Image: Captive

During an exploration of image, we were given a list of stimulating words and told to choose one to express through several different media. We had to include Photoshop, photography, hand drawing and collage. My chosen word was ‘Captive’ and so I first explored different interpretations of this term. Some of the ideas generated included a captive audience; a person kept captive; a spider web; someones actions being controlled; etc. After experimenting with different ideas, I decided that I would create a piece based on negative captivity, using the ideas of a spider web, a puppet and physical captivity of the piece within the page. In terms of the processes involved, I photographed a person curled up on the floor, and then drew a basic outline of their body and scanned it into Photoshop. I drew a spiderweb onto paper and then edited my two drawings together on Photoshop, editing the colour, saturation, opacity and exposure in order to create the shade and tone I wanted. I created the border using triangle cuttings from magazines in order to create a sharp, intimidating, captivating outline for the image.

Overall, I was happy with my piece, however I feel my limited Photoshop skills held me back from achieving the full success of my piece. I like the appearance that the triangular magazine cuttings achieved, as I feel it creates a sense of danger and containment of what is inside. I feel the colours I chose were effective in creating the atmosphere which I wanted, as cold colours are reminiscent with loneliness and negative feelings. I feel that my photoshop and illustrator skills are what let me down here, though the workshop with Matt did help me with basic skills that I didn’t have before. My feedback from Ray was extremely positive, which surprised me after seeing the high standard of work in the room on presentation day. Many of the pieces of work had be created on the computer, however without the skills to do this at this stage, mine stood out like a sore thumb as one handmade. Where my skills on my laptop failed me, my fine art skills from my art A level helped me in creating a piece of work to hand in that I felt happy with. I hope to improve my skills as the year goes on, so that eventually I can create work that I feel is at the standard of my peers and that I am proud of.