As we transition from the Photoshop unit to the Audacity unit, I’ve been thinking a lot about the relationship between software experience and self-induced pressure—that is to say, I think the more a person is skilled in a certain software or program, the more that person expects out of himself or herself, thus leading to increased pressure and responsibility to “do better.”
Let me explain: when we first started this class, I was really looking forward to the Photoshop unit because it was comfortable to me. Out of all the other programs/languages we were going to tinker with (HTML/CSS, Markdown, Audacity, etc.), Photoshop was the one that I had the most history with. I never took official classes or lessons for it, but I started dabbling in Photoshop back in 8th grade to make personalized banners for a Pokemon forum I used to frequent (yes, I was, and still am, a nerd). I felt that Photoshop was a fairly forgiving program despite its abundance of bells and whistles, because you didn’t need to know everything about the program to get something done. You could just pick and choose a few of your favorite tools, learn how to use them thoroughly, and then create your masterpiece.
Even since then, Photoshop (and GIMP) has been a constant in my life for a variety of reasons. For lack of a better term, image editing is “fun” for me. I remember procrastinating on homework assignments to make banners and edits for my online platforms, though I never thought of what I was doing as “art.” I never even considered how Photoshop might benefit me in an academic or professional sense. Even today, I still turn to image editing projects (mostly for Tumblr) when I don’t want to finish an assignment or feel an overwhelming sense of writer’s block. It’s therapeutic. Nostalgic. Ironically, I did some image editing for Tumblr while procrastinating on this Photoshop assignment as well.
It’s funny how once you’re assigned something, it no longer becomes fun. Out of all the projects we’ve done in class so far (albeit there have only been three), this Photoshop assignment has given me the most trouble. The only real explanation I have for this is that, because I’m aware that Photoshop is the program I “know best,” I’ve put an unreasonable amount of pressure on myself to create something new, unique, and beautiful. And, as I’m sure we’ve all experienced many times in our college careers, the more you stress over an assignment, the harder it becomes to finish it.
I suppose the question that I’ll throw into the void is this: did anyone else (who had familiarity with Photoshop) feel similarly about this assignment? Or perhaps you were most familiar with HTML/CSS and found yourself having trouble finishing the website assignment? I wonder if Photoshop differs from, say, Markdown and HTML/CSS because it’s visually based. When push comes to shove, it’s easier for me to force words and code out rather than an artistic rendition of a vision I have in my mind. Maybe this means I’m not as good at Photoshop as I thought. Maybe, at the end of the day, I’m still more of a writer than an artist.
Maya P
My photoshop knowledge started similarly to yours, except I made neopets banners instead of pokemon. In fairness, I’ll dig up one of my old relics as well. Here you go, circa 2006 http://i.imgur.com/E5hOueD.jpg I ran into a similar issue with this project as you, but for different reasons. Having worked so extensively in photoshop within an artistic mindset, I found it really challenging to adhere to the guidelines. I am so used to having a limitless canvas to create, that when presented with a prompt, I sort of lost all ideas. I ended up struggling with this project more than I would have expected.