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How To Graphic Design pt 1 - No, its not "editing"

20. 08. 2021

G R A P H I C    D E S I G N
and editing are not the same thing

Morning folks, so after sleeping for 2 and a half hours, I'm back. This is going to be our part 1 of the series, How To Graphic Design.

First off, no, graphic design and editing are not the same. Editing is a part of graphic design, yes, but you cannot call yourself a graphic designer if editing is all you do. For most part of my journey  since last year (when I first began), all I was seeing and doing was edit. Ever notice how popular people like Max Asabin and Benny (aka Benny Productions) call themselves "Digital artists" instead of graphic designers?

I always thought digital art could only be categorized as painting or sketching digitally. Turns out, its way more than that. Art can be anything, really. Music is an art, photography is an art - hell even pooping without peeing at all is an art too!

In editing, digital art is not only the painting or sketching, but photo manipulations as well!

That said, there is another category which people call "photo editing". In a twisted way, some digital art can be brought under this category - however, this section is mainly for retouching. 

Now now, what is the difference between digital art and retouching?

Picture from: Envato Elements. This does NOT belong to me.

This is retouching. We have not used any additional images in the above picture, have we? Have we created some sort of "digital/conceptual art" here? Nope, we haven't. This is what many people call photo editing, but I'm pretty sure photography professionals and graphic designers would prefer the term "retouch". However, most, if not all, digital art involves some sort of retouching. maybe some lighting? some spot healing? some dodge and burn?

Next up, what qualifies your creation as a digital/conceptual art or retouching? 

First things first, have a concept or theme. Is it something about pirates? angels? dragons?
And please remember that digital art also includes photography with a theme.

Photograph from: Shutterstock and the manip by myself

I'm pretty sure you can tell which one is a photograph and which one is a manip (hint: the right one is defo not a photo). 

Secondly, think of a medium to fulfil your concept. Is it going to be a painting? a manip? photography?
If its a painting, then welp, you just need your device for some good ol' art. If its a manip, then things can be a bit more complicated - esp when collecting images. We'll be discussing that in a minute. Photography isn't the easiest either, honestly I'd say out of the three, this one is the most complex one. Shutter speed, lens choice, lightning - geez we need to credit photographers more smh.

Anyways, back to manips. Here are some IMPORTANT rules you must always remember:

- Do not use pictures from pinterest or any other such sites. I've seen so many people do this mistake (even myself, i wont lie) that you can start seeing smoke coming from my ears. Pinterest means a site to "pin your interests" (you can check if ya think i'm lying), it doesnt mean you can pick up a random thing and be like "dayum i'mma use this". No, please dont do that. Just take inspiration.

- Respect the rights of the other artists out there. Now, i'm saying rights because there are some artworks you can modify copyright free but most arent such. Also, by artists, I dont mean the painting-and-sketching artists only. I mean photographers (like i said folks, they deserve more credit), editors, writers (for naming your piece or captions), designers, traditional artists and so much more.
If its a no, its a no. Dont go beyond that in terms of digital art.

- Do not criticize someone without their permission and without knowledge yourself. Like someone legit criticized me once for using a picture from unsplash when they were using an ARTWORK from pinterest. Where have we come to *sigh*

- Make use of deviantart, unsplash and all the free picture sites. Unless you wanna update yourself with depositphotos and shutterstock, ofc (but i know you're broke like me uwu)

- Use lightning and shadows efficiently. We dont want a blob of paint and embarrass ourselves by saying thats the shadow, do we?

- STOP NOT CREDITING TUTORIALS. I have made this mistake a lot before and damn I felt like shit after that for so long. You just have to credit tutorials smh, nothing too big, do it people. If ya can "forget" drinking 8 glasses of water per day then you can do this without forgetting (doesnt make sense but i wanted to attack y'all and myself for not drinking enough water)

- dont just stack a picture on top of another. Use your blending skills. Tip? good blending involves good lighting and adjustments. Manips are all about surrealism and blending.

- Stop using too much of filters. need some amazing looks? try Lightroom (available for mobile as well) or Camera Raw Filter (basically mini lightroom for pc users)

- Most importantly, leave your watermark and have fun! And dont forget to practice, you might not receive perfectionism and become frustrated when you realize this has started making you a perfectionist but you'll survive (amen).

Have more points? Leave in the comments section!

Thats for today. Hope you learned something from the part 1 of the series. In the next episode, we'll be discussing...

How To Graphic Design pt 2 - The Fundamentals (Overview)

If you have any more suggestions for this series which you'd love to learn about, let me know in the comment section right here ---->