icon concrit

[jaydesummers]

Well, to be honest, I am a bit discouraged from making icons at the moment. This mainly has a lot to do with entering icontests and I never, EVER place. ;-; It just makes it float about in my head that "haha, your icons suck! hahaha" and well...

What the heck am I doing wrong?Concrit please? D: If you're going to come over to this post and just

Comments

[uprise]

Your text is too SOLID for the pictures. Try various colors, textures, etc. Also, when doing text layers, try changing the layer type. I often use "Overlay" or "Linear Burn".

And when resizing, make sure the image is all one size, first. Don't get something like 150x167 and try to resize it to 100x100 with "constrain proportions". Cut off the extra pixels to 150x150 and then resize to 100x100. It'll make the image fit the icon better. (This goes with all sizes and all graphics. If you want bigger pictures in the icons, crop off the extra pixels to a comfortable point and try resizing. The less there is to smash into the 100x100 or whatever size, the bigger and higher quality the graphic will be.)

Also, remember not all icons need text. You can use the mood of the icon to fit it to the category you want. But, you can still use brushes. Tiny text brushes and such work well, too. Or try randomizing the sizes/fonts but make sure they fit with the icon.

I'm also a big fan of a lot of textures. I have a lot of communities like 100x100_brushes and texturize to look through and find some stuff. More often then not, the artists also put examples or tutorials of how to use them, too.

Try not sticking to one style, try everything you can and mess around until you get something you like. You can also model your work off of other artists until you find your own style. (That's why I do.)

A site I co-webmistress has myself as well as three other artists doing graphics for it. We also have tuts and stuff on the forums as well as common graphic do's and don'ts. You should take a look at it. <33 (mistyicedesigns.com)

And, if you have any questions, need help with anything, suggestions or want me to peek at your stuff and try to help WHILE you're making it, feel free to nag me anytime. I'm always here. <33 Keep trying and finding your own style. <333