Digital Work... lights and darks

[Linguar Amadala]

Hello,

I need some serious help with fleshing out an image in photoshop, so I warn ahead of time, this sucks just a bit :P

http://linguar.dark-fire.co.uk/images/artwork/light_and_shadow.jpg
Photoshop 7.0, un-timed


I'm rather new with this kind of work beyond pencils, so getting used to it is going to take a while. I mostly just don't know where to begin. I've never painted beyond water colors (though photoshop colors don't run), and that was in first grade. So you can guess that's been a while (19 years).

Any help with this and on how to get started is appreciated.

Another part of my problem is I don't know how to set photoshop to get the tone transition to work out right... Which might explain the crappy variance between light and dark there.

If you ask why I didn't use lines, I was trying to experiment with alternative means to define the form of the objects. Also, please forgive the shoddy point-to-point look of translucency in the figures, I'm not sure of the best way, yet, to utilize light->dark in photoshop.

Hopefully someone here can give me insight towards what I might be doing wrong. The inability to bring out the form the way I want makes this quite frustrating. If I had the funds I'd study up on traditional means, but unfortunately digital is the only resource open to me at this point and time (and probably will be for quite a while).

Also on a side note... Does anyone know anything about making proper perspective grids; are they helpful, and can they ever be considered an un-necessary crutch?

[El Ruco]

The most important thing is for you to keep constantly practicing in a sketchbook, especially at this point. That will help you with the drawing issues. Of course, this is the only thing I've seen of yours, so I don't really know what your skill level is. However, it seems to me that you need to get your drawing down right first before you jump too much into color. Keep using photoshop, just to get the hang of the program too. Also, get a look at the several tutorials in this forum. They are quite helpful, and will give you essential advice. The most important piece of advice I can give you is always think from general to specific. Always. with shapes, colors, lines, everything.
Good luck!