I know plenty of people have self taught with CS/PHOTOSHOP but I personally use Corel Paint shop Pro for all my image designs etc its pretty simalar to Photoshop imo
Photoshop isn't user friendly to beginners even though theres plenty of tutorials on the tinterweb now days to help, and you will find Corel Paint shop is pretty easy to get
hold of and start messing around with.
Corel Paint Shop Pro X 2 Downloadthis is the trial version............
cough...
crack... cough do... you... need..... it.... cough