Friday, February 25, 2011

"Wacom Pad To The Rescue!"

Remember that first Celtic Knot Mount Mat that I made, which was to large to fit in an 8x10 frame?  Well, a reader (Lise Winne, Hi Lise and thanks!) of my blog, told me how to reduce it without reducing the center square in PhotoShop!  I tried it out and was 75% successful, the other 25% I innovated on, but it is working!  I then decided I wanted to try and spiffy it up in PhotoShop and began trying my hand at using the erasure and pencils tools.  Working with the mouse proved to be quite tedious and cumbersome, when I remembered I had a Wacom Pad with a pencil that I could use?

I had purchased it about 4 years and was learning to use it when we acquired "Danny Boy" (our little miniature pinscher) to the family; during his puppy teething stage he chewed up about 6 inches of the Wacom pad cord, which was NOT removable!  With the cord chewed up and wire exposed, it no longer worked.  So I stuck it away, meaning to get it fixed at Wacom (in Vancouver, WA) and then completely forgot about it until today.  I was thinking this would be so much easier with a pencil, then I looked up and saw the Wacom pencil peacefully sitting on top of my computer cabinet, so I pulled out the Wacom pad and checked the wire, it didn't look that great, yet it didn't look that bad.  I wondered if perhaps a little electrician's tape might be a cure for what ailed it and decided to try.  Wrapped it tight, plugged it in, said a prayer to "God" and tried it out ... it works!  I popped back into PhotoShop and tried it out and WOW! was I delighted!  Magnifying the image up to 300% and using the Wacom pencil works wonders!  So much easier than the sloppy work I was getting from my mouse!  Now I am going to complete the entire project until I become proficient in using it (Wacom) to clean up various pieces of artwork.  I think it will definitely prove to be a life saver. 

I am slowly beginning to appreciate PhotoShop and learning how to use the various tools.  Sometimes I get stuck and the program locks up, but I figure if I keep on trying I'll eventually get it somewhat mastered.

Will share the finished results of this project once it is completed and then you can compare it to the original and let me know what you think.


Or ... maybe I'll be sharing the frustration of this project with you?  Hope not!

Thanks a bunch for listening and happy day to all!
Karen Anne

4 comments:

  1. Good for you Karen Anne! That's using your head, electrician's tape and a little prayer ;o) I don't know anything about photo shop! Everytime Pam talks about it, I get lost! LOL! I can't wait to see everything when you are done!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bravo! I hadn't thought of the Wacom pencil. Great idea! Will be interested to see what you have posted!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey Stacy, it is so easy to be intimidated by anything new, especially computer applications ... it seems to take me a few years before I really try testing the waters! I started using PhotoShop about a year ago when I wanted a watermark for my artwowrk even tho it had been installed years earlier. I kept trying to get someone to show me how to use PhotoShop but usually was told to jump in and try it, experience will teach you ... it turns out necessity became and is my teacher!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Lise! Thank you so much for your instigation to get me to use PhotoShop to correct my original design and through that to learning how to use my Wacom tablet. Just goes to show ... eventually an "old dog" can learn new tricks! LOL!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting, if you'd care to leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you!