Apple Student Gallery Australia

Methods: I started out with just the center flower (which was originally a flower 'crown'), my name and the backdrop, then added the side flowers a few days later. The entire image has been overlayed with a blue 'colour' sheet to give it that tone. Another overlay I used was the scanlines (horizontal slightly-transparent lines) effect, to make the image seem smoother and give it more flow. Originally, this was supposed to be a light image, but it ended up being incredibly rich in colour and detail. To almost counter-balance the intensity, the side flowers were lightened and individual gradients were added to each one (instead of originally having a single gradient over all the flowers). I also started out, when I first added them, having one side symmetrical to the other, but found this created a 'locked' feel to the image, and to make it gentler, I redid the second side all over again. The circles were quite tricky to do, despite what they may look like, and they actually increase opacity toward the center, but it feels as if they decrease. Then there is the text effect, which I didn't copy, but rather moulded to fit into the center flower, so the gradients look the same but in some way, different. Outer glows were used in a drop shadow style, the center flower shadow is a second layer with an opacity gradient (grey to invisible, with the blue overlay, the grey became bluish), and the background, which is simply a circle vector with a lighter style than a dark background. The background eventually became my colour chart for the whole piece. My favourite effect, and arguably the most noticeable, is the engraving technique I used to put my name through the second circle. This was a major step for me in terms of style and I still use it today to create modern, dynamic images. I knew I wanted to use the Times New Roman font, since I definately wanted the sharp edges and old-style effect, but I only added the second top and bottom lines after looking at the image when I was finished. First I wrote the text, then deleted it from a layer with vertical scanlines, placing that underneath the layer with horizontal scanlines, creating a strange dot-point style that makes the text visible and readable. Again, although it looks pretty now, it was extremely messy during construction, and I had my doubts before the image was done. Another reason I chose the hard, sharp Times New Roman font was to create a clash of aesthetics within the piece - here you have this soft, delicate flower, almost weightless petals around the corners, and right in the middle, this immediate full-on hard-faced text which really stands out, but at the same time, hides behind a second scanline sheet which represents the covering over the image. I really enjoyed producing this image, and decided to share it because it really changed the way I see graphics, and I hope it will do the same to you after you analyse it.