Gold Fish: A Senior Explorations Amplified Piece by Lora Maslenitsyna (2014)

Gold Fish: Not a Snack, Doesn't Smile Back - I decided to amplify the piece I created for the Isolation Vs. Solitude prompt. In my BlinkWrite, I discussed the differences and the similarities between the two ideas. I connected them to old Russian mythology, specifically to old fishing stories. I interpreted the story The Fisherman and the Sea by Alexander Pushkin with the image of a sea creature breaking out of a lighthouse.

My original studio art was created with ink, pastels, and watercolor paints. I scanned it into Photoshop and layered a photograph of a metal fence over the lighthouse. I wanted to enhance the colors and the texture of the pastels and the paint, so I applied an HDR filter to the entire canvas. Following the story of The Fisherman and the Sea that I explained in my BlinkWrite, I altered the image to look as if it was reflected in water. In the Filter Gallery, I applied the Sketch and Halftone Pattern filter to a blank white layer. After adding a slight Gaussian Blur, I displaced it onto my studio art so that the bottom canvas would appear to have a slight ripple in it, like a reflection seen on moving water. I also added a low-opacity blue hue to the bottom half of my art to contribute to the water effect. Finally, I looked for a font that would reflect the shapes that I drew with the ink and wrote a line from the story in my BlinkWrite that I thought would most complement my piece.