Vintage Poster

 For this assignment, I made a vintage poster which I chose a fox to put on my head. First you had to make a black background and put a paper background on top. Then, you had to add a cloud effect, which I though was cool, on the poster and adjust it to make it look old. Next, I put my self on the poster and erased my head to put the fox head there. After that, I had to make it a group and duplicate it plus, add a blur and drop shadow effect on it. Then, I added a Sunburst shape and faded it a little. Then, I made some patterns and used the brush tool to make some designs on the poster. Since part of the pattern was covering me, I used a technique which I made myself a selection and fitted it with the pattern layer. Next, I put in some pieces of different paper and used the erase and burn tool to make them look old and crumpled. Finally, I used different fonts for the letters of my first name and put them on the pieces of paper. I also lowered the fill of the letters to make them look faded.

Grunge Project

 For this project, I used a picture of my grandma's cat, Lovie. What I did is I used the high pass technique with the grunge tools. I also used multiple masks and alt-masks to help layer and add contrast to the picture. Plus, I used brushes to lighten and darken certain areas. Towards the end, I used some black & white and Brightness/Contrast adjustment layers. Also, I added a color blend mode that added some tone to the picture. After I finished the picture, I made a text for it that said the name of the cat. 

Link for text tutorial: http://www.adobetutorialz.com/articles/30970602/1/how-to-create-a-new-year-2011-colorful-card-in-photoshop-cs5  

Grunge Photo

 In this tutorial, I learned how to make a grungy looking photo. I had to use multiple layers with the hard light blend mode. Also, I applied the high pass technique again for this to add some contrast. Plus, I made multiple masks for each layer which I had to paint over lines and the eyebrows and all the whiskers. Therefore, it either made them lighter or darker. Next, I used some adjustment layers like brightness/contrast and black & white to make it more grungy like and stand out more. I also used a color blend mode to add some tone to the picture. I sort of liked how this turned out, I think I maybe used to much of the stand out brush for the white parts.

High Contrast Photo

 I thought creating high contrast photos in photoshop was a little weird but it's something cool to know how to do I guess. First I chose this photo and duplicated it so I could work with it. Then, I put a high pass filter on it which made most of it gray. Next I added some contrast by making the blend mode of the layer, Hard Light. Therefore, I had to do that 2 more times which added a ton of contrast to the picture. Next, I used a noise technique which involved creating a new layer with Hard Light and filled with a neutral color. After that, I applied the noise filter which caused a grainy effect on the picture. Finally, I used some saturation to make the picture less colorful and pretty.

ipod silhouette

This assignment was very cool! I liked how we created silhouettes of us and did like a iPod ad. First I took a  

photo of me and cut myself out(with using refined edge and quick selection) and turned it black. Then, I made a light blue sold color background to go behind me. Then I searched the web for a iPod pic and a earbud pic. I painted over the bottom part of the iPod to make it look like it was in my pocket. Finally, I used a ear bud to place where my ear might be and drew white lines to look like the wires for the earbuds. For a little extra effect, I used a leaf brush to make it look like I'm in a leaf pile.

Masterpiece

 I liked this assignment a lot because I got to create whatever I wanted to so that I could get some practice with Photoshop brushes. I used a transparent background so I could get an idea of what I wanted. Then I painted it blue and added some clouds with a "fluffy like" brush. After that, I outlined the clouds with a dark blue fuzzy brush. Next, I wanted to add birds to it but I couldn't find a brush for that so I downloaded a brush pack that had some. I made each bird black and used a sun brush to place one in the middle area. I really thought this was a cool assignment to do and I don't really want to change anything about this.

Text Transformation

I thought this assignment was really cool with the gradients and shiny technique stuff. First, I had to type all the letters seperately and make a copy of them which added a background (sort of). Then, I had to use this tool which made those letters in the back blurry. Next, I used a number of steps and tools to make the original letters have a gradient and glossy look. Some of the steps I used were Inner Shadow, Gradient Overlay, Inner glow, & etc. After that I used the eclipse tool to make this white shine thing which made each letter have a glaze look to it. Finally, I used the same tool to add really cute bubbles around the letters!