[bryans]

I can vouch for this method. I've been coding since childhood and developing websites for the past ~15 years, but I never quite figured out how to get designs in my head on to paper (or into Photoshop). Instead, I spent years designing websites by recreating individual elements from sites that I liked and frankensteining those elements together to create something.. respectable.

For reasons beyond my comprehension, I opened Photoshop one day and everything just clicked, and has been ever since. I can't say for sure if it's from working with so many different designs or styles, or being exposed to them, or just recognizing the styles that I preferred, but it does happen eventually.

If you're intentionally trying to learn design and you put in the time to consciously recognize what you're looking at and how it works, I bet that light bulb moment would happen much quicker.