Group: Junior Artist
Posts: 399
Joined: 25-August 08
From: Thornfield Hall
Member No.: 8024
"It takes more then a wink, more then a drink!"
Hi, my name is Vik I have been making graphics seriously for about eleven months now and posted a gallery for the first time in October. I use Gimp so any tips for that would be very helpful As I am still learning. CC is very welcome. I permantly have a bad text day!!! I love chapter images and banners (for the moment) and blends and icons hate me! We have a mutual dis-respect for each other, it's sad but true!
Cute award by Violet Thank you so much! I still can't believe it!
ICONS
^new
SIGS
^new
BANNERS
^new
CHAPTER IMAGES
^new
BLENDS & THINGS
^new
Challenges 3rd place - The Greatest Song of your 2009 challenge 3rd place - The Mash up challenge 3rd place - Wildwinyan-stock on deviantART challenge 1st place - The Title Challenge Again 3rd place - R.I.P Fred Challenge
"Cause some don't have the patience Some call me high maintenance "
CREDITS
Inspirations - Sarah_Bee, FATAL, FedoraDuo, tovsy, Niika, Violet, Royal, .brookeabee, Alora, Ande, SwissMiss, Lady Malfoy, Vany, Colorkiller, Antiquity, MrsLovett, Catastrophe! ClearPlastic (her Chapter images rock!) and many more... TDA ashley's awesome image pack Kristina's Stock image pack PhoenixAlthor's Super Dooper Spanky Wow Image Pack Ande's huge pack of OC's and Stock pictures Nuzzy's Graphical stuff image pack by OMG Lore's Couples & Stocks pack Panicstrickyn's unristricked stock & lots of it, image packs Google Images stock.xchng SweetandTalented.com FrontFreak wildwinyan-stock RoyaltyFreeStock TextureKing CheekyGraphics Dafont.com noupe.com feltbeats.com Stockvault.net
This post has been edited by Star: Jul 25 2010, 07:41 AM
Group: Graduate Artist
Posts: 1099
Joined: 23-August 08
From: The Emerald City, Oz-tralia
Member No.: 8016
Hey there! You've got a nice gallery going here Some of your stuff is a bight light, so I suggest upping the contrast in some graphics. Also, go look around for some high quality images - it makes a real difference to your graphics when they're not too blurry or grainy Oh, and try not to distort your pictures, like in your current avatar. Remember to 'keep propertions' Before I go, here's a few links for you, in case you haven't already checked them out: Tutorials for Beginning Artists Tutorial Central Promotions 101 Optimizing Your Gallery for Promotions Critique Corner The Potions Cupboard
Group: Staff Artist
Posts: 2390
Joined: 6-June 08
From: into the west. <3
Member No.: 7271
darn, I wanted first post!!!!!
oh well... SECOND IS BETTER!!!
HI VIK!!!!!!
I'm ecstatic you have a gallery!!!!!!!!!!
You credited me in your awesome fabulous gallery? you're too sweet!!!!
I think you have a great eye for placement!!!
Hmm here's a tip I often give with text: think your graphic is a scale. Try to maintain a balance. You don't want everything huge and eye popping or too small, or all the words in the middle or all on one side. You want a balance. And be careful when spacing out letters. Having big spaces between letters doesn't usually work for scripty large fonts.
GIMP has no selective coloring like photoshop (you use GIMP right, if I remember correctly?) BUT you will find color balancing layers, fill layers set on different modes can change that!!!
I'll be back for certain!!!! Keep up the awesome work! You have an amazing start!!!
Group: Staff Artist
Posts: 968
Joined: 18-April 07
From: floridaaa.
Member No.: 4032
hai, i'm ashley! you have a great start!
for tutorials on GIMPs, there are some awesome ones at the tut central.
you have an eye for placement but the text is something that needs a little work. just keep practicing and you'll get the hang of it. also watch out for halos in your banners but other than that great work!
you're really off to a great start, so i can't to see more from you.
Group: Featured Artist
Posts: 2741
Joined: 5-July 09
From: United States
Member No.: 11166
Hi Star! You paid a visit to my gallery so here I am! I really like how everything you make it light and happy. I'm horrible with light graphics lol. I really love your Ella banner, it's beautiful I stared it at for awhile haha. Your placement of images is really nice also, I can see that comes easily for you I'll be checking back soon!
Group: Staff Artist
Posts: 2390
Joined: 6-June 08
From: into the west. <3
Member No.: 7271
VICTORIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AHHHHH YOU'RE IMPROVING ALREADY!!!!!!!!!
Your blending and your coloring has gotten so much better within the past week or so!!!!!!!!
Can you see the difference between your newest banners and your oldest?
Be very careful with text though. When you have longer quotes, put most of the quote in simple fonts like Georgia, Arial etc then amplify one or two words in fancier, scripty, handwritten/whatever non simple text. That generally looks better in most cases...
Be careful in putting text (especially titles) on the far side of sigs and banners... it becomes distracting...
Anyways, keep working hard!!!!!!!!! You're doing great!!!!!!!!
Group: Staff Moderator
Posts: 4457
Joined: 22-April 08
From: oztraileeuh
Member No.: 6954
Hey hun! I thought I'd just return the gallery comment favour I just wanna say i lovelovelove +this banner the colouring is soo pretty! And I love your blends as well. I can already see you're beginning to develop a style! One thing to watch out for is your graphics are a little undercontrasted so remember to boost it up to make the POP! keep up the awesome work hun, ily! <3
Group: Critique Moderator
Posts: 2445
Joined: 8-August 08
From: the east <3
Member No.: 7902
hey I'm here to critique your gallery (I saw your post in the gallery critique area) I'm Brooke. Uhh, I'm going to critique first by type of graphic, then by individual issues, and maybe provide some helpful hints.
Icons - I saw that you think you are struggling with Icons. I can see what you mean. First let me say that your icons are not bad. You have some pretty good ones. The second one on the bottom row is pretty good actually, the image quality is pretty good and the cut is okay. What makes the cut good is that it zooms out and it's not directly on her face. What could make it better would be if you were to move the girl over to the right or left so she's not dead center. The other icons are not as good. The image quality on them is not good so they're pixely and hard to see. Also, pick a coloring style for a set of icons, make it more vivid and interesting. maybe try playing with the color balance of the original image and adding some hues to your highlights and shadows or just midtones. Coloring is all about experimenting. Cuts could be improved by having some close ups, some far aways, some of just random and interesting things. look at Nellie's gallery and Seng's gallery they have some of my favorite icons. This will show you a lot about coloring a set of icons and cuts for a set. (I should really follow my own advice, I suck at icons too. I think the size is awkward)
Sigs & Sets - Whats good... Image placement and blending. What's not so good... Coloring and graphic quality, also text needs a bit of work... The death sig needs some more vibrant coloring... The font is pretty good... just in a different place. Stalk some upper level artists galleries, think the way they think and learn about placement. Also, I need to take a page from my own book here. Chains of love is beautifully composed, and just needs a more vibrant color and for you to fix the image quality. The font doesn't seem to fit and needs to be relocated more towards the middle I think. I love the magic happens sig. My main suggestion would be to move the text down and to the left so it's above her shoulder.
Banners - Okay there are a lot of them so I'm going to hit the main points. Your older ones don't have much of a base. So they seem kindof... bland. The coloring is pale and not cohesive... but your newer ones are getting better. You are doing much better with placement of people and your coloring is more cohesive... monochrome could be your thing... I would have some variety though. Also, if you're going to go with monochrome try to up the image quality and contrast. The text on all the new ones needs a bit of work. again... I'd stalk Susan for this... she rocks the text. Get some ideas about more creative placement and fonts from her... don't steal ideas though
Blends - I love your diamond in the sky blend. It's exactly what I've been ranting on that you should do this whole time... so you've got it hun! just use it all the time! Uh, the placement is fabulous, the coloring is vibrant, the text is good and you used scriptina.. that's hard to pull off Ahh, I'm so proud of you!
I hope I helped? I hope I wasn't too harsh. PM me if you ever need anything
Group: Junior Artist
Posts: 399
Joined: 25-August 08
From: Thornfield Hall
Member No.: 8024
Brooke!!!!!
Thank you so so much! This is just what I needed. I'm going to be using your critique as my bible! I will defo stalk more galleries. Especially yours .
I really appriciate all the advice you've given me, thank you.
Group: Member Artist
Posts: 161
Joined: 13-October 09
From: Canada
Member No.: 12128
Hey there! I can tell you've improved a lot already... but here are a few suggestions:
You need to work on coloring! That way, your images will pop out and look really lovely!
You also need to work on establishing a theme of sorts for your graphics.. I notice a lot of them are basically hued one color: green, blue, brown, etc... and they're a bit too toned down/subtle. Work on trying out different styles of banners, especially more colorful and crazy ones.
If You Want Me..., 25th July 2010
Oct 3 2009, 03:33 AM
As I am still learning. 
Thank you so much! I still can't believe it! 
you're too sweet!!!! 
the colouring is soo pretty!
