I have long been in awe of some of the great skinners at this site. Mormegil, yangge and D. Arnaez, to name just a few of my favorites.
I tried so many times, to make skins of my own, but they never came out quite the way I wanted them to. I found some tutorials, and learned some tricks of the trade (I owned Photoshop for five years before I discovered that handy little paint bucket tool, and even worse, how to make a straight line using the "shift" key). I always used Paint for most projects (yeah, you read that right, I used Paint), because I knew my way around the tools, until the tutorials taught me not just the basics, but some other fun tricks.
So now I’m feeling pretty good about myself, for being able to follow directions on the tutorials (and I’ll be honest here, even some of those I couldn’t follow very well). Some of my pictures never did turn out (I blamed the author, for not giving advice like they were talking to a ten year old). But for the most part, I was happy with the outcome.
Around this time, I start feeling smug. No longer was I impressed with some of these great skinner. After all, they were just people that knew their way around the program (not that I was one of them). Anyone could make beautiful art, if they knew what all those cool tools are for. I felt much like Dorothy, when Toto pulled back the curtain. It was all just an illusion.
Now I’m ready to make this really nice butterfly from a tutorial. And lo and behold, I can’t make a simple leaf shape with the pen tool (God I hate that pen tool). I had to download the template, just to make the picture.
It suddenly dawns on me. This isn’t as easy as it looks (apparently I was doing some novice tutorials, when I was feeling so smug). Not only does this require the knowledge of the program, you need patience, skill and the imagination to create a masterpiece (I can create the Mona Lisa in my head, honest, getting it to not look like a Picasso in Photoshop is another matter).
So to all my favorite skinners out there, I salute you for not only mastering the tools of the trade, but having the talent and imagination to get it on a canvas. I’m back to being in awe of your work.
