Blog Entry #5: Working With Digital Images

Mini Art School #3

Conveyance Exercise
Conveyance is "the delivery of meaning or mood from the observed to the observer" (Krause, 283).  I decided to explore typographic conveyance, which is a manner of creating type-based images that reflect the meaning of the word that they are portraying.  

I experimented using Pixlr Editor to create a series of text-based images based on the following six words: Education, Elementary, Learn, Grow, Love, and Teach.  In each image, I included different visuals that I identify with the word to incorporate those into the graphic.

Before:

After:
Audio Description of why I chose to incorporate images of an apple and pencils into this graphic. 

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After:
Audio Description of how I created this text with an image embedded into the font.

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After:
Audio Description of why I chose to use the primary colors in this graphic!

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After:
Audio Description of why I selected this word and enhanced it using a flower!

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After:
Audio Description of why I believe teaching is all about love!

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Audio Description of why I chose to overlay the word Teach with a graphic of multiple different students hands. 

As a wrap-up, I created this graphic using Wordle which can allow you to create an image from a list of text or a website.  It will create several arrangements of the text and can adapt the size of each word based on importance or frequency.

Cropping Exercise
While revisiting some photographs that I had previously taken in St. Johns Virgin Island, I noticed that several of them could be improved by cropping to control focus the image.  I used Photoshop Express which I downloaded onto my computer to manipulate the photographs below.  This would be a great tool to use in the classroom to manipulate images that you would like to use as "artifacts" when studying a unit so that students can get an idea of what an object look likes or where something took place.  As a teacher, I could see myself using photo editors to create more focused resources for my students and enhance existing visuals.

Before:
Image of a goat alongside a road in St. John's.

After:
The goat is more central to the image after cropping and appears to be progressing forward due to his location within the image and the area of blank space in front of him.

Before:
Image of a beach on St. John's with clear Caribbean waters.

After:
Cropping allows more of the focus to be placed on the water and not on the empty space of the sand.

Before:
Image of Blue Tang underwater.

After:
The Blue Tang is more central to the image and the bits of reef create a linear direction across the image toward the fish, eliminating the extraneous open space below.

Before:
Image of Sunrise Dottyback next to sea fan.

After:
With this image, I not only cropped the image but I cropped it in such a way that would change the orientation of the image to enhance the overall design to focus more specifically on the fish and the sea fan.

Before:
Image of sea turtle underwater in the Caribbean.

After:
I cropped the image and enhanced the contrast and clarity to improve the texture on the sea turtle shell.

Before:
Image of sea turtle underwater in the Caribbean, pushing off from the sea floor.

After:
I cropped the image so that the sea turtle would take up more of the frame while following the rule of thirds so that he is not located as centrally as he was in the original image.








Border Variation Exercise
I experimented applying different borders to one image of a project my students completed.

I like the first and fourth borders best because because I don't think they distract from the image as much as some of the other borders, which can draw some attention away from the student project.


In my future classroom, I can see myself being more cognizant of how my students will be viewing all types of media in my classroom including everything from text to images to audio to moving media.  By incorporating visuals into text that I use in the classroom, I can engage more learners and create more memorable visuals.  I will also use photo editing tools to enhance my own images as well as to teach students how to improve their own work.

References:
Krause, Jim. Design Basics Index. Cincinnati: HOW Design, 2004. Print.
All photographs used are my own.