Is graphic design like drawing?

andydiysaver

Kayalana99 wrote: »

Sorry I feel a plonker asking this!

I want to learn how to 'design' images from scratch etc for pure example draw a cartoon of a cat on the computer.

Thing is I can't draw, at all..bad hand writing the lot etc.

Is their any point me trying to go down this route? Is it something that is learn able or is it a case of I can't draw R/L so I won't be able to do it on a computer?

tons of graphic design isn't drawing, it's pulling existing images together or arranging images over each other, I did it for years- I can draw, but not with a mouse

iammumtoone

andydiysaver wrote: »

tons of graphic design isn't drawing, it's pulling existing images together or arranging images over each other, I did it for years- I can draw, but not with a mouse

But don't the images you are pulling together have to be drawn in the first place? Genuine question I am not being argumentative I am interested, I love computer generated images but I always assumed that someone drew them freehand originally scanned them in and went from there.

Kayalana99

You can get alot of stuff online that is free use (not copyrighted) - mainly this is what I do anyway, plus just making stuff up with text etc.

I thought you drew them with programs, I never imagined before someone drawing on paper then scanning it online.

iammumtoone

Kayalana99 wrote: »

I thought you drew them with programs,

You might be right, I don't know hopefully someone will come along to enlighten us

macman

You are confusing a graphic artist with a graphic designer-two very different skills. Some people might overlap into both trades, but not necessarily.

mart44

Images found online have to be originally drawn/painted by someone who is interested in creating them for others to use. I expect artists all have their ways but a few possibilities:

Some images might be drawn or painted on paper and then scanned in but I think most would be created using either a program such as Photoshop (not the only program of its type though) or a vector drawing program as has been already mentioned.

I think also what might happen is that artists roughly sketch on paper what they want to achieve for a computer image and then draw/paint it using a program. It would also be possible to scan in the sketch and use that as the starting point for creating a detailed graphic within an art program. For example: Scan the picture into a program and then draw/paint on top of it. When done, discard the scanned in picture.

There is usually a bitmap to vector converter in vector drawing programs whereby a bitmap tracing process analyses a photo (or scanned in image) and converts it to a vector image with all the advantages this has as regards resizing and editing. This doesn't do an exact job usually but the image can be good enough to start building on.

If you look at those graphics I linked to earlier, I'm pretty sure these are started from scratch. Drawn line by line in the computer program. I'd say that's how most of the clipart and images we use were originally created.

Norman_Castle

I tried AutoCad and google sketch up and found them more complex than expected. Try some of the free ones just to see what you can do. Could you ask your dad for a few tutorials.

Mistral001

Kayalana99 wrote: »

You can get alot of stuff online that is free use (not copyrighted) - mainly this is what I do anyway, plus just making stuff up with text etc.

.

Remember copyright is automatic. This basically means that every image on the internet is copyrighted and strictly speaking should not be copied without the owner's permission. Even some images which are called "royalty free" are not actually royalty free under all circumstances for example some cannot be used if they are to be incorporated into work that is to be sold.

|Lots of posts on this subject on MSE and business forums. See "Getty images"

Kernel_Sanders

Kayalana99 wrote: »

my stick men are wonky....

Didn't seem to bother Lowry, and he became famous.