Sometimes I wish it was possible for me to do something without needing to put in effort that attempts to make it extraordinary, especially when it comes to things I’m not inherently good at to begin with, such as drawing. But then, of course, I take a look at the results that my perfectionism has provided me with and I remember why it is that I haven’t tried to correct it. It’s just a shame that sometimes my vision doesn’t coalesce with what the teachers ask for. A distinct possibility here.
I was faced with a significant problem going into this first assignment, and that was the two year gap between the last time I used Photoshop, which was when I got a C in the class at RCC. Actually, that was just the first problem. The second was that I earned an A in Computer Illustration, meaning I was better at using Adobe Illustrator, and since the two applications use similar tools, I found myself trying to do things with Photoshop that I couldn’t. All things considered, I went into this project thinking that I knew a fair bit about Photoshop, but I wasn’t expecting to feel completely comfortable with it. Since I pretty much gave up following the aide’s instructions just a short ways into the lab, I’d say it’s safe to say I was either lost or overconfident or maybe a little of both.
Regardless, I managed to cobble together three images I’m quite happy with, even if they would have worked better in Illustrator. When the lab began on Tuesday, I had no idea what I was going to do for my project. Playing around with Photoshop got my wheels turning, though I ultimately had to scrap my initial image due to an instance of stupidity. (A NOTE TO THE COMPUTER ILLITERATE: If you want to be able to access your work at a later time, make sure it’s your account that you’re signed into, rather than just using whatever account is already functioning on the computer.) As I found when I did projects in Photoshop and Illustrator back at RCC, I went into each of my images with a basic idea for what I wanted to do but the details kind of fell into place as I worked on them.
Personally, I think the second image I did is my favorite. It’s the words “scratch project” repeated over and over again in various fonts and colors. However, I think it’s also the one that follows the guidelines least. In the spirit of giving the thing more oomph, I probably used too many different colors and went against the “limited palette” rules as a result, including some small technical gaffs in how well certain colors mesh with the background. When it comes to deciding whether things are finished, I think it’s really a matter of just how you feel about it. When I felt like I’d thrown enough stuff into the drawing without making it too cluttered and mixing it up properly, I decided it was finished. It was easier with the other two images, as I had a bit more of a structure in mind with them.
In the end, I made three images I'm quite satisfied with and I'm really looking forward to doing more things in this class. :)
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