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Class Introduction

Lesson 1 from: Advanced Techniques with Brushes in Photoshop CC

Lisa Carney

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Lesson Info

1. Class Introduction

Next Lesson: Brush Management

Lesson Info

Class Introduction

I am so excited about this class. This is probably for me one of the largest changes in Photoshop or most important changes for me that has happened in a really, really long time. And Photoshop's had some upgrades and it's gone along, but now with brushes and the way they've organized the brushes, it is so much more approachable and easy to achieve painterly effects. And I have to say, I think I've got a little bit of this, like I always wanted to be a painter, and I was never really a good renderer. You know what I mean? I just wasn't good at drawing, I wanted to be. I went to school for illustration for a while and they went, yeah, you know what? How about the photo department? And I ended up going to photography. And retouching has always been kind of a combination of those two, but I've never really been able to paint. And what's happened in brushes now is they have mastered the brushes and encapsulated it in such a way that someone like me who can't render very well, can actually ...

really get in there and paint. And I mean, paint some really cool stuff. And in addition to that, the organization is exquisite. Now, what we're gonna look at, we're gonna look at a bunch of different styles. I'm hoping to show you a bunch of different effects and looks you can do with brushes, so you can find your own style. I'm not trying to impart a technique on you, other than, hey look, if you do this, you can try that. Look, this looks like this. And much like many of the other courses here, I'm gonna severely suggest, I mean, strongly, strongly, strongly suggest that you all practice off jobs. Find some samples of work. Go to the museums. Go to the museum websites. Find some paintings, find some images that you wanna emulate and practice. Because what happens when you emulate work and you try to actually follow a roadmap, you actually can get to a technique. So for example, using a brush as a mask, which is something we're gonna go through, if you try to emulate that, you will learn more doing that than oh, I'm just playing and ooh, I have a happy accident, and I've discovered something, because that happy accident might be cool, but do you remember how you got there? And can you reproduce it? In this way, if you're actually emulating some art work or a style, so for example, that kind of watercolor look down there, if you try to emulate it, you're gonna try different brushes actually looking for a result which will have you understand the brushes a lot better. So I'm hoping y'all will join us on that. There's a huge handout on this. It's 90 pages, something like that. The companion hand-yen, it'll go along with this. It'll have a lot of data and a lot of pictures to help you along the way. But this is the kind of thing I'm talking about. Can you take an image and make it a watercolor? And this takes minutes now, I mean minutes, which is both frightening and fantastic all at the same time. So I hope you'll enjoy the process. We're gonna start with some kinda technical stuff, management, looking at what the new system is. It's a little dry at the beginning in that sense. And then we'll get into actual painting, but we kinda all have to get on the same page.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Brushes Companion Handout
Adobe Stock Contributor

Ratings and Reviews

Sean
 

Knowledgeable Lisa is the best teacher. She makes learning Photoshop fun. Great course. Lisa has a great teaching style. She mixes in a great speech cadence, great voice up and down and pausing, jokes, and is extremely knowledgeable and fun to watch. Awesome course. Really helpful course for getting my feet wet with brushes.

Fotomaker
 

This is a comprehensive overview of Ps CC Brushes, what they do, how they work and how to control, manage & modify them. I found it extremely useful to learn about the functionality/features that Ps CC brushes can provide even though I'm a photographer and not an illustrator or painter. I will never ever be able to employ everything Lisa explained & demo'd in the class - she covered a wide gamut of info. But she served the purpose, in this class, of being essentially what I'd call an 'idea sparker'. Once you see how she works with brushes and you find out how you can adapt (or create) brush tools to suit your personal artistic style the options for creativity are unlimited. I might re-title this class "Oh the Places Brushes Can Go" (apologies to Dr Seuss and his classic graduation gift book 'Oh, the Places You'll Go...'). Keep in mind a few things about this class (& back away from it and your credit card if you don't note a few key facts...): (1) It is called 'Advanced Techniques' - it is for intermediate to advanced Ps users, not newbies unless you're a child prodigy who picks things up really fast, (2) This is not a 'Paint with Lisa' class - we don't all paint a butterfly like a color by numbers together. Rather we learn about Ps brushes, how they work, what they look like and how to modify them and change their dynamics for different types of artistic/retouching/post-processing uses. Each person will have to experiment - there's no one 'this is it' formula that can be provided, (3) Lisa talks and thinks fast and has a pretty amusing patter too (she's clearly very intelligent!) - so be prepared to hit the Pause button. She repeatedly advises during the class, don't overload your brain with all there is to absorb with regard to Ps Brushes. Take breaks to try the info she shares & see what works for you before going on to a different section of the class. Don't buy this class thinking you'll whizz through it in 15 minutes & figure out how to complete a job you've committed to deliver in 2 hours, (4) There's a large packet of material that comes with a purchase of the class (descriptions, definitions, brush settings, drawing examples, etc.). Item #4 is the only thing I'd ding this class on. While the handout material contains lots of really really useful info it is - sadly - microscopic print. The text is exceedingly difficult for my poor old eyes to read. I value that there's plenty of white space on the pages to write notes as Lisa talks - I've done so prodigiously. But the print in that accompanying brushes class guide needs to be larger. I honestly wish I could enlarge the print in some way (unless it is a PDF that I can alter & I haven't figured it out). If there is a way to re-print with larger type font sizes someone please let me know! Bottom line: I highly recommend this class to more advanced Ps users who want a comprehensive overview of Brushes and working with them. It's definitely not a class for someone who wants a linear, step x step, "do this then do that" type of recipe class. As I've noted above, it's best as a way to learn about richly varied Ps tools you may have only had superficial exposure to previously; and get enough new knowledge to make you dangerous (and, dare I say it, boldly creative!).

Skye Taten
 

Lisa is the BEST teacher!!!!! Everyone should take this class!!!!!!! This class is utterly phenomenal!!!! Lisa is so knowledgable and so very talented. She is incredibly smart, super funny and so very helpful. This class contains so much valuable information, and at this price it's a complete steal. This class has forever changed my life!!! I'm so happy to have a new skill set. Thank you Lisa from the bottom of all of our hearts you are completely incredible and have touched all of our editing in photoshop lives forever!!!!! You are so very talented thank you so much for sharing your incredible skills and knowledge with us, you are a true beautiful talented soul. xoxo, Skye

Student Work

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