Hi and thanks...yes, this thread of liam's ( http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=18866&p=167921&hilit=liam#p154487 ) illuminated the full possiblities of using a line only SU export to quickly mask areas of an image to work on separately. Once I resigned myself to the tedium of using several mutliply layers for each area (50-60 total for this simple image), I found the basic concept worked wonderfully...of course, I have a long, long road ahead learning color and stroke, etc.
The shadow trick is also huge: using several progressively blurred layers to soften the edges. With more attention to detail and some work at edges that should remain sharp, I think there are big possibilities.
I started off this computer journey with Windows products, then Corel draw and paint, so the Apple Adobe interface never seemed comfortable to me. When Corel bought paintshop pro I got it cheap and never looked back. It seems to do most of what I hear Photoshop can do (filters, etc), probably some of it not as well (brushes, etc)...but then again, I've only learned what I need to know at the time I needed it: so probably PSP is much better than I know.
I haven't figured out if I'm at a good or bad place right now. I want to add a couple of techniques to my kit: the vray clay render, the piranesi marker style, the vue landscaping possibilities...but I don't want (can't really afford) to buy any (let alone several) expensive programs right now. So I'm giving PSP a go to emulate these three styles...couldn't hurt to learn more of PSP even if I can't get the substitute techs good enough???
