Digital Surrealism Written Statement
The title for this piece is called The Ghost Girl. The message
I intended for this is for the “ghost” kids out there. It’s the kids who are there in class but the
people who should know them ignores them. They want to talk to people, to
interact with them but they can’t because they are too shy or quiet. Some try
to talk to them, but they won’t listen to them. So they just sit there, with no
one noticing, like a ghost. In the photo, there are 2 girls chatting like they
are having fun. Then there’s the other girl who is reading. This girl is
different, because she is not entirely visible and you can see the lockers through
her. The ghost girl is trying to interact with them, but she can’t talk because
she is too shy. Instead, she used the big “HELLO” text on the locker to get to
notice her. But the 2 girls who are talking don’t notice her, even with the big
“HELLO”. That how it feels for them to try to talk to you. This is to raise awareness
about the “ghost” kids. There are a lot of them out there and they are tired of
being a ghost.
When I
tried to make this piece, I drew some sketches of how to place things. I know the
ghost girl is going to be the focal point, so I need to balance it out. So I
then thought to add 2 girls chatting to make contrast and asymmetrical balance.
I took 3 photos: one of the lockers, one of the girls talking in the same area,
and one of the last girl in the same area. Then in Photoshop, I put the locker
photo as the main background. Then I put the photos of the girls and the ghost
girl. And then I started cutting out just the girls and the ghost girl.
First I
selected what I want to cut out using the quick selective tool. After selecting
it, I use that to make a mask. Now the one I selected is white and the
background is black. White shows and black covers it up. The edges look a bit
rough, so I refine the edges and use the blur tool to smoothen it out. I did
the same to the ghost girl.
I wanted to
make the ghost girl look like a ghost, so I lowered the opacity of the mask so
you can see the background. Since this is 3 separated photos I want to make the
lighting the same as the main background. In order to do that, I command-click
the 2 masks and use command-J on the main background layer to make a copy of
the main background in the shape of the 2 masks. Then I move the layers on top
of the original 2 photos and lower the opacity down so you can see the photos.
And then I
drew the “HELLO” text using the brush in a new layer under the people and
lowered the opacity and blurred it out to make it kind of faded. After that, I
adjusted the entire thing using adjusted layers.
From doing
this, I learned how to make the lighting the same and on how to refine the
edges. I also learned more about using masks and the quick selection tool. I’m
satisfied with this piece because I am raising awareness to those people out
there even though it might not look good. I like to thank my classmates for
being my models. They have been a great help.
