Digital Drawing: Compositions

Assignment 3: Digital Drawing: Compositions
• Due no later than 11:30 p.m. ET on Day 5 of Unit 4
• Worth 15% of final grade
Description
This week you will compose your own multi-layered digital composition of an interior
space using Photoshop. You will find and begin with an image of a space. You will then
insert furniture, lighting, accessories, and people. You will embellish the space with a
cohesive design style and color selections of your choice.
Include the following. Feel free to add more while avoiding over-designing the space to
create a composition.
• 1-pt or 2-pt Space Image (make sure you select something fairly empty that can be
filled in by you).
• 1-2 people with shadows including Gaussian and Motion blur
• 2-3 pieces of furniture
• End or coffee table
• Accessory – art and/or rugs
• Ceiling light fixture(s)
Required Materials
• BID Supply kit
• Weekly lectures and readings
• Adobe Creative Cloud
Information on Finding Source Images, Editing and Placing, and Citing
Sometimes you may receive images of an empty space from a client if it is an existing
building (space) or you may need to find one to give them a vision. You will find an
image this week to work within. Once you decide on a space and style, you will need to
find other interior images of a similar style and color palette to weave together. Google
contains many sources for furniture, lighting, people, etc. and objects to place images
into empty spaces.
There are various places to find them online to find these. Some places that I like to go
to are architecture blogs. These are often empty houses that were submissions created
for competitions.
Website sources that you may find useful as inspiration for interior spaces and imagery:
• Arch Daily. (n.d.). Arch Daily. Retrieved from www.archdaily.com
• Dwell. (n.d.). Dwell. Retrieved from www.Dwell.com
• Inhabitat. (n.d.). Inhabitat. Retrieved from www.inhabitat.com
Free domain Image Sources:
• Wikimedia Commons. (n.d.). Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
• Flickr. (n.d.). The commons. Retrieved from
https://www.flickr.com/commons
• Burning Well. (n.d.). Burning Well. Retrieved from
http://www.burningwell.org/
• Pixnio. (n.d.). Pixnio. Retrieved from https://pixnio.com/
Once you have your collection of images you intend to use, you are ready to get started
on your photomontage in Photoshop.
Use commons images when possible on sites such as Wikipedia Commons.
CITATIONS: As a part of the assignment, you must cite all images, websites, and books
used in the creation of your photomontage. You must include a separate citation page
as a document file or PDF and submit it with your work, in APA format.
Instructions
1. Begin by opening your space image in Photoshop. Make sure you are set to 72 dpi and
RGB colour. Make sure your space image is of a high resolution to begin with and
approx. 8.5×11 +/-. You will put this in an 11×17 booklet later, so you will want it
smaller than that to create a nice frame/matte the image later.
2. Space Image: Draw guidelines of the perspective angles for references in red on a new
layer. You may end up with several layers each with a line on them.
3. Open all of your other images by right-clicking in your Windows or Mac browser, and
selecting “open with Photoshop”. These will open in a new tab. Since we are not using
a masking technique, we will be opening each image separately in order to cut the
object out of each image and then paste it into the space. Again, make sure that your
found images are of a decent quality. You want this quality consistent throughout your
work. You do not want digitized or fuzzy images next to crisp ones. Everything should
be clean and crisp.
4. Start with one of your images and do the following for each one until you are finished:
a. Use the magic wand tool to select the background. Shift – add more to
selection, Alt = remove more from selection. Then choose Select> Inverse.
Then type cntrl +C on your keyboard for copy. Then go to the space tab and
select cntrl + V for paste.
b. Each item brought in will be on a new layer.
5. TRANSFORMING IMAGES
For your interior elements, once all pasted into the space image file, click on the layer
of the item you want to modify. Then, type cntrl + T in order to transform the image.
To readjust the size, click on the nodes (boxes) while holding down shift to resize.
While in the transform command, you can also right click to use perspective and skew
commands.
Note – as you adjust each image, refer to the perspective grid lines and consider
scale. Line people’s eyes along the horizon line. This should be the line between
the 2 vanishing points, or the one vanishing point (in a 1- pt).
6. SHADOWS
To add shadows, start by selecting the object(s) for which you want to create a
shadow. Instead of clicking on an object to select it in Photoshop, select things by
clicking on it in the layer menu to the right. Keep in mind you can turn “auto-select” on
and off using the check box at the top.
Right click on the layer in the layer menu to copy. Rename by clicking on the new name
in the layer menu. For example “People Shadows”. Select this new copied item/object
in the layer list. Then type cntrl + U on the keyboard and adjust the darkness to make it
black. Then set the opacity to 40% (on the layer menu). Once you have the layer
selected in the list, you can type cntrl + T on your keyboard, then you should see grips
appear on the item. Then you are able to rotate or resize. Hold down shift on the
keyboard to maintain the proportions. To skew and distort right click on the object.
These modifications will be needed to make the shadows realistic. Note the light
direction in the space and make sure shadows are opposite of your light sources. Add
shadows to all people, accessories, and furniture items.
Use the Marquee tools to select and cut out shadows or move and bend them as
necessary.
7. BLUR using Gaussian Blur (under filters) on the shadows and Motion Blur on the
people.
8. SATURATE/DESATURATE: Select your people. Type cntrl + U on the keyboard and
desaturate your people to create a more subtle focus on them. You can play with
saturation levels slightly or values of people and other elements in your space as
elements are either closer or farther away in view.
9. View this series of tutorial videos for assistance:
• Screencast.com. (n.d.). Photomontage_Part 1_Sources [Video file]. Retrieved from

• Screencast.com. (n.d.). Photomontage_Part 2 [Video file]. Retrieved from

• Screencast.com. (n.d.). Photomontage_Part 3 [Video file]. Retrieved from

Submission
Submit your original file in Photoshop (PSD) format as well as a copy of your assignment
saved as a PDF below. Use the following naming protocol:
DIDV130_Assignment3_lastname_firstname.psd
DIDV130_Assignment3_lastname_firstname.pdf
Evaluation
The following rubric indicates those areas you should be focusing on as you prepare
your assignment.
Evaluation Criteria
Activity/Competencies Demonstrated Grade
1. Composition: Included all required items – Furniture, Lighting, People, and
Accessories
/25
2. Design: Colour and Style of Items in Space /20
3. Accuracy: Scale of objects in Space /20
4. Accuracy and Skill: Perspective Angles of Objects in Space Based on Chosen
Room Image (1 –pt. or 2 – pt perspective view)
/20
5. Skill: Shadow Work on Furniture, Items, and People /5
6. Image Citation Component /5
7. Skill: Evidence and Appropriate Level of Blurring Effect on People /5
Total /100