Photoshop: Ecological Political Poster

 For this task we had to create an A2 Ecological Political Poster. I chose to base my poster around plastic waste and global warming. I had the idea of having a melting globe with toxic smoke in the background. The melting is to portray increasing temperatures caused by global warming and the smoke is to portray the toxic fumes which can be created when certain plastics are melted. I incorporated an image of melting plastic, in the ocean part of the globe, to sort of portray how plastics are effecting the ocean and sea life.

My Poster

To create this poster I  started with a photo of an earth stress ball which I found in my photos, I chose to use this because I think it empasized the idea of a "plastic planet" since it had seam lines and was innaccurate which added to the melting look. 

After using the 'object select tool' to remove the background, I then used the 'liquify' tool (in filters) to make the shape look as though it was melting. Then I added a photo of a plastic bag and lowered the opacity, I then warped the image and used a layermask to make it fit. I think this made the globe look a bit like a balloon. (Image of plastic bag)

I then added this melting plastic image (Which might actually be a photo of lava), and used the 'smudge tool' and a layer mask to make it fit in the shape of the "ocean". I also experimented with different opacities and blending options.

After this I added a photo from a fire for the smoke. I ended up cutting out the smoke and duplicating it to fill the background. I used layermasks and the 'clone stamp tool' for this. 

Finally, I messed around with effects like; duplicating the smoke so that it covered the earth a bit and adding a solid colour fill (which I reduced the opacity of and used a layermask to make it so it was only around the edge of the earth, to act as shading)

I then looked at these two articles about plastic waste and climate change:

https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2019/08/how-plastics-contribute-to-climate-change/

https://www.wwf.org.au/news/blogs/plastic-waste-and-climate-change-whats-the-connection#gs.ebfwgy

I then added the text saying "Do you want a plastic planet?". I used the 'fx' button to add strokes and a drop shadow to the text.