[VISC102] Project 3 - Surreal Room

This piece was heavily inspired by a tattoo I designed and would like to get at some point. Each element represents something to me, but to an outsider, the message may not be as clear without getting to know me first. How do you interpret this piece?

surreal photo collage birds mushroom freedom spores Cell

Final Piece

Before Peer Critiques

During peer critiques, I got a lot of helpful advice to move the cage back and into the light so the lighting is more natural. I also was advised to use just the one image of the bird on the bottom left and warp it to make it look like four different birds. I also did some refinements on the glow effect of the spores, aiming to create a more consistent base color without sacrificing the glowy feel. I made the birds look like they were flying towards the window, further enforcing my message.

Process GIF

Step 1

I started with the cell background image and added in the cage and the chain. I had removed the background and the candle for the cage and chain in a separate Photoshop file. I applied some hue/saturation and color balance adjustment layers to match the cage a bit better to the lighting of the background, and to remove the rusty coloration of the original image. I also inverted the colors of the chain to make it white instead of black to match the cage.

Step 2

Here I added the mushroom assets, also separated from their background in a separate Photoshop file. I also drew in a shadow beneath the mushrooms here. The smaller mushroom is just a smaller, slightly warped version of the bigger mushroom.

Step 3

Here I added a hue/saturation layer and checked on colorize in order to turn the mushrooms blue and purple, respectively.

Step 4

It was at this point that I added the four birds. I used the warp tool to create the effect that one bird asset was several different birds, all flying towards the window.

Step 5

Here I once again used a hue/saturation layer to colorize the birds, this time going for a more subtle, darker coloration to avoid making them appear unnaturally bright. I also at this point added the spore trails connecting the mushrooms and the birds to show how the mushroom spores are turning into birds. I did this using a splatter brush in Photoshop.