I'm in a tired and cheerful mood today so I'll rate starting from.... let's see the lucky winner is... GUMMY
Gummy:Hmmm.... not bad, not bad, good job. I can tell the background is brushed based, you could have used a bit more color though. What's that effect called? Uh... is it... a smudge? I dunno, I'm not a Dephist so I have no idea. If it were me, I would use that effect on the sides and not on the bottom? Just a suggestion. Uh the lighting effects could be better instead of the sparkly thingies. I would replace them with lighting effects like using a large 100px brush, putting it over a layer and overlay it. The text is a little hard to read and I have no idea what it saids, well, maybe I can't read cursive so I don't know. XD; But uh, maybe make the text a little brighter?
Animadversion:Yaaay it's Esther! Ahem, anyways, the lighting effects are good, the brush usage is good too. I would like for Esther to stand out a little more than make her dark-y. Um well... gee I don't know what else to say except to make her stand out more. Good job, I love it. ^^
Perfectionist:Mhm, hmm.... I would say too much brushes, use more textures. Play around with the render like unsaturate it (Are you in my class? Cause I don't remember XD; ). Just like add more effects to it, it looks too simple. ><;;;
DannyPhantom: I believe you did clipping mask? Meh it's not bad for the clipping mask feature but I would like to see more effects. I mean it's just.... Like using paint. Copying, pasting a sprite. You know what I mean? I would like to see more effects like make the text glow or playing around with the images. I can't really say much because I feel like I am wrong. ><
Haine Togu:I kinda like the first one more because the grungy mic looks better with the grungy background-atmosphere. Is the music notes a brush? If so, that's a brush I want to bad!!!! DDDDx
Um anyways, I would suggest to make the banner better is to do lighting effects and maybe put a texture over it? It's good it's very good. But the text at the bottom kinda bothers me.... But it's good overall, but could be better. ^^;
Motsuko Live: I'll rate the second one, the colors are good, they stand out pretty well. The text is pretty well done too. But the background needs to go, needs match the colors around it? DDDx
I don't know what else to say, but it's very good.
Embrace: I see you just started? Well.. all I can say keep on practicing and you'll get better! ^^
Ionic: Nice lighting effects! And good brush usage too. I really like the colors in the background but the text.... hmm I would say lower the opacity to make it look better? It's a great banner, keep it up ^^
Now Kisa will go to bed. D: