Sometimes it’s good to go back to school… or at least take a few hours to polish up some skills.
Today I enrolled in a Skillshare class.
“Skillshare is an online learning community to master real-world skills through project-based classes. Their mission is simple: provide universal access to high-quality learning.”
Sounds fun right? And a whole lot cheaper than going back to real school. So, I found this one: Photoshop Yourself: Learn How to Transform a Portrait (by Ty Wilkins, Designer & Illustrator) and thought i’d be a good fit for me. Here’s the thing… I get by using Photoshop but I was self-taught and never took the time to learn all of its tricks (especially image retouching). When I worked in a “real” office, I’d often be found rubbernecking at the other designer’s computers learning new tricks and techniques but, now that I work from home, it is much harder to do. Youtube works for emergency retouch crisis but I prefer Skillshare because it break projects up into chapters and works at a decent pace.
Here’s the low down on my class. There were eight chapters:
- Getting comfortable with Photoshop
• Introduction
• Getting Started
- Adjust lighting
- Fixing teeth
• White teeth
• Chipped teeth
• Removing lipstick
- Clarifying Skin
• Removing blemished (Part 1 & 2)
• Masking
• Mouth
• Skin tone
- Clarifying eyes
• Dark circles
• Iris colour
- Adjusting hair
• Adjust hair
• Remove hair
- Changing clothes
• Changing shirt shape
- Making aesthetic decisions
Overall, I thought the class was good, and I did learn a few things but, the thing about Photoshop is everyone has their own tricks of how to do things and you just have to take what you’ve been given and go from there. Plus, as the teacher worked on his project, my images were different so not all of his steps could be applied to mine. My mistake was taking a beginner class – clearly I underestimated my BFA… and found parts to be boring. Things I still wanted to do with my images that were not discussed in class were:
- Replace eyes with eyes from another take of the same image (example, David’s eyes on the top are too sleepy
- Change the background (they worked with a white background so I didn’t bother playing with the grass
- Change colours – like his t-shirt from blue to green
So, with this in mind … I geeked up my image and continued the class sans teacher. Here are my finals. Does this mean bonus points?
Zoom in to see all of the food on his face = no bonus points for parenting.
look at my boy’s eyes!
Food on the face again! Seriously, buy the kid a facecloth.
Green is his favourite colour. The blurred background makes him pop.
* * *
How about you? Have you tried an online class? I think I am going to do this more often now that I am in the groove. Next up, Algebra.
psst. Left-handed people have it hard – I use the mouse with my right hand, which makes detailed photoshopping more difficult. That’s my excuse and I am sticking to it.
psst. If you like what you’re reading, please subscribe and share. xomeg
Hello Sunshine 