Starting Graphic design

[ketanco]

Hello,
I am starting to design the graphical aspects of my site, how it looks in general, button, menus, graphics etc... At this stage, I am not thinking about any animation, except maybe just buttons. My post is not necessarily about photoshop but graphic design in general.
1-Where should I start? My goal is to add some cool looking buttons, menus, and also in general the site to look tidy and professional.
2-What are the most professional or easiest ways to draw pictures and come up with nice graphics for your website?
3-Is photoshop something only for editing existing photos, or can you draw with it? What does it do exactly or what are the most useful features? It looks like the most popular graphics program around, I am wondering the reasons...
Please advise in general about graphic design and other than my questions feel free to respond with any input as I am a beginner on graphics and any info is welcome....

[Pixelchik]

I am primarily a print graphic designer that dabbles in web design, so I personally prefer to design in both Photoshop and Illustrator. Stuff like buttons I will do in Photoshop and then optimize them for the web. But if I have more illustrative assets I will design in Illustrator and then bring them into Photoshop for optimization. I know many web designers use Fireworks, but I'm not familiar with that application. Some designers prefer to "draw" in Photoshop, but I prefer Illustrator. It depends on your skill levels in both applications and the look/effect of the graphic you are designing.

[Kelon]

My opinion for what it's worth, and it says a lot for you that you're asking yourself (and us) these questions - good instinct. (I've been a designer for a lot more years than I care to own up to).

Always, always start (and finish) with the purpose of, and audiance for your web site. Is the purpose to demonstrate how great a coder you are for other coders or people seeking specialist coders, or is it to attract people looking for a small 'nice' tidy easy to use starter website? Who will your audiance be and what will be their priorities? ie: are they web savvy people so want 'wow' web stuff or are they not, so are looking for a designer who'll be grounded; is their priority 'whizzy entertainment' or 'restrained commercial brand'.... see where I'm going?
I find clients love scribbly sketches as much as neat 'finished' art, depending on what stage the site is at. Sketches in pencil and marker say "easy to change" where finished artwork can be a bit daunting to comment on.
IMHO... yes. (Photoshop is for images not drawing). Get to know what design 'look n feel' you can achieve with CSS. I find a lot of sites immediately assume it has to be done with an image - when CSS will do it more efficiently and more SEO/web standard compliant into the bargain... beware of getting fixated by PhotoShop, lovely and beguiling as it is. Just my opinion, I know lots of people will disagree with that.

Hope this helps. Best of luck.