Montage Reflection

Harlan B. 
I Want To Believe: Montage
Photoshop CC 2014
February 20th, 2015

In my art piece, I used tools such as the Marquee Tool, Quick Selection Tool, Magic Wand Tool, Erasers, Brushes and the Dodge and Burn tools. Also things like Layer Blends.  The idea I used in this piece was that there is life out there, that we humans aren't the only forms of life in the universe. As I worked on my piece, to me seemed to have more of a discovery feel to it, like that there's more to discover. Although discovery does have some coloration to there being other life out there, it just wasn't my main idea in the beginning I do think it worked out alright in the end.
 I didn't really have any influences from any artists in my work. For this piece I wanted to stay away symmetry because I wanted it too be unique, not that symmetry isn't, but that i want it to be different all around the image rather than just have it be repeated. I feel having the image be asymmetrical was a good choice because when you look all around the image, it's different all over.
When I look at the image, my eye starts at the bottom with the astronaut, then upwards to the spaceship, then to the satellite. From there my eyes go towards the large earth then down to the Wow! signal, and back to the astronaut. I guess my motivation for this piece other than to complete the assignment was my interest in the subject of space and life beyond earth.
Elements I found interesting were the was all the colours blended together nicely. Something else I think works good is the little hints I put in. For example the Wow! and the numbers isn't a random image I added, it's a signal that was received back in 1977, that came from somewhere in deep space, nothing like it has ever been received again. Nothing about the process really surprised me. I think with additional time, I would have added more images and more little hints to things about my subject.