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Using Photoshop As Your Sketchpad by Bill Guy
I am a doodler as I think most artists are. In fact, this was one of the first things my wife noticed on my college notes as to how interested I was in a subject was the ratio of cartoons to words on the page. Well, I still doodle whenever I have a blank piece of paper and any kind of writing implement, but now I will often use Photoshop as my sketch pad.
Photoshop is more or less the world’s best sketch pad. After all, you have a pencil tool for freehand drawing and a paint brush with million of colors. (You can even color both inside and outside lines) If you have a tablet, then it is just like a piece of paper.
Not a great artist? It doesn’t matter. You can import images from not only your camera but from the web to make your point. There is even a Text tool for writing down your thoughts and it will be legible with even a spell check. (Here is a Photoshop quick tip, you can create a text box by just having the text tool active then click and drag out a box. Then you can type inside this box for a nice format.)
So, why would you want to use a $600 software program as a piece of paper. Two words: web page (or is that only one word today?) If you are working with a web page designer you know how they have a lot of great ideas but tend not to respond well to verbal suggestions outside of what color of background you want (for them it is always black). If you walked in with a full color page of what you have in mind full of your artistic expression rather than a torn page of paper with smudged and crossed out images (or worse stick figures) they will be more likely ready to accept your ideas and not just one of the preset designs they have on the hard drive. Plus, if you work in layers then when they ask for this image to play with on their computer you can email it over and let them at it.
In the past, you could take your layer image in Photoshop and even make it your web page with roll over buttons and links. This was because Photoshop 7, CS, and CS2 came with a program called Image Ready. This program was removed in favor of other programs in the Adobe Suite. But, there are programs out there that can take a Photoshop image and turn it into a web page if you are so inclined.
Other uses for this expensive pad of paper is when you are working with clients who need a more visual example of what you can do for them. This can even be a print out, which they can draw on and place their name on as an OK to your design. We use to do this in the old days of film with Art Directors who were well known for “forgetting” they approved your changes. These were our instance proofs of Polaroids where, after viewing, they placed their mark on the back.
One last benefit of using Photoshop in this way is it allows you to play, which will not stretch your creative energies but improve your Photoshop chops. So go forth and play.