friends with photoshop

In a recent blog post I discussed my approach to color and said: "sometimes I imagine myself getting all "high tech" and playing around in photoshop, filling in color options digitally before filling in actual resin, but the truth is, that's just not me and the way I prefer to work." Well, time to eat those words. It turns out this "high tech" approach pretty much rules.

With lots of help from my web designer extraordinaire (aka: my hubby David) we took three photos of each brooch and brought them into Photoshop. Then Dave magically set up a system where I could plug in any color I wanted within each individual empty silver section. [Full disclosure: I have no idea how he did this, hence the word "magically." Perhaps the next step will be learning how to set this up for myself.] It was really fun trying out different combinations!

Turns out my overall instincts for colors (in general) were not that far off from where I ended up, but it was helpful to use Photoshop to help me envision various tones and hues, especially with so many fields to fill in! Sure beats making mistakes or changing my mind and having to remove hardened resin through the lengthy and messy process of acid bath removal. 

                           

It's one thing when choosing a single color to surround a single pair of lips or something, but with pieces this involved, this is definitely a planning method I intend to take advantage of in the future. So there you have it, sometimes it pays to embrace technology, even when your instinct is to resist!

I'm calling the new series 'Plume.' I hope you dig it.

So how about you dear readers… how has technology aided your creative process in unexpected ways? Did you like the results? Did it change the way you work for good?