After trying a couple of mockups for the “more curvy” change ? I’ve realized that curves, useful as they are, aren’t as important and texture and lighting. These are the things my designs have been missing!
Gradients, embossing, shadows… Anything to keep the page from being blocks of solid color. These really make a design work, even if it is? based on square boxes.
I think what slows me down is my lack of 100% familiarity with all my options and tools in photoshop. Much like the “technical block” I get when I’m trying to write some music, I get bogged down in the use of the tool rather than the artistic process. I think the only way out is to spend tons of time with your tools and learn everything they can do for you so that when you get the idea “it should have texture like a tree trunk” you don’t have to stop and google “photoshop tree texture” and figure out what to do.?
That little paint pallet that painters use with all the colors on it? For us computer types that pallet is our knowledge of the tool and our library of available effects the tool has.
Guess I better start looking at photoshop brush and texture sites.