I second VirtuosityByDesign's suggestion. The practice will be essential, you'll learn the errors as you go, unless you're fortunate to have a veteran designer by your side/office. Find a community college class, but talk and look at your potential teacher's portfolio to make sure that they actually have their own style and skills to impart.

Additionally, anytime I come across a design that captivates me, I examine it thoroughly and break down 1) why it caught my eye, 2) what's distinctive or new about the design and 3) how was the final image achieved (tools, techniques, talents, etc.)

Good luck and welcome to the field!

practice,research and observation i guess are required to learn the graphic or any other creative work. Check and experiment with different tutorails from beginner to intermediate levels. It's not that difficult to learn the skill.

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Practice , practice and practice
makes it all for you better

Try to evaluate your skills in photoshop and illustrator First

Thanks,
Ted

Well personally I have learned graphics designing in an institute. You can learn much about graphics by reading online tutorials. The important thing to be best in graphics designing is creativity. Imagination should be very creative then you can create most wonderful designs. Keep practicing, polish your skills; try to create what ever you find cool. One day you will reach your goal for sure.


-Rocky

Here is a free resource for creating amazing ebook covers: AbsoluteCovers.com/blog

Thats four :P
But yes, Thats a great set of steps.

Alpharomeo, I know you are getting sick of getting told to "practice", because we all know that to be good at photoshop, practice is a fundamental thing, however it is not the only thing.

I would like to recommend completing tutorials, webdesign.org has a alot of good, free, tutorials, which also have links to the authors website (more tutorials).

I recommend participating in things such as Deviantart, seek advice from zypur.com or irc.sythe.org (TDD is EPIC). If you want to add something to a piece of work your doing; google it.
I learnt to make orbs by looking at the Acer Empowering shit I have on my computer, and copying what I saw.

The only thing your really limited by (other then your knowledge of features) is your imagination, though its easy to get your head into graphics.

iTunes + a supportive community backing you up, and you'll be fine; trust me.

Personally, what helped me was I am launching a site and I need to cut down on costs, so all coding + graphics will be done by me. This is the only reason I have learnt basic photoshop, why I am learning coding, and why I'm about to get into advanced photoshop.


I'm sorry to say this, but there is no hidden secret, no remedy, no easy solution to getting good at photoshop (just like many things), it is a personal thing and is influenced by your personal technique and interests.
Just follow tutorials and imitate already done work, and your fine.

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