Digital Skills-Week 3

Moving on from Photoshop, our next digital skills lecture covered the basics of Illustrator, using the pen tool, selection tools, stroke and fill, gradients, shapes, and importantly, the difference between Vector and Pixel images. Vector being images that do not change quality when scaled due to them not being made up of pixels.

Fortunately for me, I feel much more comfortable in Illustrator then I do in Photoshop, especially with the Pen tool which took up the vast majority of this exercise. Unlike the previous exercise, placing the image in situ took the addition of a few more technique that were previously taught in Photoshop. Using the warp tool I could bend the image to the shape of the page and using clipping masks and gradients I could add a shadow and lighting effect to make the piece look more realistic.

Digital Skills-Photoshop Tutorial

In an attempt to further better my skills in Photoshop, I felt it necessary to complete an online tutorial to both, learn new skills and reinforce those skills that I have recently learned. This tutorial covered many of the skills I had previous been taught such as clipping and layer masks, adjustment layers, levels, gradients etc, but also showed me new skills, using the pen tool to cut out shapes, the uses of different blending modes and using shapes in more creative ways.

Digital Skills-Week 2

This week in my digital skills sessions, we looked at layer masks, the useful rule of 'White Reveal, Black Conceal' (even if it is rare I remember that the correct way around), gradients, adjustment layers, the pen tool, blending modes and the warp tools.

Clearly I was not overly focused on the actual aesthetic outcome of this exercise, I more used this to acclimate myself with some of these unfamiliar tools. Using clippings masks, I was able to arrange the different photographs of people in this overlapping fashion. The gradients are fairly self evident, and the adjustment layers came into play when reducing the saturation of the photographs. Using the pen tool and the brush tool I was able to create the heart shape, despite being pretty unsuccessful, that process definitely has potential the more practice I have with it.

Using the skills we had learned from the previous exercise, we were tasked with replicating a piece of work one of the lecturers had prepared with the added task of using the transform tool to try and place it in situ successfully. This was a great success for me, not because I am pleased with the end result, but more that I was able to recall the skills I had recently learned and was able to apply them in a practical exercise.

Digital Skills-Week 1

After the Christmas holidays and some weather troubles, we are now starting out next brief, Digital Applications. Quite different from my previous modules this year, the way this brief will work is that, each twice a week will, as a class, will be taught several techniques in Photoshop and Illustrator which we will screenshot and annotate in an InDesign template that we have been provided with. This template, come the end of the module, will be printed and handed in for submission. 

For this first week, we looked at many of the basic tools used in Photoshop, and how and where to use them. Fortunately for me, I am not very proficient with Photoshop so this was a great learning experience for me.

Firstly, we were taught a range of skills for touching up an image, adjusting levels to change the intensity of the darks, lights and midtones, using the burn tool with a soft brush to make the lips darker and selecting areas like the teeth and using the the hue and saturation colour channels to change the colour pixels in that area.

We then looked at using blending modes and gradients together to change an image more dramatically.

We looked at using the replace colour options to change the colour of a background without changing the shadows present or going anywhere near the brush tool.

We were then shown how to create the popular over exposed look by changing the levels of an image dramatically.

We also taught how to use clipping masks in a basic way and the were taught about the 'Colour' blending mode, a mode which only effects the colour pixels in an image.

After that we were shown the basics of creating our own brushes, and that the brushes panel, however daunting it may first seen, is actually quite simple to navigate.

Next we were shown how to use the Magic Wand and Quick Selection tool to remove an object or shape from its background so that it can be moved separately on to a new document or manipulated on its own.

Lastly, using many of the techniques we were shown, we created the basic elements for an Absolut Vodka poster.