so~ I'll just take you through the major apps that I use for designing my stuff, and hopefully I'll be able to make some tutorials for bits and pieces of them once summer rolls around~

here's the first part!

*cough* No, I did not buy the app. Unfortunately, there's no way to get it for free (I've tried it), and the only reason I have this and use it is because it came with my school laptop. So, I'm lucky, basically. In all honesty, it is a pretty amazing app, but it's very difficult to navigate your way around it. 

- cons: almost too much, complicated

Photoshop doesn't come with a neat little 'DIY' handbook- most of what I learned I learned from youtube tutorials from people who are literally my lifesavers- and I have learned so much: how to make and manipulate gifs, how to cut stuff out with the eraser instead of relying on the magic wand tool, etc, etc. Needless to say, I taught myself a lot when it came to photoshop: and I learned through failures. Cheesy, I know. And the reason I needed tutorials was because this app is complicated. It's got about 100 little tabs and settings and whatever (I don't even know what half of them do), you've got no guide, and the undo-button will only work up to a limited amount of time. That was murderous until I learned the purpose of using layers. Starting out, I detested photoshop, because it was way too complicated. I don't know what made me pick it up.

Also, it's HELLA EXPENSIVE LIKE WTF ADOBE don't you get enough money anyways~ an app for photos, more than a hundred bucks? I'm glad I didn't buy it, and if you're really, really, really desperate, I guess it's worth it, but I wouldn't know.

+ pros: detailed, varied, there's a ton of features, you can do practically anything with it

What's a con is also a pro. 

The amount of detail and manipulations you can do on photoshop is incredible. The combinations are probably infinite, and the whole app is really great once you get the hang of it (for me, that was getting past the stage of hating it). I've been able to do so many cooler things with photoshop than with any other app I'd used in the past (then again, I haven't used many lmao).

here's a progress picture from me hating photoshop to me liking it 

2014 (hate hate hate) *cue cringing* 2016 (aw yis)

this was also back in the day when I didn't know

about Wattpad's cover dimensions so... welp