I've been pixeling for a few years and drawing for even longer,
using paint for my pixeling and pencil and paper for drawing.
Lately it's been starting to bug me that my pixels don't seem as detailed as I would like
and my pictures are just floating around the room getting bent and scrunched and look so drab in black and white.
Mainly I want it for making image backgrounds transparent,
colouring my pictures and adding better shading to my pixel food and dolls.

I thought it was time to get with the times 8) and get a version of PhotoShop.
I recently got Adobe Photoshop CS2 but after reading tutorials on techniques and stuff,
I have no idea how and where to start.
The most I've managed to do so far is draw and add text in the program.
In preperation to use PS, I have looked up and saved many tutorials
but the problem I'm having is I have no idea where the things they are talking about are in the first place!

Does anyone have any tips, advice or links for a Photoshop noob? ^^

It all depends on what you want to do. I got my Photoshop Elements with my Tablet about a year ago, and I really had to clue how to work photoshop. It comes with time, as you get more and more used to getting what you want to appear on the page ^__^;

Try some photo-editing. Start off easy, maybe create a different background around a picture of yourself or something. The more you play with it the more you'll be able to do with it :D

fool around with it abit, then reread the tutorials simultaneously while drawing

It took me 4 years to learn how to use it >.>


can't really explain in text

edit: but if its for pixel art, THE ONLY TOOLS YOU SHOULD BE USING ARE PENCIL AND THE ERASER SET TO PENCIL!



i hate it when people tool shade, no offense to anyone but its really gets on my nerves >.>

I can use only some features, but I'm clueless to others.

Yeah, it really depends on what you want to do. Fooling around is the best..

I never could figure out how to do pixels on Photoshop though. :3

Meliya: Nor i! I hate Photoshop for pixel art...I use corel photopaint for that and C2 for everything else...

Hmm yeah.
Wish I knew someone in real life that knew how photoshop worked that could show me the basics. :?
The tutorials I've read are like "Ok, make a raster layer and then use the color fill to change the background to pink."
I don't know what a raster is or how to do it..
I looked just about everywhere and saw no sign of a "color fill" but I do know what a layer is...
See what I mean, I'm hopeless.

I only just start to draw in it and all these commands come up saying I have to do this and that before I continue. o.o;

On a tutorial I was reading last night it said you could use the blur tool to shade the pixels.
Which I thought would be a great idea since my shading sucks.
I gave it a try but for some reason the pencil was twice as thick as it should have been
and I couldn't get it to go any thinner cause it was already on the thinest setting.

I'm working on some new dolls for my pixel shop on gaia.
My older ones were so tiny because I wasn't very good at shading,
since I managed to find a gif maker program I wanted to make some cute blinking dolls.

After trying to follow various tutorials on shading in photoshop I gave up,
but luckily found a very helpful pixel shading tutorial matched exatcly to the type of hair I was having trouble shading.
Now, I'm pretty happy with the way the hair looks and they're just about good to go.

Still, I wish I could make banners and colour pictures in Photoshop. >,<

Thanks for the replies. :3

Ok first off! -.- get a different program </3 Adobe is bad for coloring since it;s just a pain to get all the setting right.

Try to get coral paint shop pro x.x works alot better.

But for coloring in adobe (I just noticed this but if you spell it A Dobe the name is actually meaning A Idoit xD lol) try out the air brush it works pretty well. To use it just click the brush tool and there is a little picture of an air brush at the very end of the top settings.

Oh if your trying to ink something on adobe use the free hand pen tool, it works ok but sometimes the line slides to the side a bit so just make you line a little off the orignal.

other then that you really have to get new brushes and tools to really be able to do much of anything on adobe.

oh and if your getting a little stop sign when you hold the tool over the picture it means it needs to be saved as a Jpeg.

Thanks, that helps a bit. ^^
I did manage to get Coral PaintShop Pro a couple of weeks ago,
but it was only a trial version. So I deleted it. :(
Maybe I should look into gettingthe full version then.
I've heard it's name being thrown around alot lately.

Do you know where I can get any brushes or tools from or should I just do a search?

Hey

Photoshop is truly aesme i just love doing web design in it and i love making mock ups for my avatar! :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

THanks all and hope you love photoshop as much as i do!

Thanks

Originally Posted by Purgatori

Thanks, that helps a bit. ^^
I did manage to get Coral PaintShop Pro a couple of weeks ago,
but it was only a trial version. So I deleted it. :(
Maybe I should look into gettingthe full version then.
I've heard it's name being thrown around alot lately.

Do you know where I can get any brushes or tools from or should I just do a search?

Doing a search on Dev art may provide some good brushes.

You need better tutorials. You should look for better step-by-step tutorials, as in ones that tell you where to find everything. The people who made those tutorials aren't very good at making 'tutorials' if they're not explaining how to do things.

And all of this bashing of Photoshop makes Flink very sad! It's what she uses for -everything-. Except when she's making graphics for web pages, then she uses Paintshop and Paint, but that's another story.

Getting the pixels right in Photoshop isn't that hard. Just remember, use the pencil tool and keep the brush adjusted to what you want the size to be. For erasing, remember again, the pencil setting. For erasers setting that is a bit different. It's in a pulldown menu at the top.

And searching for brushes is the best thing to do. Also, if you have any questions about Photoshop, Flink'll gladly answer them. ^-^ She's used the program for years and has had a class on it. >.> Most. Favourite. Class. Ever.

Yep, Flink is right.
Tutorials helped me learn afew things about photoshop.
Though ive been using it for 2 years and am not that good at all.
Photoshop is great if you know how to use it :wink:

See, that's where people are wrong. You can't know anything right off without trying at first.

Originally Posted by FlinkPamingo

See, that's where people are wrong. You can't know anything right off without trying at first.

But photoshop isnt the only good one though, there are others.
But yeah, i use it the most when i practise or when im bored.

Oh, Flink admits that there are other good programs. She'd love to get her hands on a few of them, actually. XD

Same here, i got a free trial on one a great program around a year back.
But it went after a month.
But yeah, it was cool and hopefully i find more.
And hope that there actually free.
Im so poor XD
By the way, do you know a place with the rules or an F.A.Q of some sort?
I just joined so yeah.
I have questions like 'is double posting allowed' and 'when are donation items going to be released'?

The free trial used to last forever before they got smart about it. :lol:

Paint Shop Pro is a pretty similar program to Photoshop. I used that first, and it helped me out a lot when I switched over to PS.

Just searching on google for brushes (specify what version of photoshop though, so you get ones that will work) has worked for me.

Originally Posted by tanarif984

Same here, i got a free trial on one a great program around a year back.
But it went after a month.
But yeah, it was cool and hopefully i find more.
And hope that there actually free.
Im so poor XD
By the way, do you know a place with the rules or an F.A.Q of some sort?
I just joined so yeah.
I have questions like 'is double posting allowed' and 'when are donation items going to be released'?

The rules are in the General forum.

For a FAQ... Flink doesn't think this place has enough people asking questions for a FAQ in general. If you have a question you can either PM Flink, she'll try her best to answer, or you can go to The Information Desk, which is the help forum. ^-^

Originally Posted by FlinkPamingo

The rules are in the General forum.

For a FAQ... Flink doesn't think this place has enough people asking questions for a FAQ in general. If you have a question you can either PM Flink, she'll try her best to answer, or you can go to The Information Desk, which is the help forum. ^-^

Kay thanks a bunch.
But nah, im okay now.
Lots of people answered my questions anyway^^

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Originally Posted by Meliya

The free trial used to last forever before they got smart about it. :lol:

Paint Shop Pro is a pretty similar program to Photoshop. I used that first, and it helped me out a lot when I switched over to PS.

Just searching on google for brushes (specify what version of photoshop though, so you get ones that will work) has worked for me.

Thankyou. :3
Maybe I should put photoshop on hold for awhile and get the gist of Paint Shop Pro in the meantime.

It can't hurt. PSP can do just about every basic thing that PS can. And I'm sure by now, PSP10 or whichever number is a lot better than whichever one I used last. I think 7. XD