Delight of Painting in Oils in Photoshop

Joy in the Winter Garden

In 2014 I have decided to author an iBook with all the whistles and bells but to do this I have to master the new Photoshop, dread horror, gasp. The old Photoshop was daunting but the new is even scarier as it now includes Photoshop Raw. Ahhhhhhhh.......

There was nothing for it but to upgrade to Mavarik on my Mac so I can preview the ibook and learn how to use the new Adobe iCloud suite. When I started in this world in 2007 everything was new and one could get away with a lot but today everyone is so good.

I started in September with Premier Pro and that was not too difficult, then I began on Photoshop CC, masks. I need to use masks. Photoshop is tricky as it is not intuitive. You cannot play your way out of a problem. Once the error sign arrives there is little you can do but start to research and that can take hours.

Photoshop Raw was not too difficult to grasp as it is really just a iPhoto but a bit better. Snag comes as now one can add this non destructive edit as a filter in PS. To the uneducated this can be a nightmare and as yet I have not got to the bottom of it so I rarely use it.

Masks took 6 weeks. They are really hard as there are so many of them. It seems there are infinite ways of adding a mask with channels, paths, layer mask, clipping masks, alpha channels and on and on and on and I have just about managed it...... I think.

So for Xmas as I need to draw I bought the new Wacum tablet. The one you can draw on like paper and on New Years Eve when I knew that Applecare and the shop would be open I had a go. I needed both as the tablet does not come with a tiny connection that is absolutely vital and I had to upgrade my Mac  which if anyone has done this takes 5 hours and both are not intuitive.

This is a mashup of all the Art History Brushes

On New Year's Day I started on brushes. These are complex too but the results have been worth the effort. Magic.  I can turn any photo into an oil painting better than I could ever realise in real life. The process actually teaches you how it is done but quickly and without the mess. It is not easy to do although there are apps that will do this for you but actually getting in and messing up the pixels is so liberating. Love it.

Also the camera is so good at composition. It gets it right most of the time. I am good at drawing but not that good. It is frustrating because it takes time to work out how the brushes work and there is a History Brush that doesn't work most of the time unless you know the trick. It is snapshot, by the way, it the history brush refuses to work take a snapshot in History and it will.  Photoshop Help, Google and Yahoo do not tell you this. Took a morning's research.

I just enjoy doing this so much I think I could become addicted. Here's a Paris Scene which is half way through the process and I cannot wait to start on Venice!

2014 is off to a good start and hopefully this year I shall not be so grumbly.