Criticize your own signature

[Mitsuki]

Constructive criticisms, at that.

I'm sure the majority of us have looked back at our own tag from the past and thought that we could have applied something different to make the piece more preferable. Often times we'll showcase our tags and receive CnC from our fellow GFX artists, and although some of them raise a valid point, there are also times that we'll disagree because we created the piece so we know the kind of style we want. And not everyone will agree to a certain style. So here's a thread for us to actually do that: give constructive criticisms to our own work and say it how it really is. As they say, you are your own best critic, so this will give us a chance to really be honest with our production and analyze the tag as a whole, without the fear of being overly too harsh or judgmental of other's work.

Do make sure you point out both pros and cons; if applicable. And please do not give input on other's work (as they will be deleted). This thread is strictly for artists to show they CnC skills toward their own.

I'll start this off.

Onion Knight tag. One of my favorite work, but there are also a few flaws in my eyes. First, I'll state the reason why I'm proud of this tag. There are only a few people who've noticed that Kefka is in the background. I've tried to manipulate and really blend this with the main look as possibly as I could. Reasons? I guess for perception-related reasons, and maybe show a bit of 'clever' skills on my part. When I do work, I also would like the viewers to see exactly what I was trying to accomplish behind-the-scenes. Whether I was successful or not, depends on the viewer.

Now, I wish I could have taken out that 'Kefka' text behind 'Onion Knight'. Looking at it again, it seems so out of place and sorta throws that area off. Along with that, I thought the overall look seems a tad bit messy. Admittedly I was kind of going for that style in order to piece the whole 'clever perception' theme together, but something went wrong along the way. Maybe it's the tiny red speckles here and there that I am noticing, along with the dark speckled-ones thrown in on the mix. It's something minor, really, but when I start to really study it, I can't help but feel that either the work was incorporated in an untidy manner or it was too overdone. But all in all, like I stated earlier, it is still one of my favorite work.

 

[Big Casino]

This is a brilliant thread. I think ive been looking for soemthing like this for a while. I think wer all our own best critics.

Il start with this tag as my first. One that im happy with.
This is definately one of my favourite signatures ive ever made. Right from the start i knew how i was gunna approach it and had the idea in my head. I find when i have an idea of what im gunna do my tags come together much better. Most time i open an image and im thinking .....rite what do i do first.

I think what im proud of the most is the colours and how they all come together really well, they dont clash, theres just enough 'space' between the green and yellow, the oranges give it vibrance but dont overpower it. Im very fond of the positioning and depth also. The flowers at the front give good foreground while the orange ones at the back have that distant look just adding a slight amount of depth. I never intended for this tag to be really deep and 3d as i wanted it to almost look flat and vectored. But not to a point where all you think is...flat.

What im not fond of first and foremost is the text. At the time i really liked it and i had a case of. 'hurry get the sig finished itis' Looking at it now though i think its somewhat plain. I think adding a gradient over the text might be better. Give it some nice yellows and oranges so it blends in with the surrounding a little, but not too much so that its hidden. ALTHOUGH i think hiding the text and making it part of the jungle would be fantastic, im just not sure how id do it.

Next id try and sort the lighting. This really bums me out when i look at the tag. The lighting doesnt have any sparkle and that flare i like to see. Your work mits has the va va voom lighting that always has me staring. Adding some spotlight filters and gradient maps would help me get the striking lighting that i like....or maybe you could give me some tips

Id lower the topaz clean filter aswell. I do like the almost semi vector look it gives it but, i wouldnt mind trying and approaching it realistically.

So its defiantely imo a great signature This is one of those tags i dont care what anyone else thinks of as i love it.
Im quite inspired actually to go and try and switch it up now.

 

[Kim Taehyung]

This is one that I'm really proud of. I actually got a message on DeviantArt from another user saying this is one of the best GFX pieces they've ever seen. This one I made completely form scratch. I knew I wanted to do something with this line from Big Casino, so I tried to find a stock image to work with at first. After many failed attempts, I just couldn't get it to work with a stock, so I made it a solo text piece. The clouds are done by hand with a cloud brush set I picked up long ago. The background is done with a Yellow to transparent gradiant set to radial, double layered, with the top layer being set to lighten. This is the part of the sig that I love the most.

What I feel I really could've worked on more was blending in the fractal right behind the image. I knew I was trying to go for a light flare effect from the "sun" behind the clouds, but that was just about as close as I could get it to work. The text, also. I played around with various colors, but a lot didn't want to show up. xD that was a very hard process, working the text in. After all, the text is the focal point of the piece, in this case. The clouds, of course, were my favorite part. They were relatively no trouble to place, and I love the way they look.

Overall, I'd give myself an 8/10, because this had quite a bit of effort put into it, and I'm generally pleased with the turnout.

And you're welcome, Lew.

 

[Six]

My turn! This is actually really hard... *Searches through old signatures 'cause she hasn't really been productive lately.* Aha!

Here goes...

I was really proud when I finished this signature. It seems and feels a little empty now that I look back on it, but it's one of the few signatures that actually have over 15 layers for me. So all in all, it evened out and I was glad I decided to finish it. I had several goes with the colours, and the text, and I wasn't pleased with anything.

I'm glad this is how it turned out. I thought I captured the lightning decently (for once!) and the shadowing near the top left was something I was proud of too, it was hard not to make everything slapped on to a dark background, and I really hope it doesn't eye like that either. The clouded background I made myself, which... only took ten minutes tops. The fractal I used, rotated, and I changed the colour. Thank god I was listening to Paramore's Brick by Boring Brick, and the orange/butterfly feel that the clip had really inspired me to finish this tag.

The text was supposed to look slapped on, I knew when I was starting that I had no idea how to blend it in, while I wanted it to stand out, so I think I did well on that. Even though I'm not the best with text, it's not my weakness either, so that made it a bit easier. I actually did the text last on this signature, which is something I never do. The butterfly was a render, and I'm quite pleased with the blurring job.

I think I could've made the white glitters looked slapped on, and maybe I could've resized the canvas a bit more so it wouldn't look so empty, which it kinda does to me right now. Oh well though, still proud of it.

 

[Warbsywoo]

This one took a while to set up. Since the theme was pink, I didn't even hesitate in thinking that a stuffed animal would be perfect for it. As it turned out the only stuffed animal I had in the house was this monkey that was hanging over my bedroom window. Hadn't even touched it in years. So I was really happy that he won me an SoTW.

Carved a heart out of brown cardboard, split it in half, then set it right next to a vase of roses. Then that's it for the composition. I suppose the lighting could have been better, maybe a darker feel would have been nice to make it more dramatic, but I actually really like it in the state it's in. It makes it feel so nice, soft, and mellow. I wasn't going for an overly cluttered appearance, so I guess I should commend myself from not trying to clutter it up with needless effects.

One thing I would change though is the lens flare. I'd have liked to do some other lighting effects, but I couldn't find the right brushes. That lens flare just looks so out of place.

 

[Sir Fratley]

This is the one I am currently using that I made with Adobe Photoshop

And this is how it looked before I made the last alteration with Adobe Photoshop

I took a picture I found on the net and did some rather tricky bit of erasing the background, because the auto select wand kept highlighting parts of Freya (mostly parts of her tail), so I had to use the eraser and zoom tools to clean up around the areas so the magic wand tool wouldn't keep trying to destroy her tail and spear. Afterwords I was able to take the Freya pic and put it on a cloud signature and wrote in one of her most memorable quotes from the end game. That was my first attempt. Then, I decided to play around with some of the brush stroke effects, and the ink outlines gave me the picture that I am currently using. It certainly brings out the face more while the previous incarnation, the face seems to blend in with the clouds. All in all, it is one of my best so far. And since it's Freya, it has to be good (Foldger's House coffee pun).