My works are based on the popular digital compositor Carlos Varela. Through his works, he depicts clothes (mainly shoes) within rural, urban areas. To continue my under the influence works, I decided to use inspiration from my artist and depict shoes in nature style settings. I wanted to mainly focus on using nature landscapes to keep a cohesive feel for the shoes and animal aspects.
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Safari search
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Forest terrain
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Roses and blue sky
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Rock slide
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In the wild
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Ocean Breeze
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Rare find
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Sea salt
Ashton Lucas designed eight compositions of several types of shoes in various unique natural environments. The colorways of each shoe correspond with the surrounding landscapes and animals as well. What impressed me the most about these works is how naturally the shoe fit into the entire scenery, especially how the animals interact with it. My eye would instantly go to each shoe because it “doesn’t belong,” but the animals would help guide my eye around it more.
ReplyDeleteYes, the works are all cohesive and display a great understanding of compositing and Photoshop skills. Each shoe was precisely chosen by its color and ability to best integrate with each environment. Then, the adjustments made to each layer made this integration seamless and convincing. Each composition is unique and original compared to each other and the selected artist. Ashton took the artist’s work a step further and adapted his work to reflect natural landscapes instead of urban ones.
I would argue that the compositing was challenging, and Ashton's technique helped them execute these works well. For instance, in ‘Sea Salt’ they were able to discern what was in the background and foreground through the use of blurring. As well as capture the illusion of the octopus on the shoe with wet marks and distortion. The technique used in ‘Rare Find’ was also convincing in how accurately the light and shadows hit the shoe in that environment. Finally, ‘Safari Search’ made me review your portfolio in the first place. The shoe fits perfectly in its surroundings, specifically looking at shadows. The giraffe also stands as a great sense of scale and the zebras were an excellent choice to pair with the pattern of the shoe! The works are composed intentionally to cover a range of different environments, it's obvious the artist was having fun with this concept! The portfolio seems professional due to its cohesiveness and technical skill. The compositing is pretty seamless, so it’s difficult to discern what sources the artist used in their work, aside from the shoes and animals.
ReplyDeleteCassie Eberle
For this evaluation, I am going to be speaking about Ashton Lucas’ final portfolio. Their works were influenced by Carlos Varela and surrealism. The overall theme and style of the portfolio involves depicting shoes in nature settings at sizes that are completely unrealistic but are blended into the surroundings. I was drawn to this portfolio because despite the obvious that those giant shoes don't belong in the surroundings they are depicted in, they look like they do belong due to the impressive compositing and photoshop techniques.
The concept of adding oversized shoes in an environment they don't belong in was cohesive throughout the 8 compositions. Despite them all having similar subject matter, they are all unique and intriguing in their own right. While there is a very clear influence from Carlos Varela, there is a difference in the surrealism of the color and the shoes. In Carlos’ work, the shoes are heavily edited to match their surroundings. In Ashton’s compositions, while the shoes do match the background, it is not as intensely. Ashton also focused solely on shoes and nature as the subject matter while Carlos has a wider concept of size, subject, and environment.
The compositing of these images was impressive. While we know that these images could never possibly be real photographs, the quality of the editing and compositing allow the brain to believe it could be. The perspective and shading is well done and merges the background with the subject. The creativity of the compositions also make you want to take in all the different details. Another thing I appreciate about the compositions by Ashton versus Carlos’ is that Ashton actually added elements that interact with the shoes, further adding to the idea that the shoes are a true part of the image, such as the giraffe nosing the shoe in Safari Search, and the bird perched on top of the shoe in Roses and Blue Sky.
As I mentioned previously, every element of the composition was intentional in integrating reality with surrealism. The addition of shading, making sure the lighting of the background matches the images of the shoe was key in making sure the composition flowed. The perspective of the individual images that make up the compositions were also in line with each other, adding to the believability of the composition. If any of those elements were off, it would be very obvious. It is difficult, especially with the size difference of the different subjects, to make all the pieces look cohesive and the depth of field to be clear, but Ashton did a great job of it.
I do not know how to access another student’s PDF submission, as it is not linked on the blog from what I can see.
Ashley Legassie:
ReplyDeleteI chose Ashton’s final portfolio because of the integration of scale and subject matter he uses to create an interesting composition. I appreciate this thinking outside of the box that really drew me to his pieces.
His concept and works create cohesive pieces. Each has the subject of shoes with different landscapes. One of my favorite parts of the concept is the use of different shoes throughout the pieces. The work builds off the selected artistic influence by taking inspiration from putting shoes into art and playing with scale but Ashton puts his own twist onto it by creating intricate and interesting landscapes.
The compositing looks intricate and comes together nicely where you can’t tell that it is a digital composite minus the fact that the pieces depict an unrealistic scale. I like how each piece has a good amount of saturation that makes them look more professional and interesting.
The concept is brought to life through the lightning, depth of field, and scale are used throughout the pieces to create cohesion and successfully support the concept. Every detail of the pieces contributes to the intentionality of the works, each piece has details that add to each landscape. The placement of each of the elements in the composition creates a full scenery that adds to the idea that the shoe is a part of the landscape.
Overall, all the pieces are very cohesive and create a landscape that the shoe is emersed in. The pieces are interesting and caught my attention making me want to look closer at all the details that create the scene.