Project 2

I designed this image with the idea of sharp, cutting, jagged edges in mind. I felt symmetry would help achieve this feeling as well as make the entire image feel more full. As you can see, I didn't use so many basic, standard shapes, but combinations of circles and polygons to bring a natural, yet surreal sense to the work. I initially used the program Alchemy to draw a colorless shape scheme. I loaded this into CS4 and began by anding a gradient map layer to add life and motion to the background. Then I selected the foreground, subtracted the inside leaving only the edges, and filled the inside of this with a gradient map. Then I refined the outline and placed the original shape (centre and all) beneath the foreground as a separate layer. After that I resized the layer, made it less opaque and placed it as a shadow. Finally, I went to the foreground layer (outline) and added an outer-glow along with a textured emboss.

I mainly used black and white, but I brought some life to the image with the green outer-glow. I think this makes the image dark and frightening with a touch of madness. The reason I chose black and white (aside from the glow) is that it brings attention to the shapes of things and not their color. It also darkens the overall feel.