graphics 1 final!

Our graphics final project was to turn art into graphic design using tutorials.  I chose to start out with a painting I created myself of a road.  I looked into a lot of different websites for tutorials I thought would enhance my painting through graphic design, and the ones I used I will mention later.  This is a picture of my painting...

I then played around with filters to make my painting look less like a regular piece of art, and more modern, like graphic design tends to be.  

I thought the crystalizing filter gave the painting a nice edge.

Now, the plan all along was to show through this piece of graphic design that nature and modern society, represented by roads, can live in harmony.  I saw a puzzle piece tutorial, and the idea of all the "pieces fitting together" would represent my theme perfectly.  

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/photoshop-puzzle/page-2.php is the site I used for my puzzle effect.

i also learned from text effect tutorials to rastersize type, making it no longer type so I could transform it. Then, I used the pen tool to cut out a section of the puzzle to make space for the words.  This was the final effect:

I think that the puzzle came out really nice and does have a really good message.