Did you study or just practiced?

[MoodsR4Cattle]

Originally Posted by pantoshi

That is great. I aspire to have the accumulated experience and skills to work from my home someday.

How did you get your start? Any wisdom you may have to share would be received with gratitude.

Wisdom? I'm a little shy in that department.

I was pretending to be a "musician" back when I started using Photoshop and was just using it to kill time. My husband worked at a recording studio and now and then someone would need a CD cover (the whole package and usually just demos) and I'd design it for them. I got into designing band logos and flyers too. When I bought my first house, our real estate person needed a website, logo and newspaper ads so I did those too. A "regular" at our recording studio was the assistant to a record producer that needed a graphic & web designer for his newest band so I started working for him. The producer had a partner that owns a chain of nightclubs and when they split up, I began working for both of them. Eventually I ended up working entirely for the nightclubs and still do.

That's a real nutshell version, but you can see that it was just a series of connected events - being in the right place at the right time. For me, "It's who you know, now what you know."

[wonderbon]

Design results speak for themselves. If I were seeking to hire a graphic designer, I would hire based on merit and portfolio and not the degree and title. I would not seek out medical treatment from an uneducated person who "likes to play around." Creativity, on the other hand, is a completely different realm. It is innate in some people and others may be able to pick up the skills that allow them to compete with those who have steady hands and imaginative minds.

Kudos to both formally educated designers and those (like me) who studied something else and then found and fell in love with design.

[mmyrnana]

Started since high school with a "viscomm course" then proceeded with College to design courses which included photoshop and illustrator. But really once you learn the basics theres not a whole lot more a teacher can teach you about how to use a program, you either surpass them or you need to branch out on your own. And thats why we love tutorial sites!

I find that if I can't figure out something or haven't used a technique yet that I look it up first, and then take it in your own direction. So I've pretty much self taught/read books and tutorials after college.

[aarathi]

I study the design myself. Looking tutorials about designing in the internet, i study designing.

[MorgSel]

I've taught myself, started out making a few Christmas gift tags for myself, really basic stuff, now I do gift tags and invites for friends and have just started on making signatures and tickers. Still learning, don't suppose that ever stops really!

[Stangbo]

Practice is the best teacher I think. So iv'e learned with this teacher.

[cdutton]

I've always wanted to take classes but all my learning in PS has been trial and error!

[Sarrene]

I have been practicing for many many years now. Though I always wanted to take some classes in digital arts/graphic design, I never did seem to have the time.

Peace,
♥ Sarrene'

[Stangbo]

Maybe it is for the best not to take classes, so you can allways work as you like without limits.

[Scrappy Smile]

I use Photoshop Elements 6, and I've got a lot of help on the Internett, I've figured out a lot by myself - but I still have a lot to learn.

[ToAsStEr]

I was in school for Advertising and thats where i came in contact with PS and Illu ofcourse i looked up everything about it on the internet and learned more about it then my teacher did. When i left school i went on doing this make things and you see it sucks and start all over again and again... and then suddenly you can do it thats how you learn and make your own style of work that you create. Good things are thought about great things just happen!

greets Jimmy

[psycho_mantis]

I feel that the best form of expression is done better outside of the school setting at first and then mastered and refined when an artist or photographer attend classes or such for their trade.

I just got my first taste of art school now at age 21, and it was somewhat daunting for me to get used to the idea that my art had to be restricted to certain guidelines and not free flowing like before.

[Phasm]

I want to study but for me it was all practice

[TheGr8tOne]

practice, practice is how a roll

[Manua]

Actually I wanted to study it too, but things went much different as I expected. So I just practiced with PS a lot. A few weeks ago I started to use blender also. In the very first moment I was really confused about the Interface and i was about to forget about it, but then I remembered how it was with PS. I still remember all the buttons and I didn`t know what will happen if I try them. But I just did. Sure at first it was just like pushing some buttons and wonder how I got that nice effect in the picture and didn`t find out how to get the same effect again. Later I found out that there are many tutorials in the web and I tried some. So I learned new things and very often a much faster and easier way to get the results that I wanted. And now I think I already learned a lot. It is a lot of fun and everytime I look at my work I know that I can do things now where others had to visit classes. I think it is great to know that you can learn a lot of things by yourself and get good results, even if you also know you will never stop learning more.

Looking back to blender I still feel like I did when i started to learn with PS, but I am sure that I soon will understand it better. It will be a hard way again but I am already curious what i can do with it when i am better in it ... no matter how long it will take.