Despite the implications of its title, the Photoshop suite is not just for shutterbugs.
Topics to be covered
* Photoshop tools and interface palettes * Selecting parts of an image * Importing photos * Understanding resolution * Resizing images to correspond to canvas size * Removing objects/fixing flaws * Replacing elements from one photo to another * Using layers * Applying filters * Properly squaring up photos of a painting * Saving photos for an archive
If you go
What: Tips & Tricks: Photoshop for the Fine Artist When: Saturday and Sunday, June 27 and 28, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Where: Townsend Atelier, 201 W. Main St. Cost: $180 Required materials: A Photoshop Creative Cloud subscription — a 30-day free trial is available — a laptop and a mouse/tablet and stylus Phone: 267-2712 or 1-877-903-1488 Gallery website: www.townsendatelier.com Artist website: www.cindyprocious.com
And a two-day workshop on June 27 and 28 at Townsend Atelier will teach students a variety of ways the editing software can be used by fine artists to work more efficiently and accurately.
"If you use photographs, then it's extremely important," says Cindy Procious, a Chattanooga-based realist oil painter who will lead the class.
"Otherwise, you're stuck with your own abilities as a photographer and what comes out of the camera," adds Procious, the wife of Times Free Press editorial cartoonist Clay Bennett. "I think that most people don't know what Photoshop can do for them as an artist. Probably most artists think that Photoshop is for photographers only."
Photoshop is an editing program created by Adobe Systems and first introduced in 1990. For much of its 25-year run, acceessing Photoshop required a one-time purchase that could cost several hundreds of dollars. In 2013, however, Adobe introduced a cloud-based version called Creative Cloud that is paid for via a $9 monthly subscription. This version of the program will be used in the workshop. A free 30-day trial may be downloaded for free by those who haven't signed up already.
Procious began using Photoshop about 15 years ago as an editorial cartoonist and illustrator at the Huntsville Times. In her own oil paintings - which lately have been still lifes of food and beverages - Procious says Photoshop is in indispensable tool.
"It's unbelievable what the program can do," she says. "You only have a short window of time to paint food from life, so I'll take a photograph, too. I'll have a computer set up next to my easel, and I will use both."
During the workshop, each student will be given a CD or an emailed attachment with images that Procious will use to walk students through basic Photoshop functions, such as resizing a photo and navigating the software's commands as well as more advanced features, including filters and the use of layers to manipulate an image without destroying the original.
Procious first offered the class as a one-day workshop in September 2014, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. By expanding the scope to a second day, she says she hopes the lessons will resonate even better with the students, even if the course barely touches Photoshop's potential to more advanced users.
"I'm actually having people come back who want to take it again because they feel like they've just scratched the surface," she says. "[This time,] I'll go a lot slower and give people more opportunities to do each task I'm setting so it will ingrain itself."
Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.