Experiments with Photoshop

: Category: Drawings; Published on Tuesday, 07 February 2012 15:22

I still have a long way to go before I really know how to use Photoshop to "paint". With oils after years of painting with them you just "know" how the paint is going to move with a flick of a paintbrush. I don't yet "know" all the ways you can configure brushes on Photoshop, and that's before you even go downloading brush packs. And tweaking a layer to add effects. In a way I want to be able to create something in Photoshop that looks like it was made with physical media just because it's easier to clean up after a Photoshop session. Even if I never achieve such a thing - the process of trying to achieve it might create something different but equally valid. Obviously Photoshop can't replace real painting because real painting has relief to it when you hang it on the wall - that's the beauty of seeing paintings "in real life"; going up close and seeing the shape of the brush strokes.

To quote "Clueless" on Monet -

"...From far away, it's OK, but up close, it's a big old mess."

Anyway, this is of London Street, in Reading, part traced, part imagined from a photograph. I don't actually like it, but the process taught me a fair bit.