D The Deena Magazine
About the Author Deena Baum has been graphic designing since 2010. She is proud to be a part of Ms. Joseph’s 2010-2011 graphic design class. Perhaps her greatest accomplishment this year was the creation of her self-portrait super hero (as seen on front cover). One of Deena’s more recent works include the Andy Warhol-like Deena portraits (above) and the Sistine Chapel cookie-reaching (right).
Outstanding Skill Builders Revealed Page 3 The Inside Scoop on the personal Compass Rose Page 4
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The collage started with a stone texture, which resembled a medieval castle wall. The creator then proceeded with putting an actual castle on top of the background and made it an overlay. Finished with the background, the illustrator then added the focal point. She took a picture of a carousel and used a mask to cut out one of the horses. She pasted it in front and added a drop shadow and a bevel and emboss.
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Above: The rough draft version of the book collage included a smaller horse and a more conspicious holy grail.
Thus, art was born.
As she was trying to present the story of King Arthur, she needed some sort of knight in armor. So the artist found a decent picture, pasted it onto the canvas, and added some layer blends. One knight was not sufficient, so she added two more, both of them smaller than the first. She changed the colors to make them darker and lowered the contrast.
Finally, she added some small embellishments, such as a medieval looking piece of cloth and a floral pattern on top. The designs added a more middle aged feel to the art. After a thought-provoking group crit, the artist made more adjustments. She needed a better focal point, so she enlarged the horse to take up more space. She also lightened up the stone background. Thus, art was born.
Below: King Arthur’s knights get progressively bigger. Right: One of the skillbuilders leading up to the book collage was the photo merge.
The Deena Magazine Departments 3 | The top four skill builders are on display along with an exclusive explanation on the creation of such works of art.
4 | The personal compass rose is a marvelous exhibition of color and shapes.
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6 | The Book Collage takes readers down the medieval side in its rendition of King Arthur and His Kinghts of the Round Table.
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Skill Builders
Feature Story
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The Book Collage Illustration
King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table The assignment for the book collage was to paste together a variety of images to represent a book. Photoshop skills were necessary in order to blend layers together. Also, at least three images were necessary, along with an overall background image.
A plethora of collage images by professional artists were examined and scrutinized. Skill builders were a must as well. Before starting the collage, everyone had to fix up photographs to appear more pleasing to eye.
All the preparation resulted in a stupenOf course, research was key to this project. dous book collage. 6 | the deena magazine | May
Skillfully created from a tutorial, the storefront is a magnificent display that captures the peaceful, commercial setting. Nothing illustrates modern life style better than the typical “sale” sign in the front window. The store began with a simple box, filled with a gray gradient. After careful adjusting and much perspiration, the store began to resemble an actual building. Door windows were added to create the illusion of a building. The ceiling was a true feat. White and red gradients added a homey touch to an otherwise bland and gray shop. The roof was warped in order to fit on the ceiling. A great deal of care went into making the highlights in the middle of the roof. Finally, as a finishing touch, the red sign was added to the window.
4 Practice Designs in Illustrator.
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The light bulb was the first skill builder created in Illustrator. The sandwich skill build- The object uses simple er is a brilliant example techniques, beginning of creative type in Illuswith the merging of a trator. The letters were circle and a rectangle. The written with the vertical pen tool added the light type tool. Each individual bulb flair that cause most letter was colored a difpeople to look at light ferent food-like color, bulbs and think, “Now from bread to lettuce to that’s a light bulb!” The tomato. For added efspiky background infect, the “S” and “H” were creases the bright effect. speckled to imitate the The only thing the light sesame-seeded style of a bulb is missing is color. sandwich roll. The letters were tiled on axes to make the text verge onto the fun side.
The chocolate covered strawberry is, in the author’s opinion, the most delicious skill builder by far. Using an online tutorial (and a great deal of patience), the illustrator created the strawberry using a circle and the pen tool. The seeds were particularly straining, for it is very difficult to position them in a subtle, yet meaningful, way. The strawberry stem was a paintbrush tool creation. The chocolate looks delightful.
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The Compass Rose
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Creating a colorful masterpiece.
A compass rose is the symbol used on maps. It is used to tell direction- north, south, east, or west. The personal compass rose is somewhat similar. However, the symbol represents the creator of the art.
Layer-blended on top of the colors are patterns, one of which is the tessellation, and the other had polka dots. The patterns represent the artist’s family’s support because, although things often become complicated, like the tessellation, it can also become very simple like the polka dots. The artist’s family helps things become more like polka dots.
Creating a personal compass rose is not easy. A lot of thought and creativity goes into the making of a masterpiece. Deena Magazine is pleased to present a step by step through the creation of this compass rose.
The compass rose depicts different aspects of the artist through the various colors and patterns, taken from pattern swatches, displayed in the sections of the compass. The background demonstrates complimentary colors- orange and blue. The background is filled with one of the triangle tessellations. The result is an effective background that sets the stage for the rest of the compass. The outer circle is the edge of a collection of colors that demonstrate analogous colors. The outer ring also illustrates community. The colors are all the colors of 4 | the deena magazine | May
the color wheel. This array resembles the differences of people in the community. Despite the differences, the colors fit together in a way that is pleasing to the eye.
The arrows surrounding the inner ring demonstrate the outer self. The arrows represent what the artist is like on the outside. The arrows point out to the world in the same way her outer self in shown.
Above: The finished compass rose, in all its glory, boasts a plethora of colors and an abundance of intricate designs and shapes. Left: The patterns used in the compass rose were black and white tessellations.
Finally, the artist’s inner self is in the center of my compass rose. The middle is simple, but meaningful. I used layers to make the centerpiece stay visible above the arrows.
The Expanded Rectangle One of the first projects of the school year, the expanded rectangle provided an interesting introduction into Adobe Illustrator. The expanded rectangle began with a solid black rectangle. The designer used the pencil tool to create shape that looked like a mask. Then she divided the shape and brought the shape out using the reflect tool. The artist completed the reverse reflection rectangle in the same way. She made a black rectangle, drew shapes with the pen tool, and reflected the shapes out. This time, however, she used the rotate tool. This tool made a reflection of the shape, but flipped around.
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