Pop Art Celebrity Portraits

Today we are starting a new unit on Pop Art. You will create two projects (one painting and one set of Photoshop prints) featuring a celebrity of your choice.

Project requirements:

• one black and white high contrast portrait with 4-6 shades
  
• a set of four coordinating Photoshop portraits of that celebrity featuring a range of different color schemes
  
• an 11×14 monochromatic acrylic portrait painting of that celebrity using 4-6 shades
  
• a 4-6 shade value scale (using the same paint colors you mixed for your monochromatic painting)

Today we will:

• Go to wordpress.com and set up a blog
• Email Ms. Lawson the link to your blog
• Download a high-res celebrity image to work with
• Crop the image so it is 11×14 inches
• Alter the image so it is a black and white image with 4-6 shades
• Create a new blog post with the following:
  • The original celebrity image
  • Your cropped, monochromatic high-contrast celebrity portrait
  • A paragraph describing why you picked the celebrity, and which colors you plan to you for each part of the project.

How to Create your cropped, monochromatic high-contrast celebrity portrait

1. Download your celebrity image
   1. Go to images.google.com and search for an image of your celebrity that is larger than 4MP
   2. Click on the image of your choice until you can view it full size. Then right click -> save image as and REMEMBER WHERE YOU SAVED THE IMAGE
2. Open your celebrity photo in Photoshop
   1. Open Photoshop (Click on the Windows icon at the bottom of the screen -> All Programs -> Adobe Master Collection CS3 -> Adobe Photoshop)
3. File -> Open (Select the image you downloaded. You will need to remember where you saved it!)
   
4. Turn the image black & white. (Image -> Mode -> Grayscale).
5. Crop your image.
   1. Select the crop tool. Set the crop tool to 11×14 inches. Click and drag the crop tool until the area you want to crop is selected.
   2. Hit enter to crop your image.
      
6. Intensify your shadows & highlights.
   1. Image -> Adjustments -> Levels
      
7. Simplify your image to 4-6 shades.
   1. Layer -> Duplicate Layer
   2. Filter -> Artistic -> Cutout
      
8. Touch up your image so it looks smooth and has a solid color background.
   1. Layer -> Duplicate Layer.
   2. Use the eyedropper tool to select a color, then use the brush tool (with hardness set to 100%) to color over the image and smooth out any awkward spot. The { key will make your brush smaller, and the } key will make your brush larger. You can use the magnifying glass to zoom in on the image.
      
9. Save your file as both a Photoshop (.psd) and a jpg (.jpg).
10. Upload your original image and your cutout image to your blog.