Conquering the Pen Tool: You'll learn to love it

The pen tool:  if you learn to use it correctly, you'll love it.

Here's a few projects to practice your skills.
Pen Tool Cup:  learning the tool
Pen Tool Parrot, a short project using the pen tool.
Text Portrait: a major project in which you will be creating a work of art.

Introducing the Pen Tool

The Pen Tool is an exciting tool that will really enhance your Photoshop skills.  It is, however, probably the hardest tool to master.

Da Font is a great site for fonts.  It's a bit bulky to go through, but once you find a font you like, you are able to type out a word or phrase to see if you really want to use it before downloading it.  I've downloaded a few from this site, but I've also just used it for taking a screenshot of the word or phrase I'm going to use, if it's just a one-time thing.

Take a look at Pinterest

Showcase your own work on Pinterest!  Not only is it a place to look at the work of others, let others look at yours!  Here's just one of my own boards, where I collect works for inspiration:
http://pinterest.com/3CraftySisters/designing-with-ink/

Designing for Real Life

                                

Photoshop can be a great help when it comes to designing off-computer.  The second picture is a mosaic I created over the summer.  The first is the design I created to follow.  Of course, the design was created in Photoshop.

View from the car

On pretty days, Seattle residents say "the mountain is out." they are referring to Mount Ranier. Just about every day we've been here, this has been our view from the car.

A Layers project by Nisa S.

Photoshop 2 Work

Justin, 2nd Period:  MacMiller

Emily, 2nd Period:  Pixel

Layers Project Winners

Congratulations to the Layers Project Winners!  You all did an awesome job.

Kaylee B.

My Hardest Project to date

Taking 4 different photos and creating a family photo.  I was only able to do this because all the photos were taken in the same light.  The blond boy in the finished photo is actually pieced together using parts of him from several different photos--one of his arms is actually his brother's, lol.

All in all, not a bad day's work, even though it took several days to finish.

Folder Design Class Winners

Students in Photoshop are keeping a folder in which they will store their agenda, notes on shortcuts, common procedures, and their projects.  Students were required to "design" their covers with whatever means they wanted, then members of each class voted on a "class favorite."  Below are the winners for each class.  Great job, guys!

Photoshop 2 Work

I have a handful of Photoshop 2 students in each class.  Photoshop 2 students have completed a full year of Photoshop 1, and must be proven self-starters and be able to work independently.  Photoshop 2 students are enrolled during the same class periods as Photoshop 1, and each class has from 1 to 3 PS2 students.

Here are some of the projects these students are working on:

World Mosaic by Aaron L.