“It’s not about the shoes, it’s about what you do in them.” -Michael Jordan
So… this is a little sad. I spent an hour or so learning a new technique in Photoshop by reading a tutorial; how to turn an image into a sketch.
The reason I did this is because I made a decision about Adobe, and the price increase, and my over-ambitious rebellion to find a free replacement for illustrator.
Maybe I’m lazy, but I decided to convert my Adobe ‘all apps’ subscription to a Photoshop only subscription. I’ll save over $10 a month (I know it’s not much but every penny counts), and what I’m forcing myself to do now is to return to Photoshop and – hopefully, eventually – snapping pics.
I wanted to choose between the two programs and I just couldn’t let go of Photoshop. NOW, I am on a mission to learn all kinds of new techniques and to make this my new go-to app, instead of Illustrator.
The sad part? The image above is NOT my sketch. Haha! It was actually created on a whim, as I started this post, using the “Generate with AI” button in WordPress. All I asked for was a black and white sketch of sneakers.
Below is MY sketch that was done in Photoshop…
Hmmm. Now, if you think about it, what’s the point of doing artwork / illustrations at all anymore?? All we need to do is type in what we want and voilà… it is produced instantaneously. By an intelligent machine!
In all fairness, the image that I used for this experiment wasn’t a photograph. I used an illustration that I had made before (in Illustrator), that I had saved as a jpg. So… my illustration was turned to sketch, not an original image. Mainly, I wanted to see if I could get some use out of my previous illustrations while doing my learning.
Still, what this all makes me question is where is art and illustration headed now that we have AI to do it for us? Well, I’ve decided that I’m going to stick to my idea about learning more in Photoshop, for the 12 month duration, but after that I may revisit.
It’s funny. We have an artisan in town who makes loaves of sourdough that go for $16 and up. It’s a high price to pay… but once you taste it, it’s very, VERY hard to go back to store bought, mass-produced sourdough. Even at $5 a loaf.
Everywhere you look, people are wanting to leave bigger cities and move to acreages where they can be more self-sustaining. Home grown vegetables, chickens that lay fresh eggs, solar panels… you get the drift.
And at the same time, on the flip side, we have intelligent computers who make art now! And many other things that are even more incredible than that. Sometimes I feel like I’m in a twisted episode of the Twilight Zone.
But, going back to my point, it’s like we teeter on this tightrope… artisans and hand crafters, living off the land on the one hand… and then machine made art on the other. I thought the title “You Sneaker” was kind of cool because maybe it IS a little sneaky to use AI for art. I don’t know.
Anyway, I’m happy. I’m still going to save a few bucks, and I’m going to stick to my guns this time. Pretty much anything I share from this point on will have been created in Photoshop… and I’m looking forward to watching my skills grow in the process.
In the meantime, what do you think? AI sneakers or my homemade ‘artisan’ version? hehehe.
Until next time,
Peace & Love!
If anyone is interested, HERE IS LINK TO THE TUTORIAL that I used. It is actually a really good one and I look forward to making more sketches! I don’t think I followed directions very well, but I’ll do better when I use a real photograph next time.
Life isn’t perfect, but your sneakers can be.
a sprinkle of faith 
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