Beginner Signature of the Week #1 Voting

[Archaic Devices]

Signature of the Week #1 Voting

Theme: Freestyle


Ok guys, this is how it's gonna work. I know that if I make you guys state your reasons for voting, I'll be lucky to get 3 votes. What I'll do is I'll ask some Illuminated Spirits members if they could post some positive CnC here, so that way the beginners will have an idea on what they need to improve on, what they're doing well, etc. Even if you're not an IS member, please feel free to post some CnC on the entries as well!



Rules and Guidelines for Voting:




1) It's strongly recommended that you post positive feedback along with your poll choice.

2) You are NOT allowed to campaign for any specific entry, nor should you post negative comments on any other entry that you are not voting for. You should vote based upon solely what YOU like, NOT what other people are voting for.

3) NOT FOLLOWING RULE 2 WILL RESULT IN YOUR VOTE BEING DELETED.

4) This contest is designed so entries are to remain anonymous. Any reference to missing deadlines, who entered or did not enter will result in your entry being disqualified, and your post removed. You also risk being removed from further competitions of this nature.


Voting Ends Sunday, September 11th, 2011.










Entry A:




Entry B:




Entry C:




Entry D:




Entry E:

[Hanamaru Kunikida]

Entry A gets my vote because to me, it's seems like it actually a sig has efforts put into it, unlike the others that seem more like a stock pasted in a background plus a few effects.
Well Entry E as well but Entry A is more colorful and attracts more.

[Yukari]

Entry A: I love the colors here. They remind me of the fall season. The only problem I might have is that there seems to be a bright spot right above the right shoulder. Maybe if you lowered the opacity, it wouldn't look so out of place.

Entry B: It looks squished and cluttered. The text isn't in a good place either. Look at some of @Serated 's TOTW. When i was starting out they helped me a lot.

Entry C: There is no blending what so ever. It seems like you just pasted a background then the stock. Car's, for me at least, are not that good as stock. You should try a tut that goes along with your stock to maybe add some blending to your new signatures you plan on making.

Entry D: I don't really understand this one. It seems like you might have tried some blending here. And that green boomerang looking thing should go. No offense. Or maybe find a better place to put it. And the stock blends in way too much with the signature you have to search to find it. I also see no flow within the signature. Look over a few tut's on flow and blending! they help a lot.

Entry E: It was a hard choice between this one and Entry A, but Entry A got my vote because of the colors, though nothing is wrong with your colors besides them being maybe a bit too bright. You blended pretty well for a beginner and it seemed like you put some effort into your signature. Maybe next time, take a black brush and brush over some areas you think might be too bright and fiddle with the opacity.

[Daken.]

Entry A - This is a nice entry, it has a nice style going on for it, but to me the left side is too empty and I think the font would of looked better without that orange stroke. But overall its a good job, espically seeing how the render is a scan.

Entry B - Kind of too small for my taste. Espically since the render takes over most of the picture, and it's hard to pick out what all they did in the signature.

Entry C - It would of been nicer if they had blended the car, it just sticks out because to me it's like they just slapped it on a C4D background. And the text is spread out which it really shouldn't be, and the green outerglow of the text kind of kills it.

Entry D - Nice, but the background seems a little TOO dark in my opinon. And the colors don't really match.

Entry E - I like they went with the vert signature, and I love how the colors match the render. I think it would of looked better without that thing infront of her chest.

For that, I will place my vote for Entry A.

[Xeyuzio]

E is just amazing, it gets my vote:

[Zenister]

Wow, a lot of these don't look very beginner. Nice work, guys!

I voted for E for its superior colors and unique composition.

[blueangel06661]

I placed my vote for A

A: The text placement is nice as well as the color of the text and the stroke all sit nicely in the signature. The over all color scheme was nice and consistant and flowed really well. I personally loved this piece and it was put together nicely. A considerable tip: a black border would look nice.

B: This one is cluttered and small for the look it's trying to achieve. I'm not sure how you saved it but it appears to have lost some quality along the way. A word of advice. Don't ever place text where it was placed in this sig and try to never use that font again. I don't think I've ever seen it successfully compliment any signature. There are just some fonts that work and some that don't. The one used is one of them that does not. Also widen your signature a bit more. But as a personal rule I'll say one nice thing. How you have the lines going over a part of the render and under another is pretty nice. :]

C: Yikes green outerglows! Rarely is there a time where outerglows work. I just avoid them all together unless you "reaaallllllly" understand what you're doing. There is nothing in the foreground to help blend in the car. To acheive better blending try to aim for a background. Middle ground [where the stock is] and a foreground to help blend in the stock AND create some depth depending. The rayburst does no favor either. And for the one nice thing rule. If worked on your font choice was actually pretty nice if the text was places in a more central location :]

D: This entry is nice and it earns third place in my list. However with that said it's over sharpened. It's sharpened to the point that some of the green looks like the dead pixels on my laptop. I'm not a fan of the red text in the top right either. There's only a few fonts/sizes that work as corner text placements and they are typically small and pretty straight and are black or white. Even though I said it was too sharpened I do like the sharpness of the main render. But everything else is a bit too much. :3

E: This entry is number 2 of the list of likes. But it's flow just wasn't there for me. It was really bright and I don't know if I like the green tree bark looking things at the top. Also have of her hair is normal [light pink] and the other half looks burned. That doesn't blend in well with the rest of the lightness of the signature. I do like the concept and it seems like she's just blooming out of nowhere :]

[tiv]

A: I really enjoy the colors and the composition with this one. The woman stands out really well, however, she doesn't seem to match the background. Also, the font could do to be a little bit larger so it's a bit more legible and readable. I love the splashes of green in this one, it adds to the image a lot.

B: I really like the pinks that are in this sig. I think that the main image, Miku, vanishes a bit in the background however. It would be nice if she was more saturated or the background was faded out more so that she would pop out better. Also, the text doesn't stand out too well and the font looks a little 'clumsy'. I think perhaps a san serif font, like Helvetica or Verdana, may work better. The color of it should be reconsidered as well so it pops out better.

C: This one may need to be sized down a little. To me this is a bit too large for a signature. Green and black do go well together, but I think that perhaps the text should have been green and glows shouldn't have been added. Shadowing under the car may help to bring it out better instead of it looking like it's sort of pasted on and the large spot of white that's on the right is a little distracting; maybe toning it down would help.

D: I like the image used, however maybe placing it more to the right or the left would make it stand out better. When the image is placed right in the middle, it tends to mess with the viewer. Also, the background looks overly saturated. Perhaps toning it down would be a good idea, this would help the main image pop out more. Maybe another color should be considered for the font in this one as well. I think that perhaps a lighter color, maybe the pinkish tone of the character's hair, would help it stand out more.

E: Though vertical fonts aren't for me, I do enjoy the color scheme of this one. However, it feels a little cluttered to me. It's got a lot going on around the image especially under her, to the left of her and to the upper right. Perhaps removing one of these portions would help. The text near the character's head may have stood out better if it was the same color as the red of the character's hair, or a different color. The two pinks match very closely and the background one seems to swallow the text color. The text along the bottom looks nice and is easily readable.

Hopefully these critiques help. Good luck everyone.^_^

[Ezza Obsuna]

Entry A: This is second for me. It's nice but It's a little bit too orangey for my taste. But then, that's the theme. I just don't like orange. But I love that is has some space at the left side so that it doesn't look ckuttered.

Entry B: This one look a little blurry. It's a little too small for me. The height is actually just fine. It's the width that gets to me. I think it's too small for what you are trying to convey. Anyway, just size problems and something with the text and it'll look OK. This is my second choice because I like the render you used.

Entry C: It looks like you just pasted you're render on a C4D. No blending of any sort. Also i don't like the 'alieny' font outerglow. Another thing, there's some sort of light under the car. It would have looked better if it wasn't there.

Entry D: It's too dark and there's no flow. There's also that triangle thingy on the left side. The render would have been better in a cowboy theme, with sandy texture and etc.

Entry E: It is a little too bright. I love the pink, white, violet color combination. It would have been better without the C4D at topmost part. This gets my vote.

[Acnologia]

I vote for D

ITS CROSS OMG
I like how they didn't seem to use downloadable resources but just used the stock itself, my complain is just that it's a bit sharp