Some More Research...

This week we had to do some more research on our topics. I originally picked the topic of tattoos because I found the stories behind tattoos to be very interesting. People get them for many reasons, and some people don't get them for any other reason besides the fact that they wanted a tattoo. So for this research week I decided to focus more on that, rather than basic facts about tattoos like last time. While searching I found a website called "Tattoo Confidential" and it has many pictures of tattoos, along with the stories that go with them. One of the tattoos on the first page that caught my eye was of a tattoo made to look like embroidery. It was an original design that her grandmother made in her high school economics class. I had never seen a tattoo like that and I though it was neat how her grandmother had made the design so many years ago.  There are pages and pages of stories on the website. You can go look at them here, and if you have a tattoo with a good story behind it, post yours on there!

Illustrator: Anything Goes

For the last part of this weeks assignment, we had an "anything goes" project. I decided to show my interest in the story behind the tattoos that everyone gets. I found a picture of an open book that I liked (I liked it because it had ink next to it) and live traced it with the photo low fidelity setting. I then took some of the images of tattoos I have taken and put them as if they were hand sketched inside of the notebook (using the hand sketch live trace tool). I then used text to describe what the person writing in the book was thinking about getting the tattoos for. I like this project a lot, and think it turned out pretty nice.

Illustrator: Live Trace

The second part of this weeks assignment was to use the "live trace" tool with an image related to our topic. I chose an image of someone getting a tattoo on their arm, which is the first picture posted here. That picture came from here. I decided to use the "photo low fidelity" setting. I then expanded, and ungrouped the image and colored in where I wanted to, and came up with the second image posted. 

Researching

One part of this weeks assignment was to research our topic. While looking, I was surprised because it was harder than I thought to find information. A lot of the sites that come up when searching were of tattoo parlors and ideas. I found a website about "how stuff works" and they explain many different things about tattoos. 

First the article explains exactly what happens to the skin when a tattoo is given. There is an animated picture as well that shows the needle going into the skin and placing the color. Later they explain what is needed to tattoo and different techniques that are used to do things like shading. Then they go on to talk about health risks while getting tattoos. I have 2 tattoos and its a little scary reading that, but I feel like those risks are very slim, as long as you're smart about getting the tattoo, which is what they talk about last. They tell you how to find a safe tattoo parlor and how to care for a new tattoo. At the end of the article they have a section called "lots more information" which give you many great links to other sites dealing with all kinds of tattooing information. To see the website click here.

Sketch & Trace (then color)

 Last weeks assignment (I'm a little late on this one) had to do with using the pen tool in illustrator. We had to sketch something that was related to our topic and then scan it onto the computer. After we scanned it we had to use all of the tricks we learned in class to trace our sketch with the pen tool. The sketch I did was of a tattooing machine, because my topic is tattoos, obviously. The second part of the assignment was to color in the sketch with the fill tool. For some reason I couldn't get that picture any bigger, even after changing the size different times. I also couldn't get the gradient tool to work correctly. I think I need a little more practice with these tools....

Illustrator: Logos and Text

This week we learned how to use illustrator. In class we played around with different shapes to make logos. Our job was to create 4 logos and 4 texts. These are what I came up with. I sure they will get better with practice, but so far I like illustrator better than photoshop, it seems easier. 

More Photoshop

This week was our last week working with photoshop. Our assignment was to download a picture off of the web, and use it along with the pictures we have taken about our project. The first picture on here is the original image (click here to go to it) that I downloaded and the second one is the one I made. I took some of the pictures of tattoos I have taken so far, cut them out and put them on this guys body, as if they were all his. I adjusted some of their contrasts and I used the blurring tool on his original tattoo. I also used the smudge took in the background of the image to create a swirl look. It relates to my topic simply because my topic is tattoos, and I made it as though this guy was covered in them, i think it turned out pretty cool.