A Royal Photoshop

Well, I know my last post was a sneak peak at what I was working on at the moment, but a rather unexpected thing happened. Suddenly and inexplicably, I was able to use photoshop! Now, for anyone who knows me, my computer skills have always been minimal and I try to use them as little as possible. This definitely applies to my artwork. While I have tried digital colouring before, and have had some success with it, I had always told myself not to rely on it.

Then I did this illustration. My first thought was to paint it with gouache, but, I told myself to scan it in before I did any work on it just for a fail safe. And there it was, lying on my computer desktop staring at me every time I logged in. So, for a quick experiment, I thought I'd load it into photoshop and just have a play with it.

10mins I had started colouring the face, so far so good.

30mins I had started trying out different colours for the jacket.

2 days later I had bloody rendered the whole thing!

Having such an overt fear of computers, I must say I have been thoroughly pleased with myself! And just goes to show that having a fear of something shouldn't resist at least trying it. I think I may do a series of digital paintings based on this one so watch this space. Next job is to attempt a background....