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I blog about anything that interests me - my local area, things I've seen or heard on the news, politics and human rights, gardening, arts and crafts, poetry, photographs and general advice.

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Monday 11 June 2012

Fun With Photoshop and Waco Bamboo Pen Tablet Graphics

I've been having a lot of fun the last few days, along with some hard work and a serious learning curve.
I was given the Photoshop Elements 10 programme for Christmas, and wouldn't allow myself even to open it until I had organized my thousands of photographs into folders which I could instantly find and identify.  As I keep taking more photographs, and adding to the chaos, this took an alarmingly long time, particularly in the light of losing everything on my crashed computer and having to restore it from my Norton Symantec Backup Storage System.  I was still able to use the photo editing programme which came with my computer, but it doesn't have the niceties of Photoshop.  
 Meanwhile I have been reading the book, and practising the arts, including using my Waco Bamboo Pen Tablet, which I have had for a few years now.






Here's a picture I drew on my Bamboo Tablet.  Do you recognize the lady concerned? (I don't!)


The Waco Bamboo Tablet which I have is a relatively simple one compared to the one pictured above, but the principle is the same - you can draw with it, point on the various elements in your photo editing programme instead of using your mouse, and you can also write with it - I sign email letters with my signature sometimes, which is just amazing technology. The Tablet shown here is the latest generation, and this is Amazon's product information:
"Designed for both left and right-handed use and for both Mac and PC, there are simply no restrictions. You can take and make notes directly on your documents, draw, paint and share spontaneous ideas digitally."
If you want to buy this via my blog, I will get a small commission from Amazon - by hovering on the link, you will be transported through to the Amazon.co.uk website where you can view this in more detail.


And below is the Photoshop Elements 10 Programme I am using - It's very up-to-date, and at the cheap end of the market - ideal for enthusiastic amateurs like me, and with sufficient versatility to keep me happy playing for hours, and satisfied with the results:



Finally, below is the book I am studying, to learn about Photoshop Elements 10.  It has very clear instructions and lots of pictures to simplify the learning process -
Photoshop Elements 10 by Mike Wooldridge and Brianna Stuart:





I'm learning a lot from this book, and find all this so enthralling that it's hard to tear myself away from the computer. I've barely noticed the disgusting weather, which is just as well, as there has been heavy rain for days, and floods in Wales (somewhat incomprehensibly,we still have a hose-pipe ban here).

Oh, and you might like this Kindle - I love mine: