Adobe Photoshop Self Portrait

For my first photoshop self-portrait I wanted display my love for flowers and nature in the design as well as it connecting to a part of my name. In the forefront I’ve used an image of myself on a walk with the edges cut off so I could replace it with a new background which I though would be more suited to the theme of the photoshop self portrait. Behind that I’ve written my first name with my second name “rose” so I can incorporate rose colours and imagery within the design. I’ve done this with a traditional serif font to give off a more elegant impression in conjunction with the roses as well as using a thin white border around the text to make it stand out more. Behind that is a an image that I’d taken on my camera through a pair of binoculars of a tree with binoculars giving it a retro/noisy TV static look, reinforcing the older, more traditional concept of the portrait. I’ve chosen this concept as I enjoy history and old-fashioned dramas and aesthetic surrounding them so I wanted to feature that in my own work.

Behind the cut out image of the binoculars I’ve used a picture of some roses as the background which are not only one of my favourite flowers but also relate to my name, I also slightly edited the hue of the roses to fit more to my favourite shade of pink and use that in the typography as well. Surrounding the whole composition I’ve used a white border to make it look more polished as well as little triangles in the corners which resemble those of a scrapbook/journal. I enjoy journaling and I want the whole piece to look as if it’s been cut out and stuck together.

For my second photoshop self portrait I wanted to go for a more abstract and humorous approach surrounding the theme of food and cooking. I love many different foods, as well as cooking and eating them and because of this I’ve been compared to a raccoon due their sneaky nature of stealing food and running away with it. I wanted to portray that here by photoshopping my facial features and hair onto a picture of a raccoon I took at a zoo with its hands sat in front of them in a cheeky manner. Surrounding the raccoon I’ve edited a collage of various food that I’ve eaten/cooked to give the impression that’s what the raccoon is day-dreaming of, similar to that of my own tendencies. I’ve also positioned the various foods around the raccoon in a way that blocks any of the original background out – putting the focus on the food and the personified raccoon. In order to create depth I’ve also placed some of the meals behind the raccoon and some in front of it to create more layers and give the impression the raccoon is swimming in all the food. As there’s a lot of different components that are making up the overall design I wanted o break it up and make it look less messy by adding a border behind the raccoon and around the edges of the whole piece. By doing this it made it easier to differentiate where the food was in comparison to the raccoon. I also tried to make sure all the foods wouldn’t merge into one by adding a subtle drop shadow onto a few to break it up further.