PS CS: Starting with a Blank Canvas

	Photoshop 7 & 8: Starting with a Blank Canvas
		Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6

Week 5: The Wonder of It All

I have begun a course at LVS on Line with Janee Aronoff of myjanee.com.

June15, 2004, Week5 Completed

This was again fun and I learned all the things below...from having fun with gradients to drawing/cutting a snowflake, painting with the Liquify Filter, Iterative Transformations ...and more, much more about the Pen Tool!

Please click on the thumbnails to view a larger image.

Amazing Gradients

Before getting into the gradient fun, we learned how to make and save an Action The very useful action (particularly for this week's lessons!) was to mark the center of the canvas. I am very happy to have the Action, plan to make other Actions for things that I do frequently! Not sure yet , but as I work, I am sure the occasions will arise!

The gradients were done using that center point, Layers and the Blending Modes.

Iterative Transformations

The Transform Tool is not just to rotate or Skew or Scale...it can be used to make some meaningful art! When I felt comfortable with the procedure, began to be able to anticipate what certain Transforms might do (not always though!), I tried to get something that was recognizable. The first image, the transform reminded me of birds and so I colored them tropically, gave them eyes with transformed (iteratively, of course!) eyes. I have discovered that I really like the Satin Layer Style. I experimented a lot with that . You can see that on the birds and leaves and the 'Paisley' feathers design. (similar to the birds , but I was happy with it so am placing it here. The third image is simply an arrow with repeated transformations applied. Again, I liked it and so it is here! I really liked this process!

Making a Snowflake

If I learned about the Pen Tool in Week 2, and thought I loved it, well I still do! But now, after drawing the cutouts for these snowflakes, the Pen Tool is my 'forever friend'! What a workout ! I had some problems and as I am writing this, I think I know what they are and will go back, yet again , to figure it! However I did have one come out perfectly. I also used my less than perfect ones to make a composition of snowflakes. In a group like that they don't look so bad! I saved them as Custom Shapes and after all that work (and learning) I am glad I have them! If you look at the full version, you can see I used my URI Rams Logo! It does look less circular than it should because I used the Custom Shape Tool rendition of it and did not hold down shift to draw it. I could not face going back one more time...you wouldn't believe how many times...

Composition of less than perfect snowflakes.

Bonus Projects!

Spirals: I found these last two bonus projects very much fun. I wanted to keep trying different combinations of colors, or in the case of the Finger Painting in Photoshop, different Noise or Crystalize cell sizes. Again, with the Liquify Tool, I wanted to try to see or get something I could recognize as close to something in reality...I said close, like a suggestion or whatever! I saw a strange birdman head, a flower and a blue guy! What fun!!! What possibilities!!! When ther is more time I.....