Well Hello there......

I have been a bad blogger! :( I haven't updated my blog in SUCH a long time and I apologise unreservedly for that.

I do have some pretty good excuses though, I've been caught up in a lot of general 'life stuff' AAAAND I have started a college course as well, it's a full time NC Art and Design course. I've only been there a couple of weeks but boy have I been hammered with homework already, so I haven't really got a lot of free time for crafting just now.

Anyway....part of this course includes "Media and Software skills" i.e. Photoshop and 'stuff' ! lol...Now without boring you all rigid with the techy stuff I'll just give you a quick overview :-

Basically we have to try out 3 different graphics packages - Photoshop, Inkscape and GIMP....we have to just explore these packages and basically find out which one is best for what purpose! doesn't really matter if things a re right or wrong, it's all about 'experimenting and learning!

Now for those of you that know me you will have gathered that I'm not exactly a 'genius' when it comes to computers lol...... but I had a go anyway, not quite sure if I've achieved the 'brief' or not but hey ho! I'll have a word with the lecturer on Wednesday!


So here's what I did....


I started out with a piece that I had drawn in art class, A red pepper done in chalk pastels with an oil pastel background textured using a fork!!

NOT the best artwork but I have got to start somewhere lol...



I then opened that in Photoshop and played around with some of the filters and other stuff and ended up with this image below

Of  all the programs I used I MUCH prefer this one despite the fact that it's the professional version of Photoshop and it is supremely technical and complicated it seemed to be the easiest of all of them to use in the end! Whether or not that was because I briefly touched on it last year in the access course I don't know!



The next program used was Inkscape!! Now heaven only knows what happened with this but boy did my PC throw a hissy fit!! It practically ATE the memory for lunch!! lol.... I absolutely loathed this program....it just seemed a struggle from start to finish....I just don't know enough about it to really pass much of a comment I'm afraid, but everybody I have spoken to about it seems to be of the same opinion! ..... the image turned out....well....erm... see for yourself....lol

I have no idea what happened (or didn't for that matter lol) but looking at that image that program looks like it would be great for large text stuff..... IF I ever get it to work properly I might have another play!



And finally GIMP ... the one my teenager loves!! He thinks it's great and I suppose it is but I haven't used it much either so can't pass comment....it did what I wanted it to and the end result is alright I suppose ...

I must admit to rather liking the filters i used for the texture on this... it has a fantastic canvas look to it....it's turned out not TOO bad but I'm still leaning evermore to the dreaded Photoshop!!


I am going to make a 'paper' version of this project.... fancy putting all the images in a journal along with lots of notes on what was done and what I liked and disliked....think it will make things a LOT easier when I need to find out the best program to use for whatever project I will be working on!


Sooooooo.........on that note I will bid you all goodnight!

Thanks for dropping by and reading these rambles, just wish i knew more about the programs to give you all a better idea.

Take care

Jackie x