Neccy's Classroom - A Design Mentor Thread!

[stevezilla]

Thanks!

[ZanNight]

I have Photoshop CS5 right now, and I've never actually gotten into using Photoshop or any sort of design class.

For a complete newbie to Photoshop, any advice or tips I should look out for?

[Lúthien]

Well, the first thing I advise you do is bash your head against the computer screen when you open photoshop. Kidding!

Joking aside, don't be afraid of the program. I know when you open the program (especially CS5), it can look very intimidating and confusing. Don't be. The best way to learn is by teaching yourself constantly. There are so many uses for Photoshop, that there is just no way anyone can sit back and say "I know everything there is about Photoshop."

When I was a sophomore in college, I had absolutely no Photoshop experience. None. However, I took what I gained from my professor's experience with the program and even taught myself every single day to get where I am today. Now, this is not to say I know everything about Photoshop because I am still learning new things.

What I'm trying to say is, always teach yourself, alway branch out your horizons with Photoshop, and always always practice. Have patience and soon you will know many wonderful things about the program. I suggest searching for many professional graphic designers/digital artists that rely heavily on Photoshop. Not to copy their style, but to get inspired and really observe their technique.

I'm going to provide you some tutorials. The best thing about these are it can be used with any Photoshop (CS3/CS4 at most) edition.

50 Great Photoshop Tutorials for Clever Beginners

12 Beginner Tutorials for Getting Started - Recommended

AIGA - the professional association of design is a great site for looking at design pieces and getting inspired.


Good luck and I hope I answered your question well!

[ZanNight]

Well, the first thing I advise you do is bash your head against the computer screen when you open photoshop.

You would have felt really stupid and bad if I actually went ahead and gave myself brain damage like that.

:P

Thanks for the advice.

[Miss Fortune]

I had downloaded a free trial version of Photoshop (the latest, probably), and loved it. I was learning all sorts of different things with it, but I had a couple problems when it came to colors and text placement, as well as creating paths with text.

How do you know what type of font to use, and the effects that would compliment it?

Do you ever get frustrated?

Is there any tips you can give us on how to incorporate font and font colors better? Such as how to make monochromatic/rainbow font?

Do you use paths for text? If so, what is the method you use? I always had a problem with creating paths then trying to apply text to it. Not even sure if that is possible, the tutorials confused me.

Could you recommend steps or simple to follow tutorials for beginners struggling with making boring fonts interesting?

[Lúthien]

Hey Misfortune! These are very good questions that I've been waiting for! I think I'm going to make a little demonstration with photoshop, which will take me some time, but just keep on a look out!

[Miss Fortune]

No rush! I can't wait to see the demonstration ^^

[Fira Fidelity]

Has anyone used pixlr? http://pixlr.com/editor/
It's an cloud-based editor tool. For those who don't have any graphic design program installed.
I just started using it---Luthien's right, practice makes perfect! Im learning something new everytime I use it.

[iWillEatzYuh]

Fira Fidelity; I was just going to ask if anyone knew of an editing program that required no downloading and free. So thank you for that editer, i'm going to test it out.

[Lúthien]

Once I complete my school applications and the holidays are over, I plan to revive this thread. Stay tuned!