Quick project for a friend

Free Hat · May 18, 2015

What do you think? I made the background by warping some images together, set the hue and contrast to give it a red tint, did some fractal overlays and some brushwork. I think the biggest flaws here are the render and the lighting, but I tend to have a biased opinion when it comes to my own work. All constructive criticism and helpful advice is appreciated.

<removed for the sake of humanity>

Wonderland · May 20, 2015

The composition is pretty bad. What are you trying to convey in the piece? It's important to make sure your tag is comprehensible to others. Splashing effects on a tag without reason is counterproductive and causes confusion.

There is just too much going on with the tag itself. The focal looks slapped on and covered with a gradient. Try different techniques of blending (clipping masks for example). The surroundings of the piece need to complement the focal, not take away from it.

The tag is very monotone. You should try to avoid that in future pieces.

The flow is there, but everything else necessary to make a tag good isn't.

Free Hat · May 20, 2015

Ghast said:
The composition is pretty bad. What are you trying to convey in the piece? It's important to make sure your tag is comprehensible to others. Splashing effects on a tag without reason is counterproductive and causes confusion.

There is just too much going on with the tag itself. The focal looks slapped on and covered with a gradient. Try different techniques of blending (clipping masks for example). The surroundings of the piece need to complement the focal, not take away from it.

The tag is very monotone. You should try to avoid that in future pieces.

The flow is there, but everything else necessary to make a tag good isn't.

I wasn't trying to convey anything at all, an online friend of mine asked me to do a quick piece for him to use as a forum signature. His specifications were "Anime related" so, well, you see the end result. Not blaming him at all, just explaining. I didn't really put a whole shit ton of effort into the piece and it shows, but I appreciate the advice. I think instead of editing this piece I may simply scrap it and start over again, I was sorely uninspired and subsequently a lot fundamentals were left severely flawed because of it.

Priscilla · May 24, 2015

Free Hat said:
I wasn't trying to convey anything at all, an online friend of mine asked me to do a quick piece for him to use as a forum signature. His specifications were "Anime related" so, well, you see the end result. Not blaming him at all, just explaining. I didn't really put a whole shit ton of effort into the piece and it shows, but I appreciate the advice. I think instead of editing this piece I may simply scrap it and start over again, I was sorely uninspired and subsequently a lot fundamentals were left severely flawed because of it.

You should not work without proper inspiration to be honest. Takes away quite a bit from.a piece of artwork.

XX_PLANKER_xx · May 24, 2015

I like the use of particles and the color scheme. I think moving her to the right and flipping the background would be beneficial.

Free Hat · May 26, 2015

Priscilla said:
You should not work without proper inspiration to be honest. Takes away quite a bit from.a piece of artwork.

Yeah, I uh... just said that. Thanks.

XX_PLANKER_xx said:
I like the use of particles and the color scheme. I think moving her to the right and flipping the background would be beneficial.

Thank you! I thought about flipping the background already to be honest, but the way I created it caused some problems there as it's not one solid image.

Regardless, I scrapped this project and moved on to another one with proper inspiration. ^-^

Emperor Nero · May 27, 2015

First the color scheme is really poor. Pink, yellow, and orange? No, it doesn't make sense. Why would you compose a piece with your focal not even close to power points? You have what flow is there directed to the upper right but the render would suggest a nearly vertical with a slight left lean flow. Next there is no depth and that is due to little to effects. Then I am not even going to get into lighting, which is very important but isn't worth the time really explaining due to the lack of the previous points made.

I know you've scrapped it but if you're looking to learn it is important to find the faults in previous pieces. Here are a few points to work on: Usage of C4Ds to build effects and depth, color theory, lighting theory, and most important piece composition.