Art and Anniversary

- Art

So, I have been attempting to upgrade my Photoshop skills. In the old days, that simply involved undoing the top of the skull, removing the Photoshop-cortex and replacing it with a newer model, but you know the way that brains are made these days, what with being impossible to upgrade components yourself.

Anyway, I’ve been reduced to actually having to practice to get better. I know, right?

Most of my Photoshop work I do when I’m designing book covers or websites, but that doesn’t always give you the opportunity to practice the things you’re not good at, so I’m starting to do some ‘photomanipulations’ to practice my techniques.

I’m putting them up on deviantART (along with a few of my covers which I’m particularly fond of), which is an awesome place to see other people’s work and to get stock you can use for making images.

Here’s my first attempt:

There’s a larger version available on deviantART, if you enjoy staring at really big things. Like elephants.

I’m not an artist, and I don’t think I ever will be, but a few years ago, I wouldn’t have had a hope of doing something like this.

Here’s the stock I used to make the image.

In other news, Steph and I have been together 13 years today, which, wow, is a long time, right? Neither of us could have imagined when we met at Clarion West back in 2001 that we’d end up here with our two lovely, amazing little boys and careers as professional writers. It’s been a fantastic 13 years. Thank you, sweetheart.