Practicing Smudging

[Ekital]

So I was bored and haven't done anything on PS in a while so I decided to practice a bit. Tips and etc are welcome.

[edwinpabito]

i like what you did on the foreground smudging to add some depth..tho it looks lq, try to have more details on it.
the variation of the details didnt work...it should be gradual..
lighting effect seems off too...try to add some lighting effects and general lighting onto it

[Shann]

Well it seems the flow in this tag is good. It needs some tweeks to make it look more better. First of all whenever you smudge sharpen that smudge layer and than again smudge. Well you see in this tag smudge is flat and boring with not much detail. When you do smudge with a big brush also do smudge with a small brush size so that small details can also be seen. Add splatter brush clipping mask and smudge them also. Now lighting here is also a bit random. Use burn and dodge tool to make you lighting look good. Take a double size burn tool and tap it once and than dodge only the light parts. KIU.

[sirenzo]

i agree man u have some nice flow so u got that part down i like that your experimenting with smudging . im guessing u just trying on a blank bg to see the effects u get from it right. how bout making a bg now to fit your focal and follow your smudging flow.

would like to see the out come of that best of luck m8 and never give up .

[Derosion]

You are getting the general idea of smudging although you are lacking a strong pattern and that might be your brush and brush strokes.

First off, if this is your first time smudging, use proper settings and try not to go over it too much.

Try using a regular hard brush with scattering and transfer set. You don't really have to touch the shape dynamics if you want to keep the shape circular. A size of 14 - 19px is good.

Then go over it with that brush. You'll get a more defined and interesting pattern.
You can use different brushes such as,
Splatter brush, chalk brush, etc

You just need to use the correct settings which I believe you haven't used here.
Once you have that done, it's comes to adjustments.
Try to pick of a color scheme before you start making a tag. Once you have one use adjustments, such as; gradient maps, photo filters, color balance and selective color to help you perfect that color scheme.

Smudging tutorials will also help you improve.
Keep working at it!

[Ekital]

I made some changes to it but I messed it up with the lighting a bit when I first made it and I don't want to remake the whole thing. It was good practice though.