Graphic editing software

Using a graphic editing software, whatever it is (picture, video, animation, 3D printing...) is not about going straight into the software and start playing with it. It is before all about asking yourself the right questions in terms of what you would like to achieve and what are the skills that you need. Let's take an example,

here is an ad that I find out on the internet, it is promoting roof windows. I personally never designed an ad such as this one, however, I can already identify if I have the skills to design one, here are the different points which are coming through my mind:

1. Think about great text you could include within this ad.
2. Select at least two fonts that you could add within your ad.
   
3. Find a nice picture which would suit a 100px per 320px showing roof windows.
4. Be able to write some text on graphic editing software.
5. Be able to add a drop shadow effect on text.
6. Be able to take the right colors from this image if I have to use the same colors.
7. Be able to design rectangles.
8. Have a nice logo to show.
9. Be able to draw a half circle.
10. Be able to play with different sizes of fonts
11. Be able to add layers as I would probably need a lot of modifications.

As you can read from this list, even a simple ad such as this one can require a lot of skills. So it is really important that you take the time to evaluate the complexity and the time it would require you to make such an ad.

Note that it is sometimes hard to do everything in one row, so if you need multiple days in order to find out a solution for each, that's totally fine at the beginning. But the most important thing to remember is that you need to cut your project into pieces and that you will need time and tests in order to produce the expected result.