ABOUT THE BOOK

1. What is the book about?

It is a composite of professional artists brought in from all over the U.S. and Europe, including Ron Ranson, Jerry Brommer, Richard Mc Daniel and others. Each artist uses his own ideas to develop a painting, using Photoshop as a creative tool to visually describe his/her ideas.

2. Why is this good news for artists and a real first?

Because there is really no book written that goes into color and design as does this program - especially for artists. It is NOT about printing giclees or limited edition prints, but about using the computer to do your sketches, while getting ready to do your painting in the normal way.

3. What you will see and learn from the book and our future workshops:

Ability to work out color ideas in a visual way very quickly and to implement them into the your art piece

Be able to work your design around visually until your idea is fully developed before you start painting.

For a guy (one of the authors) that has gone brain dead trying to understand computer language, there is now hope. Yes, we have simplified these software programs by about 95% - just for us fine artists who want a tool to help turn out better art.

4. There is something for all levels of artists and all mediums in the book.

There is a saying,"Keep it simple". We have spent the last two years pulling from Adobe Photoshop the necessary ingredients that the fine artist needs to develop color and design no matter how you paint. Many artists have been frustrated experimenting with Photoshop or other similar programs because they are not really directed to the fine artist. To read a computer manual can be mind boggling for artists. Most of the manuals have been written for illustrators, graphic artists, designers and photographers - not the fine artist.

The principle applies to all mediums. It is just a visual way of working out all of your ideas and problems before putting the brush to the paper or canvas.

5. Will I lose my drawing skills by using the computer?

An artist should never stop drawing and you should continue drawing at all times. You will be drawing on the computer also, but with a different tool - the mouse. It is just faster and gives you color and value at the same time. You will develop great sensitivity to color and values and their relationships as you begin testing your ideas and you will be utilizing all of your knowledge and skills - including drawing, color, design and perspective. With practice, you will find it is quicker than doing a multitude of black and white thumbnails while increasing your creativity as you are testing various ideas and directions that you might not have otherwise, tried. Thanx to the magic of "Edit, undo", you won't ruin your paper or canvas.