I'm back in school again; and I'm taking a bunch of art classes -- which is unusual for me. I always used to think that taking classes would rob me of my personal style. I still think they could have, but now, I think it's too ingrained for basic classes to yank it out. I like my style, and I intend to keep it.

So I'm in classes now, since I figure it's a good way to force myself to create things, and will hopefully also enable me to flesh out a portfolio.

Last semester, I took a basic Adobe-programs class. Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign. I'd never messed with InDesign, and I actually kind of like that -- been making a certain doc with it on my own time now. Illustrator was interesting, but not really very fun. Photoshop, I hadn't used extensively since version 6/7. I used CS2 for a little while, but always went back to Paint Shop Pro. CS4's pretty nice though. I still feel a little awkward in it (compared to PSP), but I can get stuff done pretty fast, and the program itself feels pretty smooth, despite my awkwardness.

So that was it for last semester... aside from the flamenco dance class.

But this semester... I'm taking a crapload of art classes. Drawing, painting, "art concepts" and my favorite: stone setting. Traditional media is weird. I'm starting to get used to it, finding parallels in how I use Photoshop/PSP, but other things are a little frustrating (getting too much water on the canvas... discovering that partial black is not the same as part white/part black... the cost of all the damn materials and the space they take up). So I'm not hooked yet. It's neat. But not something I want to spend hour upon hour of free time on. After all, that's what my guitar is for.