Chapter 3 - Imagery- Graphic Animal

This first picture is not part of this assignment. But when I was looking for my dog pictures from a 4th of July event, I found this one. The dog and the people were all in the shade of the harbor shelter. The boats were in bright sunlight. So I did some playing around in Photoshop to try to salvage the silhouette. This process is similar to what I used to do this assignment.


If I understand this assignment right, we are to do black-and-white graphic reductions of animals. Well the text's instructions are to draw, which I'm no good at. So I'm taking photographs of animals and simplifying them. I got totally carried away with this because I was watching the Westminster Dog Show. I can't believe I spent 2 hours of my life watching dogs lap around Madison Square Garden. But it made me think about how individual all dogs are yet have the characteristics of their breed. So I searched through my dog photos and did some simplifications. I put them in photoshop and used three different filters - torn edges, cutout or stamp. After several hours of playing around with the dogs, I decided it would be better to do another animal. So I tried some swans. Here's a few of them followed by the original photographs.

This one is my favorite for this assignment, I think because swans have that long neck they are always curving. I think that's their signature feature.







Some of the dogs turned out well enough to show their personality, even though they were simplified. I couldn't reduce them as well as the swans. But I'm going to post a few anyway.

Niki is always recognized around town for his short legs and stylish rain gear.

Skipper with the sad eyes.

CD's pup, part German Shepard with the pointy ears.

This black lab always has his tongue hanging out.

As for the Critique Discussion Points from the assignment: Yes, I think my final simplified image maintains the essence of a swan. It has the graceful form and the signature pose of a swan. One thing I learned about swans is that they have a lot more color than I thought. What I found most challenging about this assignment was trying to simplify the dog photos that weren't profiles. Most of the dogs I couldn't simplify enough without them turning into big, black blobs. I like the pictures anyway, so I'm posting them.
--Ann