Rules For Creating Limited Layered Photoshop Artwork

  Categorized under: Photoshop

Adobe has released yet another ‘Creative Suite’ version instead of fixing the old one, this creative suite version is CS3. Now with more memory hogging and even more costly to upgrade or purchase. In the meantime I realize most people only use most of the filters found in Photoshop 4 or they just use filters and that’s how they create their work. With these up and coming memory hogging applications there is one easy way to reduce the application load time, especially if you use a lot of filter, and when working on files so you have the most amount of memory available for Photoshop.

The goal is to make limited layered artwork. I’ve seen others, heck, I’ve even found some of my old files that have over 120 layers. But this was the old style of designing. Well, for me at least. My suggestion is to start using the least amount of layers possible. In this case the History Brush has come in handy. Here’s a quick tip though. If you are going to use the history brush, add multiple remembering spots. I also use this when I feel the work is at a good spot, but may want to to show different placements or continue working. Also, the Animation Palette in both CS2 and CS3 come in very handy for situations where you want to storyboard within Photoshop. This is a great tool to use if a client wants to see the work in different angles or other request. Luckily the palette works the same as it did in Adobe’s ImageReady so you can also export animations.

So these are my rules for creating art within Photoshop using the least amount of layers.

The Zeus Rules:
Rule 1: Everything is subjective and you are now, bling, garnished as an artist. This means it is up to you to interpret the work. You have been given free range. Now there are specifications. For instance if you are photo retouching an image, take creative license to make it look the best possible but you can choose the colors you want. Especially if your retouching a discolored photo.

Rule 2: Learn to use the brush and lasso tools mixed with CTRL-Shift-F. This brings up a window prompt in Photoshop that says “Fade Effect”. Many of the same effects that are done using layers can be done with this simple dialog box since it mimics them almost exactly.

Rule 3: Learn to move forward only. In the past if you painted something and somehow your painted got messed your only course of action was to touch it up. Photoshop was meant to be used this way rather than doing multiple undo’s. Now you should still have your undo’s _set to at least 40, _but don’t use them systematically.

Rule 4: Defend your work. Here are some easy ways to get someone to agree with how your work is the best. Use statements such as:
If someone attacks a color say, “Well the color is a nice hue, but isn’t the placement maybe changing the dynamic of the pieces?” Change it up so they forget about it.

If someone says they want to move something, reply back, “I like your idea and I was thinking just that but when I had moved it the balance took the focus away from the important parts.

If another person comes to you declaring to see another mockup after having gone through various renditions use this come back, “I understand you don’t know what it is you want and I don’t know what it is you want but after I showed this to over 12 people they absolutely loved it and said you were a genius with this design. Let’s just work on this one don’t you think?”

Set the idea back to the sender but change the argument to your benefit. Sometimes it’s a difficult call, especially if the receiver of the comment feels like their work is under attack. But it is vital to a. say no on occasion to show you are under control, and b. so you defend your work in a well fashioned manner. When defending your work, before just responding like, “Oh I got this guy sooo bad I am going to wreck him a new asshole”, instead sit there and give them the innocent look of, “Oh I already did that! It’s so amazing we’re on the same page.” Heck, even say those exact words. Then use the innocent look of, “Damn, it didn’t work.” Try and remember the feeling of when you were trying to impress that 6 year old girl by taking all her marbles but without looking like she could tell you were perturbed followed up with a nice gleam of, “But I already did it and it didn’t work.” Innocence is the best form of retaliation doubled up with an intellectual response aimed directly at the other person’s intelligence. People will usually agree with you if they think that by not agreeing with you they will be considered unintelligent.

In the next article I’ll discuss limited layer usage in Photoshop at an Advanced level for Web Designing…

— Zeus ::)
Apr 23, 2007