Photoshop Workshop - Week 3

Today I decided to be brave and use a Wacom tablet for the first time. 

For the collar of the coat, I used the magnetic selection tool to select the area, colour it, and I then shifted it slightly to the right to leave the white line on the left. I used a soft, medium opacity brush for the rest of the jacket and the face using the Wacom tablet. This was just to get used to using the new technology which I usually find quite daunting - the Wacom tablet was really easy to get used to and I am sure I will be using it in future projects. I found I had a lot more control than when using the mouse. 

Again, using the Wacom tablet, I used a large brush to do some broad mark making to suggest a brick wall behind the lady in the drawing. I had selected the background only so the colour didn't overlap the figure. I used a thinner, low opacity brush after this to draw a rough rectangle around each brick and then lowered the opacity of the brush even more and increased the size to roughly draw in the grey between the bricks. I used a similar brush for the shadow on the floor. 

Through playing around with layers, I managed to add a shadow onto the wall. I selected the shape of the figure on a new layer, filled it and shifted it, I also had to remove the white background from my original image so that everything in the background was visible. Finally, I adjusted the levels of the image, making it slightly darker so the figure stood out more against the patterned background. 

I went back to one of my images from last week and used the Wacom tablet to add some subtle highlights and shadows to the jacket using the brush tool.

I am gradually learning more about photoshop and I now understand how I can use it to develop my drawings. I was previously sceptical about using digital media as I personally prefer images to have a handmade quality. However, I am slowly improving my skills so I can still keep that hand rendered quality and just use digital media where appropriate. I think it will also be a good tool for experimentation with colours, patterns and textures because you always have the option of reverting back to the original image.