Birthdays and Photo Illustration

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day, all, and that means it’s also happy birthday to me. Yes, it’s my birthday, and I used to tell everyone on the elementary school playground that I was half-leprechaun because of it. It was a lie, but I kind of wish it wasn’t …

Today is my big three-cubed, otherwise known as 27. I am very excited by this mathematical connection because I am a nerd!

So, I thought you’d all enjoy this photo of my on my 8th birthday, at one of Hollywood’s gems, the sadly now-defunct Ed Debevic’s (the most awesome ’50s-style diner there ever was and probably ever will be):

I don’t think I’ve changed at all, do you? Those clip-on earrings say all you really need to know about me, then and now.

Anyway, this birthday week has been a fun one in school! Two of my classmates had birthdays this week, too, so it was one celebration after another, all while we worked on photo illustration.

Photo illustration is well-known to anyone who’s ever picked up a magazine and looked at ads; almost everything is composited in Photoshop one way or another.

We were given free reign to come up with our own concepts, shoot their components, and put together our illustrations. I settled in on the idea of the hamsa; this is an amulet that wards off the evil eye and shows up in countless cultures around the world. My idea was a bit more out there than many of my classmates, some of whom illustrated more literal things with their work, but I wanted to go with a trippy, conceptual thing and go wild with my illustration.

How’d I do?

I’m not a Photoshop whiz by any means yet, but I had a great time enlarging my hamsa charm, shooting Nicole (yes, here she is again!), and working with patterns to create this image. I learned a lot doing it, too, which is always a plus!

And now, I’m off to enjoy my birthday. Have a green food-colored treat for me today!