As I’ve mentioned in various posts in the past, it doesn’t matter how a commercial artist chooses to create their work, but a basic understanding of the computer is essential for delivering jobs to clients and archiving art for a record (and possible secondary rights licensing).

Since its launch in 1990, Photoshop has become the de facto industry standard for “raster graphics” editing. Nathanial Dodson put together this very basic guide that should be useful to beginners as well as to experienced artists needing a clear-cut refresher. You can use the time-guide below to skip around to various tips as needed—and you can find many more Photoshop video tutorials at the Tutvid website.

00:55 Color Balance
01:48 Masking
02:44 Quick Selection Tool
04:03 Quick Mask Tool
05:03 Content-Aware Fill
05:31 Clone Stamp Tool
07:05 The Patch Tool
08:07 How to use Levels
09:12 The Pen Tool
10:31 Flames Filter
15:03 The Type Tool
15:41 TypeKit Fonts
17:42 Using & Working with Guides
18:38 Smart Objects
19:35 Field Blur
21:41 How to use Curves
23:20 The Eyedropper Tool
24:58 Import Color Themes with Adobe Color
25:49 BONUS: Gradient Maps
26:27 How to Create an Action
28:38 The Crop Tool
30:36 Colorize Live Shapes
31:23 Convert Objects to 3D/Working with 3D
34:24 Custom Workspaces
35:57 The Camera RAW Filter
37:18 Exporting Images and Graphics
38:46 BONUS: Changing the UI Background Color
39:29 Color Range
40:55 Select and Mask
45:38 Liquify
47:36 The Healing Brush
49:28 The Rotate View Tool