Photoshop Interview With Designer Heather T.

In my third Photoshop interview, I’m talking with designer Heather T. Heather runs a lovely design blog ooh la la artsy, not, sells her designs on GetDigiWithIt and designs and sells rubber stamps at Artneko.com. (All images are copyright Heather T.)

Hi Heather, thanks for taking the time for an interview! Let’s start with your background. Tell us a little bit about that. (eg. Study, work)

Well, I have somewhat of a chequered career–I grew up in Switzerland and moved over to the States to go to college to study English, with a minor in Fine Arts. I met someone and stayed in this country, went to grad school and got a Master’s of Teaching in French. Didn’t like the public schools, so stayed in school (see a pattern?) and got a Doctorate in Romance Languages. Through a crazy jumble of events I ended up becoming an in-house graphic artist at a mechanical construction company, and managed to take one year of graphic design courses before I became pregnant. After that I just worked from home doing website design and logos and the occasional newsletter, along with selling handmade greeting cards.

How did the move into selling your designs come about?

Through a friend, I became involved with an online stamping group, and because of a serious lack of funds, was trying to enlarge my stash of rubber stamps with clip art. Of course I didn’t like the clip art all that much, and so began to modify and redraw them, and then I just started making my own designs based on ancient Japanese paintings. Before too long, a stamp manufacturer who was also on the list contacted me, and I became a rubber stamp designer for Art Neko.

A couple of years later, as a part of another company’s creative team, I became involved in the book the owner was writing on Asian scrapbooking (Scrapbook Asian Style by Kristy Harris, Tuttle Publishing, 2008). So I sort of explored scrapbooking from the digital side, and really got into making my own layouts–and of course I had to make my own stuff. It took a long time (almost a year!) until somebody would give me the chance to sell in their online boutique, though!

You have a very nice design blog – http://oohlalaartsy.blogspot.com/ – how long has that been running and how has it affected your career?

Thank you! I think I’ve had that for less than a year, actually, and it’s grown with my career. I needed a place to share some technical aspects that weren’t so interesting to my family… I’ve had a family blog since before blogs existed (I used to just change a web-page every week or so), and I post my photos/layouts there to keep them in touch, since they’re far away. In the digital scrapbooking field a good way to get your name out there is to give away stuff, so that’s been a good venue for that as well.

Tell us a little bit about your work on Art Neko

Well, I mentioned how that came about earlier. One way it’s really changed my approach to designing is that it forced me to get a tablet, as I developed serious tendonitis in my forearm from trying to draw such intricate material! I never, ever use a mouse anymore.

Here on Laughing Lion Design, we’re very interested in all things Photoshop. How important is it for you?

It’s almost the entirety of what I do. I’ll occasionally make stuff in real life and then either scan it or photograph it, and I’ll use Illustrator at times also, but really Photoshop is my mainstay tool for most of my creating.

Did you teach yourself Photoshop or have you attended classes?

I’m entirely self-taught in any of the graphics programs I use. During my brief year of graphic design courses, the only computer-based course I attended was on using Quark (and I use InDesign at the moment for preparing newsletters and tutorials).

Can you give us an example of your workflow from taking a pic through working on it in Photoshop.

I use photography in two ways. One is the more traditional one, as the subject of a layout; the other is as fodder for scrapbooking items. For the first use, I open a photo and immediately run autolevels on it, then fade with screen (most of the time, unless I’m going for artsy). Then I use the curves function, adjusting middle grey. I think if I printed stuff out more I’d probably do further adjusting, but a lot of what I do is web-based, and small modifications just don’t show up that well. Cropping is another function that I love to play with, though.

For designing scrapbook elements, I use a lot of texture photographs and overlay them onto background designs to give the papers more depth; I also do a LOT of extraction, isolating the object from the background in order to turn it into a scrapbooking element. I can’t really give you a good workflow because everything will require its own treatment.

I also use Photoshop for creating my layouts, many of which are for me little pieces of visual poetry to accompany the actual poetry I write. This is where I’ve gotten very intimate with Photoshop–it’s a beautifully powerful tool. The workflow for this is quite different–I just open up a canvas, drag stuff onto it, and start playing. Layer blending, drop shadows, and text manipulation really come into their own here.

What is your favourite tool in Photoshop and why?

An almost impossible question… =) For extractions I like to use the pen tool; for photographs I use the levels function and the fade options a lot. I think that the layer blending modes are the most fun to play around with, though!

What Photoshop shortcuts have you learned along the way that have made a difference to your workflow.

Soooo many. Having my right hand on my tablet and keyboarding with my left hand has pretty much become such second nature that when I’m teaching, I actually have to move my hand to remember which keys I’m pressing. =)

Do you use any actions?

Only occasionally, except for a terrific action I picked up on deviant.art somewhere that changes a black and white drawing into a transparent file with black lines, so that the grey parts become translucent. I couldn’t do what I do without it, and I searched high and low for something like that! Other actions I use are mainly for workflow–resizing elements for packaging and the like.

What version of Photoshop do you use? If it’s not the latest version, do you think you will upgrade?

I use CS2. I’d love to upgrade, but I only make about $50/month. *laugh* This is more a labor of love than anything else…

What other software do you use?

Illustrator, with an occasional foray into Art Rage and CorelPaint, which I just was given. I also use FontCreator to make my own fonts (though I have a long way to go with that skill!).

What are you favourite online sources of inspiration?

My Google reader is stuffed with individual artists’ blogs and other, disparate design sources. Your blog is among them, Jennifer. =) I keep a folder with downloaded images and .txt notes on work that I think will be useful in some fashion.

What is your favourite thing and least favourite thing about running your own design business.

Favorite thing? Complete flexibility. Unfavorite thing? No money. But then again, I have a 6 year old I’m trying to educate at home, and that requires most of my attention…

And finally, for you, the colour of happiness is ….

Often, misty gray — the fog from the ocean across the street floats past my window in little drifts and gives me a secure, cocooned feeling. But then again, the deep blues and teals of the waters, contrasted with the stark white of foam, really gets my happy-meter on up there!

Heather, thanks a million for taking the time to take part in the interview.

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