I’m not sure if anyone has mentioned this resource yet, but the Photoshop WoW! books are invaluable in what they can show you what you can do. But, beware, some of their tactics are pretty advanced and instructions can be difficult to follow. Photoshop comes with it’s standard "Help" files, that show you what the features of Photoshop are, but not necessarily how to use them to do what you want to do. Most of that comes from playing around with the application.
However, making kickass images is a lot like building websites. If you don’t have any specific goal in mind, it’s more difficult to actually generate something of value to yourself. Here is what I reccomend. Create this imaginary company, who has contracted you to develop some marketing proposal ideas for them. Then, set aside a course of action like designing a logo, color schemes, and so forth. Then, put your ideas together and get to work. If you’re not good at making fictional clients, ask for help. Besides, there’s nothing that people like more than role playing. Just an idea. It’s what I’ve done in the past.
Also, don’t get filter happy. There are much better tools in photoshop to use, than just filters. The layer blends actually create some of the best effects I’ve seen to date.
Chris.
"macky" wrote in message
do accomplished graphics artists believe that you can self-teach yourself PS from a book or that you have to take courses from a good instructor?