Signature/Small Work Showcase [V.II]

Welcome to the S/SWSC [V.II] and please follow all the rules below.

- Please put all images under 600 by 600 pixels here.

- Each work should be commented on twice before a new work is posted, this way each work can get it's fair share of criticism.

- Criticism more then praise is encouraged here. Just saying "Looks great!" does not do it. At least say "Looks great, but..."

- Please wait two people before posting a work again. As in: You --> Them --> Them --> You

- You may post only ONE signature at a time. Posts containing more than one will be deleted, however multiple versions of the same signature are allowed if you wish to ask which has, for example, a better border.


Comment rules apply. Please look here for those rules.

I'll be keeping a close eye on this thread an be enforcing the rules harshly.

YAY!! Finally up. Well, before it was closed, I wanted some to comment on my new set. What do you guys think?

EDIT: Sweet, first post.

I like that sig, but I think it's way too dark. Try to brighten it up a little and add a little more detail. And I also think that too much of that doll thing is cut-out. That's unless the image really is like that, though.

But anyways, you already recieved another comment for that set in the older version of SSWSC. In total, that makes two comments. That means I could post my own work now! I'm not too confident about it, though.

Its too much of a blur, and the colours all being really similar mean its hard to focus on anything. Its not too bad, and the text is alright. Id suggest trying to improve focus and depth. Sharpen up the render and make it stand out, use better lighting (perhaps darken the bg?) and work on colour. try to add in another colour other than blue.

EDIT: wow, third post.

Originally Posted by man_with_thooo

I like that sig, but I think it's way too dark. Try to brighten it up a little and add a little more detail. And I also think that too much of that doll thing is cut-out. That's unless the image really is like that, though.

But anyways, you already recieved another comment for that set in the older version of SSWSC. In total, that makes two comments. That means I could post my own work now! I'm not too confident about it, though.

I like it, though the render looks too blended in, yay 2nd show post thingy...

It's not too bad, DL. I like the lightning and the concept. I also really like the background. A few things I don't like, though is the blurred spots on his face, and the emptiness of the whole thing.

A few suggestions? I think the sig should be a bit darker to match the 'theme' of the render. This can be accomplished beautifully using a purple and orange gradient map on soft light. And maybe you should darken up the corners a bit, like they are on your current sig. Then again, maybe it's just because I'm a fan of dark sigs. Either way, I think this sig has tremendous potential. If you want, I can show you what I did to make the effects stand out. PM me if you wish.

it all looks nice, DL. However, i wouldnt have blurred the render at all, its out of place. I like the lightning-y things, although the one on the left is a bit prominent perhaps. And id use a brightness/contrast layer to up the contrast and lower the brightness slightly.

Overall, it looks very nice.



I tried some cool text thing...which i think worked out well.

Originally Posted by Umi

YAY!! Finally up. Well, before it was closed, I wanted some to comment on my new set. What do you guys think?

I love the effects in the background, but I'm not too fond of the doll. It isn't as sharp, the lighting is different, and the hair and body are too smudged. The text is pretty plain, needs moar 'oomph'. Very nice background though, great job.

Originally Posted by man_with_thooo

This is probably one of your best. It's not a huge smudgy mess (though that area right above the render's right shoulder is a huge twirly mess). I think the text should go near the bottom, so it looks kind of blended in - and also, maybe choose a different font? Unless you are really fond of that one. It just doesn't go with the image to me. Nice job though.

Originally Posted by Demon link

I think you need another element. Everything is concentrated in the center, which leaves the sides - especially the left - looking barren and plain. I usually hate smudge with a passion, but I guess I kind of like that smudging. It's not entirely overdone. Great job.





EDIT: Oops forgot HS.

It's nice, but the left side feels really empty, and the glare at the top of Link's head is kind of 'eh'. I really love your wispy things, as usual. Nice job with the text.







EDIT EDIT: Typography tutorial has been updated with two new effects - tribal and pen tool.

I like it too, Shroom, but as Nayru blue said, the left side looks too empty and the glare on top of Link's head doesn't look right. Other than that, good job.

For my Zelda sig contest, which nobody has joined.



Yes, it's saved as a .jpg because .png kept making my sigs darker than usual when I uploaded them.

How are you saving these, Yamari? It shouldn't lose that much quality...make sure you go to 'save for web' and not 'save as', and select 'maximum' in the drop down box for quality.

.JPG usually makes it look grainy as yours does now. It still looks dark too. I do save as then as a .png. It works fine for me so it must be something that you're doing with your PS. Anyways the sig has too much concentrated light in the center. The text is crappy and if it wasn't so dark it would give off that empty feeling.

Not so great. Remove the text and brighten, then it should be better.

New sturff from me.

Originally Posted by DarkShadowLink9

New sturff from me.

The render is tons better than the last couple that you used. It made me laugh a little, because it looks like her hair is on fire. XD Nice background effects, good lighting...overall, great job.

Originally Posted by Yamari

Rather than a "mystic aura" I'm seeing more of a "pixely haze" around the text there. This is due to .jpg format. Even without that graininess, I'm not a fan of the text for a few other reasons. One: you've got to many words there (my philosophy: two words, three at most.) Two: the text is badly aligned (the top line doesn't really line up well with the bottom line. If you insist on using two lines of text, at least use center align.) Three: I think it would be better placed lower down, closer to the x-axis of the signature. I also think that the words are spaced to far apart as compared to the spacing between the letters. It looks like you double-spaced your words. Either decrease the word spacing, or increase the letter spacing.

DSL9: It's pretty good. I'm not a fan of the dimensions (it seems too tall compared to it's width) but that's more of an opinion really. Actually, come to think of it, it really is too tall as compared to the ZU rules (max height = 150, your height = 164.) However, I think it's a very well done signature.

Anyways, how be my signature?



Made in GIMP using only the path tool, gradient tool, elliptical select tool, text tool, and lots of Gaussian blurring. Based on a PS tutorial by mz.

I like your sig, though simple it reminds me of a music video that has like cartoon drawings. Very good.

Not too bad, Lysis. I'm not a huge fan of simplistic sigs like this, but I do like this one. Perhaps maybe you can blur certain trees more than others to give it more depth? I'm not sure if that would work...Looks good though. Good job.

Submission for Zelda contest:

Nayru Blue: I save as .psd first and then I click save a copy and save it as a format that Photobucket takes. PS 5.0 doesn't have a save for web feature, unfortunately.

DSL9: Must be your monitor then, because it doesn't look dark to me. And instead of simply saying there's too much of this, and that looks crappy, give me some tips on improvement. I won't get better if you just give me negative comments.

Lysis: The text looks like that because of the font I chose. However, I can change the font to make it look better. I simply want to improve. As for the lighting, I was trying to work on lighting and shadowing techniques with this sig. I'll mess around with it more when I have the time and take your criticism to heart.

Umi: Sorry, I don't like it all that much. It's too dark, those red spots look really tacky, and Zelda isn't blended in at all. Brighten it up a bit and get rid of those red spots. You can blend in Zelda better by lightly erasing her edges and using lighting and blurring techniques. The text also looks terrible and is hard to see and read. The font doesn't seem very Zelda at all either. Choose a better, readable font next time. It also looks like you simply slapped the text on and did nothing with it. Could also use a border.

Originally Posted by Yamari

I'm going to be honest. I saw this, and the though running through my head was, "Ewww!" Its dark, the colours are rank, the quality sucks, the background is a mess, and please don't even get me started on the text. Seriously Stony, if you want to improve, you can't just throw something online when it looks alright. Work with it. Make it better! Make it the best damn piece of work you can do. Stop posting work that looks half-assed. You can't get by on praise alone, which is why I'm being so harsh. You need to sort this problem out if you're serious about GFX. Get into the Graphics School, Read tutorials, do tutorials and post teh results, and the apply teh skills you've learnt, talk to other artists. ANYTHING! Just stop doing the same old stuff, you need to try something different!

Originally Posted by DarkShadowLink9

Love it. Your best work in ages. Render is good quality (Hoorah!), the smudging fits beautifully into the render, Everthing is neat, crisp and held together. Kudos to you, GFX lord!

Oh, is that Art Worm still on? Or did we drop it?

Originally Posted by Lysis

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You did good on MZ's tut there. ^_^ Its simplisity is appealing. But at the same time, almost too simple. But you did a great job on it.

Originally Posted by Umi

Perhaps a bit too much empty space for my liking. And the colours are too dark for that render. The style would have fitted TP Zelda better in my opinion. What there is too see is nice, but its really not my thing. Its just too orange, and too empty.

I've tried tutorials, but PS 5.0 can't do any of them. I've tried Googling and Yahooing for them, but nothing that PS 5.0 can do comes up. I wish I could use tutorials. The Graphics School won't work either because nobody teaches PS 5.0. If tutorials and all that are the only thing that can help me improve, I guess I'm screwed.

And please, DON'T call me Stony.

Heh, its back! Yay. I'll post one later... when I do, I'm now a student of Lady Knives, so hopefully I will learn new things and be able to excell

DarkShadowLink9, your sig is awesome! Everything matches, the color the style, lighting.... I have nothing bad to say... Simply incredible. I really need to get better.

EDIT: On a happy note: I actually won a sig contest!! I thought it would never happen!

Umi: I like it, but make the colours lighter; they don't really match the render you used.

TOTORO SIG.