What I'm doing these days

These days I find myself often being quite busy in one way or another. I had thought that once I left the crazy academic schedule of Oxford, my days would calm down a little bit. But somehow even though I am not nearly as productive as I was in Oxford, I am still busy? It's better this way though - too much time to think is never a good thing for me. I tend to be happiest when I am productive (and most frustrated if I am busy but unproductive). Of course commuting in this big city takes a chunk out of my day (1 hour down-town and 1 hour back up, minimum).

Anyway I wanted to show you a little bit of what I've been working on for the last two or so days. In my Photoshop class we were asked to make six 6x6 inch themed squares. The themes are based around 'elements of design' - for instance, lines, texture, colour etc. We are fairly free to interpret that as we would and use whatever means we can. I've done five so far and am stuck for ideas for the sixth...

This one is themed around texture. It started out life as a photograph of an parking alley linking two roads near Spadina and Adelaide in Toronto. I went to Google maps and got a very zoomed out satellite image of the city streets, and put it into the picture to give it texture. I quite like how the colours turned out too.

This one is theme around plane. It's made from a photo I took, again around the Spadina and Adelaide area. I didn't put the shoes on the hydro-pole - they were what made me stop and take the photo though. I outlined the building with black lines, got rid of the building itself, made the hydro-pole and shoes black and white, and then intensified the colour of the sky.

This one is themed around lines. Though the way it worked out in the end it could also have been a colour theme I suppose. It started out as a picture I took of buttercups on Port Meadow, Oxford. The original was wide angle and had a lot of the meadow and sky. I cropped it and made the background black and white. I intensified the colours of the one buttercup in focus, and cut the picture into strips and rearranged it. Then I did something with layer blending modes though I can't quite remember what.

(I still remember the day I took this picture. I thought we were going to row at Godstow but instead we were down at the Isis. When I realized I hauled ass down the canal and made it there a quarter of an hour late. I got a worried phone-call from Ross on the way. He called me 'Hong' - which is how I knew he was in coach-mode.)

This one is centred on the theme of dots. It's probably my least favourite. It's just the 'pointillize' filter and some kind of layer blending business. It's a picture of a strawberry in my hand from Medley Manor Farm, Oxford.

(I was staying at Walton street at the time and Richard wanted to go fruit-picking, so I cycled over to Binsey and went to the farm by myself and called him from the strawberry fields. It was a glorious day and I came home with a punnet full of strawberries. We made strawberry custard tart and strawberry ice-cream. So you see almost every photograph is a memory).

This is centred around the theme of colour. It is made from a (not very good) sketch I did of Diane Keaton, from an old photograph. In it she was wearing her signature Annie Hall look. I scanned in my pencil sketch, cleaned it up a little bit (but leaving my comments to myself) and then found an oil painting of candied-apples from which I cut out colour & shape for her lips.

So, instead of medieval literature, this is what I'm focusing on at the moment. Learning how to create digital images, but also learning how to draw etc. I will have to post some pictures of my sketches and life-drawings at some point but I am so bad at it I'm embarrassed to show you!

But hopefully I will (eventually) get better.