Photoshop for Artists

A Complete Guide for Fine Artists, Photographers, and Printmakers

About the Book

ENRICH, ENHANCE, AND TRANSFORM YOUR ART WITH THE MAGIC OF PHOTOSHOP®

For artists, Adobe® Photoshopâ offers an exciting entry into a new world of limitless color, textures, and effects that can be applied with just the touch of a keyboard or click of a mouse.

Intended for serious artists -- painters, photographers, and printmakers ‑- Photoshop for Artists provides a comprehensive series of detailed tutorials, cataloging the various tools, techniques, and methods for producing an infinite variety of creative imagery with Photoshop.

With thirty tutorials divided into sections for fine artists, photographers, and printmakers, this book contains easy-to-follow step-by-step examples that include all the information serious professional artists need to master the digital art techniques of Photoshop. Each tutorial features screenshots and detailed directions, so artists can see exactly how the specific effects are achieved and applied to artwork.

Featuring stunning and dramatic imagery produced by the author and other accomplished artists, Photoshop for Artists is essential reading for artists looking to take their work to the next digital level.
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Excerpt

Photoshop for Artists

Many beginners try too hard to outline everything. A successful drawing contains indications and information within the shapes of lines, tones, and textures. Well-drawn information often comes from withi the subtleties of tones rather than from an outline. In this method we will create a free-hand tonal portrait sketch from a reference photograph. The use of a stylus is recommended for hand-drawing digitally.
The grid technique is a traditional way of reproducing an image used by artists for centuries. The basic principle consists of dividing a surface image into equal parts and working on each part as a whole. A divided part is smaller and easier to see and tackle. The grid technique is also very helpful to create the initial sketch of the iportant parts of a composition and for reproducing an image at a different scale. We will use a Photoshop grid as an overlay on both the reference photo and the drawing surface itself. The grid on both will help position the various elements of the portrait more accurately.
Drawing on a gray background with very realistic Photoshop brushes will allow us to keep all our options open for adding darker or lighter tones. We will start from a midtone surface and digitally use the natural media feel of centuries-old drawing tools. Photoshop offers many wonderful ways to re-create this traditional drawing method. New York artist, illustrator, and author Moira Fain turned this photo portrait into a digital hand-drawing using this method.

About the Author

Sylvie Covey
SYLVIE COVEY was born in France and studied graphic arts at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. She has taught digital and photo techniques in printmaking at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York since 2001 and has been an instructor at the Art Students League of New York since 1995. Her work has been exhibited throughout Europe, Asia, and North and South America and has been acquired by major museums and institutions. She lives in New York City. More by Sylvie Covey
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