My pathway

I decided to create an image that illustrates how the sport of soccer helped me reach my goals. Soccer has always been a big part of my life in a way that it has guided me to make better choices for my education. I have learned a lot through the struggles that I have faced, which is one of the reasons why it is relatable to my topic because it demonstrates motivation, passion, and dedication through blending modes and effects used in my graphic design draft. I was inspired to used different blending’s after reading “The Power of Images” article. It mentioned how every image demonstrates a message and seeing the pictures attached from 20th Century gave me the idea that those children were not working in those factories because they wanted too, it is a sad story to see that children are being forced to work at that age. I used dark colors at the bottom of my image to send a message that as a child I had difficult moments, but my life started to lighten up as I grew, which is towards the top of the page. I believe as if I not only captured the images I wanted to include but also, I was able to capture a clear message. Also, through The Five Basic Rules of Shot Composition, specially the Lines rule helped me place the text I wanted to use in my draft by creating a visual path to the solution, being the light to all the struggles through the stairs.

At first, I decided to start by mixing colors in one layer with any picture as practice before starting my actual draft. I did this through Hue/Saturation and through color balance even if we had not used it just because I wanted to give a different color to the stairs. After using different colors, I began my draft by adding an image to different layers and using the Magnetic Lasso Tool to have better image results. I also tried using the cropping tool, but in my opinion the Magnetic Lasso Tool works best because it allows me to add or delete any additional parts of the image after adding a Layer Via Copy. After adding two images I decided to lower down on the Opacity in order to blend the stairs and demonstrate a clear message. Lastly, when I was adding the stairs, I did not think of using a blending color because I wanted a bright color to be on my image (originally stairs were black and red) but, if I wanted to present the topic as a tuff experience, I needed to tone down on the lightness and add more saturation. Even after adding the stairs I felt as if something was missing. I tried to create ideas in my head of how I could add a message of motivation, but nothing came to mind until my roommate started talking. My roommate mentioned to me, “I am going to go study in the chinook building.” At that point my mind started running and told me to add text to the stairs image I had gotten from FreeImages website, also finding the soccer through FreeImages. The chinook building has a stair case where there are motivational words as you climb the stairs, which inspired me to do the same. Most of the process that I used through adobe was the Hue/Saturation and Magnetic Lasso Tool. It was very fun to play around with different colors, although I will recommend when using colors in your project to use a mouse, it was very hard for me not having a mouse, especially when using the magnetic lasso tool. Other than that, play with adobe! Use all the tools coming from the blur tool to using all the different brushes there are, you will be amazed with the differences those brushes can do.