Drawing & Detail

Hi,

Firstly, I would like to thank all the people who have helped me thus far.

Secondly, I have a question about an area that is getting more and more problematic. I am getting better at Flash but my creativity is being hampered by my inability to transfer my ides to the stage.

I am naturally very artistic with pen and paper but am struggling with a mouse and a monitor. Even something as simple as a leaf is pretty hard! Do pro designers draw so expertly with just a mouse?!?!

Basically:
How do you draw and add detail in Flash 5? I can do basic shapes and fills but these are never used on decent Flash sites. I went to the X Men 2 page - as I read about it in some threads here - and it was stunning.
I am not talking about the actionscripting but the X2 logo. It looks so real and detailed. How is this done? Is it Flash or would it be an imported gif from a graphics editor like PhotoShop?

Like I said, the mouse/monitor combo is a nightmare. Even if a graphics editor was used, I still would not be able to draw some of the images on display.

As for detai, well just look at that X2 logo. Even if I could control the mouse like I can a pencil - and I could draw that logo - how do you create such depth and detail?
Even if I could draw a leaf, it would just be a flat shape, one even fill and would look like a cheap cartoon. Adding linear/radial gradients isn’t much of an improvement.

How do you go about the more realisitic stuff - like the X2 logo amongst others?
It isn’t just about fancy logos, just simple textures and shading can greatly spruce up an image.

Many thanks.

Awww, c’mon guys!

You can all draw beyond basic, flat shapes. Help me out here, please?

firstly this is just a suggestion… coz i haven’t an artistic bone in my body especially wen it comes to drawing… seeing that you’re good by hand, why dont’ you just draw it by hand then scan and do lil touch ups in photoshop save it in a small format like jpeg.
or if you don’t like that idea… you can alway draw it in a different software program and import it to flash.