Design Camp: Photoshop

This semester I attended the Intermediate Photoshop design camp. I always have been very interested in the artsy world. My family grew doing arts and crafts, so I have tried to keep up with drawing and art projects. However, it is difficult to keep up with arts because of the lack of time and materials. However, I learned that many types of art can be illustrated and simulated through several digital medias.

I was first exposed to Photoshop through a class in high school called “Digital Art”. I loved Photoshop because it leaves everything to the open. You have many of the same tools that you have with the physical. Also since Photoshop is digital, the art is easily portable. I can work on my art whenever I want on my laptop or computer.

In the Intermediate Photoshop design camp we learned has to make a person disappear. We erased any trace of skins, faces and left all the clothes. I learned what some tools do and how to use them in Photoshop. There are so many features that we learned to use such as the select, burn, blur, and clone tool etc. I learned that there are unlimited uses in Photoshop. I can basically never learn all the uses of Photoshop. As I use Photoshop more, I kept discovering new things. There are always multiple ways of finding a solution to a problem.

I was actually thinking to do something with Photoshop for my capstone. Photoshop doesn’t only have to be about editing photos, but you can also create art works, paintings, or your own picture. I saw an DCC alumni that was a graphic design. She created many posters and signs illustrating an event or promotion. For her capstone, she digitally drew many art pieces in Photoshop. I would like to do something related to that.

There is not much to connect Photoshop with our DCC class. However, it was interested that Dr. Farman had us erase a person. The clothing was the only identifier of the person. The class erased the identity of the person. This was interesting in terms of our class. We studied identity of people and how people are identified through the color of their skin, their gender, and their belief. In this design camp, they were stripped of all these things. They were no long a defined by what society defines them, but the Photoshopped people were just astronauts, a singer, a dancer, or a basketball player. This is what would happen in an ideal world. People would not look at the color of skin, beauty, or gender; they would look at who they were and their personality. This is what we strive for in the world.

One thought on “Design Camp: Photoshop”

  1. Would an ideal world erase the differences between people, though – or would we learn to see them in ways that are respectful and honor individuals rather than seeing some as mattering more than others?

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