Surrealist Montage Assignment

As explained elsewhere, a Montage is simply a single final image composed of more than one source image.

Surrealism is an art movement. Artcyclopedia defines it like this: Surrealism is a style in which fantastic visual imagery from the subconscious mind is used with no intention of making the artwork logically comprehensible.

Jerry Uelsmann	Jerry Uelsmann

Surrealists don’t obey the laws of perspective or proportion, nor the logic of what goes with what. Surrealist pieces are often very dreamlike, and in fact dream imagery is one of their main ways of exploring the human subconscious.

Jerry Uelsmann	Rene Magritte

Anne Geddes specializes in a form of surrealism in her baby portraits. The babies are “placed” (using Photoshop) in positions and places that look normal, but on deeper inspection you realize that a baby isn’t really small enough to fit in a flower or a pumpkin. Also, you sometimes see the same baby beside itself! Note how perfectly the blending of layers is – she’s matched things like lighting and tones, and there are no sharp edges where you can tell that something has been pasted in. She also adds shadows to increase realism. (A surrealist might have the shadow going the wrong way, or evident in one spot but not another…)

Your assignment here is to create a surreal montage in the style of Anne Geddes or Gerry Uelsmann.

You don’t have to get deeply into dream symbolism etc. Just concentrate on creating a work that is beautiful to look at, and intriguing to think about when looked at closely.

· Defy the laws of proportion and perspective. For example, place large things (e.g. people) inside small ones (e.g. a lunch bag or a spoon)

· Juxtapose (place next to each other) things that don’t belong together.

· Despite breaking the rules above, give the whole image some unity. It should look semi-normal at first glance, and only seem logically impossible when the viewer thinks about it more.

Some Rules and Specifications

• All layers must be your own photography, shot for this project, except for ONE (only) image optinally obtained from the Net or from your earlier photos)
• Save all original photos used as jpegs in your AWT3/Surreal folder, along with a PSD and JPEG named your_name_surreal e.g. fred_flinstone_surreal.psd, fred_flinstone_ surreal.jpg. I would expect between 4 and 8 images to be used, so there should be that many jpegs.
• If you’re doing the Anne Geddes emulation, try repeating your subject i.e. 2 different versions of your subject placed e.g. 2 photos of the same person straining to hold up both ends of a pin!
• The final surreal montage should be about 1500 pixels wide, and as tall as you think is appropriate. Use the File, New command to create a blank RGB file.
• Use PShop skills to subtly blend the parts together. Play with layer transparency. Select, copy and paste carefully. Change the order of layers by dragging them above and below each other. Use a large soft-edged eraser to remove unwanted parts of a layer. Add drop shadows or use the Burn tool to simulate shadows.

Evaluation

· Originality

· Quality of photography

· Quality of blending in PShop

· Quality of final product – does it look good, are the blends seamless, is it convincing, is it surreal?

Are You Done? Checklist:

· All photography your own (except one image), well shot

· All photo files saved in AWT3/Surreal folder

· Final surreal montage saved as .psd AND .jpg in AWT3/Montage folder; correct filenames your_name_ surreal.psd and your_name_ surreal.jpg

· Montage.doc saved.