Friday, June 26, 2015

What I'll do this summer...

It's been a little over a week since my time at ABC Adult School ended.  I'll miss the four-times-a-week dance class rotation, not the least because my dad claims I've lost some weight.  I haven't measured and don't know for sure, but I'll sure take my father's word for it!

As I try to find some new ways to exercise, I have committed to another personal project involving an Adobe program; however, this time, it's using InDesign CC instead of Photoshop CC.  InDesign is a desktop publishing program that is often used to design brochures, flyers, and even entire books.

Specifically, what I plan to do is an official magazine chronicling a mythical reunion of Buddy Wayne Barefoot's distant relatives.  B.W. is the great-great-great-grandson of Miles Vinson "Pink" Barefoot, a real person who I have integrated into my story.  (I should point out that the late Alfred Barefoot, whose name was one of the bases of the main character, had the same relationship in real life that B.W. does in my story.)

Thanks to the post-resurrection world, eight(!) different generations have been invited to the old cemetery in Meadow - now a private house and meeting room - for a family reunion on the second Saturday in July, every odd year.  Therefore, if this reunion existed, the next one would be on July 11.

Due to the large amount of work required, this project will last through most, if not all, of the ABC Adult School summer vacation, which will end on Sep. 8.  Even then, some followup work could be required to manipulate and post pictures.  I will take some screen grabs and place them here as the work progresses.

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Hambone, fishing, and hunting

This is a week I have made and rediscovered some projects.

Up first is my character crush, Hambone.  This is a montage I made months ago at ABC Adult School, but rediscovered only this past week while searching for something for other (and I do wish I could remember just what I was seeking).  Anyway, this shows an interesting, informal battle for cow-milking supremacy between the beauty queen Brandy and the redneck woman Hambone.  To gain milk and other dairy products, the Barefoot family maintains two cows, whose names I've prominently placed in the montage below.  What I did was download an online picture of a dairy farmer who lives in Minnesota, then used an expanded canvas, duplication, and a horizontal flip to make a mirror image.  The faces of Brandy and Hambone then replaced the original ones.  Of course, the line at the top paraphrases the nursery rhyme "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary."


Up next, the pretty childhood face of Hambone's dad Popeye shows up again, this time in a promotional announcement for an event that would take place this coming Saturday on the pond named after the clan engineer, Oliver.  There are literally hundreds of father-son combinations in the extended family, and all are invited to a contest to determine the best pair of fishermen.  (Popeye and Ralph are annual contenders, of course.)  This project was created by combining Photoshop and a preview feature at the online store Shindigz.com.  The store sells fishing-themed invitations for birthday parties.  I used the available text layers and a picture upload to create the preview; however, when I tried to add another graphic I was not allowed to do so.  As a result, the preview had to be saved to my hard drive, then taken to Photoshop for the addition of the footprints I found on the Barefoot Chiropractic & Wellness page.  Those prints were isolated from the frame, colored black, and scaled to fit the circle.



Finally, 'Bone's brother Ralph is the featured character in my second movie poster.  Or more accurately, a "nested character" I created by the name of Buck Hunter.  He's a "superhero" for the outdoors community as big game doesn't stand a chance.  I was inspired by the "Duckmen of Louisiana" videos which are referenced in Duck Dynasty star Willie Robertson's book The Duck Commander Family, in which the hunters have larger-than-life portrayals.  I also wanted to create an old-time feel, and that explains "the star is the character" phrasing.  The bow and arrow set came from a sporting-goods store website.  To the rasterized text, I added two simulated sets of deer tracks.