Thursday, August 09, 2007

Photoshop and me

I've made no secret of the fact that myself and Photoshop do not get along - I cannot, despite great help from fellow artists, get it sussed and as time goes on fear I never will. I follow instructions step by step and to the letter and while there are times I get it to do what I want there are more when I'm sitting there totally confused - like today when I tried to join two pictures together. I've done this successfully in the past but today Photoshop decided to remove the colour! Why - does it really hate me that much?

I have been working on the Springer Spaniel montage - mainly on the main pic - and wanted to scan where I'm at for my website and blog. Being a large portrait I had to do this in two halves - no problem - but as soon as I joined them the colour disappeared!?!?! I've spent more wasted hours than I care to think of trying to get Photoshop to like me and unfortunately today wasn't the day we gelled so can't show you where I'm at with the montage but can tell you I've made some progress with the reeds and that they're taking a frustratingly long time to do.

Something I could do - hooray - was scan and crop my first of many horse portraits I'm working on in between commissions. This is the first drawing/painting I've done for me in months, in fact coming up to a year and I'm really enjoying working on it.

She's in coloured pencil on drafting film. Working on this surface is great but as with everything, has it's negative points - the main one being layering. As an artist who builds layer upon layer of pencil to get the depth and colour I'm after I found I needed to change my technique quite considerably on this surface. I do like how the pencil feels and looks on it however so will definately be exploring it more.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am useless at photoshop too, just cannot get to grips with it lol.
Love this horse drawing, I have yet to really try out draftng film, but Wendy Prior is a real master at using this surface.

Laura said...

It's nice to know I'm not the only one Photoshop hates - I was beginning to get paranoid:)
Yes, Wendy's work is brilliant on the film - and she finishes them so quickly. I'd love to watch her work.

Pet Portrait Artists said...

Looking great Laura!

Michelle Wrighton Artist said...

Looks like your doing fine for your first attempt on drafting film Laura. It is definitely different to work on, but I love the results that I am getting with it, so its worth the trouble.

Laura said...

Thanks Michelle, I'm getting there and learning lots but think I'll grow to love working on it:)