Creation of Choice

I was really excited to do this project! It was very fun to be given pretty much a free reign and do whatever I wanted. I decided to make my creation of choice a graduation announcement. To get started, I created a blank document and set the dimensions to 4” by 6”. Next, I placed one of my pictures in it by opening it in another PhotoShop document and splitting the screen so I could drag it on to my blank workspace. I corrected the picture using the curves, levels, and color balance menus. Next, I created a border around the image by right clicking on the layer icon and clicking ‘select pixels’, and then going to edit -> stroke. After this I created a gradient over the picture using the gradient tool (quick command- G) and making the right side of the image black. I found an image of a small pink flower on the internet and extracted it out of its background by using the quick selection tool (quick command- W) and dragging it over to my workspace through a split screen. I transformed it (ctrl + T) to make it smaller and placed it on the bottom right corner of my image. After duplicating the flower (ctrl + J), I created a light pink satin layer style over it. Online again, I found the mortar board ‘class of 2011’ image and turned it into a brush by selecting it in another PhotoShop document and going to edit -> define brush preset. I stamped this new brush in the bottom left corner of my image and created a textured clipping mask behind it. To do this I created a blank layer and painted it pink using the paint bucket tool (W) and adding a textured filter. Next, I right clicked on the layer icon for the pink textured layer and clicked ‘create clipping mask’. I added the text (T), and changed my lips to a slightly darker pink by selecting them and going to image-> replace color. Also online, I found a picture of a swirly vine type thing with flowers. I turned this into a custom brush using the same methods as with the ‘class of 2011’ brush, and stamped it in the upper right corner. I really like how it turned out! It was more work than I expected, but I think it looks great. I don’t think I’ll use it as my actual announcement because that’s not one of my real senior pictures, but I think it looks nice anyway. And it was fun to practice and mess around with styles!