Credible Artist's Advice + Common GFX Terminology

If somebody criticizes your work, listen to their criticism - They may be far more valuable than you think. Art is more about the audience than the artist, so as you yourself have a different perspective to the audience, the audience's view can make an absolutely shit work a masterpiece.

I'm also sick of people flaming the more knowledgeable members of our GFX community - so for example, if any of these artists comment on your work, the likelihood is that it's true:

• Verts
• Blupig
• kovan
• Alteranz
• Spraynwipe
• Emperor_Nero
• Tr1bal
• w000t
• Imagine
• MoonGlare
• Superman
• Jack Goff

(Sorry about those who I have forgotten to include).

 

Some common GFX terms:

• CnC - Comments and Criticism.
  
• Render - A pre-cut image from a wallpaper or other image commonly used in signatures. (example)
  
• Stock - Any un-cut image. Such as photography or a wallpaper. (example)
  
• Sprite - A render of a pixelated character. Such as "Ash" from the gameboy pokemon or "Ryu" from the SNES Street Fighter. Can be any pixelized character. (example)
  
• Blending - How well the Render has been fitted/matched with the background. Also how the edges of the render flow into the background.
  
• Flow - The overall direction of the sig.
  
• Chaotic - Too much is going on in the Signature and it is very hard to make out.
  
• Vomit - A particularly bad Signature rating
  
• Brush - A downloaded brush from another site commonly used to make signatures, it is used as a tool to create backgrounds.
  
• Brightness/Contrast - Change the settings of your brightness and contrast in your monitor - notice the difference? That's what its referring to. When it's over
  contrasted it means that your contrast is way over the top and it has too much excessive dark spots/black or white light spots.
  
• C4D - An abstract render made in a program called Cinema 4D, also commonly used in signatures.
  
• Whored - Excessive usage of a very beginner tool or such.
  
• Pack - A collection of items.
  
• Font - A different style of text.
  
• Pixel Stretch - A simple signature technique using 1px by "x[vertical wise" of an image and stretching it across the width of the signature.
  
• Blurred - Blurring - when it gets fuzzy, used for adding depth.
  
• Foreground - The front part in a signature, usually blurry, to signify it is "too close" for the lens, or the focus is not on it.
  
• Middleground - The part of a signature/photo where the focus is, where the crisp render is, and where the focal point should be.
  
• Background - The back part of the signature, usually blurry, or made to emphasize the focal point.
  
• Focal point - The first point that the eye draws to, or looks at, in any piece of art. This is strongly affected by placement, depth, and sharpness.