It's been a few months since I asked for concrit so I figured it would be nice to go for it again. These are some of my first icons of the year, I'm making them for a battle. I've been working with this surge of inspiration but I'd like to know if I'm on the right track, so fire away :)
#1 - I really like the coloring and the lighting. The text isn't very effective to me but maybe it's my monitor. I can read it but the anti-aliasing looks rough and awkward. I would remove the text altogether or try to find a way to make it smoother. I don't see the point in the blocking. This is a really nice icon though. I just think that the text and blocking take away from the nice coloring and crop.
#2 - I like this. It looks like a painting. I would sharpen regina's features a little bit more because parts of her body look too smudged. I think the coloring is on point. I wouldn't make many changes to this icon. It's lovely.
#3 - It's too sharp. Other than that, no problems at all. Great lighting.
#4 - I like this a lot. I wouldn't change anything about it.
#5 - I think this is too sharp too. Also his neck seems to blend in with his coat(?) so it's sort of awkward. It's the shadows I'm sure.
#1: The point of the blocking was in fact the crop, to get him in the middle of the icon without being too zoomed, otherwise there would be no borders. You're right about the text, it's too sharp, I'll try to fix it.
#5: Good point about the shadows. I'll try to add some light on his neck to mark the difference.
I couldn't sharpen OUaT caps properly to save my life :/ They give me hell and I don't know why. I just find them really hard to icon in general, but the sharpening is the worst part. Thank you very much for taking the time to leave concrit, what you said was really helpful, I appreciate it! :)
I won't say this and that to defend them because I have deliberately chosen the bad or not so good once I've recently made. I wanted to hear what the problem is, sometimes I can't pinpoint it and sometimes ... well, let's not go there ;D As for the quality sometimes I use HQ and over texturaze them or can't get it right (1st one) sometimes not (the usher once) and then I just can't seem to icon them properly...
but anyway (: your comment did make sense ;) and I'll try to keep the points you've given me in mind!
and no you definitely weren't bitchy but helpful so thank you for that!
I think, right now, you've got a very basic style: lots of browns, very light/bright, emphasis on cropping above all else, and very clean. You seem to have a good grasp of quality from what I can tell (because I stalked you a little and had a browse through your icon community), and you mostly deal with celebrity candids and stock. Which means, more or less, your style can go anywhere from here! But only if you are willing to experiment with some new things.
Some fun things to try to flex your coloring wings: I'm thinking, most likely, that you'd gravitate to a more muted coloring style considering what you've started with here. So that's what I'm going to focus on, but if you feel like you'd rather go vibrant, please let me know because I can do the same thing only with vibrant stuff.
And then you and I both thought I was done, but I was sitting here like: "You know, some icon examples/inspiration would have been totally good right then.", and then I thought: "Well, why not go back and do that too!". And you like Supernatural and I like Supernatural and I have a ton of SPN icons saved so...tl;dr Supernatural icon spam to get the creative juices flowing, y/y?
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.
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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#2 - I like this. It looks like a painting. I would sharpen regina's features a little bit more because parts of her body look too smudged. I think the coloring is on point. I wouldn't make many changes to this icon. It's lovely.
#3 - It's too sharp. Other than that, no problems at all. Great lighting.
#4 - I like this a lot. I wouldn't change anything about it.
#5 - I think this is too sharp too. Also his neck seems to blend in with his coat(?) so it's sort of awkward. It's the shadows I'm sure.
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#5: Good point about the shadows. I'll try to add some light on his neck to mark the difference.
I couldn't sharpen OUaT caps properly to save my life :/ They give me hell and I don't know why. I just find them really hard to icon in general, but the sharpening is the worst part. Thank you very much for taking the time to leave concrit, what you said was really helpful, I appreciate it! :)
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I won't say this and that to defend them because I have deliberately chosen the bad or not so good once I've recently made. I wanted to hear what the problem is, sometimes I can't pinpoint it and sometimes ... well, let's not go there ;D As for the quality sometimes I use HQ and over texturaze them or can't get it right (1st one) sometimes not (the usher once) and then I just can't seem to icon them properly...
but anyway (: your comment did make sense ;) and I'll try to keep the points you've given me in mind!
and no you definitely weren't bitchy but helpful so thank you for that!
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
I think, right now, you've got a very basic style: lots of browns, very light/bright, emphasis on cropping above all else, and very clean. You seem to have a good grasp of quality from what I can tell (because I stalked you a little and had a browse through your icon community), and you mostly deal with celebrity candids and stock. Which means, more or less, your style can go anywhere from here! But only if you are willing to experiment with some new things.
Some fun things to try to flex your coloring wings:
I'm thinking, most likely, that you'd gravitate to a more muted coloring style considering what you've started with here. So that's what I'm going to focus on, but if you feel like you'd rather go vibrant, please let me know because I can do the same thing only with vibrant stuff.
This muted coloring guide written by the lovely and talented raiindust is definitely really spot on, and it'll also give you a crash course in some texture work that might be fun for you to explore as well ( ... )
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Can you recommend any good places to find textures? They're not something I've really played around with much.
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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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