Digital Design for Craft Practitioners
Digital Design for Craft Practitioners
Join a dynamic three-month hybrid experience that combines flexible, self-paced learning with live online sessions with a national creative community. You’ll learn Photoshop from the ground up through video tutorials designed to help you apply new techniques directly to your own studio practice. Between sessions, you’ll work through prompts and exercises at your own pace, experimenting and refining your work. Then, every second Sunday, connect on Zoom for Sunday Sessions—an inspiring space to share progress, exchange ideas, and receive constructive feedback from peers.
Application Deadline: February 15
Class Begins: Sunday, March 1
Course Duration: March 1 – May 10
Facilitator: Jasmin Fookes, Attention Span Studio
Class Size: Limited to 15 registrants
Live Sunday Sessions: Bi-weekly on Zoom, 10:00 AM PST (2 hours)
Cost: $375 (e-transfer or PayPal)
Special Offer: Register with a friend and you’ll both receive a 45-minute 1:1 session with Jasmin—to be scheduled anytime in 2026. Use this personalized session for anything related to your practice: portfolio feedback, workflow strategies, or creative problem-solving. Booking is easy through the online calendar.
Professional craftspeople ready to:
Build momentum through community accountability
Streamline maker logistics without sacrificing creativity
Explore digital workflows that complement traditional craft
Learn iterative strategies to free up more time for making
Engage in constructive critique and connect with a national craft community
Embrace technology as a tool for artistry
Module 1 – Photoshop Essentials: Layers, Selections & Compositing
Sunday Sessions:
March 1: Course overview, introductions, and Q&A
March 15: Feedback and discussion on Module 1 content and exercise
Build your Photoshop fluency from the ground up through video tutorials you can access autonomously outside of class. This module covers how to isolate, enhance, and combine image elements to build new compositions from multiple sources. You’ll learn to navigate the interface, organize your workspace, and work non-destructively — meaning your original images stay intact while you experiment with edits, ideas, and layouts freely.
Exercise: Combine three+ images into a cohesive composition.
Module 2
Digital Painting, Drawing & Texture
Sunday Sessions:
March 29: Painterly and textural approaches + demos
April 12: Feedback on Module 2 exercise
Expand your creative toolkit with Photoshop’s brush, shape, and pen tools. This module introduces painterly and textural approaches to digital composition — from custom brushes built with your own mark-making to nuanced layering with photographic materials and textures. You’ll explore surface, colour, and materiality in new ways, learning to modify brushes, generate palettes, and integrate physical media into digital environments.
Exercise: Create a mini surface design collection in multiple colour-ways.
Module 3
Typography & Output
Sunday Sessions:
April 26: WordArt exercise feedback and discussion
May 10: Exporting for real-world craft applications
The first part of this module gives you the tools to use type as both a design element and a storytelling device. You’ll learn to add, finesse, and combine type with imagery using clipping masks, blending modes, and path-based tools. We’ll cover formatting essentials and show you how to shape type along curves, customize effects, and create layout-ready text that feels fully integrated. The second part focuses on exporting for craft applications relevant to the cohort.
Exercise: A text-forward design that integrates imagery and prepares it for real-world production.
About the Instructor – Jasmin Fookes
I hold an MFA from the University of Saskatchewan, where I teach tactile and digital studio art courses—both online and in person—in the School for the Arts. I also lead art history classes for Saskatoon Seniors Continuing Learning, exploring history through the lens of a maker.
My interdisciplinary art practice—rooted in childhood memories with my grandmothers (the Country Mouse and the City Mouse)—centres on overlooked materials, heritage craft processes, and systems of meaning-making through collecting, arranging, and transforming everyday objects.
Beyond the studio, I’ve worn many hats: from slinging art supplies and custom framing to coordinating exhibitions, working with juried craft council members, managing a continuing education program, and serving as managing editor of a contemporary art magazine. Through Attention Span Studio, I curate opportunities to share knowledge, tools, and workflows with makers like you.
I’ve been using Photoshop since version 6.0 (CD-ROM era, circa 2001). Remember when photographs were considered facts and Photoshop was a dirty word? In the age of AI, these courses are my way of embracing digital tools while doubling down on what matters most—human connection.