Okay, I am very much a beginner here, but I figured I'd post these and ask for some concrit. For the first three, this is really my first time trying to use a fake background, so it's entirely possible that I messed up something very simple. Also, in case it's relevant, I use GIMP.
Hi! Hopefully something in the following spiel can be of use to you!
From these examples, I think it is safe to say that you are doing really well for a beginner! You look like you are leaning toward and bright but natural coloring style which is lovely, and you are obviously interested in trying new things with compositions.
As far as your first three + the use of fake backgrounds go, you've done fairly well. Your cut outs, for the most part, are well done. In the second icon, the arm that is most clearly visible could have used a little touching up because the pixels where you've blurred and/or smudged your cut out line are visible. Other than that, the cut outs are very clean which is amazing. You've also chosen interesting and diverse backgrounds. The one behind Lydia in the third icon is a little busy, but otherwise, I don't see any issues with your choices.
If you want to take icons like these to the next level, I wold recommend continuing to play around and edit after you've got your subject on its new background. Adding brushes and additional textures over top both subject and background will help integrate the two better, and your final icon will have that extra spark and polish. To help illustrate what I mean, I've taken the liberty of grabbing an of icon yours and throwing it into my own image editing program.
+ & =
first texture made by pamkips and the second was made by raiindust
Here, adding the additional texture gave the icon depth, light, and shade which adds a dynamic effect. Now the icon pops a little more. It also makes the divide between the new background and the cut out subject smoother because they share more things in common: texture, coloring, light sources, etc. The textures add used the 'screen' layer mode (Which I believe is available in gimp? In your layer palette, there should be a drop down menu that says 'mode'. It automatically has 'normal' selected, but you can change that.) and an opacity (the slider on your layer palette that says 100%) other than 100%. Layer modes are definitely something you should play around with when it comes to texture work and coloring.
One last note about the first three: in the second icon, there is a distorted quality to the image which leads me to believe that you've re-sized or stretched it without regard for the aspect ratio. When you re-size, you should always make sure you've got a little chain connecting your width and your height so that the proportions stay constrained. It looks like the example in this brief tutorial. This will maintain your image quality.
And at this point, I think I'll finish up with just a note on your sharpening. In particular, this refers to the final two icons where the sharpening and skin smoothing is especially noticeable. In both cases, I think the icons would have benefited from lower capacities on the sharpened and blurred layers so that the effect seemed more natural. This will also reduce the pixellation caused by over sharpening which is easiest to see on the hair and the edges of her face in both icons.
But as I've said, you definitely have a great foundation to start building on as a maker. I can't wait to see your progress! :D
Thanks for the concrit! I think the problem with the second one is that I took the screencap myself, and my screencap software must have distorted the picture. Either that or the camera angle there was just weird.
Can you recommend any good places to find textures? They're not something I've really played around with much.
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From these examples, I think it is safe to say that you are doing really well for a beginner! You look like you are leaning toward and bright but natural coloring style which is lovely, and you are obviously interested in trying new things with compositions.
As far as your first three + the use of fake backgrounds go, you've done fairly well. Your cut outs, for the most part, are well done. In the second icon, the arm that is most clearly visible could have used a little touching up because the pixels where you've blurred and/or smudged your cut out line are visible. Other than that, the cut outs are very clean which is amazing. You've also chosen interesting and diverse backgrounds. The one behind Lydia in the third icon is a little busy, but otherwise, I don't see any issues with your choices.
If you want to take icons like these to the next level, I wold recommend continuing to play around and edit after you've got your subject on its new background. Adding brushes and additional textures over top both subject and background will help integrate the two better, and your final icon will have that extra spark and polish. To help illustrate what I mean, I've taken the liberty of grabbing an of icon yours and throwing it into my own image editing program.
+
&
=
first texture made by pamkips and the second was made by raiindust
Here, adding the additional texture gave the icon depth, light, and shade which adds a dynamic effect. Now the icon pops a little more. It also makes the divide between the new background and the cut out subject smoother because they share more things in common: texture, coloring, light sources, etc. The textures add used the 'screen' layer mode (Which I believe is available in gimp? In your layer palette, there should be a drop down menu that says 'mode'. It automatically has 'normal' selected, but you can change that.) and an opacity (the slider on your layer palette that says 100%) other than 100%. Layer modes are definitely something you should play around with when it comes to texture work and coloring.
One last note about the first three: in the second icon, there is a distorted quality to the image which leads me to believe that you've re-sized or stretched it without regard for the aspect ratio. When you re-size, you should always make sure you've got a little chain connecting your width and your height so that the proportions stay constrained. It looks like the example in this brief tutorial. This will maintain your image quality.
And at this point, I think I'll finish up with just a note on your sharpening. In particular, this refers to the final two icons where the sharpening and skin smoothing is especially noticeable. In both cases, I think the icons would have benefited from lower capacities on the sharpened and blurred layers so that the effect seemed more natural. This will also reduce the pixellation caused by over sharpening which is easiest to see on the hair and the edges of her face in both icons.
But as I've said, you definitely have a great foundation to start building on as a maker. I can't wait to see your progress! :D
Reply
Can you recommend any good places to find textures? They're not something I've really played around with much.
Reply
Try these places:
The Wonderous Stuff resource tag
Icon Maker Appreciation Month's Resource Recommendations -- Very image heavy!
Magic Machine's texture battle
Composition guide with tons of texture recommendations at the top by raiindust
contextures
texturize
icon_textures
& personally I would recommend tinebrella, mm3butterfly, rebel, and lookslikerain as texture makers because I use their stuff quite a bit.
Hope that helps!
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