hey there welcome to TDA!

here are some helpful links you may want to check out:

Helpful Hints for New TDA Artists
Tutorial Central
Promotions 101
Optimizing Your Gallery for Promotions
Critique Corner

i'd be happy to answer any questions you may have about the site

as for your gallery, i want to see more of what you can do! you've got a nice start here, love <3 keep it going!

i think maybe you should experiment around with your text some more to really get the feel of it - it takes a lot of practice! one thing to keep in mind is that black text usually doesn't work so well on happier graphics maybe you could try using one of the colors from your graphic for the text. there are thousands of possibilities.

hope you have a wonderful time here at TDA! i'll see you around the forums

--bex

Bex

Thankyou so so much!!
I will check some more tutorials as they are really helpful!
I see what you mean about the text, - i didn't realise it was all black! and that can kill the mood a bit!
Thanks for all the advise and hopefully i'll get better !!!
Sam !!

Hi! I think it's so great that you're experimenting and playing around with the program and seeing what you can do! As some have suggested, I'd start working on some tutorials, because they really are helpful. I learned a lot from them! I like your current sig, by the way. Keep up the good work, love!

SNAGS third post! xD

Elloooo! You commented on my gallery, so i was like, lets return the favour.
You've got a pretty good gallery up, but i suggest working on image quality and text placement.
I TOTALLY ADORE +THIS!!! How'd you do the swirly thing?
Impressiveeeeee...for a newbie. Joking, lol.
Oh, and one thing i totally advise you to do? DOWNLOAD AN IMAGE PACK RIGHT NOW! It shall saveth your life, with my blessings.
Try out Ashleys awesome image pack! Or just check out whichever ones i have named in my 'credits'. They be VERY helpful. High-quality images, with stocks, and textures...and <3 <3 <3.
Yes, well. Download and find out for yourself.
Need any help and you come straight to me, okie?




Love,
CoCo.

Heeeyyy!
Thanks soo much! I defiantly need to! The one's I've been on before were great!!

Cheers! Sam x x
Extra hugs for commenting!!

Heeyy!
First off well done for bagging 3rd!
Thank you about the Beyonce blend! I was worried it wasn’t very good! And they v v cool swirly thing is a texture from in.wonderland, HERE
And thank you about the impressive thing! Im flattered everyone else is really good!!!
Cheers about the image pack! (I will download as soon as finished this!!)
I will talk to you if I need help!! I <3 your gallery!!
AND extra extra thanks for commenting!!
Sam! X x x

hiiyyaa!!
you've a great gallery!
i love it much!

Thhaaannnkkk Yoooouuu!!!

Heyyy...me again.
I havent seen you for a loooonnng time. So i was like, i'll visit your gallery.
I still love THIS truly madly deeply.
And i also really like THIS.
With love, (and a croissant)
CoCo.

HHHeeeeyyyy!!!

first off... (YUM CROISSANTS!!)

And secondly thank you!!! the mean girls icon is really old lol! I should take it down and make better ones!!!!!

I shall visit you soon as well !!!! (i'm now your gallery stalker..!!!)

Sam x <3

i like how all ur graphs have a nice colour soft quality feel to them. verry nice

Thankyooouuu!

This is really good. I love the composition of your graphics and the colours are perfect!

Hey
I'm liking la gallery! Great stuff in here. My favourite has to be +this. Lovely colouring!
Your chapter image is also really pretty- you should do some more of them!
You banners are really nice! Defo alot of potential!! 1 tichy crit is you have cut off some chins, which is like a graphics sin! haha, I was told this when i used to do it all the time! No worries about it- easily fixed
Your sigs have a nice floaty look to them! Great gallery, may have to pop in again
Jess x

Thaannnkkyyyooouuu!!!





Ahh! thankyou!
Also thanks for crit, i will look out for this!!!

Hey! I'm Michaela, just stopping by, I really like your gallery, you've done a great job with blending and the coloring on your graphics are just beautiful!

Oh thankyou sooo much!!

You have MAGNIFICENT blending, it is honestly so pretty
Keep up the amazing work and you'll be lighter blue in no time

<3 rubix

AHHHHH!!!
THANKYOUUUUU!!!!! <3

you get cookies!!

Heyy Sam!
Mafee here.

Thank you so much for your nice comment!

I absolutely love this here ! So pretty.

I wish my graphics were as good as yours.
Anywho! Keep up the amazing work !

-- Mafee xo

Hey Sam, I'm Sofia and I decided to stop by your gallery and I must say, I like ALL of your graphics, so keept it up and in no time you'll be a junior artist! Keep up the fantastic work because with those graphics, you deserve a promotion!

Hey there sam!

you left a super sweet comment in my gallery, so i'd leave one in yours!

Your colorization is AMAZING the colors are perfect!!!

this is soooo pretty!! just watch out for the bit of white that is outlining her arm -

if you use a large eraser set at a lower opacity it works pretty well

&I really like your siggs!!!!

this one and the last one are my favorites

your gallery is really nice so far, loff! keep up the fantastic work!!

-kay

Hi,

I really like your gallery. I especially love your current sig, it's lovely. The chapter image is goregeous too, so soft looking!

heya thought id reply to the comment you left on my gallery (very helpful ). I have to say i love this the colouring on it is beautiful. I think that for your icons you need to add some colour/effects which will make them stand out (personally i dont like icons and find them very boring). On the whole i really like your gallery and you have good skills
alex

Hey, here returning a favour

I love your blends/chapter images, especially the Taylor Swift ones
Your sigs and icons are great too

(wow too many happy faces lol)

beautiful gallery!

I'm in love with this

Hi! Thanks for the comment in my gallery. The coloring on your graphics is amazing especially your current signature, and I love the Taylor Swift blend!

Oh man, those Marie Antoinette icons are FABULOUS ^__^

Hey there again, only me stalking you! Just saw your new sig. Love it! Also thinking that the new chapter image looks fabby!

wow, all of your stuff looks amazing! tot's jealous
i looooove your banners. especially your once upon a time one--the coloring is so light and pretty and wow.
your icons...welll, i would love to see some more!! the rock is dead is totally inspired. gotta love animation...even if it is torture to try to do haha
that one blend with the roses? epic.
i loooooooooooove that signature that you have now--the eyes are so amazing and wonderful that that is just where my attention is drawn to. i would looooove to know how to do that, lemme tell ya.
and as for your colorizations....well. those are my favorite, and they are so wonderful done! especially the hair--the hardest part, in my humble (or not) opionion.
looove your gallery, lots of goodies! definetly stalking watching it.

All I can say is WOW!
I absolutely LOVE your banners, your sigs, your blends, your icons.
They are all lovely.
GET PROMOTED, ALREADY

Hey! Me stalking again!

I love the 'Silent Whispers' banner. The colouring and composition is gorgeous! And your colourisations are fantastic! Love the 'Sirius/Lily' sig as well, although you might want to be careful with the blending around the girl's shoulder. I never got that ship either! The 'Without You' sig has lovely colouring as well The rock, paper, scissors icon is making me smile as well

Hello!
I'm arushi I saw your post on the Gallery Critique Thread and here I am!
Um, so, I will begin with what's in your gallery as of now and where all you can improve

Chapter Images:This is beautiful and absolutely perfect. The blending is prefect and it stands out, the text suits and the coloring is beautiful. So I really don't have any critique for this one. Its gorgeous and one of the best pieces in your gallery!

What I love about this one is the blending. Its prefect, again. But what you could work on is text and coloring Its a little dull on the coloring front, could also do with a little bit of sharpening. The text needs to be styled better and maybe a in a different color? The current font isn't quite working and the Drop Shadow option is not going with the colour of the text. But it has a lot of potential. I'm confident a little bit of experimenting with coloring and text will really make this a gorgeous ci

Blends/Colorizations: Ok, I think both the colorizations are really good. Since I don't do colorization, and I'm hardly an expert on it, so um, the one thing I can say with certainty is that they both look amazingly colored to me The skin tone and hair color and everything seems great and neat.

Now to blends. What I think about this one is: great blending, great coloring, good text. My only problem with it is the image placement and the basic composition of the blend. To me, this seems like a very beautiful but slightly overgrown chapter image. The essential thing with blends is that you need create a focal point and mostly its the image or (in rarer cases) the text. This one is designed pretty much on the lines that you'd design a signature or a chapter image. I love the way you've used textures in the background but I think it would all come out better if you place the image better. Maybe center?

What I love about this one is the sheer creativity and the brilliant use of the picture of flowers! Its THE most creative use of that picture I've ever seen! What sets this blend back is the lack of coloring/text/textures/the works. It seems a little empty as of now.

Icons: These are the best icons in your gallery. I like the way the cuts are done and it really seems to come together as a set. The Rock-Paper-Scissors icon is really good too. The other two, though, I feel can be done without. Um, the cuts are ok in both and the coloring doesn't stand out.

Banners: Alright, to begin with, I have to say, banners are clearly your strength. They're all amazingly gorgeous. However I'll be a little nit-picky and point out a few things.
This one can do with better text.
This banner has everything going for it, its best of the lot except the text placement. Its right up one side where it can easily be overlooked. I think lowering it down a little bit would help
This one is good too except this one thing. Um, you'll notice I'm sure, that the guy in the banner is very pasty/pale compared to the girl. This contrast in their complexion is further highlighted by the fact that their faces are right next to each other. Maybe with a little coloring you could get their complexions to match (to a tiny extent) Otherwise its perfectly fine. I'd prefer the text a little up but its ok as it is too.
This one is really, really gorgeous. Hermione's face is a little bigger than Draco's but if you did it intentionally, no problem I love the color, the background, everything
This one is the one banner with absolutely perfect text. My only problem with the banner is the background (which is silvery purple) and the Olsen picture (which is sunkissed golden-ish yellow) dont really go together. I mean maybe a little silvery coloring on Olsen would help

Signatures: The 'Sirius and Liv' signature is beautiful! Again, I'd say a little bit of improvement on the text placement front is required but I'll explain that properly below. Again, I like the blending, background, coloring, image placement in the 'I'd be lost without you' signature. Its bee-yootiful! and my favorite of the lot
The 'I got you' signature is good too except the contrast in the pale complexion of the girl's image and the yellow-brown-red feel of the background.
I LOVE the Hermione signature. In fact the only reason its not my favorite is because I like Heigl better. But otherwise its as gorgeous as a signature can be. The text? Perfect. The coloring? Perfect. The amazing borders? Beauty.

Overall: I'll say you're doing good You're getting along in the chapter images, signatures and banner department amazingly. I'm sure with more practice and experimentation, you'll catch up on the icons and blend fronts too. The key areas where you need to work across all graphics are:

Image Placement: All you need is a little experimentation. Try putting images in the center of the canvas, on the left, upside-down. Try a bigger canvas, believe me, you're ready for it You're a very creative artist, I'm confident you'll come up with something never seen before.

Text Placement: What is also important is to understand how text should be as intrinsic a part of a graphic where you're using it as the image, the background, the coloring. So try to move it up a little bit or maybe experiment with various text styles, make it wavy, topsy turvy, anything The issue with stashing the text in one corner is that a) it's difficult to spot/read and b) it seems more like an intrusion than a component. Since text mostly capture the mood/message of the graphic both the above problems destroy that very purpose.

And this tiny thing about co-ordinating the coloring of the graphic so that the image in front doesn't completely contrast with the images in the background. It's not a problem really, but just something you should look out for

You're going really, really good. You've got your blending down to perfection. Your coloring is amazing. And at the end of the day, your graphics are beautiful. I hope this helps! Good work!

Edit: I just realized the amount of smiley I've used. Its creepy.

Thankyou arushi!!! Very helpful and very much appreciated!!!
p.s - i like the smiley's!

Oh my you have lovely stuff!! I don't even know where to begin! You do wonderful blending and have a great eye for color. I envy people who are good with color and keeping the brightness of it around. !

We are gallery neighbors!!

Beautiful work; I love the softness of your graphics. Keep up the awesome work.

Aw! Thankyou!!!

Aww! Thankyousomuch!
Sam

<sub>Just wanna say that +this and +this pwn! That's some sweet coloring. xD

~rosie</sub>