Photoshop basics

[AxleMoore]

Hey everyone,

New to the forums. and have a question or two.

I've had an Intuos 4 for a while now and I'm able to produce art I'm happy with. However it's a very long process, which makes working up the motivation to move past that blank canvas extremely difficult. The days I do get past it, I feel like I'm stumbling blind folded into a maze.

Are there any books people can recommend as sort of the "digital painting bible"? Specifically anything focused on getting started in photoshop, like mandatory shortcuts, how to use layers like overlay and multiply, what brushes to use, techniques for getting to a finished product, etc.

I've been running through tutorials from idrawgirls, but its more or less just me studying his photoshop screen as to what brushes to use and it's grinding at me not knowing what I'm doing.

I appreciate anything you guys could throw my way.

[Beeston]

It's trial and error, man. Just like any other set of tools.
You find every checkbox and check it, you find every slider and slide it, you try the brush with every combo box to see what it does. That's just poetic adventure right there, that's the mystery, the fun in changing something. Have you tried using overlay and multiply? If you have, you see what it does. Then the fun is figuring out how to use it to your advantage. Use your imagination to use those tools creatively.

Failing that, there's always lens flare.