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Ask anyone at Adobe what distinguishes Photoshop from every other image-editing program, app, or digital blip on the planet, and they'll tell you "masking and compositing." Apparently you agree, because my video course Photoshop Masking & Compositing: Fundamentals is tearing up the planet over at lynda.com. It's N-to-the-1-to-the-L-D-C, as the dope kids say. As if I'd know.

Naturally, I'm gratified. (Thanks very much, btw!) Plus, it emboldens me to report: Today I and my beloved video publisher release another installment in the series, Photoshop Masking & Compositing: Advanced Blending. The image below might make it look exacting and academic. Which it is. But it's also expansive and practical. Because it tells the ultimate post-processing story: How to paint without permanence, create without consequences, and, in the end, mask without masking. In short, how to assemble photorealistic artwork through the pure power of artistic thought. It really is that good.

This is a short course, just 4 hours, and yet it manages to comprise 9 chapters. Here they are: Read more » 

My Lovely Lounge Lizards, so glad to have you back again. Are your shoes off yet? Because we have an episode chock full of classic lounge segments sure to lull you into a relaxed state of graphic education. We start with a question from our Viewer Mail hotline, in which Deke not only distinguishes between Opacity, Fill, and Flow, but also throws a spontaneous secret handshake into the mix and graciously puts up with my ineptitude at using text in Photoshop. We follow that excitement up with an unusually amiable He Said She Said regarding whether it's easy to "write" in words or pictures first.

Here are the specifics on my cryptic allusions above the graphic: Read more »