How To Improve Your Graphics

So you've got the basic idea of making graphics and now you want to improve and expand your skill or even be provided with a little inspiration? Well here are some ideas on how you can do this.

Join Contests: Joining a contest is one of the best ways to gain experience. You can find contests for a wide variety of graphics (blends, colourizations, retouches etc.) and as the subject is not chosen by you, you may also find yourself making a graphic of a subject completely unkown to you, or something you would never even have thought about trying to use in a piece of art. The prize of an award at the end of all your hard work, may be that little push you need to have a go at type pf graphic new to you. :D Forum contests can be useful as when members vote for the winner you can usually see how the votes go and you might even be given comments, so you can see maybe why Contestant A was more popular and why people liked or thought you could improve your own piece.

Be Inspired: When you view a piece of art from a great graphics maker and you find yourself itching to try something similar - you've been inspired. Trying to create a graphic in the style of something similar to what someone else has made is a great compliment to the original maker and if the style is completely new to you it is one of the best ways to improve. Trying new things is always worth the effort, as each new experience will make you better in the long run. Note: Copying is not cool similar is the key word here.

Words of Inspiration: Another good way to test yourself is to pick a song lyric, poem or even a quote from somewhere and try and find images that represent the words. Not only will it be another graphic under your belt, but it will give you the opportunity to be creative and choose the pictures you think will suit the theme best.

Ask For Advice: Everyone asks for advice at sometime or another. If you're a member of a forum that allows pages for to post your art, do so and ask for any advice graphics makers can give you. They will be more than happy to do so if they can help you. It's a great way to get hints and tips about a variety of things. Alternatively, if you're browsing a graphic site and you want to know how a certain effect was obtained, just ask. Graphics makers love to be complimented and have questions asked about their art. ^_^

Experiment: Experimenting is good. No, really it is. From something as simple as tweaking the colours a little bit, and making the graphic a shade you don't normally use, or something drastic like slapping a really vibrant texture on top just to see the effect, graphics making is all about experimenting. Don't be frightened of Mr. Experiment, he will more often than not be your friend. *nods*

Obtain Resources: Sometimes after a while, if you have limited amounts of fonts, textures, brushes etc. it can get a bit boring if you find yourself using the same materials over and over again. Lock yourself in the room for the day, bring plenty of food and drink and steel yourself for many hours of downloading, unzipping and installing. Finding new stuff can be both *ooh* and *yawn* and it's best to try and get it all done in one sitting. (i.e if you find a good site with brushes, try and go through them all there and then, then you an can cheer and say *finished*). The fun part can now begin where you test all your new resources and try them out. Something as simple as a new font can really help to improve a graphic.