Photoshop Digital Painting Tutorial #2 - Word Stacks, Abstract Thumbnails, Lasso Tool

These Photoshop exercises were designed to get us to relax a little about thumbnails and show us that there doesn't always have to be a definite idea of what you are creating/drawing, and that ideas can be generated from abstract shapes and brush strokes. 

Firstly we were directed to create a "word stack", a continuous stream of conciousness in writing form of descriptions and ideas and links made in your mind about a chosen city, which is a great way of getting everything in your head down on paper quickly, which then acts as a great resource for planning and developing your work. Initially I chose to create a word stack of Esmeralda, because I was interested in the city and had not yet developed any thumbnails for it, but then decided to also do one for Baucis as this is my chosen city, but due to the open-ness of the description of the city itself I am taking on board inspiration from other cities I like, especially Esmeralda. 

Then we were given a thumbnail template in photoshop and directed to create abstract compositions from our word stack (stacks in my case) using only the brush tool. 

Next we were given the same task but using the lasso tool and polygonal lasso tool.

Lastly, we combined different abstract thumbnails through different layering techniques to see what might emerge from the abstractions.