Assignment 2: Self Portrait final?

I have been working on the self portrait again; reassessing what is actually required for this assignment, I think that my ideas have been a little off track, judging by the very few examples featured in other peoples' portfolios who are doing or have done this course. I think that this second assignment is still very much a primary scanning assignment rather than a manipulative one. I have therefore treated it as such.

Significance of some of the elements within the final image:
The camera:
Although cameras are featured in many of the images seen in other peoples' work, and certainly by no means an original idea, it has been included here in preference to a photograph. I have been taking photos since I was 5 years old, a camera was the first thing I ever asked my parents to buy me. I have had many cameras in my life ranging from antique bellows cameras to SLRs, this is merely the most recent one that I own. I rarely get rid of a camera, I sometimes give them away but I never sell them; however, I have had at least two stolen. Taking pictures is an intrinsic part of my life.

Old drawing of human chromosomes represents my profession (Clinical Cytogeneticist): From C.C. Hurst, The Mechanism of Creative evolution, CUP (1933)

I still feel the other areas I have been exploring are interesting but more to do with the next module than this one. As I have received almost no guidance from the course tutor I will just have to judge for myself what I think is the right thing. Maybe there is no right or wrong thing.

Log v Blog

I have now had a response from my tutor who has said that I need not include critiques of others' work as this is only for the purpose of group tutorials. I clearly do not have to submit this to him at this time; however, if I would eventually wish put CDA1 towards a degree would my course work be sufficient? I don't know.

I do keep a paper log as well as this blog and hope that if I do need this aspect of the work, my log will be helpful, as I will be looking at others work and commenting on it there. All I would worry about then is, if it has not been assessed throughout my course, I would not have had the feedback necessary during the course, if it is then found to be lacking.

I am fairly academic as I am a scientist by profession and am used to criticising and being criticised, so I am may be in a slightly better place than others would. However, this is not my area of expertise and I may fall flat on my face!

Not quite sure what to do about this situation.

Assignment 2: Self Portrait

I have now started work on Assignment 2: Self Portrait. I have thought a lot about how I want to portray myself and I have spent some time making some sketches; taking photographs of myself and my possessions as well as scanning stuff in. I also understand from the course notes that some criticism of others' work is necessary and I have e-mailed my tutor today for some input. I hope that I will be able to complete this module by the end of February. Now I just need to put it all together to make a final image!



I have reorganised the slide show to show a sequence of thought processes. I am now thinking along the lines of footprints, hand prints etc, not in the literal sense but in the abstract sense of my impression on life and life's impressions on me.

I have also started to look at self portraits made by other people and have been making some notes in my paper log. This assignment, I notice, requires not only self criticism but also assessment of other's work including a statement on how other students completed the tasks. I have e-mailed my tutor, as instructed, but, as yet, have not heard from him. It is only a week, but I hope he sends me an answer soon as it is holding me back.

Project 8

As you can see I have been rather busy catching up trying to complete the Projects for module 2 so that I can get on with the serious business of Assignment 2. This project was also a bit repetitious as I have been making contact sheets and printing images using the Photoshop Elements program already, for my hard copy Journal. I have tended to use Picassa 3 to upload pictures and sldeshows into this blog as it is particularly easy (see previous posts on this and all my other blogs); however making a website in PE is also relatively easy and all I have to learn now is how to upload it to a website! First create a Website.

Any Clues?

Project 7

Making a collage was covered rather well in Module 1 in my opinion. This project was much the same. I have already combined straight lines in the form of threads and torn papers folded papers and my own artwork in several images already so I was not very inspired to create more collages with no real purpose except for creating a frame. I did, however, make one new one with old Christmas wrapping and a Paul Smith gift bag for this project in order to say that I have completed the project:



This was then framed by increasing the canvas size according to the instructions:

From frame collage

I also used one of my images from Module 1 which includes some of my original artwork to show how "framing" enhances the image.

From mix

From frame collage

I now know how to increase the size of a canvas.

Project 6

Just picked up after the Christmas break. Not much of a break for me as I was working almost throughout the whole two week period; lovely on the tube as nearly no one else was travelling in. Still life with fruit seemed to be what was required of this project. Can't say that I found it all that inspiring and somewhat repetitious of the first module. I want to move on to the next project quickly so am not going to spend too much time here. I played around a bit with brightness, contrast and resolution with one of the still life pictures.

Section 2 Scanning Images

I think I've completed the first assignment and it is ready to post. Can't quite pluck up the courage to send it yet. I think I'll look at it once more before I do.

But, I have now started on the second section and attempted Project 5. This was much trickier than I imagined it would be. I don't know if all scanners work the same way but I had a problem with mine scanning the image in a succession of scans rather than in a single long sweep. Do all scanners do this? The resulting scans were fragmented and some were not at all what was illustrated in the handbook. At this stage I was just wanting to "copy" the exercise in the book and not to do anything original. Eventually I managed to get something resembling the elongated hand without a very apparent break in the scan. This took a long time to achieve.

From module 2

From module 2

I tried scanning clocks and watches but the second hands did not really make much of an impact of movement.

From module 2

After this I scanned a plastic water bottle containing water. I really liked the effect of this as it produced refraction and nice rainbow colours.

From module 2

From module 2

I'll try a few more moving objects, I would really like to get the clocks to work well but I think the scan is too fast to detect real movement of the second hand.