Write a Descriptive Paragraph

Lesson Info

Write a Descriptive Paragraph

Looking at more images here, this is one that I created earlier this year and I had a lot to think about here because almost none of this image existed, it was just a field that I went out to, and I had to create something in that field. I didn't have to, I chose to, but I needed to put something in it for sure because how weird would it be if you just saw me post a picture of a field? You'd be like, "Hm, what's Brooke up to? "Not much, she just took a picture of a field." So I need to put something in it, so I've got these stars, which, I should say this is not quite the before image, there were no stars in the sky or stars on the ground, there was just a field, but I added stars, I added more stars. Stars and stars, stars in the sky, stars on the ground, and then I built this box tower and then I photographed myself in multiple parts trying to get my body in there. I changed some colors, I changed the lighting, I changed a while bunch of stuff about this image and then I ended up the...

re, but what I really wanna talk about with this image is not how it was created but why. And I think that what's important to do is to write about your images, and you might be very resistant to that, you might think, oh I really hate writing, and that's okay. I'm not saying become a writer, write a poem about the picture you're gonna make or anything like that, but if you can answer how, what and why for the images that you're creating: what is it, how did I do it, and why am I compelled to do it? Then you're much more likely to be able to speak more meaningfully about your work, and I think that's very important to be able to speak about your work and we're actually gonna talk about that later on in the class, but to me, if you can answer how and why before you even start the picture, aren't you much more likely to create something meaningful that actually ends up working out if you think it through how you're going to do it and why you're doing it ahead of time. I think that you should do this both for new pictures as well as old pictures. So I love going back through my portfolio and choosing a random image and writing down why I created that picture. I think that it's really fun to do, it just gets your mind thinking about, oh, what was I thinking on that day, why did I wanna do this, how could I put that into words? But especially doing it before you create something new is, in my opinion, one of the best things that we can do to start training ourselves to think more deeply about our images. Okay, so I've got a wall of text for you here. I'm going to read it to you though. And this is my description of this image, what I would write and what I did write before I created this image. I put it into nicer terms, cuz I did a lot of bullet points, but you get the idea, so I wrote, too often we face gray sky days and wish for something better. What if we could pull the curtain over those clouds and create our own blue shy day? I will achieve this by standing on crates that allow me to reach higher into the sky. I will photograph a blue sheet so that I can impose light clouds on to create a blue sky look. I will blend gray clouds into the being so that they are being covered. I want to create my own reality, one that I can control and define as I wish. This image represents that power that we have as artists and creators. So that was my how and why for this picture. I went through, I said exactly what I wanna do, how I plan on doing it, and then further, why it's important to me, what is the concept here, what am I trying to communicate with this image. And I find that when I go through this process and I show people my images, they're much more likely to say, "Oh I get it, I get what that concept is, "I get what you're trying to say." But when I don't think about it enough and I send someone an image and then I say, "What do you think?" They're like, "Uh, what are you trying to do here?" You know? So the point I'm saying this is that I think that the more you can do this, the more that you can talk about why you're creating and how you're creating then someone is much more likely to understand that thing, the how and the why, they're likely to say, "Oh it works, it flows, I understand not necessarily "how you created it but I get that this looks like "a picture that was created well." And that is the worst thing when someone says, "It looks photoshopped." I don't wanna hear that from anybody, ever. But then more importantly, they're going to look at it and say, "I understand why you did this." And I think that if we can write that out ahead of time, perfect. All right, so I just thought that I would show you how this image was built since we just talked about it. But first, let me tell you what, how and why. So if we can break it down. If you don't feel like writing a paragraph, you like, "Eh, I don't wanna write a paragraph about "every single picture," fine, don't write a paragraph. That's okay. All I want you to do is write what, how and why which is a part of our guide for this class, so we've got our little work book and it's going to ask you some of these questions like, what, how and why, and how you can try to work that into when you plan your photo shoot, so what for this image is literally what, what is happening? I mean we can all answer this, it's just a girl pulling a blue sky down over a gray sky, that's what the image is. And then we have how, so how did I do it? I used a blue bed sheet, that was how I did it, I used a blue bed sheet to be tugging on to pull it down over the sky, and then why. To show the power that we have as individuals to create our reality. Great, simple, simple, simple. Now if I know these things in three easy sentences, then I can communicate that so fast to people. I have been in gallery shows where someone comes in and they'll say, "Why did you do this?" Like really easy question, right, except not an easy question for a lot of people. You have to be able to say, "Boom, that's why I did it. "I know exactly why I did this picture." If you can't say that, I mean, just think about if you're the client, you're going into buy someone's print and the artist is there and you say, "Why did you make this?" And they're like, "I don't know." Or, "I can't think of anything." Then aren't you gonna be like, oh, I don't really wanna buy that print after all, there was no thought put into this, it just sorta muddies it up a little bit. So this was how this picture started, with a field. As apparently so many do with just a field, and I ended up using various compositing magic, just kidding, to put this together. So this was my really awful next stage where I've got like random colors put in here, cuz I thought it'd be covered later, like right now, and I have this, I'm not gonna say bad habit, I'm gonna say really effective but potentially what other people would call bad habit of just painting over things with my brush in Photoshop, it's my favorite thing to do. So I just painted over the sky, cuz I didn't need it, I knew I'd be putting my own in. See if I had kept this image, it would have been okay, those are stormy clouds, it would have been okay, but it wasn't quite the right field, it was still a little too bright in the background. You can see how some of the whites, some of the highlights are being really blown out back there. So I'm just covering that up so that I have a blank canvas to create my own version here, whatever I want. There are my crates. There are my legs. There's my body. There's some hair. I don't know why, I'm always photographing myself in multiple parts and I really don't even have a reason for you, but it just happens. Then I've got my clouds that I chose because they were nice and dark at the horizon line which is where they're going to be showing most. Okay. Now we got the sheet, so there's my sheet. That's my blue sheet that i was clearly not holding to begin with, so I was posing with just my arms in the air pretending like I was holding onto something, because I'm working totally by myself, so I wanna make this clear. Had I had a crew with me, had I had just one person with me, then I might have had them try to hold the sheet up or I might have tried to fix the sheet somewhere, but I'm just one little girl, and I did it like this because one, I'm very impatient. I don't have a lot of patience when I'm shooting so I don't wanna take the time to clamp things in places, but also, I was by myself and it was just easier to photograph the sheet separately instead of while I was posing, so I did that. Then we've got the sky blended into that sheet, just a totally different picture of clouds that I blended into that shy. And now we have some overall adjustments, which in my opinion make it mine at that point. It's like there's the compositing and there's the making it your portion, which is the lighting and the colors and how you choose to go about finishing the image, and so there we have it. It was a very cold day where I was. So that was me photographing the crates, and I knew that I wanted the crates to look a little bit bigger in the final picture, so I knew that I would be cutting them out anyways, so I didn't bother going into the space to do it, not to mention, this field was from New Zealand and I don't live there. So that's how this came together, New Zealand field and sky from California and crates from my house and a sheet from Goodwill, and there we have it.

Class Description

Lessons

1. Class Introduction
2. Storytelling & Ideas
3. Universal Symbols in Stories
4. Create Interactive Characters
5. The Story is in The Details
6. Giving Your Audience Feelings
7. Guided Daydream Exercise
8. Elements of Imagery
9. The Death Scenario
10. Associations with Objects
11. Three Writing Exercises
12. Connection Through Art
13. Break Through Imposter Syndrome
14. Layering Inspiration
15. Creating an Original Narrative
16. Analyze an Image
17. Translate Emotion into Images
18. Finding Parts in Images
19. Finding Your Target Audience
20. Where Do You Want Your Images to Live?
21. Create a Series That Targets Your Audience
22. Formatting Your Work
23. Additional Materials to Attract Clients
24. Which Social Media Platforms Will be Useful?
25. How to Make Money from Your Target Audience
26. Circle of Focus
27. The Pillars of Branding
28. Planning Your Photoshoot
29. Choose Every Element for The Series
30. Write a Descriptive Paragraph
31. Sketch Your Ideas
32. Choose Your Gear
33. How to Utilize Costumes, Props & Locations
34. What Tells a Story in a Series?
35. Set Design Overview
36. Color Theory
37. Lighting for the Scene
38. Props, Wardrobe & Time Period for Set Design
39. Locations
40. Subject Within the Scene
41. Set Design Arrangement
42. Fine Art Compositing
43. Plan The Composite Before Shooting
44. Checklist for Composite Shooting
45. Analyze Composite Mistakes
46. Shoot: Black Backdrop for White Clothing
47. Shoot: Black Backdrop for Color Clothing
48. Shoot: Black Backdrop for Accessories
49. Shoot: Miniature Scene
50. Editing Workflow Overview
51. Add Fabric to Make a Big Dress
52. Edit Details of Images
53. Add Smoke & Texture
54. Blend Multiple Images Into One Composite
55. Put Subject Into a Miniature Scenario
56. Location Scouting & Test Photoshoot
57. Self Portrait Test Shoots
58. Shoot for Edit
59. Shoot Extra Stock Images
60. Practice the Shoot
61. Introduction to Shooting Photo Series
62. Shoot: Vine Image
63. Shoot: Sand Image
64. Shoot: End Table Image
65. Shoot: Bed Image
66. Shoot: Wall Paper Image
67. Shoot: Chair Image
68. Shoot: Mirror Image
69. Shoot: Moss Image
70. Shoot: Tree Image
71. Shoot: Fish Tank Image
72. Shoot: Feather Image
73. View Photo Series for Cohesion & Advanced Compositing
74. Edit Multiple Images to Show Cohesion
75. Edit Images with Advanced Compositing
76. Decide How to Start the Composite
77. Organize Final Images
78. Choosing Images for Your Portfolio
79. Order the Images in Your Portfolio
80. Why do Some Images Sell More Than Others?
81. Analyze Student Portfolio Image Order
82. Framing, Sizing, Editioning & Pricing
83. Determine Sizes for Prints
84. How to Choose Paper
85. How to Choose Editions
86. Pricing Strategies
87. How to Present Your Images
88. Example Pricing Exercise
89. Print Examples
90. Licensing, Commissions & Contracts
91. How to Keep Licensing Organized
92. How to Prepare Files for Licensing
93. Pricing Your Licensed Images
94. Contract Terms for Licensing
95. Where to Sell Images
96. Commission Pricing Structure
97. Contract for Commissions
98. Questions for a Commission Shoot
99. Working with Galleries
100. Benefits of Galleries
101. Contracts for Galleries
102. How to Find Galleries
103. Choose Images to Show
104. Hanging the Images
105. Importance of Proofing Prints
106. Interview with Soren Christensen Gallery
107. Press Package Overview
108. Artist Statement for Your Series
109. Write Your 'About Me' Page
110. Importance of Your Headshot
111. Create a Leave Behind & Elevator Pitch
112. Writing For Fine Art
113. Define Your Writing Style
114. Find Your Genre
115. What Sets You Apart?
116. Write to Different Audiences
117. Write for Blogging
118. Speak About Your Work
119. Branding for Video
120. Clearly Define Video Talking Points
121. Types of Video Content
122. Interview Practice
123. Diversifying Social Media Content
124. Create an Intentional Social Media Persona
125. Monetize Your Social Media Presence
126. Social Media Posting Plan
127. Choose Networks to Use & Invest
128. Presentation of Final Images
129. Printing Your Series
130. How to Work With a Print Lab
131. Proofing Your Prints
132. Bad Vs. Good Prints
133. Find Confidence to Print
134. Why Critique?
135. Critiquing Your Own Portfolio
136. Critique of Brooke's Series
137. Critique of Student Series
138. Yours is a Story Worth Telling