Photoshop Design Process

Not knowing how to start the construction of an album cover, I decided to use a random word generator as a source of inspiration. The first word I received was "convulsion" and decided to progress forward with this. Deciding to use Convulsion as the title of the album in question, I then quickly came up with the name of an artist, quickly associating the word convulsion with dark themes and thus creating the name 'Moriticia' based off of the Addams Family character. From here, I decided to build the album cover around this artist and the supposed dark theme of the album.

Using the same artist as when constructing a practice website, I made an edit of singer Lana Del Rey as my visual starting point. She would serve to be Moritica. To immediately incorporate the idea of a dark music style, I imported a black background on a new layer and there, to make it more interesting, blended multiple shades of grey using numerous brush styles.

After finding a background I was happy with, I decided to duplicate my edit of 'Morticia' onto three separate layers and there spread them out so that they were alongside each other and all visible upon the album cover. To further this dark theme whilst still retaining the importance of the artists' image, I changed the saturation and colour settings so that one of the duplicated pictures was in a thick, black and white design. With the other duplicated picture, I did a similar edit but further changed the lighting and colouring so that it was even darker.

From there, I swapped round some of the layers so that both duplicated faces became shrouded by a grey sort of mist (thus denoting that these 'evil' figures were a dark influence to the artist) and changed their positioning, so that the three faces were now diagonal to one another.

Finally, I worked on incorporating text onto the album cover. Firstly, I wrote out the name of the artist, Morticia, positioning it at the top of the cover, and then added the album's title, 'Convulsion', in the same font to conform to the same visual style of the piece but in a slighter smaller size, placing this at the bottom of the cover. To spice up the image slightly, I then added gradient underlines for each word.

Thus resulted the final draft of the album cover:

Whilst I am pleased with the outcome of my album cover, when it comes to creating the actual CD Digipak for my A2 Media Coursework Portfolio I would like to create something less reliant on photoshop and more reliant on photographs. With that said, I would say that this album cover successfully portrays the general feel and music style of the album and is successfully intriguing enough to capture an audience's interest. 

Exploring and Experimenting with Photoshop

In order to explore and experiment with the software of photoshop, we were instructed to try and cut around one person's head and place it upon another person's body.

I started my photoshop session by importing a picture of my favourite actor, Guardians of the Galaxy, Jurassic World and Parks and Recreation star, Chris Pratt - and then started cropping around his head as professionally as possible.

On completing such, I imported a picture of the Hulk on a new layer and then lined up Chris Pratt's head with the Hulk's neck.

After doing so, I wanted to clean up my original selection of Chris Pratt's head. I thus zoomed in as far as possible before adventuring around his head with the eraser tool in order to get rid of any weird lumps or bumps.

With that done, the task was complete.

Pleased with the outcome, I decided to further practise my ability with photoshop and began work on a practise album cover. However, I forgot to create a name for my album cover's artist and to record the process of construction. All the same, the cover is as below:

Introduction to Photoshop

What is Photoshop? Photoshop is a photo-editing software, used to alter or create images. In the case of our A2 Media Portfolios, we are using Photoshop to create our digipaks and CD Album Covers. Photoshop can be used in a number of different ways, whether to superimpose one image on top of another or create our own pictures from scratch. As such, we were taught a number of basic functions to start our understanding as to how the software works, so that from such a basic starting point, we can later progress on to become skilled 'Photoshoppers' in our own right.

"It's a skill, not a program": It was stressed to us early on that no matter how well we come to learn the software and its tools, or how familiar we are with how everything works, ultimately our work and final products will only be of a high standard through practise. The art of Photoshop is a skill which can only be mastered through dedicated trial and error. Just reading through the Photoshop handbook will offer us little support as to how good we are at using the equipment - that can only be achieved through experimenting with it.

The function of basic tools: As part of our small taster/introduction to Photoshop, we were introduced to a handful of fundamental tools such as 'lasso', 'move', 'select', and the 'menu' options (such as 'file', 'edit', and 'window').

The lasso tool is used to create free-hand selections (i.e. not to a restricted shape like a rectangle), and there are three variations to it: Lasso, Polygonal Lasso and Magnetic Lasso. The usual lasso tool selects whatever shape the user drags their mouse around (but can be better controlled through holding down the 'Alt' button), the polygonal lasso only selects on each click, following straight lines, and the magnetic lasso automatically determines what the user is trying to select based on distinguishable shapes - however, as it is a computer, it can not always determine between foreground and background and thus often gets confused.

The move tool quite simply allows the user to move whatever they have selected around the screen.

The select tool is similar to the lasso tool, but restricted to only selecting certain shapes, such as a rectangle, square, column or circle.

The menu tools are a row of drop down options where more detailed functions can be explored. 'File' is where the actual document/photograph's features can be explored; 'Edit' is the list of transformations which can be applied to the image, such as Warp and Scale, for example; and 'Window' is what can actually be seen on screen.

What are layers?: In graphics software, a layer is the term used to describe the different levels at which you can place an object or image file. In Photoshop you can stack, merge or define layers when creating a digital image; they can be partially obscured, allowing portions of images within a layer to be hidden or shown in a translucent manner within another image, or you can use layers to combine two or more images into a single digital image. For the purpose of editing, working with layers allowed you to go back and make changes within a layer as you work.

- paraphrased from webopedia.

Why should rough sketches be done on paper before starting Photoshop?: Rough sketches should be done on paper before starting Photoshop for a number of reasons, but mainly so that an idea can be finalised before too much work has gone into it and mistakes are made.

Do's and Don't Tips:

• Photoshop is something which one can only improve at through practise. The best way to get good at it is to watch youtube tutorials and just experiment by oneself through trial and error.
• There is no point reading up on what each tool does; the most effective thing is to do is to just get involved and mess around with what functions Photoshop can perform.
• When creating an image, good planning is fundamental. Don't just improvise.
• Simplicity is your best friend.
• Technically, any image is possible.
• When composing images, the rule of thirds should be obeyed.

Website Building Practise

As part of the A2 Media Portfolio, a website homepage is necessary for our created band, and so it was thought prudent to practise website building through the free website, wix.com. As such, I decided to create a fake website for acclaimed singer, Lana Del Rey.

Her actual website is as follows:

Before initially being given entrance to her site, at first there is a page advertising her new album with a number of platforms listed in which consumers can receive or view such a product [seen above]. This indicates that the artist is interested in money and generating sales. The fact that Lana, seen centred in the picture, is obscured by her large hat and sunglasses implies that she is no longer concerned with getting her image out into the world as she is an already established, successful artist, which people know about. Lana conforms to Richard Dyer's Star Theory, representing common music-stardom constructions such as her youth, her rebellious nature, her sexual magnetism, her anti-authoritarian attitude and her complete disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour. However, despite such a stereotypical ideology, Lana is an organic artist who pushes such ideas in her songs to the limit, writing and performing her own music, being her own person, and releasing it when, and only when, she is ready to. 

From then on in, the website is heavily centred about Lana's image, her latest releases (especially her new album) and her tour dates. There is very little information about Lana herself, implicit once again that she is a successful artist with a very large fan base - there is no need for there to be contact information or a page saying everything there is to know about her (as there would be for a new or independent artist). 

Comfortable with my research, I proceeded on to make my own website: LANA DEL REY

When building the website, it was important for me to maintain the emphasis given to Lana's image, as well as to explore the more technical aspects to website building for a music act: creating a detailed, online playlist; exploring how links work (whether through pictures or text); embedding a video; creating a gallery; and making the website as simple and easy to navigate as possible.

Here's my process:

Firstly I explored as to what templates would suit by website best. Evidently, I was immediately attracted to the ones specifically designed for Solo Artists, with the one created for fictional musician, "Natasha Miller" catching my eye in particular. Deciding to use that as my base, I firstly changed the background to a picture of Lana given how important her image is. I decided to use a picture which, for me, represents her ideology: classic, old Hollywood glam, sexual magnetism, etc. When then designing the text for the webpage, I decided to use the font 'Futura' for all my writing, as to keep some sense of class and consistency (in best attempt at making something as professional as possible).

Given how important links to her social media platforms were on her actual website, I also decided to include a social bar so that fans could keep up to date with what she's up to, as well as to find new ways to listen to her music and receive her content: reaffirming, once more, the importance of her image.

Designing a functioning music playlist was one of the hardest challenges for me when making the website, but something I felt necessary considering the important of Lana's latest album's release on her actual website. Using their internal application, I created an album as genuine as possible to the real Honeymoon album, including every detail I knew of.

Thereafter, I converted a handful of her youtube videos into mp3 files as to upload. Creating track pages for each of those, too, with every detail I knew, I uploaded three songs before deciding I was comfortable enough with the process.

Another challenge when building the website was to create an interactive gallery. Firstly, I had to pick (just alike with the website itself) a template to then build upon. Examining quite a few options, I eventually decided upon the simple portrait Grid, given its rather chic look and then began adding my own images in place of their stock ones. I decided to use photographs which showed a wide variety of Lana's various looks, with her face clearly visible as to once more reaffirm the importance of her image. Once done, I changed each picture's accompanying text so that when the website viewer rolled over any of the pictures with their mouse, it would quickly say a brief message - in every case, the song title associated with the photograph.

Overall, I am pleased with my final practise product. Although the website was overall not as detailed as I would have liked, I was still able to both explore plenty of techniques, and maintain Lana's ideology according to Negus and Dyer's theories.

When making the actual website for my A2 Media Portfolio next year, I will make sure that I am not limited by my access to high quality photographs, as that way I will have a lot more to play with creatively. In terms of the website itself, I would like to rely less on screenshots and images as a quick short cut and instead make the site more interactive, stylish and professional. 

When making this fan site for Lana Del Rey, I was too dependant on the template, whereas next year I need to be more inventive. Whilst I thought the simplicity was effective this time around, for my next website I think a more complex website would be more interesting.