tutorial: Jasper James

Jasper James's city silhouettes are stunning! Amazingly, he creates his incredible series of images by just using light and glass to reflect focal points and cityscape backgrounds within his carefully composed silhouettes. James's travels through China (he is based in Beijing) to capture his unusual perspectives and birds eye viewpoints. For those of you who are regular readers of our blog you will be aware that our current photo project for the BTEC Nationals is related around the theme of 'journeys' so when we came across James's work we just knew we had to make a tutorial. We love how the viewer gets a real insight into the journey behind the subject and the city, creating a familiar story we can all relate to! This tutorial will show you a similar method to our recent double/multiple exposure tutorial and get you to build on existing Photoshop knowledge. 

If you haven't got Photoshop don't worry - why not create a paper city background and get your students to practice compositional skills by posing in front of it. Your class will love it and you'll get a piece of art up on your wall ready to use for that perfect shoot again. We'd love to see any examples you do so as always drop us a shout if you do use our tutorial.

- Kirsty ❤

Julie Cockburn tutorial: Part II

As promised here is the final part of our Julie Cockburn inspired tutorial. We used this tutorial with our BTEC National students as part of their photography project and although more complex than part I they loved it! The tutorial below shows our own interpretation of how you might create a Julie Cockburn image digitally using clipping masks and the shape tool in Photoshop. Students can then play around with embedding the new image into the 'old' one by using the layers palette to create geometric patterns over the subject's face. We got our students to first create a handmade version before doing this tutorial by using old vintage photographs, cutting them up and creating fun geometric patterns so they had a strong sense of direction for the digital version. At this point it is important to stress to your students how Julie Cockburn uses a limited colour palette in order to keep within her overall 'theme'. If you haven't tried part I yet then head over and give it a go the results can look great!

- Kirsty ❤

Julie Cockburn tutorial: Part I

from left to right: Julie Cockburn, our version!

Welcome to our Part I tutorial of a Julie Cockburn inspire image. Julie Cockburn is a wonderful contemporary artist who takes primarily found vintage photographs and cuts, embroiders and collages them to make her 'own' images. We found her work last year through pinterest and since then we've been waiting for the perfect opportunity to embed her links between the past and the present in our lessons. On Monday we got the chance to finally do this and we had a lot of students tell us how much they enjoyed the lesson at the end (as a teacher this makes all the hard work worth while!) Whenever I introduce students to a new approach in Photoshop I always try to include a handmade version in the lesson so they can compare the two approaches. To do this: print of some digital images that keep in the theme of Julie Cockburn and get your students to cut shapes or geometric patterns out of coloured tissue paper and stick over the top of areas they want to selectively enhance. Our students love this approach and I find it really helps them understand and appreciate digital artwork in the long term. Have a go at the tutorial below with your BTEC or A-Level students - it can work as a great introduction to Photoshop (shapes, colour palette, opacity and layers) or turn into something much more complex. The outcomes are unique, fresh and show a simplistic side to creating art. Watch out for our second part of our Julie Cockburn tutorial on Saturday where you can combine all techniques into a double lesson. Have fun photoshopping!

- Kirsty ❤

Tutorial: Photomontage - Layer blending modes and colourizing in Photoshop

'Journeys' Our Example          'Fairspot' Miles Donvan 

This tutorial is one that I completed to help my students learn how to create a simple photomontage in Adobe Photoshop using the 'colourize'  and layer 'blending modes' functions inspired by the work of the illustrator Miles Donovan. I would describe it as a basic level of tutorial meaning that students should be able to pick up the skills quickly but there is also enough to play around within the settings to keep the more able students busy too! What is also good about this way of working is that it can be part of a photography class or a graphics / illustration class. You can also introduce hand made elements to use as part of the lesson such as scanned in drawings, ink splats and textures which I have also done and the students love the simple but very effective techniques. It is a quick way to get very professional looking results!

Hope you enjoy and don't forget to get in touch if you try this with your students or have any useful tips for us about techniques you have tried!

- Jess ❤

Lesson Idea: Toning and tinting photographs

In our photography department we can't get enough of enhancing images and one lesson that always works well is toning traditional and digital photographs. Toning black and white prints is a great way to quickly add dimension to a photograph or even change the mood of an image. If you are unaware of what toning/tinting is then in photographic terms: toning is to simply change the colour of a black and white photograph. In technical terms: chemicals such as silver sulphide are used to replace the metallic silver in the paper with colours such as sepia, blue and copper/red. The effects of these different toning processes are good but sadly, expensive... So, we've come up with a great alternative to save those art department pennies up!

Digital

A colour photograph can be easily toned using digital software such as Adobe Photoshop. You can either use scanned B&W images taken from a traditional 35mm camera or digital images converted into black and white in Photoshop. Toning is then easily applied using the following instructions:

Once you have selected the photo filter option you have a wide range of coloured filters to choose from. For this example I will just stick to the more common filters: sepia/blue/red. This digital technique is great because it caters for all learner levels and gives you the option to increase or decrease the amount of colour within the image. 

Traditional

Original black and white images printed onto photographic paper in the darkroom are usually toned traditionally using specialised photospeed chemical kits but we've found that toning the 'organic' (and cheap!) way really does do the same job. There are many tinting options but here's our top three...

1. Red Wine: Ever spilt red wine down your favourite white top? Stains right? Well it's the same thing on a print! The stain will last and visualise the same red effects on your B&W print! Just simply uncork your bottle of red wine (supermarket basics will do) and pour into an empty tray. Place your print into the tray and leave for 2-10 minutes. Take your print out once you are happy with the intensity of the colour and rinse the wine off - leave to dry and tu-dah! A beautiful, red tinted black and white image. 

2. Coffee: Coffee is perfect for creating a light or dark sepia toned image. Boil a kettle of water as usual and pour into a cup. Stir a regular amount of coffee into the cup, allow to cool, then pour into an empty tray. Place your print into the tray of coffee and agitate every couple of minutes until you have achieved your desired sepia tone. Rinse the print in water and leave to dry.

TIP: A shorter time in coffee will give you a light colour, while extending the time will intensify the colour to a deep brown. If you want your print to absorb more colour then soak it in a bath of water for a couple of minutes first. This softens the fibres within the print which will allow colour to go into the photographic print more easily.

3. Food Dye: We love food colouring at I Heart Teaching Art as it can be used for almost everything. There are so many pre-made colours to choose from in supermarkets but if you're not happy you can always mix your colours like paint on a palette. Once you have achieved your desired colour - drop a small amount into an empty tray and agitate until it has covered the print. If the colour comes out too strong then you can dilute the food dye with room temperature water to adjust the shade. When the correct tone is achieved, rinse off the print as before and allow to dry. In addition to this technique, why not try adding an extension task of hand colouring on top of the toned images with either paints, oil pastels or chalks. Check out our Enhanced Image Pinterest board for some inspirational ideas. 

What are you waiting for? Give these quick and fun techniques in your photo class a go. Your students will re-discover the excitement and creativity of photography whilst you get to save money, time and have a tidy classroom!

- Kirsty ❤

Tutorial: How to Make Ghost Type in Adobe Photoshop

 Jessica Townsend - Ghost Type

Unknown artist inspiration for tutorial                   

This is a little tutorial I developed to show how some very simple techniques in Adobe Photoshop can help you create cool typography! It was inspired by an image I came across on Pintrest above by an unknown artist. If you haven't had a chance to look at the i heart teaching art Pintrest boards make that your top priority for the day as there are so many inspiring artists and designers on there and it is updated regularly so lots to feast your eyes on to inspire both you and your students. Hope you enjoy my tutorial and if you do, don't forget to share it!

- Jess ❤

Tutorial: How to create a solarised photograph in Photoshop

Example of a digital solarised print

The best part of being on holiday is getting the time to learn new techniques to teach my students. Solarisation is a method that has always interested me and you never know what your getting as you expose your print for that brief second in the dark. For those of you who are unaware of what solarisation is... it is a photographic effect that gives the print the appearance of being both negative and positive at the same time. In the darkroom it is achieved by subjecting the print to a brief second exposure during the development stage. The lightest tones of the print are affected the most by the second exposure thus altering the normal tonal values of the print. A white line or halo will appear between the first and second exposure creating a 'solarised' print.

In this video tutorial I will be showing you how to create a similar result digitally in Adobe Photoshop without the mess and unpredictability of the darkroom. If you like this tutorial then why not make the effect into a lesson and have a battle with darkroom vs digital solarisation methods. You could even look at the sabattier work of Man Ray to inspire your students outcomes. Let us know which one wins and have fun solarising!

- Kirsty ❤

Tutorial: How to make a Chris Ede inspired illustration

Chris Ede (Image courtesy of illustrationweb)    

                                      

Following on from my 3W about Chris Ede comes this tutorial which aims to give you an insight into some basic Adobe Photoshop techniques to teach students how to create a simple Chris Ede inspired illustration. I used this tutorial with my Btec National Art & Design students for a project on animal illustration and they loved it! The outcomes were very impressive, some even put my little chicken example to shame! The tutorial shows my own interpretation of how you might create these types of effects and they are by no means the actual techniques used by the artist but meant as a simpler less advanced version for beginner to intermediate level learners.

Hope you enjoy!

- Jess ❤

Tutorial: Multiple Exposure Effect

This cool technique follows on from my post earlier this week and is another fun and easy way to distort an image. In the past I have spent hours with my 35mm camera trying to get that perfect multiple exposure until I just discovered how easy it is to imitate the effect in Photoshop. Check out my video tutorial below to create charming multiple exposures that will get you and your students addicted once you start making them!

Have fun - Kirsty ❤

Tutorial: Ghosting an image in Photoshop

As I've been planning for my new distortion project I thought to myself there must be an easy way to digitally manipulate a photo to give it a warped appearance and after much playing around on Photoshop... here it is! This tutorial is a really quick, fun and simple technique to create distorted 'ghostly' images and I think students will love it. It helps if you start of with the right type of portrait so for mine I chose in honour of Claire, Gwen Stefani (if you haven't noticed by now she's a bit of a no doubt fan!) Images that work best are going to be those that look shocked or scared so get your students to practice in class by posing with props and using lighting to really dramatise their image. Once you're happy, download the images onto a computer and follow the video tutorial below.

You could easily combine this technique into a whole lesson looking at movement. Start of with this digital technique and then take your students into the darkroom to experiment with movement of photographic paper. You can distort the image or give the illusion of movement by twisting, bending or dragging photographic paper on the enlarger baseboard. This technique works with photograms or negative prints and all you have to do is play around with the varying length of exposure. Like the sound of this? Then have a look at my BTEC L2 Photography Pinterest board for some inspiration.

PS. This is my first time at creating a video tutorial so I hope it's easy to follow. Enjoy!

- Kirsty ❤

Tutorial: Watercolour Text

I love watercolour but it's one of those things that I'm not that brilliant at, in fact painting in general is definitely not my forte, so when I discovered you can do watercolour like effects in Photoshop I jumped on it! I'm on a typography kick at the moment so I've created a tutorial that shows you how to make watercolour text in Photoshop. I know there's tons more techniques out there for this sort of thing but I think this is a great starting point, also if you've got my favourite typography book Handmade Type you could do a digital vs handmade lesson with your students and have a go at creating watercolour text by hand in the style of Natsuki Otani. 

Enjoy! - Claire ❤

Tutorial: Vintage Collage

I've been having so much fun learning new Photoshop techniques lately that I thought I would share this quick little technique with you. In this tutorial you will learn how to create a vintage collage using images such as pin ups, old adverts, patterns and much more. I even used our own i heart teaching art contributor's knitted birds! I hope you enjoy my take on a vintage collage, let's go...

step one: Open up Photoshop > New (document) > and set the size to 600x800 pixels. step two: Find some old paper for your background image. You could either scan something that looks old or go onto Flickr like I did and search for 'old paper'. Once your happy with your background design, open it up in Photoshop, create a new layer and copy it into your 600x800 document. Re-size your image to fit the whole of your background and change the opacity to 60%. Finally, make sure your background layer is set to white. step three: Select the 'Rounded Rectangle Tool' and create a rounded rectangle with your choice of colour. I decided I wanted a vintage woman flying high in the sky so I set my rectangle colour to blue. Make sure the radius of your shape is set to about 100 pixels to give your corners a nice curve! step four: You now need to create a layer mask on your layer from step three. You can do this by simply clicking Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All. After, that, select the brush tool - set the colour to black and use some brushes to erase parts of your coloured triangle. I downloaded some free watercolour brushes for mine and decided to create some clouds for my sky effect. I also added a 'Noise Filter' to my design to make it look that little bit more vintage! If you want to do this, just simply select the rectangle layer - go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and then play around with the amount of noise you want within your image. Once happy, press OK. 

step five: Next, it's time to search for your iconic lady. I searched for 'vintage adverts' or 'vintage pin ups' to find the perfect woman for my design. Once you've found your image, cut out your lady using the 'Magnetic Lasso Tool' and paste her into your design as a new layer. 

step six: Convert the lady's layer to 'Smart Objects' and apply a 'Smart Sharpen'.

step seven: Now, using the 'Pen Tool' create three triangles (or more!) Once you have your black triangles you can change the layer styles:

1. In 'Advanced Blending', set the 'Fill Opacity' to 0%

2. In 'Colour Overlay', choose a colour you want your triangles to be and set the 'Blend Mode' to 'Colour Burn'. Make sure you do this to each triangle. 

3. Repeat step 4 and use your brushes again to erase some parts of the shapes to make it look worn out and old. 

step eight: Your vintage collage is nearly complete - yay! Add any other pictures that you think it might need such as text, scribbles, planes, buildings, etc. Remember to add them in as new layers - you could even delete parts of your new image like step four. I added some birds to mine and repeated step 7 again by adding a magenta colour overlay to really complete my collage. 

step nine: It's now time to show off your image to the world! Print it out, make cards, put it in a frame and hang it up... the results are endless and I'm sure you'll become slightly addicted to creating more collages like me. You could even use this tutorial in your graphics or photography lessons with student's own imagery to create something fun, unique and personal. Check out Brazilian Eduardo Recife's fantastic collages for a great contextual link who will provide some inspiration to get you and your students started. We'd really like to see any collages that you create so please comment and leave a link for us to view it! We will also be creating a video tutorial for this technique soon so watch this space!

- Kirsty ❤

Tutorial: 3 Colour Stencil

This tutorial is blissfully easy and fabulously simple. What's more is that you can either use your finished artwork as a digital stencil, or print out the layers separately, cut out the coloured sections and spray paint the stencils for a more hand made feel!

equipment Adobe Photoshop, Photograph, Card, Scalpel, Cutting Matt, Spray Mount, Spray Paint

one: Follow this tutorial

two: print out your separate layers three: spray mount onto card four: cut out the coloured area of both of your images very carefully using a sharp scalpel five: find a suitable surface and spray glue the lightest stencil (the one with the most area cut out) onto your surface six: spray with a mid / light  colour (not black or very dark) seven: place your second stencil over your recently sprayed area (leaving it to dry first) and spray in place with spray glue eight: stand back and admire your work!

- Jess ❤