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Description
The Sword at my Side
January 31st 2013
Pen, Photoshop

“My shield hangs stainless still; but I shall not go where they praise it,
A sword is still at my side, but I shall not ride with the King.
Only to walk and to walk and to stun my soul and amaze it,
A day with the stone and the sparrow and every marvellous thing.

I have trod the curves of the Crescent, in the maze of them that adore it,
Curved around doorless chambers and unbeholden abodes,
But I walk in the maze no more; on the sign of the cross I swore it,
The wild white cross of freedom, the sign of the white cross-roads.”
~ The Crusader Returns From Captivity by G.K. Chesterton

So, this is the first proper picture I have ever made with Photoshop. We had to do a self-portrait in Photoshop for our first project, and after going back and forth a couple times between various ideas, I chose this one. I still find it amazing that I've never really used Photoshop before. Anyway, I had a photograph that I used as a reference, I made a pen drawing from that, scanned it in, and then painted over it in Photoshop. We did have the option of using a Wacom tablet, but I really didn't like it. Maybe it just takes some getting used to, but I found it a bit awkward, and I felt like I could do a better job with the mouse. So this is all painting with a mouse. Obviously, in the foreground there, I threw in those two way-overused grass brushes. But hey, they worked. And this might just be because I'm still getting used to Photoshop, but honestly, I think I like GIMP overall a lot better. The latter just seems more intuitive to me, and much more simple. With Photoshop there's just SO much you can do with it that it almost becomes...unhelpful. But we'll see. There's a reason I'm taking this Photoshop class after all.

Description
The Sword at my Side
January 31st 2013
Pen, Photoshop

“My shield hangs stainless still; but I shall not go where they praise it,
A sword is still at my side, but I shall not ride with the King.
Only to walk and to walk and to stun my soul and amaze it,
A day with the stone and the sparrow and every marvellous thing.

I have trod the curves of the Crescent, in the maze of them that adore it,
Curved around doorless chambers and unbeholden abodes,
But I walk in the maze no more; on the sign of the cross I swore it,
The wild white cross of freedom, the sign of the white cross-roads.”
~ The Crusader Returns From Captivity by G.K. Chesterton

So, this is the first proper picture I have ever made with Photoshop. We had to do a self-portrait in Photoshop for our first project, and after going back and forth a couple times between various ideas, I chose this one. I still find it amazing that I've never really used Photoshop before. Anyway, I had a photograph that I used as a reference, I made a pen drawing from that, scanned it in, and then painted over it in Photoshop. We did have the option of using a Wacom tablet, but I really didn't like it. Maybe it just takes some getting used to, but I found it a bit awkward, and I felt like I could do a better job with the mouse. So this is all painting with a mouse. Obviously, in the foreground there, I threw in those two way-overused grass brushes. But hey, they worked. And this might just be because I'm still getting used to Photoshop, but honestly, I think I like GIMP overall a lot better. The latter just seems more intuitive to me, and much more simple. With Photoshop there's just SO much you can do with it that it almost becomes...unhelpful. But we'll see. There's a reason I'm taking this Photoshop class after all.