Week 4: Subtractive processes in Photoshop

15 minutes: Screening: Paul Pfieffer, Art 21 episode via HULU (you have to scroll using the time bar 15:00 minutes into the episode of Time).  A useful introduction to how contemporary artists in-terested in particular spaces utilize digital tools.  Pfieffer is well known for his in-depth exploration of the spaces of professional sports: basketball stadiums, hockey arenas, etc.

60 minutes: Demos, subtractive processes with digital imaging (clone tool, eyedropper tool, cutting and pasting bits of layers with lasso, etc.)  Practice in class using the Burger King website (show how to make a screen capture, Apple+CTRL+3) then ask students to remove all of the text from the screen capture of the web page.  DOWNLOAD WEEK 4 HANDOUT that takes students through removing text from the Wal-Mart web page. DOWNLOAD WEEK 4 MATERIALS HERE.

15 minutes: Discussion of homework assignment for Week 4, Sketch 4

Optional demos in Photoshop:

Demo: Actions palette in Photoshop. Create an action to resize several large image (i.e. from a digital camera) to be smaller thumbnails ready to put on your blog. See Peachpit Press’s helpful overview of Actions. DOWNLOAD ACTIONS PDF HANDOUT HERE.

Demo: Making a Quick Mask in Photoshop. Click for Quick Mask tutorial.

Demo: Adding text to an image in Photoshop via the Text tool (T).

>Sketch 4    : Photo alteration via subtraction/erasure
Using a digital camera or a web search for LARGE images, find an image from your archive to alter that is at least 1000 pixels wide.  Consider using ARTstor or another image database to look for a high-resolution image.Take at least one item (or more) OUT of the photograph—be creative.  It is also fine to use a screenshot of a website (Command + Shift + 3 for screenshot).  Be prepared to show the unaltered and altered photo.  SUGGESTION: Consider what kind of image you might like to use as a splash page for your website.  Try to use this assignment to create an interesting image that might prove useful to you in designing the graphics and layout for your website. Example: Revelation 1.0 by Mark Tribe (2002).

UPLOAD ORIGINAL AND FINAL IMAGE to your blog with a description of your process of how and why you picked the items for removal.

>Reading
Type “photoshop tutorial” into Google.  Take a look at all of the interesting tutorial links that come up.

Paul Pfeiffer, Fragment of a crucifixion (After Francis Bacon), video still (1999).	Aziz +Cucher George from Dystopia series (1995)
Sketch 4 ideas: USING ERASURE TO ALTER OR INTENSIFY THE MEANING OF AN IMAGE.