Over the past several months, I have been honing my basic skills in both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop; branching out from tutorials and creating my own art and designs.  While I am no expert with a camera, I am fortunate enough to have access to excellent photographs taken by my sister-in-law – Gayle Sutherland.  While practice on stock photos is useful, it is nice to have access to more personal – and exclusive! – images.

The challenges of simultaneously learning two kinds of graphic design software are not inconsiderable, but I have found the process to be good for my (aging) brain which has been over-exposed to kid’s TV and reading books.  While I have not given up the fun of creating with Legos, I have found that the discipline of learning skills useful in the “Real World” to be oddly empowering, perhaps easing my way back into “a real job.”

I never considered my self to be an “artistic” person.  My painting and drawing skills are elementary level at best, but – as was pointed out to me a few weeks ago – “Art” can be found in many forms.  Music, sewing, embroidery, woodworking, and, photography are all valid art forms as, I think, is writing – one of the few things that I think I do well.  When I first began learning Photoshop and Illustrator, it was more in terms of learning a new skill – like HTML or Java – that I may find useful in developing this here blog.  However, the more I learned, the more I found that, not only were they useful skills to have, but that I enjoyed the creative process and was – gasp! – quite good at adapting my lessons to real life logos, posters and designs.  I now create all my own FB covers and have recently started modifying already excellent photographs into more “classical” Fine Art pieces.

The interesting thing is that as I have slowly embarked on my personal creative journey, my brother, Gordon – always artistically gifted – has started a business based upon his own considerable talent.  Cicero Pens of Distinction clearly shows his skills with wood-turning and his eye for design and detail.  The fact that he let me design his first advertisement on Pinterest is an honor indeed!

To view a selection of my work click here!

One thought on “Pixels and Presets – A Creative Journey

  1. Karen emily Anderson

    Very well done. Your work looks very professional. With those ads, Gordon may not be able to keep up with his orders!

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