Revisiting Photoshop

  It's been quite awhile since I've had to fiddle about in Photoshop.  I think it's been over 16 years, to be fairly precise, and that's more than enough time to completely forget everything about a program, not that I was that good with it to begin with.  I used this weekend to start work at very long last (6+ months overdue) on the cover art for the "Mirror Land" EP and let's just say that it was a bit brutal.

Like I said, I've never been that knowledgeable about Photoshop to begin with but I found trying to use it now a bit more annoying than I recall it being in the past.  I did get a decent start on it, though, and at least I already knew what pictures I was going to use for the front and back cover.  It's usually not the pictures that are the issue, though.  I find combining text onto the sleeves to be the hardest.  90% of the available fonts never look right, at least not to my eyes, and trying to nail down the positioning and such is a royal pain in the you know where.  It's not hard to see why people who are very knowledgeable at these things get highly paid for it.

I also had a chance to start going through some of my old files that I've had stashed in the garage for the past 20 years and it was an interesting walk down memory lane.  I found the "Lost Weekend" artwork which I'll be needing soon due to the re-release, although it's looking like I'll have to start completely over on it due to incorrect resolution and such.  I also found 2 prototype covers for the never released (or finished) "Foreshadowing" album which I barely even remember doing.  There were also quite a few photos that I sort of recall but I have absolutely no memory of where I got them from or who gave them to me.  If I ever end up deciding to use them, I have absolutely no clue who to credit for them.

I had meant to fiddle with mixing drums on the "Mirror Land" EP this weekend but never got around to it.  I figured I should try to polish them up just a bit before I finally lock down the mix.  I've been learning a lot lately about drum mixing, finally getting over my fear of touching them since I'm of course not a drummer, but I rarely have the time to focus on it.  I also learned an amazing new trick in the past couple of days for mixing in general that I had never used nor heard of before...applying EQ to your reverbs.  I must say that it was rather impressive and quickly got written down into my notes for mixing.  It's all a journey, after all.

If anyone out there has an interest in putting together cover art for me, by all means let me know.  Until then, I'm going to keep fiddling.  As for right now, I probably have 2-3 more covers I have to come up with in the next 4 months so I'm going to be rather busy in that department.