Blog-Folio Chapter 3 Graphic Animal

Kathleen M. Freeman
CIOS 108
Chapter 3
Graphic Animal Blog


This graphic reduction started with an owl photograph I took a couple of years ago. The photograph, of course, was in color; and shows an owl born that same summer almost fully matured. Less than two months before, the owl was covered in a very light colored down. In the photograph one can see a tuft of the down still on the bird. The owl’s head is actually rotated about 180 degrees from the front. An owl’s ability to rotate its head to such an extreme is rather remarkable to watch.

The graphic reduction does not show any of these traits, but the essence of the owl is still present. It looks like an owl.

I used Corel Painter IX and Adobe Photoshop to accomplish this assignment. Photoshop was used to process the photographs and to resize them appropriately. Corel Painter was used to facilitate my drawings. Initially, I used a Wacom tablet to free draw some images using different photos for the subject matter. For my final design, I used the clone function in Corel Painter and my Wacom tablet, which allowed me to trace around the image. Tracing allowed me to catch some of the finer detail of the owl and to portray the image in a better perspective.

The most challenging part of the assignment, but still the most fun was actually drawing the images. I used the computer because I did not have the drawing materials asked for in the assignment on hand, and I enjoyed using digital techniques of the computer to complete this assignment.