Photoshop Woes.

It has come to my attention that the adult world requires a more well-rounded individual. No longer can I just get by know how to write well and learning how to do so on the computer. No, no, those days are long gone. Now I have to learn other forms of media to make myself seem worthy to the job world. This came to my attention a few weeks ago when I went to visit the career resources center at my school. I was in the market for an internship and had taken a crack at redoing my resume for the first time since I graduated high school. When I went into the office the woman looked over my resume and pulled out her big book of internships.

                “So what other computer skills do you have?” she asked me.

                “Um, just what I’ve listed there.” I replied.

                “Oh.” She said with a hint of disappointment. “You may want to consider familiarizing yourself with some other things. Do you know anything about Photoshop or Illustrator?”

                “Um, a little bit.”                                    

By a little, I meant almost nothing. I’d seen Photoshop and Illustrator used by my boyfriend Josh. Other than that I had absolutely no experience in them. Apparently, many jobs involving writing now require I know other things. Like some sort of media or the internet. I was now faced with the task of not only having to write well, but also have other marketable skills. So with donation of my boyfriend’s old tablet and the use of both programs from his computer (whenever he wasn’t using it), I took up the task of broadening my horizons and learning something new. While I’m not the most tech-savvy person I know I am able to manage my way around a computer well enough. If left alone with a program for long enough I could even figure out the basic functions of whatever it is. I couldn’t imagine Photoshop or Illustrator being any more difficult. I opened up Photoshop and began my quest for future employment. I was going to learn this program and become proficient enough to put on my resume. Energized and revved up, I took up the pen tool and decided to draw a turtle. I then quickly realized I had no idea how to navigate the program and quickly closed it. Alright, that was a slight set back but it was no big deal. I was on a mission to make myself seem valuable to the adult world. I wasn’t about to let a single act of cowardice on my part keep me from that goal. I opened up Illustrator with a new determination. I was going to learn this program and draw that turtle. I put the stylus to the tablet and…got confused and closed the program in frustration. This was not going as smoothly as I had hoped, both programs were much more complicated then I initially gave them credit for. It appeared that I might actually need someone to teach me how to use these programs. Seeing as Josh is a graphic design major he seemed like the perfect choice to teach me. He, however, was working on his thesis and as much as I did ask him for help I could never in good conscious pull him away from his thesis just because I couldn’t figure out how to draw pictures. So until his thesis was over with I decided to make do with what I had. I had a tablet and a free drawing program on my computer. 

If I couldn’t figure out how to use the software, I could at least figure out the hardware. 

The tablet consisted of a flat drawing tablet and a stylus for it. From looking at it I could gather a vague idea of how it worked. Just plug it into the USB drive of a computer and use the pen like a mouse. Easy, hell;  I’ve doodled before in class and for funsies, using this couldn’t be that much different. I thought stupidly, clearly not having learned anything from my last two failed attempts. Controlling the stylus was like trying to house train a stubborn dog, it still made a mark where I didn’t want it to and seemed to hate me for trying to make it go elsewhere. Any line I made was either extremely sloppy or in the wrong place all together. It was perhaps the poorest excuse for turtle I had ever seen. After failing twice already, I wasn’t too eager to fail again. I kept at that turtle for a solid hour, picking up little tricks along the way on how the pen and tablet worked. After an hour of effort and a firm hand on the undo button I finally came out with something that looked vaguely like a turtle. Sort of. It was good enough to be loved, kinda. I had tamed the wild beast of the tablet and achieved my turtle, life was good. It made the next step rather difficult. I had to delete my turtle and make one in Photoshop. Sure I made the turtle but I still hadn’t learned anything about Photoshop or Illustrator which was my goal in the first place. After awhile Josh had finished his thesis, so I had no excuse not to learn how to use Photoshop. With his help, I poked around, learned quite a few things and even managed to draw my turtle. He’s a derpy little guy but I consider him a small victory on my path to employment. Also he’s a wizard.

Update: Josh lent me his old Photoshop and InDesign textbooks from when he took the class. This learning thing has gotten much easier since then. :)


Update: I can use Photoshop! This is a happy day indeed. Now onto learning InDesign.