PICK OF THIS WEEK - 2017
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Week #29
This work was done by Amy Lear in Austin in 2016 for the session “Variations on Romans” in 26 Seeds: a Year to Grow. In her own words:
Languidly

This was done for the spacing homework assignment for Month 1. For the background image, I used a photograph that I had taken and then edited it in photoshop to make it black and white and to add black to the rest of the image. The photograph is of the dried paint left at the bottom of a paintbrush-washing bowl after the water had evaporated. It is a mid-century, pottery ashtray that I found as my in-laws were cleaning out and restoring an old farm. Using an ashtray sounds odd, I admit, but it has a nice depth and the slots originally for cigarettes now keep my paintbrushes from rolling away. I took the photo on a nice, sunny day to increase the contrast of that old paint. The original color was yellow paint in a green bowl. As a black and white, though, it reminds me of an abstract, lunar landscape.
After I edited the photograph, I extended the image size to fit the paper I’d print it on, and scanned in my properly spaced letters. However, they didn’t quite fit the way I wanted it to. Instead of correcting the letter cut-outs and rescanning, I edited the word in photoshop directly. I can’t recommend photoshop for projects like this enough. To fit the word to the image, I separated each letter into a different layer, and used the “hide/show” feature to only show the three letters I was working on at a time. Then, I nudged the letters right or left using the arrow keys (rather than my mouse) for greater precision. Photoshop does have an auto-arrange feature, which would distribute the space between each letter. But, that only accounts for the total width of the letter, not the white space within the letter itself. The letter L is a good example of where that feature doesn’t work for lettering spacing.

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You can enjoy all the Pics of the Week from 2009 through 2018,
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