@ReyRey
Wow. Ok, so I'm impressed. That's quite a past you've got yourself there. Thanks for all the advice and insparation, and you're so right about the artist first thing. So it seems no matter how long I stick with this, I doubt i will ever reach your level for that precise reason... because, well... I suck at art... xD But I'm still going to carry on. Try and try again as they say

and lol rue

falloutgirl is corious

I'm 17 single,male oh wait that's n0t a part of the question.:p

Well, your about 6 years ahead of me.

Well, your about 6 years ahead of me. Although I was using Microsoft Paint at that age and figured out how to clone stuff to erase objects the hard way. Then a year or two later I was doing Paint Shop Pro, which I thought was the best program ever, because Photoshop made no sense to me. I finally watched a Photoshop video library at one of my internships in college, which finally got the ball rolling. Then my first job as a video editor, we used Photoshop all the time, but it was usually for simple reasons. I began to get creative with it on my own time. Entered about 10 projects to another contest site, hated the voting system, and then found the best place ever, PSC. I rarely do chops, but put my best effort into the ones I do, which takes a lot of time for me yet. I've started several contests, but then quit after determining that my idea or execution sucked and didn't want to spend any more time on it. I'm sure if I chopped more, I'd get much faster at it. It's a hobby, so I use it to escape reality from time to time. I'm glad that there are places like this that let you share creativity and promote growth.

Btw, I'm only 14 ...and single too... just incase anyone cares xD

is that you on the picture?

P.S : happy Valentine

Ohai PSC,

So I'm still an amateur at this (If you've seen any of my pics, then you'll have to agree... >.<), and I only really do it because I have nothing else to do when I get home from school; but I know that a lot of you guys are professionals, right?

Well I just wondered how long it takes to reach the standard of a "Pro"? So a question to all really, how long have you been chopping?

Alice

(P.s, happy valentines!! ;D)

It doesn't matter how many years.
6 months after I started using PS I was working as a photo retoucher
for clients like bloomingdales, pepsi, WWE (which was WWF at the time), and a ton of catalouges.
1 year later I was a proffesional illustrator and hi end retoucher working for huge clients like
m&ms, perdue, Subway restaurants, post cereals, Kelloggs, dannon, Perrier, heineken,
Trojan, etc.
The reason I was able to turn pro so fast is because I graduated from college as an illustrator and fine artist.
I was an artist first. Trained in the classic mediums. ( oils, pencil, charcoal, guache, water colors, acrylics, etc.)
I was trained in drawing and human anatomy and life drawing and realism style painting.
Also composition, color theory, design, etc.
I did not learn PS until a year after college and I taught myself, but I didn't look at it as a computer program, I used it more like a paint brush. Just another medium or tool of art.
I didn't care about filters , plug-ins and tricks. I used the paintbrush, Airbrush, and the selection tools, especially the pen tool. To me the pen tool was just like cutting masks in watercolor or airbrush class. That and the clone tool were all I knew.
Because of color theory I was able to figure out color adjustments.

I know people who have been using PS since it first came out and they still don't create anything nice but they are very good color adjusters.

What I am saying is PS is just a tool. Learn to be an artist first and then use PS as a tool.
Don't think of it as the high tech program that if you learn it all (you won't)
then you will be an artist. ( you won't)

PS does not make you an artist. You make you an artist. PS just makes it easier to create what your artistic mind can think of.
A person who uses PS can draw a baseball and you would say " oh look, a baseball".
An artist who uses PS could create a baseball that you would want to hang on your wall.

Lol
My wife told me that I chop like the way I speak English