Major Project - What I Learned through Photoshop

Major Project - What I Learned...

OK, so after many, many hours watching YouTube videos, Lynda.com tutorials, Adobe Help resources, and several pow wows with a graphic artist, am I a Photoshop Master? Hahaha... not quite. I am seriously humbled by this process. I had anticipated doing much more with the project, but it's not from lack of time spent... it's from the programs being much more complicated than I thought they'd be! I'd wanted to experiment with Illustrator and InDesign as well, (and I tried with Illustrator but got so confused I went back to the relative safety of Photoshop!)  But I learned quite a bit with Photoshop and I'm inspired to continue learning. All I'd used it for previously was very basic retouching and album design - just arranging photos, not altering them much.  But now - as you'll see from my tutorial (which I had to reduce from 1 hour, 4 minutes to 15 minutes! Not an easy feat! So, technically I did learn a second program - Camtasia - a video screen recorder/editing software that was really novice-user friendly but it took some Help tutorials to get that one down too!) Camtasia is a paid service, but I did the free trial, which unfortunately leaves an annoying watermark across the screen.  And after I struggled for over an hour to get it to upload to Youtube, I realized it was because of the length. So I spent several more hours editing it down!  It's amazing how much time it takes to shorten the time of something!!




It's a little disjointed and I'm not totally satisfied with the result... but it was a respectable first try at a tutorial.  Besides...
All in all, I learned how to make several things with Photoshop: How to superimpose one image on another, and create shadows...

I created 2-sided invitations, learning how to manipulate text, import multiple images, and incorporate the fundamentals of design... 

I made a menu - the hardest part of which was making individual cupcake photos when no such pictures exist, so I had to make composites to fill in sections that were blocked from view....

 

  

After failing miserably to create a logo in Illustrator, I "made magic happen" and turned the vision in my head into a real logo... 

 Finally, I took a photo of my daughter at her birthday and manipulated it into the extreme - altered her limbs, "cartoonified" her, and incorporated her in to the Cat in the Hat book - which I will use for a thank you note, I think...

So, that's five digital artifacts that I couldn't have made before this project. I'm pretty proud of myself.  I may not be a "Master" of Photoshop, but I've certainly gained enough knowledge of methods of graphic design and using the software that I feel like I'm well on my way to becoming a competent teacher!


Being that this party was just Saturday, and Sunday was spent cleaning up the whirlwind... I didn't have time to incorporate any other of these photos into a completed new advertisement for GoodWitch Party Magic... but it's my blog, so I'm gonna share some photos with you anyway!  Here's my awesome "Chapter 2 - Story Book Party"...

I was the Cat in the Hat

I made Thing 1 and 2 costumes
for the Birthday Girl
and her favorite doll.
Although she had a
Thing 2 headband, she
would only wear my cat ears.

Storybook Cupcake Display

Very Hungry Caterpillar fruit tray

Madeline and Give a Mouse a Cookie

She wanted more frosting...

  

Hand-painted Very Hungry Caterpillar
beanbag toss game for the toddlers.

I did throw a quick illustrated menu together, using the menu I designed (via Photoshop) for the party, and I remembered to take individual photos of cupcakes this year, so progress! 

 Whew.  That weekend flew... 2 straight days of baking, decorating, sewing, planning... cleaning... then homework and finals stuff.  Thank goodness this semester is almost over!  I'm exhausted!

Next time you need a little party magic...especially over the summer... just let me know :)