Another week and another talented student shout out. This work was created by a spring graduate named Mike. When he started here at the college he had never used Photoshop. I would say he progressed nicely, wouldn’t you?It’s always funny when students apologize because they don’t know the software. My reply is generally “well isn’t that why you’re here”?
The images featured in this post were created in my Photoshop 1 and 2 courses. Above we have his art history project. Students have to be inspired by a famous artist/designer from a historical standpoint. A quote attributed to Picasso states “good artists copy, great artists steal” Don’t try to reinvent the wheel, start by looking at the work of artists you admire. What or who inspired them? Why did they make certain choices? What can you learn from those who came before you? And then sketch from each of those artists and begin mashing ideas together.
Perhaps you are inspired by a favorite book or author? Mike was inspired by H. P. Lovecraft for this next assignment. All of my students in all of my courses must keep a sketchbook. With each assignment they pitch their concept to me, as if I were a client. I am not into hand puppet shows while in the classroom; I do not want to see students gesturing “the text goes here and the picture goes there”.
I want to visuals, and so do your clients. They want to know that the money they are paying you was a wise investment. Sketchbooks easily demonstrate thought processes, time and considerations to those around you. Ideas coming to life is what I see represented in the drawings above. Below is the finished work.
The image below is Mike’s interpretation of a steam punk robot. He photo bashed the background, did some color matching to create turmoil and then he started to draw. It’s also worth mentioning that I also require my students to try and use our graphic tablets.
Have you ever seen a prison movie where the guard slides a food tray under the door? Day after day… sliding the tray. Well, that’s a pretty good visual for me sliding a tablet to a student who resists trying one. I stand there smiling, making direct eye contact and I hear a sigh, sometimes see a grimace… and one day they actually ask me for one. (Love when that happens)
Honestly, if you’ve tried using a graphic tablet and don’t like it, please, please for the love of God try it again. No lies, the first day it’s usually pretty awful. We’re so used to navigating a computer with a mouse that drawing with a pen on the computer feels weird. But once you get the hang of it watch out for great things to happen. Consider all of the years experience you have holding a pen or pencil. Sure the tablet has a different surface feel, it just takes getting used to. And to our students just a reminder all of our labs have graphic tablets, ask your professor to borrow one.
Below is his digital painting created in Photoshop 1. This was his very first digital painting. Nice progression.
Well done Mike. It’s no wonder why as soon as you graduated you were snapped up by a design firm. Congratulations!
