July 07, 2008
Cartooning
I have always loved editorial cartoons. I even like a good editorial cartoon that I don't agree with editorially. Way back in my college days when I was editor of the editorial page of the school's daily student paper, my favorite part of the job was working with the people who drew our editorial cartoons.
If I possessed any drawing skills at all, I would be posting editorial cartoons on a regular basis. However since I lack the ability to draw at all, I don't. What I do have are some pretty good skills with PhotoShop. Which comes in handy because it's good chunk of what they pay me for at my day job.
PhotoShop occupies a unique and dangerous position in the lexicon. Dangerous in that it runs the risk of becoming accepted as the generic term for any photo editing. Corporate legal departments fight hard against having their brand become the generic for the category. But PhotoShop is already in fairly wide use as a verb. To "photoshop" something is the act of digitally altering its appearance. Probably of greater concern to Adobe is that photoshop is also becoming a noun representing not the software but the product of the software. How may times have heard or used the expression "a photoshop" to refer to a digitally composed image?
"The photoshop" is becoming a new form of editorial cartoon. Altering images to make a satirical and political point in much the same way traditional cartoonists create caricatures of their subjects. As an art form it does bring with it a unique set of issues and concerns.
Foremost among them is that vast gray area between copyright and fair use. The internet possesses a vast resource of imagery you can grab and put to your own use without ever looking at one of the commercial stock photography houses.
As the concept of "the photoshop" as editorial cartoon begins to spread beyond people doing it just for fun and just to make a point into making a buck it will be interesting to see where the line gets drawn.
For now, at lest for me, it's a vehicle to have a little fun and poke a little fun. If you scroll down, you'll see a few posts where I've begun to explore the medium. I'm going to keep playing at it at long as it stays fun.
If I possessed any drawing skills at all, I would be posting editorial cartoons on a regular basis. However since I lack the ability to draw at all, I don't. What I do have are some pretty good skills with PhotoShop. Which comes in handy because it's good chunk of what they pay me for at my day job.
PhotoShop occupies a unique and dangerous position in the lexicon. Dangerous in that it runs the risk of becoming accepted as the generic term for any photo editing. Corporate legal departments fight hard against having their brand become the generic for the category. But PhotoShop is already in fairly wide use as a verb. To "photoshop" something is the act of digitally altering its appearance. Probably of greater concern to Adobe is that photoshop is also becoming a noun representing not the software but the product of the software. How may times have heard or used the expression "a photoshop" to refer to a digitally composed image?
"The photoshop" is becoming a new form of editorial cartoon. Altering images to make a satirical and political point in much the same way traditional cartoonists create caricatures of their subjects. As an art form it does bring with it a unique set of issues and concerns.
Foremost among them is that vast gray area between copyright and fair use. The internet possesses a vast resource of imagery you can grab and put to your own use without ever looking at one of the commercial stock photography houses.
As the concept of "the photoshop" as editorial cartoon begins to spread beyond people doing it just for fun and just to make a point into making a buck it will be interesting to see where the line gets drawn.
For now, at lest for me, it's a vehicle to have a little fun and poke a little fun. If you scroll down, you'll see a few posts where I've begun to explore the medium. I'm going to keep playing at it at long as it stays fun.
Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 10:33 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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