I was never good at signature creation at all even when I was attending an art school three or four years ago.
After eventually dropping out due to the economy and a terrible life situation and moving home I have recently decided to go back to school at the local University for art and I decided it is time to get back into shape art wise.
I just powered through at least two dozen signature tutorials and after painstakingly cutting out Zurdi, the Goblin Guide from his card art I yielded this.
Zurdi, the Goblin Guide is stuck in a swirling mass of nebulous C4Ds. A little bit of a critique is what I am asking for.
I was never good at signature creation at all even when I was attending an art school three or four years ago.
After eventually dropping out due to the economy and a terrible life situation and moving home I have recently decided to go back to school at the local University for art and I decided it is time to get back into shape art wise.
I just powered through at least two dozen signature tutorials and after painstakingly cutting out Zurdi, the Goblin Guide from his card art I yielded this.
Zurdi, the Goblin Guide is stuck in a swirling mass of nebulous C4Ds. A little bit of a critique is what I am asking for.
Hmm it is an unusual technique for the C4Ds but I like it. The one nitpick I have is the shape directly in front of him sticks out rather oddly against the flow of the sig.
Something starting from the left flowing to the right might flow a bit better.
Very nice use of an unusual render though, I am hoping to see more from you.
I love your color choice and concept. Rivenor has an excellent observation in that the lower left corner contrasts in a conflicting manner. My critique point is a lack of contrast within the entire sig. Since you went to art school I'll take the forum gloves off concerning design vernacular. The alpha values seem to be consistent across your entire piece, which doesn't allow for enough contrast to make your focal point (the goblin guide) shine as the star of this piece. The background "behind" him shares equal visual priority with your focal point. In short, when I first look at it I don't feel like im being directed by the artist. Unless it's a completely abstract piece I feel that some direction fro mthe artist denoting which areas are featured is necessary. This can be accomplished through creating more variance between the foreground and background, either through sat, alpha value and lighting, texture, etc. As Rivenor said, I am also very excited to see more work from you in the future. Please give us more!
Wow. I have tried posting in actual GFX forums before with some of my attempts and have not received one iota near the amount of feedback both of you just provided. Thank you, seriously.
In short, when I first look at it I don't feel like im being directed by the artist.
I figured that was what the problem was when I slammed down that last couple of layers. My issue after getting so deep into the project was I really wanted that back portion of the piece, the blue C4D to represent a blue light that would justify the blue highlights along Zurdi's back.
I accomplished that slightly but I washed out the rest of the signature I think.
This is what it looked like before that when I added a couple of cool and warm photo filters to make a contrast between the lights on each side of the signature.
This is what it looked like before I applied a layer fore some dodging and burning.
Ultimately though I know my original intent to create an abstract signature with some depth and lighting with Zurdi didn't work entirely. But, I am glad I got somewhere with it and it taught me all that it should have. I established some depth but ruined it with the lighting as it doesn't dither off but completely overwhelms the image.
I will continue to provide work for you to critique though.
Instead of dodging and burning the actual layer or an applied layer, try one of these two techniques:
Create a new layer above everything, fill with 50% grey and place in overlay mode. Dodge and burn this layer.
My favorite method is to make a black to white gradient map in overlay(sometimes soft light is better) which will blast your highs and darken your lows initially. Apply a layer mask and fill it with black, thereby making the gradient map non existent. Now use a an appropriate brush at 5-20% opacity and paint white onto the.layer mask to slowly introduce greater intensity to key areas.
After eventually dropping out due to the economy and a terrible life situation and moving home I have recently decided to go back to school at the local University for art and I decided it is time to get back into shape art wise.
I just powered through at least two dozen signature tutorials and after painstakingly cutting out Zurdi, the Goblin Guide from his card art I yielded this.
Zurdi, the Goblin Guide is stuck in a swirling mass of nebulous C4Ds. A little bit of a critique is what I am asking for.
Hmm it is an unusual technique for the C4Ds but I like it. The one nitpick I have is the shape directly in front of him sticks out rather oddly against the flow of the sig.
Something starting from the left flowing to the right might flow a bit better.
Very nice use of an unusual render though, I am hoping to see more from you.
You cannot outrun the beast within.
I figured that was what the problem was when I slammed down that last couple of layers. My issue after getting so deep into the project was I really wanted that back portion of the piece, the blue C4D to represent a blue light that would justify the blue highlights along Zurdi's back.
I accomplished that slightly but I washed out the rest of the signature I think.
This is what it looked like before that when I added a couple of cool and warm photo filters to make a contrast between the lights on each side of the signature.
This is what it looked like before I applied a layer fore some dodging and burning.
Ultimately though I know my original intent to create an abstract signature with some depth and lighting with Zurdi didn't work entirely. But, I am glad I got somewhere with it and it taught me all that it should have. I established some depth but ruined it with the lighting as it doesn't dither off but completely overwhelms the image.
I will continue to provide work for you to critique though.
Create a new layer above everything, fill with 50% grey and place in overlay mode. Dodge and burn this layer.
My favorite method is to make a black to white gradient map in overlay(sometimes soft light is better) which will blast your highs and darken your lows initially. Apply a layer mask and fill it with black, thereby making the gradient map non existent. Now use a an appropriate brush at 5-20% opacity and paint white onto the.layer mask to slowly introduce greater intensity to key areas.
Just throwing it out there.:)