Teaching Photoshop / Robots, Dogs and Lizards, oh my

Two weekends ago I taught a Photoshop workshop at the Creative arts Center in Dallas and each time I teach this class I am reminded of just how hard Phoptoshop really is.  After 15 years of using the program 8 hours a day I have gotten pretty good at it and I often forget how hard things are when it is all brand new to you.

Photoshop is hard.
               And yet .... Photoshop is really really fun!

Today I will post some of my student works.

I started class with a simple no pressure assignment and I had 2 teams of two students creating robots. To do this they used an open document I had created that had lots of photos of mechanical looking parts in it and they drug & dropped the photo pieces on to their page in order to collage together a robot. Then they created a layer that served as a tracing paper sheet filled with white at a 50 % opacity. On top of that was another layer that was their drawing layer.  They took turns driving and they sketched out their robots by tracing on top of the photo collage. This allowed them to get a feel for the wacom tablet in a shared learning environment where nobody felt the pressure to keep up or be the best or any of that nonsense.With this assignment they learned about layers and the paint tool and brushes. Once their sketch was finished they turned off the photo layer and colored in their sketches.

Flag Bot by Kristen & Chris / Maid Robot by Linda & Marianne

After lunch everyone started on their own projects and below are their finished projects.  I am really proud of everyone.

"Rebel" by Kristen Druckenbrodt

Lizard by Chris Hollister

Curtis the Beagle by Marianne Cherry

Pop Art Jack Russell by Linda Clemens

Warhol Lizard by Chris Hollister

My next Pushing Pixels Workshop will be April of 2014. If you want to be added to the list to be sent a reminder just e-mail me:   artpaw.com@gmail.com.