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BEST BOOK 2001
New Masters of Photoshop
by Mike Cina, Mike Young, Eun-Ha Paek, Jens Karlsson
$59.99
Our Price: $41.99
You Save: $18.00 (30%)
Perfect - 544 pages 1st edition (August 2001) Friends of Ed; ISBN: 1903450624
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The New Masters
Folks, this is not a book review. Let's say you're not at all interested in buying
another book about Photoshop or graphic arts. Now breath deeply, and consider not
the book, but what the book stands for.
___ As a piece of software, Adobe Photoshop is alone
in industry popularity, as well as capabilities for manipulating digital images.
Even more rare is the genuine passion that it evokes from a selected few of its users.
___ What most of us have missed in the past five years
is the realization that we're all taking part in the emergence of another genre of
true art. A nation of aspiring digital graphic artists and designers sit on the sidelines
and talk about Photoshop (myself included,) yet they trudge through the day to day
tedium unaware of a new emerging art form.
___ You've heard the art critics and museum curators
classify and departmentalize works of art. We hear of "masters in oil"
or "masters in marble." But it took "The New Masters of Photoshop"
to bring this new emergence into my reality. If any of this art actually survives
a century, or even a millennium it will take its place in the ever-flowing time line
of fine arts.
___ Mike Cina, and another thirty or so editors and
contributing authors (referred to as "Friends of Ed") have taken the all-important
major step to bring digital art to its deserving place in the overall scheme of fine
arts. And, they've packaged it for the consumption of the rest of us living the art
in this time -- not 50 or 100 years from now. Yes, there have been others. But I
believe this one is a true milestone.
___ The New Masters of Photoshop is an important book
because it not only showcases the works of Masters who use Photoshop, but because
it looks into the minds of these masters -- no, I take that back. Too weak. It actually
looks into the very souls of the masters and brings forth the passion and emotion
of the works they present. Imagine for a moment if you could pick up a fabulously
illustrated book (along with video on CD) that actually presents the thoughts, ideas
and inner feelings of Michelangelo or Da Vinci -- discovering how they wrought their
works, and more importantly, why. Do you suppose any of their contemporaries even
guessed what they were missing?
___ I'm not proposing that there are Michelangelos or
Da Vinicis in this group of 'new' artists. Only the test of time will prove their
worth as true masters. However, it's plain to see -- and I shall testify -- there
is true greatness in these pages. Greatness such that no Photoshop user, or graphic
artist should ignore. Untouched, unimagined greatness.
___ From the thought provoking 'psychosurgery' of Derek Lea to the emotionally sensitive "Finders, Keepers" of Catherine McIntyre
to the stark precision of Colin Smith's photorealism, the artists herein demonstrate
examples of their print work, web work, public work, and private work, explaining
the techniques they use to achieve their results. More than that, though, they'll
tell you how they think: who their influences are, where their ideas come from, and
how they find inspiration when the well has run dry.
___ If you want proof, don't just site there with that
dumb stupor on your face. Go and download the entire chapter of Josh Fallon's "Metamorphose"
(where he takes you through his rind technique). (It's an easy PDF Download.)
___ Ladies and gentlemen, if you even care for your
craft, or your art, you would be foolish indeed to let this opportunity slip away
-- for a paltry 59-bucks.
___ Aside from all that, "The New Masters of Photoshop"
is a gallery of Photoshop practice and theory, backed with essays on the influences
and inspirations that lie behind the sharpest digital art in today's media-saturated
world. The book deconstructs sophisticated, complex, and astonishing Photoshop graphics,
providing motivation, skills and inspiration in equal parts.
___ The projects presented include examples of collage
and montage that involve manipulation of whole images and tiny fragments - working
on a grand scale, and at a pixel-by-pixel level. Layers and masks, with all their
subtleties, are used in fascinating ways; and filters are treated with the sensitivity
and discretion they require. They let you share the experience -- showing the layer
structures of the files, the raw images, and the way they are brought together to
form the finished work.
___ And, let me say that ALL of the work is a joy to
see and learn about. Unlike some other 'masters' style compilations, there's not
a single dud in the group -- in my opinion.
___ Cancel your appointments for the day. As a benefit,
the CD contains an extraordinary audio/video with actual interviews with the authors.
So, not only do you get to see their writings about the projects, you get to visit
with them, actually getting the feeling of their presence. Along with that, the source
files for the tutorials are included on the CD with unflattened Photoshop files for
closer inspection.
___ For me, each page is a visual treat. It's exactly
what I needed to shake my sensitivity -- to get my eyes and my mind actually seeing
again. I've gone page by page through the book, now, the third time, and I can't
wait to go through it again... slowly.
___ I guess this actually did turn out like a book review
after all. But keep the stress on the aspect of seeing, experiencing, and even being
part of a new art genera. If you immerse yourself -- allow yourself the luxury to
be immersed -- in this collection of art, you'll be amongst the few contemporaries
of these New Masters who have been touched by their works; in their own time.
"Each page is a visual treat... exactly what the Photoshop
user needs to heighten sensitivity and shake you out of the Photoshop doldrums!"
Fred Showker
Editor/publisher, DT&G Magazine
New Masters of Photoshop
by Mike Cina, Mike Young, Eun-Ha Paek, Jens Karlsson
Perfect - 544 pages 1st edition (August 2001) Friends of Ed; ISBN:
1903450624
MAKING WAVES
Our beaming review of "New Masters of Photoshop" (above) has prompted some
very positive response. Saying "Thanks" to the Design Bookshelf, Gavin
Wray, spokesman for "Masters" has posted a FREE sample chapter from the
book -- It's Josh Fallon's chapter "Metamorphose" (where he takes you through his rind technique)
Thank YOU, Gavin!
About the Authors:
_____ Michael Cina is an artist
and designer living in a small village outside of Minneapolis. He creates stuff (mikecina.com)
and things (trueistrue.com) out of his house in that village. Companies like MTV
or Adobe may even call him to do some work. Currently Michael is working on his new
company, weworkforthem.com, with Michael young. WeWorkForThem is half art and half
design studio.
_____ Mike Young is an
artist currently residing in Washington, DC, USA. Mike has created and maintained
sites such as designgraphik.com and submethod.com, and is currently starting weworkforthem.com
with Michael Cina of trueistrue.com. While working on these projects, Mike has also
served as art director for two years at Vir2l Studios, where he directed and designed
on projects such as vir2l.com, which won prestigious awards such as the New York
Festivals New Media Competition, Cannes Cyber Lion: Gold, Clio Award, Art Directors
Club, and also Invision Award.
_____ Jens Magnus Karlsson
is a Swedish digital artist and designer. He studied information and advertising
for four years, partly in the US, and later graduated from Hyperisland School of
New Media Design. He worked as a freelance art director, along with his studies,
doing print, animation, and online work for clients such as CBS, Sony, Volkswagen,
and Digital Vision. From there he moved on to a position as Senior Designer at Kioken
Incorporated. Jens is currently a freelance designer through Chapter3.net, and is
actively involved as assistant creative director at threeoh.com.
ALSO SEE:
Photoshop 6.0 for Photographers
by Martin Evening
Photoshop Restoration
& Retouching
by Katrin Eismann
Inside
Adobe Photoshop 6
Stunning production... Softcover Binding - 1002 pages, includes CD-ROM
The Photoshop 6 Bible
by Deke McClelland
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