Visual Communication Digitally Made 8th October

Digitally Made  8th October 

After yesterday's introduction to the world of Visual Communication it left me wondering what will we be doing today? The answer was getting to grips with the software I'll be using on my final piece.

We started by talking about what we did yesterday and the ideas we came up with. This was a wonderful opportunity for the group to hear about everyone else's ideas and to make comments. It was valuable getting feedback on your own ideas and plans and listening to everyone talk about what they planned to do was wonderful. Hearing a group of creative people share their thoughts inspired me. It made me want to create my own work even more. When it was my turn to speak, I explained what I'd researched yesterday; the last invasion of Britain and Jemima Nicholas, the Welsh heroine who captured some French soldiers single handed. It was an exceptional feat considering those were the days when women were expected to be quiet housewives and not get involved men's work or activities, especially not fighting. I then explained to the group how my research on Jemima Nicholas lead me to thinking about the role of women throughout history, and how even today there are still male dominated roles in society. After I finished talking I got a lot of positive feedback which is always encouraging.

After the group discussion, we each grabbed one of the computers so that we could be introduced to some of the programs we'll be using over the next two weeks. The first was Photoshop, and having used a old version of this program before, I wasn't too worried about it. I soon got the general idea of where things were and how they worked. I still had to have some things explained to me, like the size and format, as well as some filters, but all in all it was a fun catch up lesson.

The objective was to make a photomontage based on our own ideas. This was a lot harder, and took longer than I thought as finding suitable images was tricky. When I'd printed the photos, I arranged them on some black card. I came up with the idea for a pastiche of Da Vinci's "Last Supper". Instead of being all men (Jesus and the disciples), it would be all women. This would show women taking over the roles of men, something that rarely happens. Selecting, arranging and resizing the photos so they would fit together was difficult. I didn't get it completely the way I wanted in the time allowed, but I got the general idea down which pleased me.

After a quick break it was time to do some more Photoshop and then make some digital text for our Photoshop montage. This time I added lots of photos of modern women in traditionally male dominated roles. With so much new unfamiliar technology to get my head around, it did slow me down, but it was interesting to learn different ways to create art using different programs. I cut and layered my photos, and then overlayed some text, creating a digital version of a photomontage.

Before I knew it, it was time to call it a day. Now that I have a much better knowledge and understanding of the programs, I can get some more ideas together for my final piece.