Shadow's How To Critique

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This thread is specifically for Shadow Designs-inspired art, or other graphics art works, such as signatures. Since many designers use this board to display their work for Critique, I found this excellent piece of information that would be valuable to many members. Just read below its simples!

Do you need opinions on a piece of art? Do you need feedback on a piece really badly to improve? We have no official staff, members or rules, because we feel that you don't need to be qualified to specifilized in art making to give an honest opinion about a piece of art.

About CnC (Critique and Comments)

Posting your Work:

No matter what size your artwork or graphics are (large or small), this is place to do it. The members here will give you the most brutally honest constructive criticism you can find, although most of them will try to help you improve. Admit it, designers and artists love sharing information with one another. We love seeing each other improve.

Giving C&C:

The main goal behind all of this is to comment on a piece of graphic or artwork that a fellow member has posted. This is not some flame fest, you give them the best constructive criticism you can or don't do it at all! If you don't know how to give people good quality insight on their work then don't even step in here! Members spotted posting simple/crude statements like: "You suck", "your tag sucks", "stop using Photoshop" will be banned immediately from the thread, and will be warned.

Rules

• Keep the thread generally on-topic. Friendly chatter that is semi-related to the signature is okay, try to give as much constructive criticism as you can.
  
• If you see a member spamming or going off-topic, simply ignore them.
  
• Follow the instructions listed above.
  
• Follow the rest of the Showdow Designs Forum Rules.
  

What to Look for In Graphics

Want to give a critique, but don't know how? Here is a brief "tutorial" on what to look for in a signature/tag/gfx or any other piece of graphic art.

Credit to SignatureResrource.

• Render-Stock Choice
  
• Focal
  
• Lighting
  
• Depth or Field of Vision
  
• Color Choices (Compliment Colors)
  
• Effects
  
• Flow (Movement of your eyes)
  
• Contrast
  
• Blending
  

We will go over the basics of what these mean and how to achieve them and come out with a good piece

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#1 Render/Stock Choice

Render choice is one of the beginning pieces of designing but be one of the most difficult if you do not know or understand how to do this. You want to choose a render that has action going on but is not spread out really far. A tight compact render that has action in it is the best choice render. As we will discuss later the render should have some type of flow to it. Colors also help with render choice. Make sure if you're doing a colorful piece that the colors will match and compliment one another, if they don't than you're piece will be of a lesser quality.

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#2 Focal

The focal is another tough concept to grasp. The focal by definition is the area on the piece of artwork that your eyes are pulled towards; namely your render. Keep in mind that on a piece of artwork your eyes are drawn towards the sharpest and brightest part on the piece. Giant white spots will draw your eyes away from the focal. One way of avoiding this is to slightly blur what is not your focal. Another way is to sharpen your focal with the sharpen tool (looks like a cone), again use in moderation because you can over contrast your signature and cause it to become pixelated. A combination of the two methods works well. Another way is to use your burn tool (looks like a hand) and slightly burn the background which will make the background darker causing your focal to 'pop out'.

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#3 Lighting

Lighting is extremely tough at first but can be made VERY simple with a little attention to detail. In real lift all objects cast shadows depending upon where light may hit them. The side that the light hits is brighter than that side that light is opposing. Therefore when looking at your render you should be able to tell what direction the light is coming from. Top left lighting will cause a shadow to fall bottom right; top right lighting will have a bottom left shadow; bottom left light will cause a top right shadow; and bottom right shadow will cause a top left shadow. Now not only are we looking at direction we need to look at the intensity of the light. If the light source is close the light is strong, if it's far away light source is weaker. Use 200px soft edge brush to add a light source in your piece BEFORE you do effects as this will cause the light to look more realistic and have a better outcome on the final product.

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#4 Depth or Field of Vision

Depth or Field of Vision is another one that is extremely hard to get the grasp of. The trick with this is to take your 2D image and give it a sense of 3D with distance and lighting. With this you have three fields of view: 1). Foreground, 2). Mid ground, and 3). Background. Now your focal can be in any one of these fields but remember that if you focal in on an object the objects around it become blurred to different intensities depending on how far away they are from the focal. A basic idea is shown HERE. Another way of helping to build upon this idea is the burn tool again. Making 'deeper' or 'further away' objects darker gives a sense of depth to a piece.

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#5 Color Choices (Compliment Colors)

Color Choices (Compliment Colors) is a rather easy concept to grasp and understand. Some signatures just look bad because the colors they use are just dull and don't 'pop' when you look at them. This is because they don't compliment each other. From choosing a render to use all the way to the finished product colors can make or break your piece. Chose them wisely and click HERE for a color wheel to see compliment colors (remember to use opposing colors I.E. Violet and Orange).

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#6 Effects

Effects can also make or break a piece. Lack of them can cause a piece to feel plain and dull while too many can cause a piece to see overcrowded and too busy. Effects can range from smudging to clipping masks to blending options. We recommend using a few methods such as C4D's (Cinema 4D renders), filters, lighting effects, clipping masks, ect. Again there are tutorials all over SA for these types of things.

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#7 Flow (Movement of your eyes)

Flow (Movement of your eyes) is a part of the piece that is essential. You want your eyes, or someone else's, to move from one part of the signature to another. Render choice helps with this as I said earlier and effects, lighting, and depth can all help your flow. You want to use these to make the eyes move from the darker spots to the lighter spots and follow the effects to the focal.

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#8 Contrast

Contrast can make or break a signature in a heartbeat. Too little contrast can make your signature look dull, too much can make it look just overdone. If your effects start to become pixelated and bright white then your contrast is too high. If your eyes jump all over the signature or piece than your contrast is too high. Watch out messing with contrasts as it can cause your image to become pixelated.

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#9 Blending

Last but certainly not least is Blending. Looking at an image you can see when a focal has not been blended into look like it belongs in the background. Sitting on top of the background is not something you want. You want it to be blended in so it looks like it's actually part of the piece. You can do this a few ways. The first is simple with a pretty novice outcome but it works is to feather your render around the edges. Another would be to use two render layers and smudge one and soft edge erase parts of the top render layer to blend it in better. And just for good measure another would be to use the effects, such as ripple, ocean ripple, and clipping masks to overlap the render SLIGHTLY to blend it into the background.