Surf - Design Planet: Surf - Design Planet Blurp No.43

Andy Warhol to Ron English

Most people, I believe, are familiar with the Pop Art of Andy Warhol who created large canvases of silkscreen and lithographed prints with subjects varying from Campbell's Soup Cans to portraits such as Marilyn Monroe (1967) below.

Many of today's contemporary fine, graphic, and street artists have also used this technique; which recently included artist Ron English in his Street Art Paste-Up Poster depicting President Elect Obama as Lincoln which was posted in various locations across the United States.

A couple of years ago, my eldest daughter gave me the O'Reilly published book shown below. The cover shows two boys in the effect of Andy Warhol's screened images. Page 160 in the book shows the step-by-step process of creating a photo montage in this style using Photoshop.

A little fun ...with myself!

I'm sure there are other books, and tutorials on the web, which will show you how to create this type of effect in a variety of graphic software programs for a professional result. While stumbling yesterday, I found this instant-easy website http://www.photofunia.com/effects/110/ where you can download your photo into a chosen background scene/image. It looked like fun, so I share my results below. Ah, it was better time spent than watching the depressing news of the day:>)
Tip: Avoid all the surrounding advertising on the website's page.

I chose two small photos of myself that I recently had on file (file must be less than 2.0mb). The first one was formal - from my eldest daughter's wedding, and the other I took while holding my camera at the right angle in my bathroom mirror to avoid reflections. I also thought I would try a non-portrait - my Surf-the-Arts logo.

Directions: On the web page you select the image effect you want, then download your photo. It takes a few seconds, and poof your photo has been added to the image. You can then save it if you want. If you don't like it, you can try another image. Note: My logo above did work, but on trying other non-portrait images it stated that no face was found. Tip: Just click any photo to enlarge.

The Wonderful Results!!!

Screened Pop Art