Overview
Flex your creative muscles by exploring how Photoshop can unlock your creative potential. Traditional artists porting their skills to new media and inexperienced digital artists need to learn how to approach their work using digital tools--especially Photoshop--rather than relying solely on paper and pencil methods of conceptualization. While there are books that walk users through tool sets or recipes for effects, none of these books focus on enhancing the creative process. Steuer explores the many facets of the creative process and underscores how they can be incorporated into the workflow of the digital artist.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewDigital artists seek an elusive balance, in which technology encourages their creative impulses and never dominates or intimidates them. In nearly 20 years of creating fine art on the computer, Sharon Steuer has evolved a wonderfully supple approach to making technology work for her. In her new book, she shares that approach -- helping you “think in Photoshop” and let its extraordinary capabilities liberate you.
For example, every artist knows that Photoshop can be used for compositing, but Steuer shows how this can change your whole workflow and your approach to creating new images. You probably know that blending modes in layers are useful for adding color to black-and-white images, but Steuer shows how experimenting with this can help you create final compositions that retain the spontaneity of your very first sketches.
Ever get stuck? Let Photoshop help you brainstorm. As Steuer observes, “Computers are great at randomly generating all sorts of things” -- and, as she shows you, these semi-random explorations can take you in directions you’d never have anticipated.
Traditionally, artists -- like everyone else -- are trained to think linearly. But “Undo,” layers, and repeated saves of interim stages allow you to abandon linear thinking and move in whatever directions you fancy, without the risk that you’ll lose something valuable. You know this intellectually, but are you really taking full advantage of it? Steuer shows you how.
Whatever your style or approach, this book will give you new ways to think about your digital artistry -- and to nurture your creativity. (Bill Camarda)
Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks For Dummies®, Second Edition.
Using a conversational tone and an approach that emphasizes the creative process, this book offers inspiration and suggestions on using Photoshop, illustrated with the author's own extensive collection of original work. The author, an artist who has integrated digital tools into her work since 1983, invites readers to brainstorm and experiment in Photoshop, and shows how to integrate traditional and digital tools into artwork and photography. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR