Anti-Steroid Campaign

Steroid use and abuse is a huge problem in all levels of athletics today. Physical risks include liver tumors and cancer, jaundice, high blood pressure and increases in cholesterol levels, kidney tumors, fluid retention, and severe acne. Emotional problems associated with steroid use include dramatic mood swings, depression, paranoid jealousy, extreme irritability, delusions, and impaired judgment. The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that estimates people that are 18 and older who abuse steroids is hundreds of thousands every year. Not only do professional and collegiate level athletes get caught using steroids, but younger people as well. About 5% of all high school athletes have tried steroids in their high school career.

Andy Warhol Facts/Photoshop Edits

 

 Facts about the legend himself...

Andy Warhol

·         Real name is Andrew Warhola (8/6/28-2/22/87) (Became Warhol after a misprint)

o   Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Parents from Czechoslovakia (does not exist anymore)

o   Father worked in a coal mine

·         In High School, kicked out of art club because he was “too good”

·         Graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (Bachelor of Fine Arts)

·         Graduated with degree for pictorial design & wanted to become a commercial illustrator

·         Designed advertisements for women’s shoes

·         Used Polaroid camera

·         Fear of hospitals and doctors, hypochondriac

·         Favorite print making technique was silk screening

·         Friends & family described him as a workaholic

·         His sexuality was speculated upon and how this influenced his relationship to art is “a major subject of scholarship on the artist”

·         First solo expedition in 1952

·         Coined the term “15 minutes of fame”

·         1960s: iconic American products (pop art)

·         Created The Factory, his NYC studio from 1962-1968

·         Celebrity portraits developed into one of the most important aspects of his career

·         Made films (first one called Sleep – 6 hours of a man sleeping) (1963)

·         1965 said he was retiring from painting

o   1972 returned to painting

·         Designed cover for the Rolling Stones’ album Sticky Fingers (cover made out of real jean material)

·         Produced Velvet Underground’s first album

·         Started a magazine called Interview, worked for Glamour Magazine, Vogue

·         Shot by Valerie Solanas 3 times for being abusive and “too controlling” (6/3/68)

o   Solanas authored the S.C.U.M. Manifesto, a separatist feminist document

o   "Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there – I always suspected that I was watching TV instead of living life. People sometimes say that the way things happen in movies is unreal, but actually it's the way things happen in life that's unreal. The movies make emotions look so strong and real, whereas when things really do happen to you, it's like watching television – you don't feel anything. Right when I was being shot and ever since, I knew that I was watching television. The channels switch, but it's all television."

·         Marilyn Monroe = favorite model (not painted until after death)

·         Wore silver wigs until he dyed his hair silver

·         Practicing Ruthenian Rite Catholic who described himself as a religious person

·         Died of a heart attack brought on by a gall bladder surgery and water intoxication

·         $100,000,000 for one of his paintings (highest amount paid) (“Eight Elvises”)

·         Referred to as the “Prince of Pop”

Photoshoped Image

For this assignment, we simply had to use some of the Photoshop techniques we have learned to alter any photo of our choosing. I went through several different shots and ideas while looking through some photos. I tried editing some shots I had taken from out previous animal assignment, but felt that these photos were getting boring and I wanted something different and new. I finally decided to use a picture of my friend Alicia Mussman from our formal this past winter. In this shot, she is looking down and smiling a little. I like this shot because I liked the original lighting and I think she looks really pretty.

I used a few different tools when altering this shot. I first used the magnetic lasso tool to cut Alicia out of the photo. Then I made the background black and white, while still keeping Alicia is color. I used a “crystallize” filter on the background which gave it a blurred looked. When I put Alicia back into the shot I liked the way the black and white blurred background put much more focus on the subject of the photo and also made the photo pop. After that I clicked on the separate layer that just had the cropped image of Alicia and I upped the saturation and darkened  her a bit. In the original shot the lighting was fine but after I made the background black and white, it seemed much darker which made Alicia seem unusually light. I also added a filter on that same layer. I tried a bunch of different filters, but I didn’t really like the effect they were giving to the shot. After a little while, I chose the “smudge stick” filter. I liked how this filter made the photo less look like an actual photo, but more like a painting.

I liked the opportunity to just play around with some of the things we have learned in Photoshop and alter some pictures. I am finally getting comfortable with the different aspects of Photoshop and the different tools it offers. 

Little Toy Assignment...

Blended Photoshop Image

Copy/Paste Photoshop Image

Landscape