When I was 10 my dad got this really cool program for his computer. I think it was called Photoshop. He showed me how to use a couple of the tools, I remember specifically the “smudgy finger tool” was of particular interest. I played with it for a while and made (drew) a picture of a candle. I remember thinking the program was incredibly cool but didn’t know at the time how much of my future I would spend using it.
18 years have passed since that fateful day in Ohio, and I have grown with each upgrade of Adobe. I was there when they gave layers, history, clipping masks, filters, and vectors. Heck, I even remember the “big electric cat”.
The problem though about a program that can do so much is that its nearly impossible to know everything, its my opinion that most people tend to figure out a way to do something and stick with it, even though there might be a far easier way to do it if you just knew how.
Let’s take Paths for example. Dylan sent me this link. I thought what a cool effect. I wanted to make a stencil for Dylan so we could spray paint it on a shirt. When I got to the end of the tutorial I said “NO WAY!!!” I didn’t know you could do that!!!! Now this is one of those things, I’m sure if I had taken a Photoshop 101 class I would have learned in the first week, but since I never took that class and instead just learned with the program, an upgrade at a time, I never got to that chapter.
My point to this post is to always keep your mind open to change, and learning new things. Learn the quick keys and the cool effects, take the tutorials, and never unclick the “hint a day” boxes, even if you don’t read them every time. All of these programs are here to make our lives easier and can do the most amazing things but we have to know how to use them.
Here are some good turtiorials, and lists of tutorials…
how to turn a photo into a sketch
how to put smokin bullet holes and a wanted sign into a piece of wood
Have I done all of these tutorials? Heck No! I’m too busy working… but I certainly have book marked them.