Gaara - My best work so far

I got inspired by the naruto signatures and I was like,"hmmmm I would like to give this a shot." so I did.
http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/2177/85120109.png

cnc

first of all dont wanna sound like a D !ck here but got way too much contrast in this sig try toneing it down some imo but kiu m8

It looks like you overcontrasted the sig.
Tone it down a bit cause it kinda ruins the sig.

Also I can't see any flow... the effects are all over the place and there are too much of them.
The colors are pretty nice.

I would also remove some of the effects that are placed over the render.
Keep working at it mate ;)

CS4 pretty much nailed it. I'm also really not feeling the border.