Its obvious when you first look at this image that it was inspired by none other than the Jabbawockeez, the Season 1 Champions of America’s Best Dance Crew, who also stared in the movie Step Up 2 The Streets, who have taken the nation by storm.

I love break dancing, hip hop, and all forms of artistic and expression, and this image in which I am actually the model, allowed me to unite those passions in an interesting and unique way!

I had a friend snap a few pictures of me while I was doing a few moves in this mask and decided to use them for a series of Photo Manipulations. In this work I wanted to get back to lighting effects as they work so well with this type of image. I also wanted to add various other elements to convey motion, such as the arrows and the lines. It was also vary different to be in front of the camera for a change, but an interesting experience, I think I will try being my own model more often as it has opened up some interesting possibilities.

As for the Jabbawockeez mask, it was actually left over from my Halloween costume I wore while clubbing this year, which was a hit. I have some other images that I will post when they are finished but I just couldn’t wait to share this with you all. I’m a huge fan of the Jabbawockeez and I really enjoyed working on this image.

Visual Effects
This image required a series of layer for each of the individual effects as well as some intense masking, I would say there was anything in particular I had to do that I hadn’t used in previous images before as far as technique, I think it was more of a matter of execution in which I think I’ve improved quite a bit. In away this comes back full circle to “Dark Leap” one of my first images in this style. I’ve mostly improved on the techniques I used for that image and combined them with everything else I’ve learned since then.

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This kind of photo manipulation are also taught to students taking Graphic Design Degree and part of their basic curriculum.

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Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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