Self-Portrait- Rollingstone Cover

I had a lot of fun with this week’s challenge. We are still in week three of the not so popular online tools prompt. The point is to use online tools to create or enhance an image. After the first week, I decided to simply ignore the online part of the prompt, and use my own tools to enhance my images, primarily Photoshop. The online tools do not offer enough input for the artist, and I feel very constrained. However, there is one that has caught my eye. The Flikr magazine cover maker was not without its charms, but again the final product does not look authentic. So what to do?

Last week, I played around with the idea of graphics and found that text was the hardest part in creating authentic, dynamic designs. So this week, I wanted to play around with layout, especially with text. Before we get to the covers, let me share a brief story.

When I was a younger, Rollingstone magazine seemed very important. I am not even talking about the seventies, when Hunter S. Thompson was writing for the rag, and it really was important. I am talking about the nineties when people like Eddie Vedder, Kurt Cobain, and even Axl Rose graced the cover. To be on the cover of Rollingstone meant that you had made it. Ironically, this was the crossroad between the mainstream and the end of the line for independence. I can see now that, even at the time when I felt Rollingstone magazine still had some dignity, it was nothing more that a commercial enterprise posing as a political, musical, hodgepodge. Today the magazine is a joke.

Nonetheless, I still feel an affinity to the Rollingstone cover. I still carry the dream of maybe, one day, gracing its cover; so this week, I decided to put myself on the cover. I did some research and examined over fifty covers. I never realized how different every cover really is. I don’t just mean by the variety of people who are on the cover, but also the variety of layouts. Some covers are littered with text, while others are sparse.

Another new feature, I would like to introduce this week is the Leftovers Slideshow. Every week, I take about 30 pictures and begin the editing process. I usually get down to about ten shots and then finally pick one. It is always tough throwing the others away, but between my daughter and me, my iPhotos library is becoming unmanageable. So every week, I just throw the unwanted pictures away. This week, however, I have decided to start posting them on Flickr. If you would like to see a few more shots from this photo shoot, please click here. Even after the editing, I still couldn’t narrow it down to just one, so I have cheated and included two covers. Let me know which one you like best. Wow, I have been rambling on this post. Enjoy the covers. Both have been made on Photoshop from scratch.

note: look for the SPC shout outs!