Photoshop for Artists

469 Pages·2014·31.88 MB·English

by  Covey, Sylvie

Copyright © 2012 by Sylvie Covey
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by
Watson-Guptill Publications,
an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.watsonguptill.com
WATSON-GUPTILL is a registered trademark, and the WG
and Horse designs are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
The photo-etching Performances of the Heart was printed
(in black & white) in Linea, Vol. 6, No. 2, Winter 2003.
The digital prints Into the Sea 4b, Imagine a Land 3, and
Wyoming 1 were printed in Linea, Vol. 14, No 2, Fall 2010.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Covey, Sylvie.
Photoshop for artists / Sylvie Covey.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Digital art—Technique. 2. Adobe Photoshop. I. Title.
N7433.8.C69 2012
776—dc23 2011038161
eISBN: 978-0-8230-0672-4
v3.1
Acknowledgments
There are many to thank for this book, first of all Candace Raney,
executive editor at Watson-Guptill, who had the foresight to seek me out
and understood the potential of this book, and a special thanks to the
artist Nuri Taub, who many years ago encouraged me to take my first
Photoshop class at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Many thanks to
the Random House team, particularly Patrick Barb.
Finally, I thank my friends and family who have encouraged me and
gave me moral support, and I am particularly deeply grateful to the
contributing artists who have generously shared their artwork for this
endeavor.
Contents
Preface
Introduction
PART 1
Understanding the Vocabulary and Logic of Photoshop
Workspace Overview
Digital Basics
Mastering Photoshop’s Tools for Artists
PART 2
Tutorials for Drawing and Painting Digitally
Drawing Digitally
Painting Abstract Compositions
Painting Digital Landscapes
Painting with Wet Media Brushes
Digital Oil Painting
Using Digital Pastel and Dry Media Effects
Painting Special Effects on Photographs
Adding Custom Washes to Photographs
Painting with Filters and Blends
PART 3 Tutorials for Creating and Developing Fine-Art Digital
Photography
Making Basic Photo Corrections
Using Blending Modes
Replacing/Composing Scenery
Applying New Adjustment Layer Effects
Applying a Digital Double Exposure
Making Creative Photomontages
Changing a Photo from Color to Monochrome
Adding Sepia and Other Tones
Split Toning
Solarization
Adding HDR Effect
Replacing Color
Hand Coloring Photos
Applying Halftone Patterns
PART 4 Tutorials Combining Photoshop with Printmaking
Photo-etching
Making Color Separations in Lithography
Creating Polyester Pronto Plate Lithography
Mixed-Media Painting and Printmaking
Making Digital Transfers
Contributing Artists
Index
Preface
Preface
The process of making art is a continuous learning experience. As a
printmaker, photographer, and painter, I am always fascinated by combining
mediums and techniques—perhaps, it is an attempt to celebrate, transcend,
or reverse the conventions of visual languages. In today’s world, we artists
want to embrace new technologies, while still holding onto and combining
them with more traditional methods of making art.
New techniques keep on evolving. In the past, I used to print on film and
make multiple exposures in a darkroom by sandwiching negatives in slide
holders and I used liquid photo emulsions and chemistry on huge canvases
and papers. I also printed collotypes with gelatin and cyanotypes with the sun
and used tea and coffee—as well as many other more toxic chemicals—for
toning. I was driven to learn all the languages of light and darkness.
When I discovered Photoshop, however, my life began anew with colors. I
believe that although we artists want to fly with new wings, see with new
eyes, and hear new sounds, we still need somehow to produce a tangible
testimony of what we see, hear, and feel. Combining old and new
technologies allows this tangible world to exist in whole new dimensions of
expression.
Today, creating images digitally means that the possibilities for outputting
them are infinite; it is the ultimate freedom. We still use our hands, our eyes,
and our hearts, but with different tools, on different surfaces, and through
different scales. There is no limit to what we can do.
Sylvie Covey, Imagine a Land 5b (detail), digital print