13 Jan 2015

My Magazine Double Page - Work In Progress

Tiger Face Work In Progress
Below is a time lapse video of the processes I went though to create my tiger design for my double page spread. In total it took around 6 - 7 hours to finish completely.



Brief Explanation

1) I firstly started by drawing out the outline and then going over my original red sketch in black. After doing this I starting on doing my base fur sketch, I did this so I could plan the direction of the fur on my tigers face. After this is started on the lightest colour which would be white. Going over the eyes, snout and tufts of fur on the tigers neck, I started to add large chunks of light grey fur, then made a layer with a lighter colour of grey draw on top of original grey and, then with a smaller brush I sketches completely white strands over the grey patches.

2) Once I'd done the white sections I started on the brown / orange parts of the tiger and started with a darker brown to a lighter brown the same way I drew the white. After this, I started doing the black stripes of fur though the tigers fur, but also added the black accented fur around it's muzzle and eyebrow areas.
3) I then stated to colour in the eyes. Creating a sphere within on a layer behind the black parts of the tiger eye, I added many different shades of orange and some green before blending them, and then adding the white spots within it's eyes.
4) Completing this I removed the outline and started sketching random tufts of fur on the outlines and the muzzle of the tiger so that it looked more realistic. After this was done I started on the process of adding shading under specific parts of fur and then onto the tigers muzzle so that it would emphasise the structure of his snout and the natural shadows which would be seen from under it's chin and tufts of fur.

Magazine Work In Progress
I firstly started to add my drawn tiger design onto the Indesign file and then positioned it and edited the size so that it would match what I had on my drawn sketches and draft designs. After this I then went on Dafont and found a typeface which would match my drawn sketches the best I possibly could, coincidently I actually found a typeface called FatTats which seemed to match my sketches seamlessly, therefore I downloaded it, installed it onto Photoshop and Indesign and made my title which was " Masters Of Ink "

After creating my title I started to create the structure of my text and add in a selling line as an example which was " £500,000 an the title of Ink Master ". After looking at my drawn sketches and then what I was going to make for my final I realized that the designs wouldn't work properly therefore I changed my final design and added, instead of multiple different lines of confusing text, to instead add two columns of neat text an then add a divider above to give a sense division and structure.



My Magazine Double Page - Sketches


Above are eight sketches of what I may base my final double page spread cover to be on.


These are my final two designs in a lot more detail than my earlier designs.
I have decided to make my final design with the tiger covering half of the page as it will give a much more effective finish than my other designs.

12 Jan 2015

Adjustment Layers Editing

Original

This was the original image which I chose to edit to show that I understand how to edit images in Photoshop properly.

Work In Progress
Firstly I changed the levels in the Image so that it would enhance the different colours in the image, making the light and dark catch your eye and pop, instead of being bland and making the photo uninteresting. 

After I'd changed the levels, I then added a colour balance to the image so I could enhance the warm colours in the image and make it so that the yellow and orange colours where more prominent than the others. 

After changing the layers and adding a colour balance to the image I added a vibrance and saturation layer to the image so that it would make colours in the image even more prominent along with the levels changed

Final Comparison

5 Jan 2015

My Magazine Front Cover - Final Products


My Magazine Front Cover - Work In Progress

Before anything else I chose the best picture from my photo shoot and loaded it into Photoshop. Changing the levels, vibrance and also the colour contrast of the photo, I started to edit the image by making it darker than the original, and also changing the contrast so that my cover models face was paler than already shown.

Heading forth and starting to edit the main features of my cover model, I changed the eye colour from a light green to a pure grey colour. I did this by literally drawing a new eye, changing the already original colours so that the iris was made black and white to block out the colour and then adding more shading and a light source. Not only did I add a light source I also made the whites of my models eyes a lot more white than they were originally. Aiming for a specific effect where the models eyes would pop, and be more prominent than the rest of the surrounding image, I hoped that once the effects and drawings were placed over his real eyes, the audience, once looking at it from afar, would have the cover models eyes draw their attention to the rest of the cover, and hopefully the story which would be inside. 

After changing the eye, so that they grab the audiences attention when they first look at the magazine cover, I've specifically darkened my cover models eyes so that it also makes his eyes pop, and seem brighter. I did this by drawing a black lines around the corner of the eyes, and along the bottom with a 30% opacity, therefore there wouldn't appear to be a big unnatural light going straight across my cover modes face. After doing this I also changed the layer option so that instead of 'normal', it said 'darken'. This eventually gave a dark enough line so that it would look how I wanted it to but also not completely unnatural.

Completing my background image I moved onto starting the writing aspect of the magazine cover, by doing this I found a typeface which matched closely to the one I'd sketched firstly and then installed it on Photoshop. After doing that I wrote my title which was 'Jet Metal', jet being the colour black. From there I rotated the 'Jet' part of the font vertically, and fitted it to the 'Metal' font. Once doing this I moved onto creating the masthead and tying to think of something which may catch the viewers attention. Therefore I created 'Inside The Fire' and changed the font from a simplistic font form Photoshop to one I discovered on DaFont called 'Cardinal'. After doing this I also added the selling line which was 'Redemption of the ages' just under 'Inside the fire' so that once the audiences eye has found my cover model, and then made their way to my masthead, their eye will automatically make it way to my Selling line.

After creating all the text and adding it to the appropriate positions on the page, I needed to add some colour. Although before this point I did not know what type of colour I wanted to be added therefore I tried many different ones, starting with red, after a while of changing the 'Jet Metal' background box colour I found this green / blue colour which looked more effective than any other. Adding different boxes so that it would give me the ability to add white text to spaces on the page which were to bright, the green / blue colour was effective for the job it was meant to do.

Due to the fact that it would look to bland and dull with only the green / blue colour and not another I decided to add one hint of a complimentary colour, in this case it would be greens complimentary colour which would be orange. Putting it in different places around the page, with no luck I decided to add three streaks of orange behind the masthead. This not only looked effective but also brought more attention to the masthead.

My Magazine Front Cover - Contact Sheet





My Magazine Front Cover - Sketches

These are six front cover designs I created before my final product.