On Photoshop

I learned to use Adobe Photoshop by trying to seamlessly alter my driver's license.

Oh, I never used the thing. I'm not even sure I printed it. The point was, I learned how to Photoshop using some real low-grade, knock-off software and unrelenting obsession with individual pixels.

I moved on to making custom DVD and CD labels, making some amusing captions and altering family photos because some old flame asked for a picture of a dead relative and my grandmother and her sister were so insanely spiteful that they'd rather I remove a woman from a picture of a man who looked like that relative than get a real copy of  photo made.

And then, yeah, I had my own comic strip online and in the college newspaper for like three and a half years. That probably really helped too.

What do I use it for now? Mostly crap like this:

 

Yeah, that's the same guy Photoshopped over every other person at the party. To be honest, I'm not even sure which is the original at this point. I think it might be the one in red on the left. Or it could be the one with breasts. Either/or, really.

Anyway, that was my entry into last year's "Aaron Gold Photoshop Challenge." It did not win. Nor did my rendition of the Lincoln Monument using this same kid. Did I mention the point of the contest? No? Well, it was Photoshop Aaron Gold into a photo of something else. And it was a contest. I really feel like I didn't need to explain that after all.

But this year I will win.

I warmed up with some astrophysical Face of Mars layer work.

Not only did I get to work with layers and color adjustments, but this one refined my clone-tool/spot-healing work. I had to combine two pictures to get the hair right.

Next I did some Earth-based geography just to get the warp-tool down.

But this was all leading up to my masterpiece. My Sistine Chapel. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you "The Creation of Aaron":

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. I might go for a sculpture of David next, but I don't know. Maybe a Mona Lisa or try for an abstracted, Picasso piece. We'll see. All I know is I'm too much of a classicist to ever win this contest.

But I'm totally down with carving out the winner's skull to use as a paint can.