Digital Abstraction Tutorial Through Distortion Techniques

 

Abstraction Through Distortion

Remember I said that art from Africa (although Picasso denied this) also influenced the development of abstraction. The next father of abstraction developed cubism which also was a great style of change for the last 100 years. Many artists still create works in this style today. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (The Young Ladies of Avignon) is a large scale painting presenting French ladies of the night produced by Pablo Picasso in 1907. Five nude sex workers from a Barcelona brothel are the subject of this work.

 

 

Pho

Notice the faces that look like masks. This was indeed shocking to the viewers at this time. It also led Picasso and numerous others to distort reality through cubism, which distorted reality by viewing it from many sides at the same time.

 

Picasso - Head of a Sleeping Woman (Study for Nude with Drapery), 1907. Oil on canvas, 61.4 × 47.6 cm, The Museum of Modern Art, New York / Left: Pablo Picasso - Femme nue, oil on canvas, 1907. Oil on canvas, 92 x 43 cm, Museo delle Culture, Milano

 

Adobe has some interesting distortion filters to work with for this style.

Step 1

 I found a simple photograph that I will attempt to play with the same colors and distortion as the Femme Nude.

My Photograph of ODIE

 

 

The first step was to duplicate this layer and then erase the background leaving only the head.  The eraser tool works just like a paintbrush. 

With the layer of the head I use filter ink outline, and distort pinch lining up the head to distort it in a way that Changes the head Size in a way that seems mask like.

 

Next I want to make the mask more elongated, so the next step is to use edit, transform distort.

 

After trying distort, the elongation that I liked the best was perspective.

Next I worked on the background layer without the head. I used filter-gallery smudgestick.

To simulate the yellow tones I used image adjust color balance and chose to up yellow on medium and

shadows.

 

Finally, I made bold brush marks and played with color filters.

Assignment:2 - Make 2 or more examples of photos with distortion filters and or use edit free transform distort. Budget time 2-4 hours.

Here are two distortion and abstraction videos.

Photograph of yarn puppy I made.

Wave Distortion Video In Adobe