Signature/Small Work Showcase [V.IV]: Long Live Pterodactyls!

Originally Posted by Black Warlock

It's not a bad piece and there's nothing spectacular about it. I love the reflection. Also no flow at all, it looks as if you made a cloud background and stuck a squrtle on it.

No need to argue or no offense but that wasn't real;ly CnC.Look at it.I smudged the BG.Not a sky stock.A couple of C4Ds and some space stocks.Look more for flow,trust me,there is A LOT of flow in there.It goes in an up-left direction.

Originally Posted by Goddess Din

No need to argue or no offense but that wasn't real;ly CnC.Look at it.I smudged the BG.Not a sky stock.A couple of C4Ds and some space stocks.Look more for flow,trust me,there is A LOT of flow in there.It goes in an up-left direction.

The border on the reflection fails. The reflection is kinda blah anyway. I'd say just drop it. It'd be a pretty nice sig without it.

Yet another Zelda sig. Can't decide whether or not to kill text. Tried to put a lot of emphasis on lighting.


EDIT:Version without text.

the text is terrible. everything is going one direction and the text is going the opposite. I'd also smudge the edges of the effect some more because right now it doesn't really seem to be emitting from teh light source like it should, round it off some more. Background could use some more colours, and the effect could lose a few.

Originally Posted by Hawke

Yet another Zelda sig. Can't decide whether or not to kill text. Tried to put a lot of emphasis on lighting.

I'd ditch the text. Not all signatures necessarily need it.

This is kinda cool, but the light around her hand should be toned down a little, IMO. It distracts from the focal (her torso, head, etc) and makes my eyes move toward the right side.

One question, how are you supposed to do text? On this site, and many others, I see people complain about most text. And if it's a deciding factor as to whether or not a sig is done well, I would like to know when it is executed correctly.

Well, in general, don't do text. Does the Mona Lisa, or any Rembrandt, or any Picasso etc have text in the painting? Of course not. In art text is useless, and the only time to use it in a signature is in a request or for personalization. There are very few cases where text does work, and in general I place it next to a focal continuing the focal's flow. Text usually disrupts an images natural flow thus making it distracting and focusing one's eye on the text. So naturally the text needs to serve as the focal or be a continuation of the focal rather than be placed off to the side.

Originally Posted by Hawke

Yet another Zelda sig. Can't decide whether or not to kill text. Tried to put a lot of emphasis on lighting.


EDIT:Version without text.

I don't like this one at all so I'm going to tear it apart nothing personal k.

The lighting on the hand sucks tone down the opacity a bit. The broad greenish c4d is bad though the red sparky one is fine. As for the far left the I'm not sure why you put a green of that shade there considering there is nothing of that color on the render.

Originally Posted by Hawke

One question, how are you supposed to do text? On this site, and many others, I see people complain about most text. And if it's a deciding factor as to whether or not a sig is done well, I would like to know when it is executed correctly.

text is very difficult and very hard to get right. Most people tend to slap some text on their signature as an afterthought, usually to label the signature as their own by pasting their username on it. This is completely unnecessary and distracts from the artwork in the signature. Text done right is text that is actually a part of the artwork, rather than being thrown on top of it.

most of the time, the best thing to do is just avoid using text. That way you can show off the artwork in your signature, rather than distract from its beauty. As someone previously mentioned, how many great pieces of art have you seen with text on them? If any, it was because the text was a part of the artwork.

here are a few examples of signatures that I have made that, in my opinion, have well executed text. Notice that in every example, the text is an intricate part of the artwork, instead of simply being placed on top for identification. Some of these signatures are based entirely on text, in fact.

http://i43.tinypic.com/16asa43.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/r9297s.jpg
http://i34.tinypic.com/avt2ex.jpg
http://i33.tinypic.com/352ra7p.jpg
http://i27.tinypic.com/10oo7eu.jpg
__________________

now, comments on this piece?

Originally Posted by erinys

Sic.

Text either needs to be the focal point.

Or blend in with the flow.

Or complement the artwork aesthetically.

No need to argue or no offense but that wasn't real;ly CnC.Look at it.I smudged the BG.Not a sky stock.A couple of C4Ds and some space stocks.Look more for flow,trust me,there is A LOT of flow in there.It goes in an up-left direction.

i think he was going off the fact that not all of those things can be seen without close observation; for a moment, i couldn't see any of those things listed until i stared at it for a while, and even then i still don't see some things.

lys: i love it, very simple and it's artfully done, great job.

lys: It's pretty sweet. I think the join of the hilt to the handguard thingy could use some slight work to make it make slightly more sense perspectively. And the bottom left of the sword almost looks cut off. Really neat piece tho.



Was a request, thoughts?

muzz: thx!

brad: the tip of the sword is cut off, it's stuck in the ground. Unless you mean something else.

and I'm not sure what you mean about the hilt to the guard and perspective or whatever.

anyway, editing it would be difficult as I drew it by hand on a piece of paper with a ballpoint pen and then took a picture of it with the webcam attached to my laptop and then edited in GIMP.

and I'm not sure where the drawing is anymore.

I'm talking about the bottom left of the blade. The border on the green is super thin there, and it makes it look like it got cut off. The hilt thing. You have a black line continuing up the hilt to show that it is wrapped that makes the color used to show the shadow of the hilt/handguard join, which makes the perspective look a little odd, kind of like the hilt is leaning away from me or to the right when it should appear to be in line with the rest of the blade. But thats only when I focus on it. It is a really cool piece.

New sig, strange shape, all hand drawn.

Originally Posted by Bradapalooza

I'm talking about the bottom left of the blade. The border on the green is super thin there, and it makes it look like it got cut off. The hilt thing. You have a black line continuing up the hilt to show that it is wrapped that makes the color used to show the shadow of the hilt/handguard join, which makes the perspective look a little odd, kind of like the hilt is leaning away from me or to the right when it should appear to be in line with the rest of the blade. But thats only when I focus on it. It is a really cool piece.

I see what you mean about the border, I'll see if I can make it a bit thicker.

Originally Posted by Leminnes

New sig, strange shape, all hand drawn.

Eye itself is great imo, but the outside is pretty ehh in my opinion. The bands of color should be less rounded and the yellow/green is not so hot.

The colors could blend a little better as they get closer to the eye, imo.

k here:

The choice of lighting right above his face kinda makes him look washed out, maybe move your lighting layer a few pixels over to the left. The right part of the background would benefit from some additional shadows and/or darkening.

Dusk: My favorite part is the smoke coming from his cigarette. The other stuff doesn't seem to be anti-aliased well. I also think it would be nice if you stuck with the style of the stock and kept everything subdued and light.

Here's another one (It's been a while since I've done 2 in one day)



The guy was actually drawn by a friend and colored by myself.