Photoshop and your "Creative Vision" Part 1

I trust you enjoyed the slideshow in the previous post...the point was not just to show you what is possible in Photoshop, but also to get you thinking about the creative process and how it works. Remember that the essence of creative thinking is simply combining the ideas of others in new ways. A couple tips to get you going...

First, look for "inspiration" images, they all around you; movies, television, magazines, CD covers, art history books, the internet, photography showcase books; all these images are the raw material for your own "creative vision"...

Second, exercise your creativity (and your Photoshop skills) by first trying to duplicate the look and style of an image that you especially like, then give it your own "spin"...this is the time to just have some fun and let your inspiration images "bubble up" from your subconscious and give some direction in the creative process.

Here are a few examples from images I've worked on to illustrate how the process works:

This is the original image supplied by our customer
to produce a print for PPA Competition:

An okay image, nice lines...it reminded me of something I had seen before...
in an Art History textbook:

I loved the texture and color of the original etching, and tried to work that into the image; Here's what I came up with:

After desaturating the image, I cropped and straightened it, then used curves to adjust contrast, density and color balance. A dry brush filter was used to create the "etching" texture.

In my next post, I will show you how I was inspired by movie poster...

Relevant posts:

Creative Vision and the Printmaker Part 1
Photoshop and Your Creative Vision Part 1
Photoshop and Your Creative Vision Part 2
Photoshop and Your Creative Vision Part 3
Photoshop and Your Creative Vision Part 4
Photoshop and Your Creative Vision Part 5
Plus more examples in my video, "The Printmaker's Vision"