Thoughts and Opinions Thread

First topic message reminder :

This is the thread where members can post their graphics creations for other people to see, and for thoughts and opinions to be given. Consider it a sort of 'showing off' thread, if you like, but also a place where you can receive constructive criticism for aspects of your graphic making.

Here's my latest graphic, just a simple colourisation, which I'm planning to put on the up for grabs section of my graphics site. My biggest problem with it though is, like always, the text. I'm not sure if it overpowers the image.

I really like it, Ducky! The only thing is that the word "wish" is hard to see on its dark background... is there a way to make either the word or the place where it is lighter?

Thats about all I could come up with, that is a really good banner!

Thanks for your comments cookie I see now that it could be lighter...but I don't have the unmerged version saved! I swear I saved an unmerged version, but it's not there so...I'm gonna have to leave it as it is

ooo, that's really good, Elfie! I love how the writing in the background fades and grows darker, just like real writing! (well, my writing anyway)

One of the things on teh postcard says "New Orlean"... did you mean the city New Orleans? Or is there a New Orlean somewhere else in the world? Sorry, but that confused me

But I made some more avatars! Not many, but they are fun to do



Thoughts?

I like them all they are all really well made however my favorite by far is the second one. Just because I find it intriging. XD

They're great!

I like the fourth one - the ice blue one, just because it's very crisp and clean. I think the last two look slightly pixellated, but apart from that....they're fab!

Wow, cookie! Your avi's are amazing!

Cookie, i loved the three last ones!!! They are briliant!

And the rest of you; Awesome work... seriously, i don't know how you ppl can do something as amazing as that!! *huggles everyone*

I love those avatars cookie. my favourite is the second one too

I've got a new graphic It's for the holiday challenge on the DA - what do you think?

ooh, I was just looking at this photo over on Foto Decadent and I really loved it...I like what you've done with it as well.

Thanks I'd actually done a different graphic for this challenge, but then I was looking at foto decadent earlier and saw that photo and loved it, so I had to use it lol.

yeah they've got some *weird* stuff on that site, so I need to be careful that *nobody* sees me going on there...my mom would kill me rofl.

But yeah, that photo is just so good. It has a certain charm...there's lots of nice stuff there. I'm itching to make some avatars...

Lol yes, you have to be careful of the posts marked NSFW (not safe for work) :D

Anyway, to avoid making this , here's a banner I did for another challenge on DA - it's not brilliant, and I know my blending is a little shoddy (especially on the man...) but I accidentally merged and couldn't fix it

like you said, the man's a bit unclear. But I like the background you used (what are they called? textures?) And I like the way you played around with different texts.

Text is something I've very excited about, since I just figured out how to save them onto my computer. Took me a few months to find the instructions for something so absurdly simple...well. That's me. :D

But yeah, I like how you emphasized certain words by changing the text. But maybe you could use a different color as well? Like red or something for 'ready'?

EDIT: I finally made some avatars...whaddaya think?

Streamers! Those are so awesome and amy the guy is kind of fuzzy but the banner is cool. streamers i like the middle avatar the most cuz it's green and well blended.

Well here's what I want to show you guys. I decided to see just how much effects, lights, and things I could make to turn an ordinary mansion into a haunted one. The picture was completely edited by me so please give me your criticism I did this in paint shop pro 9 :D


First: This picture is one I found on the net and so as a project for myself, I thought I would try to turn it into a haunted looking mansion.



Here is the after pic.
I used the color balance options along with softening, halos(the red glows), lighting, airbrushing, and shadows, highlighting and midtoning.
To make the moon I used the circle tool and then enhanced it with blues, grays and white wisping tools. I added two small sunbursts to make the moon appear to glow.
The ghostlike mist was done with three different wisping tools and with colors of very light blues and purples. I swirled them around various parts of the house cuz I wanted to give it the feel of this place is spooky and haunted without really making a lot of ghosts cuz I was trying to go for a feel of a mystery/ haunted house :D (I watched scooby doo earlier so this is what made me become motivated to edit this pic heh)
The actual ghost figure I did with the sunburst effect option this let it have a glow but not too overwhelming. I also used the side warping paintbrush to add small details such as making some of the structures of the building look broken.



I'm not the best at this but I just enjoy graphics editing and manipping. So please give me your opinions on it :D AMY this means you too Mwahaha!! :D

Streams: Nice avatars I too like the middle one the best, and the text placement on the first is good. The third one is quite pixellated, it might help to do an unsharp mask on that image.

Jesse: this colourisation is great! It worked really well. I don't know if it was the look you were going for, but the moon seems kind of 'cartoony', whilst the rest of the image looks more real. What you could perhaps do is find a picture of a full moon and then blend it in?

And now here's a series of graphics I've done, based on The Seven Deadly Sins. I'm quite pleased with how they've turned out, though finding images to display some of them was really hard lol. Here they are:















What do you think?

Wow Amy those are amazing I personally love all of them but my favorite is the sloth one XD

wow they're awesome amy. And their styles are all different...they're stunning.

ooo, Amy, those are beautiful! I love the Pride one, but they are all so good! I'm jealous

Amy you know what im going to say lol - they are brilliant - i think my faourite is Lust!

Here is a new challenge entry of mine for four avatars on a backdrop



and this was for another challenge though i dont like it much lol

Ooo, Elfie, those are pretty good! The one thing that I would change is the large background-ish picture in the Veronica Mars graphic. It is very bright to the point of eye-burning lol.... Is there a way to make it a little darker?

I have made some new avatars, along with two banners.... here they are for you to enjoy, I guess






As you can see, the four white avis go together, but the others are quite random... the banners are based on Alice in Wonderland

I love the white ones cookie I think the second one is slightly blurry, possibly could do with an unsharp mask on it.

The signatures are good, though the font is slightly hard to read on the first one.

Here are some icons I've done for a couple of challenges.

First for a Dr Who icon challenge to represent sorrow, fear, love and desperation:



And the challenge for these ones was to create icons about a TV show which is little known or has a small fandom:

OMG!!! I'm loving them! How do you all do it? Oh by the way, Jesse where is my siggy?? lol. No rush. Take your time

Cookie: I actually agree with you on second glance of my graphic. Unfortunatly i have merged the layers so therefore cant try again :(.
Again, your avatars are brilliant as are the signatures. I prefer the second one, though the writing is slightly hidden on both. Perhaps try duplicating the text layer?

Amy: I love those avatars on the background as I said to you before. I cant fault them.

Here is one i made earlier (gah so blue peter lol)

I like it Elfie, but, although I'm no expert on graphics...it'd be kinda cool if you had the eyes the same colour as the rose or something.

But what do I know? Lol it's amaaaaaaazing. ^.^

I love it Elfie - the eyes on the person are haunting and it looks great.

Now, story banners aren't my forte, but I'm actually quite pleased with how this one turned out:



It's for my Halloween challenge fic, which I've put on HPFF so it needed a banner. It took me about 10 attempts to get one that I actually liked lol.

All I have to say Amy, is wow. That's so amazing! I love it! I really like how when you first look at it, it only looks like the colors are greens, and then you look closer and see the red and yellow in the lily and Harry's normal skin. Wonderful!

Gorgeous banner Amy, I love how you blended those pictures into the background and I like the fonts you used.

I made some more avatars...candy-based this time in celebration of Halloween...and my love of candy! They're a bit blurry, methinks--I kept making them sharper but they're still not as sharp as I'd have liked them. What do you guys think?

Wow amy and Streamers those are both increadible. I really like the pink one.

Ooo, Streamy, those are nice! As you said, they are a little blurry, but I like them! Candy..... lol

Here is a extremely simple and rather plain graphic I randomly made this morning... yay! lol



Apart from my lame attempt at poetry at the bottom, what can I do to improve this?

Nice avatars Streams, but as you said, a little blurry.

Cookie, I like that graphic - simple but effective. The only thing I would suggest to improve it are to make the text a little easier to read. I think it would look quite effective in the black space. I would also suggest changing the font - something narrower perhaps.

I just did this graphic after listening to Justin Hayward's Forever Autumn from War of the Worlds. I'm not sure if I like it or not...



Oh, and here's a link to the song (with someone's random photo slideshow lol)

Ooh, nice amy! I like how you made just the leaves colored. Simple and effective.

EDIT: speaking of graphics, I like your new avatar and siggy, duckie. ^^

Here is a bannery thing that I just finished.... I'm not sure if I like it or not.... the small text in the background wouldn't cooperate



Thoughts?

First,

Quote :

EDIT: speaking of graphics, I like your new avatar and siggy, duckie. ^^

Hehe thanks, Twilight is my new obsession so I have to reflect that somehow :D

Next,

Cookie, I like that sig, but you're right, the text doesn't really *do* anything for the banner. I think you could either cut it down to perhaps a line of text, bigger font, so it's readable, or try a tiny text brush if that's the effect you were going for

EDIT:

I forgot to post these I made them when I finished New Moon. I couldn't think of a better quote from New Moon to use, but oh well.

Well, I'm biased towards the content ^^ but his skin seems a bit unnatural-looking...too much red/brown where it fades into the black.

Here's something I made while playing around (I should've been working on my fic but was too lazy. ) Anyway. Thoughts?

Yeah, I thought his skin was too dark too, especially considering he's a vampire...but meh, I was too lazy to fix it.

That blend is pretty, streams, I like it.

Here are some more twilight icons I've done:







I did a wallpaper too but the blending is a bit shabby, so I'm not going to show it :D

Twilight!!
I really like those icons

Thanks! I have a feeling I'll be making a lot of Twilight banners/icons in the near future *huggles Twilight*. Anyway, here's another one I made earlier...

teehee, I really like that Amy! It made me smile

Heres some I just got bored and TRIED at.. there horrid but I needed somewhere to post them..

This set was done for a challenge on DA - the 'titanic' challenge, where you had to make a set about a ship that is sunk - I chose Mickey/Rose from Dr Who. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out actually.

Jess - they arnt bad - they are good What software do you use?

Amy - I love them I especially like the middle of the banner!

Here is one i made for a recent challenge 'my muse'



___________________________________________

Great job on all of them guys, especially your Rose/Mickey one Amy

Here's something I did this morning. Something's missing from it I feel, but it's the first draft, anyway :D



Stock image from http://www.myredself.org
Quote from OotP: "Harry: She walked away from him and, as he watched her go, he found that the terrible weight in his stomach seemed to have lessened slightly. (OP38)"

Amy- Awesome! I love those!

Elfie- I really like it! I'm just not sure if I love the font "Bewitched" and "My Muse" are in

Jimmy- Wow, that's great! I love the simplicity of it, and it's beautiful! The quote is great

I got bored XD










I use PSP elfie

Very nice, Jess *huggles*

*huggels* thanks I LOOOOOVE our HArry Luna one even though I dont ship it! XD

I think that they are all great.

Romance - I love your second lot of graphics they are really great

Castle - I think it is great - i dont think anything is missing. If you put anything else on it it wouldnt have the simplicity that makes it great.

Elfie - I think it is great. I like the bewitching bit but the muse bit looks slightly out of place

Duck - the avatar and banner are great. With the banner, what would it look like if both rose and micky were the same texture?

They are both covered by the same texture It's just a difference in skin colour.

Thanks for your comments everyone