advice on photoshop and illustrator

[Mark Haynes]

Hi all, I have always been an old school pencil and brush artist, but I am really wanting to try my hand at photoshop and illustrator.

I don't know where to start. Where is the best place to buy and such? I know it is expensive. What about the pressure pads I think they are called. I can't really draw with a mouse so I am real interested in any advice on those too.

Any help or helpful links appreciated.

Thanks

[Harry P.]

Illustrator and Photoshop are big bucks. But you can download 30 day free trials and play around with them.

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/?ogn=EN_US-..._trialdownloads

If you want to buy, you can try ebay. Or go to a site that sells software at student rates (MUCH cheaper than buying from Adobe). If you have a kid in school or know someone who's a student, buy it through them at the student rate.

Drawing pads? I tried and didn't like. I went back to the mouse. It's all what you're comfortable with, I guess. Maybe a drawing pad would be the thing for you, but personally I didn't like it.

Edited April 25, 2008 by harrypri

[Olle F]

A demo version of Paint Shop Pro 4.12 will work indefinitely, it will only tell you that "you are on day 325 of your 30 day trial" when you start it. Despite it's age, it's a pretty good photo editor and there are still copies floating around on the internet. Search and you shall find.

[djway3474]

You can get Photoshop 7.0 for considerably less than the latest releases and an older version of Illistrator too. the latest releases have some great blending sub routines that are more for photography and not really needed. start there then if you need the updates you can get those for much less than the full program.

As far as pads go Wacom is the big name and I have seen some great stuff done with them and they start around 100 buck and go up. the size of the pad is the big cost factor.

DJ

[Mark Haynes]

I appreciate all the imput on this, I really know nothing about it. I am really wanting to learn and I am starting to do some research, but I figure the best thing is to get good advice from people that use it.

Edited April 26, 2008 by Mark Haynes

[coopdad]

Although I have been using Illustrator for years so find it easy to use, the people that I know that have bought it recently, gave up trying to learn it. The way you use tools is a strange concept that is difficult for some to ever grasp. It takes a lot of practice and if you do not have real projects that have to be done you will say heck with it.

You don't drag a pencil to draw a curved line like you would in real life or in Photoshop, you click a starting point, drag the line's tangent, click the final location and drag the final point's tangent.

But, it does make for very clean artwork that is scaleable to ANY size without loss of quality.

John

[Harry P.]

Hey Mark,

I use Photoshop at work at work all day....It's great for doing effects to images, but it's not great for free-hand art...

I couldn't disagree more! I also use Photoshop at work all day, and I've found there's nothing I can't create in PS.

I don't use a drawing tablet, that's a whole different way of doing things. A pressure-sensitive stylus and a Wacom pad are probably the closest thing to drawing "by hand", but I find Photoshop to be all I need. Jean Harlow here was "drawn" by me totally in PS...

[CB]

Hey Mark,

as you can see, everbody be different. I've tried doing the tangent thingee that Coopdad mentioned from Illustrator and never could get the hang of it. As he said, it takes a lot of practise, and that applies to whatever you get. Some peeps can get awesome results with simpler softies--it aint the PS, or Corel, or Illustrator---it's the artist. A lot of the art starts the traditional way, on paper and then is scanned into your computer and then you apply the magic wand to it. True, art can be totally created in the software, but again, only if the artist has the ability. I have used a decent beginner software called 'Photo Explosion' made by "Nova Development" which is a very scaled down version of PS. I just got the version 3 from Staples for $50-- after using the vesion 1 for years. Probably a good place to start instead of dropping big bucks and getting frustrated and possibly losing interest. Whatever you get, like Coopdad said about Illustrator, it's gonna take practise, lots of practise before it's second nature to you, just like using your pen or pencil. I'm hoping to get one of the WACOMs one day, and I have done a bit of what you're doing here, asking others, but I know from experience to start small. Good luck in your search and deciding--maybe soon we'll see some of your computer art here---AUTO ART ---not Hollywood starlets, Mr Pristovnik That better be a fender she's got her hand on --maybe she's bemoaning the loss of her radio antenna on her Corvette? Just kidding, Harry, nice representation of what can be done. Later, ######'n

[Harry P.]

Mr Pristovnik That better be a fender she's got her hand on...

I'll leave that to your imagination...

[CB]

I'll leave that to your imagination...

My imagination?? MY imagination??? Good Lord, Harry! thaaaatt's dangerous

[Aaronw]

I bought Corel Draw for making decals (it is vector based so changing the size doesn't change the image), I fiddled with it and then dropped it. I know how to use MS paint so I found it frustrating to use because it isn't like paint. Then one day I pulled it out again and ran through the tutorials it took me most of a weekend to really get up to speed but I use it all the time now, its actually pretty easy, but like Erik says you have to use it to get comfortable.

I don't know if it is at all appropriate for doing stuff like Harry posted but I like it.

I bought the teacher / student edition and I believe it was around $85 vs the $300+ for the regular version. You don't have to be a fulltime student to qualify for the discounted version, I get sent to a lot of training for work that is run through a college, even though I'm only in class for 2-3 days I still qualify. I have a son in 2nd grade so I'd still qualify but for those without children I thought it was handy to know there is no minimum number of units to qualify as a student, sign up for a class even for 1 unit and you are good.