Digital Expressions — Creating Digital Art [Book Review]

Digital Expressions sits amongst a forest of books on full price Photoshop tips/techniques/tutorials and acts as a solitary beacon in dealing with the “poor cousin” of Adobe’s favourite child.

In the book author Susan Tuttle walks you through 25 digital art projects, all created with Photoshop Elements. In its pages you’ll learn how to tackle different kinds of digital mixed media, using custom brushes, filters and textured backgrounds on your own photographs.

Set up as an elementary guide, the book holds your hand through the various steps and right at the beginning Tuttle stresses your initial and primary needs: an ability to use a mouse or graphics tablet; be able to open an image file and save it; use menus and tool bars, operate a digital camera.

The basic tools in Elements are explained and discussed, as are the various controls like hue/saturation, shadow/highlights etc. Then the real fun begins as we learn how to add a vignette over an image, make colours in an image ‘pop’, use type in a design, add texture.

Taking the lessons into a controversial area, the book discusses the use of filters, such as coloured art pencils, dry brush and other painting tools. Frankly, I’ve been to this place in the past and done my time with goofy efforts to make innocuous photos look like old masters … but, if that is your bent, this book goes there.

The images in the book are sumptuous, the examples delightful and tasteful — and there’s even a section for scrap-bookers.

What makes the book even more attractive is the bundled CD-ROM, complete with photos, brushes and textures.

Strictly for Elements fans. Terrific!

Author: S Tuttle.
Publisher: North Light Books.
Distributor: Capricorn Link.
Length: 144 pages.
ISBN: 978 1 60061 454 5.
Price: Get a price on Digital Expressions Creating Digital Art on Amazon.