Layers

     As an artist the thing I find the most interesting is seeing something in progress. I take a lot of pictures of things while I work on them. I like mediums that allow you to build up form through thin layers. Although before I had never worked in photoshop, I always recognized its process as being similar to mine. Especially when it comes to oil painting. Sometimes I use the photoshop example to explain how I paint. I water down the oils to the consistency of watercolor. I add layers and layers of thin color. I like this because I am meticulous, and by adding linseed oil to the paint I can prolong the drying period so I can continue to adjust it for months, like one would a photoshop layer. In this way if I start to do something I hate, I can use turpentine and a cloth and remove only the layer I had just added, as long as the layer below fully dried first. It's interesting because photoshop allows you to always preserve each stage and layer of the work. Photos are the only way to record progress.
     Maybe I've just been studying too much art history, but I can't help but relate everything to that as well. For one, the terms of disegno and colorito come to mind. Each represent a different approach to painting, strongly characterizing the differences between the Northern Renaissance and the Italian Renaissance. Disegno involved careful drawing and study of the physical world whereas colorito emphasizes layering of color and shadow and texture to build form.
     Also related is mannerism, because it deals with the artifice involved in art, and does not attempt to hide it. I think it is interesting that in the past when apprentices would learn to paint, they were told not to look at the the best old masters' paintings to learn because the artist is too skilled at hiding his process. Rather, one should look at a less proficient artist's painting in the style or the work of a student of the master. Again photoshop involves revealing this process.
     Old masters also stressed that each layer had to be completed with care, so that at any stage, the painting would be suitable for hanging. Everything had to be neat. Everything underneath contributed to the final image. This reminds me of how photoshop documents are kept or how I am expecting web design to be like.