Final Piece

Above is my final piece. As you can see, the frame has been quite successful, regarding the colour I chose, at bringing out the image within the centre. If you look at the top of the frame the direction of my brush strokes almost look like a corner joined wooden frame. However, as you get towards the bottom of my frame, the brush strokes taper in the direction of the melting droplets. 

The image I have worked on, I think has worked very well and really develops on from my previous work in this project. The composition of the piece really helps the viewer to focus directly upon the peculiar subject, however also the viewer can be drawn back from this into the photograph to the hints of surrealism and distortion within the background of the house. This is furthermore assisted by the use of the aperture tool, something which helps when focusing on one person in a portrait style image, and developed further by my use of the Gaussian blur of the background area.

The portrayal of the theme innocence is quite clear because the figure of the elderly lady and her own part in this brings you closer, but at the same time is distorted and manipulated - giving off quite an eerie sense around the piece. This is only then supported by the frame. This idea resonates through the piece, altogether bought out with the inner rim of black which I think is quite striking too.

I think all my work has been leading to a final piece like this because (as with the idea of surrealism) I have been experimenting throughout. This led me to the idea of combining the clocks with the subject's eyes; the combinations idea I thought of within my initial ideas.

My piece is primarily inspired by the work of Dali, however does take reference from the works of Huet which I have looked into. The characteristics of the subject is something I worked on from the pieces I discovered by David Chan, creating bold characteristics through hybrid creatures, but these were characteristics that people are familiar with; bold characteristics being something I wanted to portray in this final image. All these influences (and that of surrealist media such as films and other visual medium) have helped me to create an image which I have intended to give across the message that not everything is exactly as it seems. I think I have achieved this altogether very well.

Final Shoot: The Distortion Of Reality

For my final shoot, I wanted to take my idea of toys further, but developing the idea of living toys. I came up with the idea of a person who isn't really a person. The way in which I achieved this was by taking the idea of Dali's work with the clock motif and using this as a part of the subject I would choose. My subject idea developed from inspiration that came from recent media, through the films 'Coraline' and Disney's 'Alice in Wonderland'. Both films (and their original respective books) are example of surrealist media. They capture an audience and take you on a journey that distorts reality; the main idea I wanted to portray through my final shoot.

The Red Queen, Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland, 2009.

Other Mother, Coraline, 2009.

I started off by choosing my subject. I chose to take photos of my grandmother because I think grandparents represent innocence and innocence is something I want to manipulate within my final images. I took a selection of portrait shots of her, which can be seen in the slideshow above. I asked her to remove her glasses for these shots because I was to focus on and edit her eyes for my final shots.


The expression I wanted to show is that of a smile, because this can be seen as sinister depending on the surroundings. Because I had a variety of images to choose from and work on, I had the idea that it was best to combine two photos to create a more eerie result. 

To begin with, I chose the best photo I had of my grandmother's face to work from and add the surreal clock eyes. That was the image to the left. I wanted this final image to be heavily manipulated in order to separate it from reality, because the idea of surrealism as I have learnt from research is the distortion of reality.


Therefore I carefully used the clone tool to enlarge her eye area in order to fit the clock eyes, seen below.


I then took away the two clocks from the shots I had taken in the second part of my shoot, in the slideshow above.


I used the eraser, feather, brightness and contrast tools to seamlessly fit the eyes into the photo. Also, I made one eye socket larger than the other to spread this idea of distortion. Although the eyes don't look natural, they were never going to look 100% natural because that is the idea of this theme.


Once I had finished placing the eyes in the photo, I then had to decide on the photo I would use as the main body of my subject. I wanted to make the body parts out of proportion, so my next decision was to make the head larger than the body. This decision came from looking over the photos Huet has created. His images seem to lie heavily on distortion of body parts and I think this is a good idea.

I chose the background photo because I feel it was the image with the best aperture. The aperture, again was something that I wanted to adjust further. This was achieved by taking a lasso selection of my grandmother in the foreground and copying it on to a new layer. I then used the blur tool to adjust the background and adjust the depth of field of the entire image.

I then pasted the selected head into the main photo, scaled it to the size I wanted, and used the eraser and feather tools again to incorporate the head into the new photo. I also fiddled with the light levels of the head so it fit into the full image. Because my photo was to be inspired by Dali and also other aspects of surrealism I've touched on, I thought that the background should also have aspects manipulated.


I used the layers to add a clock faintly to the outside window so it looks as though it is creeping in from behind the curtains. This was taken from the same clock as I photographed for the eyes, but at a different time (below).

I looked again at the work of Dali and decided that, much like the clocks his infamous painting, distortion of objects is key. I took the back of the chair, selected carefully around the object and scaled it to a larger size. I then used more of the tools to make it seem seamless which is the key to my piece. I need to make each part of the image work with the rest.

I wanted to develop this distortion idea further by choosing another background aspect. However, from what I had already taken, I didn't have anything else to manipulate in the background. So I decided to take a further few photos of flowers for the back of the room. These were taken against a similar light backdrop in order for removing it from one picture to another to be easier. 

I then roughly selected and copied the flowers from the photo and cleared any areas that had the previous background using the magic wand tool. I then used the distortion tool known as 'IWarp' to liquify the leaves so they droop in the Dali style, just like the clocks. To fit these flowers into the back I then had to use the Gaussian blur tool to set the depth of field the same. Finally I moved the flowers to the area in the photo that I thought they would look best. 

I made sure that the flowers were on the level behind the chair so they didn't look out of place. I increased the size of the flowers because the manipulation of the flowers was what I wanted them for in the first place. The final thing to do was to adjust the colour levels of the image because I felt like it wasn't as vibrant as it needed to be to fit perfectly into this theme. This was done simply by increasing the temperature of the photo when the whole image was flattened to one layer.

My final image

I think my final image is really effective in meeting the brief of surrealism. The particular message I wanted to show through this image was that not everything is exactly as it seems. The friendly face of a grandmother can be deceptive because of the childhood innocence and the familiarity given off by the stereotype, and the surrounding area of the house. However, my final image gives an eerie twist to that. 

Presenting my final image

To present my final image I needed to think of something quite different from the norm to reflect this surreal theme. I wanted to play on the idea of distortion which is what the original brief expresses and to frame the image quite boldly in a way that would make it quite striking, but at the same time I was in a school environment so the ability to do a lot of things is quite limited. I really wanted to print my photograph on to proper photographic paper for my final image and the only size available to us was A4. Therefore I worked on basing my frame at that size. 

Because of my other A-Level options, I have gained the skills to use a program called 2D Design. This is something that I decided to utilise during this presentation section. 2D Design allows the user to design and cut out various materials on the lase cutter that we have in school. I decided to use this to create a frame inspired further by the work of Dali, incorporating the final image and the frame into this style which gives it a unique feel. A key idea that Dali works with, that I have already developed within my final image is that of melting objects like the infamous clocks. 

I decided this would be something I would work into the presentation because I have the ability to do so. Below, you can see a screen grab of my frame I have designed within 2D Design. I set out to cut out this frame in mount board, with the below image being the front, and then a second frame identical but without the cut out section being the back. 

I sent the frames to the laser cutter in the DT area, and progressed to cut the two pieces out. To the left you can see the cut out black mount board front of my frame. Because I had two pieces, I really liked the thickness of the frame and it felt very professional, however I thought the black colour was a bit humdrum and needed something else to encompass this surreal theme. I then looked to the work of Dali and the colours of the clock frames. They were gold so I came up with the idea of painting my frame a gold colour. To make the frame look more traditional, I decided to sponge on the paint in a gold rub sort of effect, seen below.

Because the colour of the frame was lighter, I felt that the image within the frame sort of sunk into itself and didn't really show up as striking as I had hoped. This was solved by using a simple black card rim around the image itself within the frame; an inner frame (left, without gold frame). This still wasn't quite how I wanted my final image completely because I felt that the frame was too much of a block colour yellow instead of gold, so I decided that adding detail to the frame with my brush strokes in a darker colour would make it furthermore striking and bold, drawing the viewer in. Therefore I went over the sponged detailing in the original gold with a bronzer gold that I mixed, following the flow of the melted areas with my brush to show the purpose of the melting (below)

Once I had stuck the parts of my frame together in the way in which I have spoken through, I then had my final piece, mounted for presentation.

Living Bear

After a think, I came up with the idea of using toys again, as I have done in my Uelsmann inspired photos from after my research. My idea however would not involve any editing in software because I hope to portray my idea with the movements and positioning of the subjects.

My idea is that of toys coming alive, and in particularly the teddy bear I have decided to focus on. Instead of one final image, I have decided that the images I take will be creating a sequence of images showing the progression of the toy itself. 

The photos shown below are all the photos I took to experiment with my idea. They show the progression of the bear from the stool to closer to the camera. These work in a way that almost works like an animation. 

I like the idea of the moving toys when people aren't looking and the final images can be seen far below.

The images below are the chosen ones that I think show this sequence very well.  It shows the bear climbing down from the stool toward the camera. I don't necessarily think that the images are strong enough for a final shoot, however I think for a development idea it works quite well. 

I looked back at the photos I had taken and decided that as much as I like it, I didn't think it met with the idea of combinations that I had come up with at the beginning of this unit. Therefore, whilst looking through these photos, I came across another idea to combine the teddy with human features. So I carefully took a photo of my own eyes in order to try it out. 

Using GIMP I placed the image of me behind the bear's face and adjusted in accordingly to line them up. 

I then erased the areas where the eyes show through on the bear's face. I then darkened the edges of the bear's eye area so that they fit in better. I think this is a simple idea that is quite effective at meeting the specification from the question. I also think that the idea is quite eerie too which I think is quite a large part of surrealism. 

It has also given me an idea for my final images. I have decided that I want to portray an eerie image, combining most of the things I have looked at and researched so far.

Egg Juggling

For my next idea, I thought I would try something away from what I had already tried, and decided to still continue this hybrid theme, but instead of animals, try food. My initial idea was to add faces to eggs, but then I thought to develop this into something a bit more surreal than just a box of eggs. I decided that I could have someone juggling eggs, and these eggs could have their own personalities.

The photos in the presentation below are a few of the initial shots I took of my juggler subject. I decided to make the focus of the photo the biggest egg, and the one closest to the camera. These were obviously going to be added in afterwards, but that meant that the background would be slightly less focused than the foreground, using depth of field.

As you can see the photos vary in levels of focus, so I could experiment with this in the editing and manipulating process. The final background photo I decided to use was the final photo in the slideshow. So my next step was to take the photos of the eggs and the faces I wanted on the eggs. 

The message I wanted to show was about juggling with your personal problems, or just generally juggling with life. This is further shown through the idea of eggs, because you have to be very careful with them as they are fragile. Therefore I used the same subject for the faces as I did the eggs because I felt that this would further this idea that it's your own problems. 

The egg photos were taken against a white background which meant it was very easy to remove them from that when adding them to the main photo. I carefully selected these, copying them over into the main image, and placed them where I wanted them in the image. I had already had one egg in the subjects right hand, so (going with the standard three ball idea) I just needed the two more. My next thought before adding the faces was that these eggs wouldn't be stationery, therefore needed to be in motion. I then took advantage of the motion blur tool. The egg closer to the background I made quite blurred because I thought this one would be heavily in motion whilst the one closer to the camera needed to be the focus, and therefore almost in  focus. 

I wanted the faces to be a mixture of fear/fright at being thrown almost carelessly into the air and also excitement, but still sort of comical. The photos above are of the faces I took. I only needed two, but I wanted to try a variety of them out before deciding on which to put into the photo. The capture to the left is how I removed the faces before placing them in the final image. I then used the various tools to adjust and fit them in accordingly. I used the eraser, clone tools, and the gradient tools to fit them in well. To highlight areas I also used the Dodge/Burn tool too.

The final image can be seen below and I think it worked very well to portray the message I had the idea of showing. And, was effective in showing a wide range of tools used in the editing process, composing the picture very well.

Dalí-inspired surrealism

Clock face, to liquify

For my next experiment, I thought I would make more use of the shots from my second shoot to create another image based on the work that Dalí has produced. I have taken the idea of body parts and the face almost melting, as well as the melting clocks which are an infamous element of Dalí's work. I have used a photo editing software called "GIMP" to adjust and manipulate the various images I have used on different layers. The face is a combination of the original picture and then another image I used for the previous cow/man hybrid, to the left. 

Photo I used to combine and take facial
features

I took the left eye and smile from the first image and fitted it carefully into to the second which worked very well, adjusting the light and shadow levels accordingly in order to submerge the features seamlessly. The ear on the right was enlarged and lowered slightly to deform the entire face in this Dalí sort of style. An important part, and an icon of Dalí's works is the melting clocks that feature in a few of his paintings. I decided to include these within the background, hanging on the bush and the washing line, as well as replacing the sky.

The tool I used is the equivalent of "Liquify" on PhotoShop, and is called "IWarp". It was the same tool I used in adjusting the head of my subject to a slightly elongated version, similar to that of Dalí's sleeping body resting on the sticks. 

I made sure that when adding anything into the background, I adjusted its focal level so they don't look out of place. I think my final image expresses surrealisms need to thwart and forget reality, as well as developing and replicating Dalí's outstanding pieces to the best of my ability. 

Final image

My next idea is working with food. I shall be creating egg-human hybrids which, as peculiar and far fetched as it sounds, should work well in portraying the message I will be showing. 

Cow/Man

 My next idea was to work with the animals closer to myself, which live on the farm I live on. My obvious choice to utilise was the cows since we have a large dairy herd. As I have already said, the idea of having animals as a subject is uncontrollable and unreliable when taking still photographs. Therefore I must take the animal shots first and work from there in order to incorporate the other body around this.

So next I took several images of the cows on the farm in the daylight in the hope that I may find some good shots from these, capturing interesting expressions I could mould the secondary subject around in a form where they are not necessarily motionless or posing for a conventional portrait. To the left are some of the photos I managed to capture.

The photos aren't the best examples of expression, however cows are notoriously timid and shy when up close, regardless of whether you have a camera. My favourite, and most expressive quite by chance the image above. It shows the cow to the left looking almost like it is pulling a funny childish tongue-in-cheek face. 

I decided I'd most like to adapt this one and decided that the second subject must be encorporated with the idea of this face, so I tried out a few different images with the subject's hands up continuing this expression. These can be seen below. 

The face of the cow I had chosen above I felt was very good, however I didn't think it was quite surreal enough to just combine the two in trying to portray a distinct expression. Therefore I used more of my gained PhotoShop skills to adapt this into a more cartoony, over exaggerated face. As you can see from the screen capture below, I carefully selected areas of the face such as the tongue and eyes and transformed them to a larger size, as well as adjusting various levels of colour shadow on certain parts of the head. Something else I did to ensure the cows head would fit in to the environment I had chosen was to remove the tag from the cows ear. I did this in a similar way to how I enlarged the ear. This was to select it, copy it, and to flip it over so that it covered the other ear, enlarging where necessary. Various areas of blemishes and farm dirt were also removed simply, using the clone tool. Next, I carefully cut around the head, using a light feathered edge so that it was not too sharp. Then I copied the head into the PSD containing the second subject. 

The most important part of combining these photos was to match the light levels as best I can within both the chosen photos. This was achieved using various PhotoShop tools, such as the levels tool, and the brightness/contrast tools. These helped to set the head into the picture without it looking too much of an abnormality. Another thing I did to help this, is that I created a layer mask over the top of a duplicate layer of the head, and made a gradient which got lighter the nearer to the window. This followed the direction of the sunlight. The final thing I needed to do was to copy and cut around the fingers of the background, and move them into the foreground on a new layer which created depth within the photograph. 

I think the final image (left) was a very efective experiment with capturing and adapting expressions. What I intended to create was a natural looking photo, but at the same time something that looked unnatural and surreal. I think I have achieved this very well and I want to develop this further, perhaps including multiple expressions, maybe people, and maybe even a series of photographs that work together. I feel at the moment this image is very good at portraying what I want to continue working toward, however this idea on it's own is not quite strong enough. Consequently, I want to develop this idea into something more substantial and experiment with the idea of story telling or a message like the work of Dalí or an ironic/comedic message, like Huet, within my photos.

Uelsmann-inspired Surrealism

I really like the idea of Uelsmann's house/tree root combination that he has achieved on film. I wanted to try out this idea of two images combined, but digitally. And instead of using the tree and house idea, I tried it out with different toys. The photos below show the selection of photographs I took of the toys which were simple front shots against two different areas of a room.

My idea was to try out a few combinations of the items, but always assure that the way in which they were combined was relatively seamless, joining in the middle of the photo along a horizontal line; similar to the images created by Uelsmann.

As you can see they have worked relatively well. I have met with the Uelsmann brief in making sure the centre is the combination point of the two photos. Something I have had to adjust within the images is the light levels to make sure they match and work together to make one image.

I tried my best to keep all other editing to a minimum because of course Uelsmann created these images on film so the only manipulation that would take place is that of double exposure in the dark room. However, I have in the photo with the gnome edited out the robots left arm because that was simply a composure error on my part. I didn't think to ensure the arms were going to be out of the way in the lower half.

I was able to combine these photos by using a gradient tool on a separate layer mask of the top photo. This created a very nice fading effect which was easily adjustable for a greater blend or a more of a stunted blend.

My favourite of these Uelsmann inspired photos is the robot and bear combination (top-left). I like it because it combines the two reasonably seamlessly, almost using parts of the robots body as a separate chunk of body. I also really like how the background seems to blend with the colours of the two being quite similar.

I have decided that the photo doesn't quite replicate the style of Jerry Uelsmann in quite the way in which I wanted to, so to improve this I have decided to do the simple technique of removing the colour from the photo to make it more black and white. I have also adjusted the contrast in order have darker and lighter areas, as well as employing the burn/dodge tools to further this.

The final image has worked quite effectively, and is a good replication of the style of Uelsmann's photography. The black and white tones work really well as copying the idea of film, and the dark room without actually using a film camera. The darker and lighter areas really seem to work well and compliment each other. Obviously it would have been more effective to use film to copy film photos, however throughout this unit I hope to continue and develop my ability to use photograph editing software, working on my skills. 

My Starting Point

My first idea was to experiment with part of my idea, which is the idea of animals and humans. To the left is the result of my ideas and my first photoshoot for this exam unit. I created this image using PhotoShop, carefully removing the head of the dog from the photo below left, and placing over the head of the girl, below right. I've tried carefully using my editing skills to combine the images seamlessly. To extract the head from the first image I used the selection tools, with a slight feathered edge to cut it out of the picture. Then, I took this in to the open window of the second photo and pasted it on a new layer. In order to make the image fit I had to rotate it to the correct position following the posture of the subject within the second image. One thing I had to adjust within the second picture was the hair of the main subject. I knew that when the dog's head was placed over the top, there would be hair sticking out, so I decided to use the clone tool to change this. 

In the background I have covered over any visible hair using the clone tool with the cabinet behind. The same has been done with the front of the subject, and her chest. I have extended the neck of the t-shirt that she was wearing, and have also used the clone tool to select colours from the first image of the dog to replace the bare chest area, and create the idea that the neck continues down further.
The levels of light within both the images were slightly different so I have tried my best to adjust these accordingly too to make the head fit in better with the background surroundings. 


I think the message I have aimed and have achieved portraying within this image is that of animals being a very focal part of our everyday lives, that pets are almost more than that, they are more like family members. Maybe we groom and look after them too much, they have become more like accessories in modern society.

This has proved a really effective starting point and a way to express and show my ideas that I have. There isn't a great range of examples here, however it does create a good starting example from which to further my ideas. I will now go on to develop further with more combinations of animals and humans, and will develop this idea. I am going to try out double exposures with film, combining images in the dark room through old fashioned methods, as well as more digital combinations. 

Artist Research: Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí is an example, and probably the leader in surrealist art. His works are bizarre but bold representations of the theme. As an artist he is a fantastic starting point for my research as he was somewhat at the forefront of the surrealist movement. 


The image on the right is one of his most famous paintings, which is composed of melting clocks in natural surroundings. The painting doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense, however it is a striking piece. Surrealism is all about mixing the real with the surreal which Dalí demonstrates perfectly. The surrealism demonstrated within Dalí's work is usually what he has adapted from his own dreams. 

The painting to the left is an expression of the body's collapse into the realm of sleep. This continues this dream theme within his works. The "body" within this painting is almost melting, but is still supported by the sticks. The environment in which it is in is open and vast like the world of dreams. Dalí has said the inspiration behind his work is the "cosmology of Dalí". Dalí says this encompasses 

Artist Research: Jerry Uelsmann

Jerry Uelsmann is an American born photographer who's work is incredibly majestic, and shows exactly what Surrealism is. The above image is a film photograph and was manipulated in the dark room environment. It is an outstanding peice of work and shows a large amount of skill in pre (in planning the photograph) and post (in manipulation) capture. The image above is so well put together that it is hard to tell that it has been manipulated at all, and that the impossibility of the tree is reality.

Ulesmann works with multiple negatives over one enlarger, and creates his images through experimentation. So in a sense combining two images to create one. This concept is very similar to what I would like to do, however mine will be created digitally using PhotoShop, as opposed to dark room techniques and I will be using different subjects.

 A key element of Uelsmann's photographs I have noticed is that they have a realistic look and everything within his photographs has been captured naturally and therefore looks natural. This is an important element within surrealism, I think, in order for the viewer to really believe what the photographer is trying to capture.

A further erray of images can be found in the gallery of his official website, here.

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