I've had an interesting few Fridays at school teaching some GCSE students (15 y.o?) some photoshop basics. I was pretty anxious as to how it would work out. I'm not really a natural at explaining things, even when it was a small group of 4 students. I've found that using Photoshop is like learning to drive- it's hard to explain the process of something that has become as 2nd nature as walking or breathing.
The image above is an experiment as to how I could structure the images! ...We went through the process of how I use handmade images and finish them digitally. It was tricky explaining the process of using layers to build up an image. I used tracing paper so the students could see the image building up. I kept it relatively simple by limiting our images to 3 layers:
This is my example- a Pacific Island mask! layer 1: fineliner detail, holding the image together. 2. oil pastel textured layer- adds definition. 3. ink wash layer, as a background. This also helps the students display a variety of techniques in their artwork.
I found explaining everything on photoshop very hard! (the students watched what I did on a projector and copied the process at the same time). Sometimes photoshop can be a bit unpredictable at the best of times. I thought the students would find some of the jargon boring (I don't even know what contiguous means, but I know it's handy in photoshop!) but they were engaged the whole time and very on the ball.
Above is my final example! I love purple and orange together!Below is a final image by one of the students. He was cheeky and did his original 'background' in coloured pens- so I told him to keep the colours as they were, resulting in this funky rainbow bug.
I love the sense of colour in the image below, by another student. The bugs were taken from the book 'Living Jewels'.
The bee was from a lovely photograph this student took.
Phew! Great aren't they? 1 more session to go. Does anyone else do things like this? I'd like some tips!
