This assignment required one to create a parody or pastiche of an artist or art movement.  For this assignment I decided to create a pastiche of the work of Bansky. After completing my study abroad experience in London last semester, I have been very intrigued and inspired by the work of famous graffiti and street artist, Banksy.  Banksy uses stencils to create graffiti works that pop up overnight on buildings, streets, or really anything that can be painted on.  For this project I chose to create my own stencil and graffiti art that comments on the rising level of water pollution, especially in highly populated city centers.  The first image is my stencil and graffiti work while the image below is how I see this image being applied in a city environment like Bansky would display his art.

I had a lot of trouble using Illustrator in the beginning but finally got the hang of it after awhile.  Considering that this is the first time I have ever used the program I am happy with the final product and hope to continue learning how to use Illustrator more and creating stronger images :).

Photo Montage- Fantastical & Realistic

For this project I chose to use photographs I took on my recent semester study abroad trip.  I visited many countries (England, Scotland, Italy, Holland, and Wales) and wanted to create a photo montage of the different landscapes and monuments I encountered.  In many of the cities I visited I was surrounded by historical architecture, ruins of past civilizations, and beautiful landscapes that I wanted to emphasize in my works.

For my fantastical images I emphasized this history through the use of famous historical sites and monuments in combination with elements of whimsy such as fairies, an "Alice in Wonderland"-like landscape, and high texture with a saturated and colorful color palette.  I found the image a Scottish landscape and castle with fairies in the foreground to be my favorite and best montage work. I took advantage of masking layers, blurring tool, dodge and burn tools, and various adjustment layers to make various photos blend to create a believable singular image.

For my realistic images I used notable historical monuments and landscapes to create natural and believable landscapes.  I used the same techniques for these images as I did in my fantastical images to make the various photos blend and fit together to look like one image. The photo with the image of the castle is a combination of photos from Scotland and Wales while the image of the fountain are photos from Rome, Italy. While I find the Italy photo montage to be more interesting aesthetically, I believe the castle photo looks more realistic.

Overall, I found this project to be challenging not only conceptually but also technically by using my photoshop skills to make the photo montages realistic/fantastical.  I feel that I gave a good attempt at both issues and hope you all enjoy my works. I would appreciate and comments or advice you all have on the works :) Thanks!

Fantastical:

Realistic: