Several years ago, probably when I was roughly about 11, I started learning Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere, mostly from a suggestion via my dad.  Back then, we were looking at maybe Adobe 4.0 and now, we're at least past the double digits as far as versions.  It was then that he predicted that these tools would be vital in the coming years but at the time, being the young and the "WHATEVER, DAD" person I was, I complied, but only out of making him happy.  However, that rebellious attitude was cut short when I realized that he was right. I think it might have been a whole five minutes I realized after jumping right into the programs, that this stuff was cool AND fun. A winning combination.  Adobe Photoshop and the accompanying programs would continue to evolve. I was right in it, learning it all from an early age. I took to it pretty well and loved every minute of it.  It was a class full of people of all ages and it was one of those things that I remember fondly.

However, it was maybe about a year or two later that I stopped using the programs. Ironic, considering how much I loved them and loved using them. Why? I honestly, can't remember. It was probably because life and college or whatever probably got in the way.  However, Photoshop was still on my mind and I wanted to come back to it.  It was a skill that was becoming more and more vital in a variety of fields and I wanted in. However, nothing happened for many years and I was never able to get back into it.

Fast forward about 20 years, I found myself doing cosplay and for some reason, I felt that I had to do something more with it. I decided to get a copy of Adobe Elements version 11. While it was a much pared down version of the big beast that was Adobe Photoshop, I ended up tinkering, finding a variety of different online tutorials, and did what I could with the limits of the program.  I found myself getting back into something that I had loved so many years ago. I created a variety of edits and manipulations that while I was learning step by step, I came up with some real winners.

One of the many challenges of doing minimalist art (or art in general) is being inspired to create something. You don't want to force it, nor do you want to do something for the sake of it.  However, sometimes, you start to do one thing and ends up open the gates to a whole new world. This was the case when I first started out.  Granted, the first group I did when I started of this was the Legion of Superheroes.  I tried to find all the ones that would not only be visually pleasing, but ones that could provide an interesting color palette.  From there, I started doing other superheroes and found that some could inspire me to do others in a series and some left me with only one version, but one specifically started me off on several more of the same type.

That particular one was Batman.

Batman has always been a favorite hero of mine. While I'm sure many of us have our favorite version, whether it be Adam West, animated, Michael Keaton or Christian Bale, it made sense to tackle different costumes. I ended up choosing a few ones that I loved.