoshooted the stuff, I brought the lights were way too harsh, even with the reflecting surfaces, creating uneven lighting across the objects. Some details even got obscured because of it. So I just decided to go to a well-lit room and attempted to photoshoot there, the results were way better and Mr. Fauzi agreed I should use the later results.

Fig 2.1.5 Photoshoot Results, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.1.6 Photoshoot Results, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.1.7 Photoshoot Results, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.1.8 Photoshoot Results, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.1.9 Photoshoot Results, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.1.10 Photoshoot Results, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

2.2 Editing

In Photoshop I removed the background of the objects, it's a bit hard with the hand sanitizer as it is an object with prominent white colors with a white background. I simply erased half of the hand sanitizer and put in the canned beans.

Fig 2.2.1 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.2 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.3 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.4 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.5 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

I used adjustment layers to blend the objects, such as curves, saturation, hue, and vibrancy.

Fig 2.2.6 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.7 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.8 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.9 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.10 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Then it's just a matter of adding a background and shadows with Gaussian blur.

Fig 2.2.11 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.12 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.13 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Since the hand sanitizer is translucent I thought to add blobs of background colors to it, blur it, and then lower the opacity.

Fig 2.2.14 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.15 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

I basically did the same thing with the V-Soy Charger, a couple of notable things doing it, the cable has a lot of tiny crevices that hard to get. Then the charger turns out to be smaller than the V-Soy, so I tweaked it a bit with transform so it's the same size. Also adding shadows to this is harder than the Hand sanitizer and canned beans as some of the cables are "floating" above the surface, thank god I have the photo as a reference.

Fig 2.2.16 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.17 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.18 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.19 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.20 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.21 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.22 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.23 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.24 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.25 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.26 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Fig 2.2.27 Progress, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

2.3 Final Results

Fig 2.3.1 Final Results, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

Originally I combined these two things (canned beans and hand sanitizer) purely because of their similar shapes. I did not think about their purpose together, hand sanitizer with the consistency and smell of beans would be weird.

So their purpose now is instead of opening the can to eat the beans you can pump it out! Of course, the hole of the pump would be bigger, we don't want the beans to be mush now would we.

Fig 2.3.2 Final Results, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

I thought that a charger powered by juice was pretty cool. Imagine the kinds of juice that can be used for this, maybe each flavor can mean a different thing.

Chocolate-powered can mean it charges faster, strawberry-powered can mean the charger will last longer, grains powered can mean the charger can charge different kinds of electronics. Maybe added sugar can mean that the charger is more advanced than another basic juice box.

3 FINAL ARTWORK

In the end, Mr Faizu chose the V-soy Charger as the final artwork

Fig 3.1 Final Artwork, Week 9(Nov 30, 2023).

FEEDBACK

On individual weekly post

REFLECTION
1 Experience

2 Observations

3 Findings

FURTHER READING