First post here, critisism appreciated!

[korrupt]

Hey guys, my first post here - nice website btw, used a lot of the tuts!

Anyways, I started using photoshop 3 odd weeks ago, mainly for making sigs, and these are all the ones I've come up with so far. I know they arent great, but like I said, I've been using PS for all of 3 weeks. They are in order of creation (oldest first, newest last).

Critisism is appreciated, but if you do find something wrong with it, tell me how I can improve it so I can learn

Most of these were made for friends, so theyre not really my style.


First ever sig, took me 20 odd minutes.


Second one, took half hour, made 3 versions, but this one looks best imo.



Took 40 minutes, sillhouettes were hard to do. Animation added later. I personally don't like moving BG, but was requested.


Spend an hour making this one, but did text too quikly, should add some effects, but havnt had time.


First animated sig, know render/bg is crap, but point was to make rain.


Made this one after watching vid tut, was a quik one, and text is shocking, but I like colours.


Request for a mate, not my style at all, but thats what he wanted.


Another request, took me about an hour and a half, so my longest.


Request, took me a while cause I screwed up background and had to redo it


Another request, like render and bg, but too much text.

Thats all of em up to date. Thanks for any replies.

Korrupt

[static]

Shink down your sigs to a more reasonable size. (i prefer something around 350x100)
Work on blending a lot and text.

[korrupt]

Shink down your sigs to a more reasonable size. (i prefer something around 350x100)
Work on blending a lot and text.
[/b]

yeh I normally use 450x150, but on some of the requests, I had to make em bigger. As for text, yeh, I havnt downloaded any fonts. As for blending, what do you believe I can improve on?

Thx for your reply btw!

Korrupt

[Kyoushima]

Yeah, the main issue with these is that they are too big, so they look very empty.

[imported_Stoneface]

Agreed, they are a bit large, making them look empty. Try adding more to them if they are going to be that size. Aslo, the renders are pretty big too but maybe that's just because of the sig sizes.Try throwing in some scan lines. Isee you did on the green one but they are a bit vibrant and strong. LOwer the opacity and erase so they don't stand out as much.

[korrupt]

Any more critisism plz!?

[imported_Jack]

Sure thing I won't comment on each signature individually, but I will give you general suggestions for what you need to do to improve.

First off, you need to think more about color. Look at the last one, for example. Theres a desaturated dark green and a vibrant violet (almost hot pink even) right next to each other. Those colors really clash and don't go well together. Take a look at this color wheel:

http://www.sanford-artedventures.com/study...iange_wheel.gif

That's a good place to start when thinking about color. Pick colors that are next to each other (like violet and red) on the color wheel, or colors opposite each other (like blue and orange). Clearly you can't just pick any blue and any orange, then put them together. Hue does matter.

Next I'd say you need to lighten up on the effects. From the looks of it you're taking effects you find cool and just throwing them on there just because. For example, look at the second to last. You have animated glowing text (with some very nasty bevel/emboss type effect), scanlines, various patterns in random areas, and an outer glow around that guy. Use effects when they'll improve the overall quality of your piece, don't use them just to use them. Because of the content (sniper guy looking through scope), at most I would have put some subtle scanlines in key areas. However, I'm not a big fan of doing things like that. Basically, if you can avoid putting something like that in, do so. Only add an effect if it is tasteful and really adds something.

Lastly, don't restrict yourself to signatures. I started digital art a little over 5 years ago and I started off doing "large pieces." I never did signatures. I've probably made as many signatures as you in all that time. Believe me, you'll get much better and you'll appreciate it a lot more later on if you do regular pieces rather than signatures. Obviously this is just a suggestion, but believe me, I've seen a thing or two since I've started

[korrupt]

Sure thing I won't comment on each signature individually, but I will give you general suggestions for what you need to do to improve.

First off, you need to think more about color. Look at the last one, for example. Theres a desaturated dark green and a vibrant violet (almost hot pink even) right next to each other. Those colors really clash and don't go well together. Take a look at this color wheel:

http://www.sanford-artedventures.com/study...iange_wheel.gif

That's a good place to start when thinking about color. Pick colors that are next to each other (like violet and red) on the color wheel, or colors opposite each other (like blue and orange). Clearly you can't just pick any blue and any orange, then put them together. Hue does matter.

Next I'd say you need to lighten up on the effects. From the looks of it you're taking effects you find cool and just throwing them on there just because. For example, look at the second to last. You have animated glowing text (with some very nasty bevel/emboss type effect), scanlines, various patterns in random areas, and an outer glow around that guy. Use effects when they'll improve the overall quality of your piece, don't use them just to use them. Because of the content (sniper guy looking through scope), at most I would have put some subtle scanlines in key areas. However, I'm not a big fan of doing things like that. Basically, if you can avoid putting something like that in, do so. Only add an effect if it is tasteful and really adds something.

Lastly, don't restrict yourself to signatures. I started digital art a little over 5 years ago and I started off doing "large pieces." I never did signatures. I've probably made as many signatures as you in all that time. Believe me, you'll get much better and you'll appreciate it a lot more later on if you do regular pieces rather than signatures. Obviously this is just a suggestion, but believe me, I've seen a thing or two since I've started
[/b]

Thanks Jack, thats what I call helpfull critisism Youre a legend

[space-time]

First of all, welcome

Work on incorporating the text and stocks into the rest of the sig and add some blending. It should all flow freely together. Try taking some of the effects off as well.

Also, work on composition. As they have said, there's a lot of negative space. The placement of stocks and text matters a lot as well. Most of your stocks have good placement, but the text can be moved around to make it more exciting.

Not a bad start though. Keep it up.

[korrupt]

Thanks for your reply! I'm sorry, I know I am a complete newb, but what is meant by "negative space"?

Korrupt