Photoshop has been the industry standard tool for graphic artists since it was first introduced.
Photoshop can be used as a valuable creative tool for digital illustration and a variety of art techniques. You can create an illustration from scratch or enhance existing artworks, which were originally done in paint, pencil or another medium. Creating collage art is another popular artist technique used with Photoshop. It is also used by art photographers for a wide range of creative "digital darkroom" techniques.
Digital Illustration in Photoshop
Photoshop is a powerful tool for visual artists.
Photoshop can be used to create an entire illustration, all drawn or painted digitally. Using a Wacom Tablet (also known as a digital paintbrush) can help make the process more efficient. There are several tools most useful for this. The paintbrush tool, the pencil tool and the airbrush tool are most commonly used to paint in Photoshop. Simply choose your colors, and draw with these tools just as you would utilize a traditional brush or pencil.
Enhancing Traditionally Created Artwork with Photoshop
Photoshop allows traditional artist to recreate and enhance their original work.
Photoshop can be used to touch up existing traditional paint or line artwork. Simply scan or photograph your original artwork so it can be opened by Photoshop. You may alter the existing colors by using the Image Adjust functions, which allow a myriad of color changes relating to tone, hue and saturation. You can also color in line art, using layer blend modes, set to "multiply," which allows the original lines to show through.
Collage Techniques -- Combining Photos and Art TogetherCut or Edit>Paste command in Photoshop.
The Digital Darkroom
Digital SLRs and digital processing techniques have revolutionized the photographic process.
Photoshop is also a digital darkroom. It is possible to process your photographs with similar results to those found in a traditional darkroom. From setting exposure, contrast and light levels, to dodging and burning, Photoshop contains all the tools in the form of menu options, which would be available to you in a traditional darkroom. Photoshop has revolutionized traditional photography because you no longer need to use photo-processing chemicals to achieve the same results.
