I would say I began teaching myself how to use Photoshop in about 2003 when I picked up a pirated copy on Khaosan Road in Bangkok, Thailand. It required a crack for the serial which was eventually compromised and I recall years of frustration trying to disconnect from the internet every time I wanted to use the program. These days I am comfortable with the monthly fee for Photoshop and Lightroom (Photographers Package from Adobe) and I use them often enough to justify the cost. We can just call it a birthday gift.
Anyways, over the years, I have picked up skills due to sheer brute force and not any efficient study or innate skill. One might appreciate that feeling of having a light turned on in a dark cave when you accidentally strike a quick key by mistake and a whole new effect takes place…? Then scale that over 15 years and apply a “random effect algorithm” and you would be able to make an educated guess at my body of knowledge. Some things I know how to do really well and others I am absolutely clueless.
To give you an idea about how my skills have changed, here are two images I created approximately 15 years apart:
An image I created in 2004 for an annual mixtape I produce.
An update to the original image that I created in 2019.
So, both these images are mine. I built them from scratch using a photograph of my record player that I used to carry overseas in an old suitcase. The first image is a pretty rudimentary drawing of the real-life creation with a simple colour fill. The updated image has gradients, textures, light rendering, drop shadows, strokes, and so on. Actually, you’d be hard-pressed to find any simple colour fills in the second image.
I am proud of my progress, but I hope this inquiry is going to take me further. In fact, I fully expect it to!