[Showcase] Miracle :: M a c h i n e

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Inconsistency can be seen in the quality of your icons. Some icons of yours like the dialga and the other sportsperson based ones are just too bright and have a washed out feel to them. Washed out icons can look good but they ought to have interesting colors - variety, to be precise. But most of those are really monotone. If I had to pick your best icon, it'd be the "colorful bird" (one before the electric gym leader) just due to the amazing colors in it. Your dialga, palkia and giratina ones are good too along with t7nAXIj.png (evening sky). Mostly because they're not monotonous and colors aren't washed out. The latter is especially vivid compared to other works of yours and I really like that. Overall, as far as your icons are concerned, you ought to work on doing away with the monotonous feel. Try to have more interesting colors by messing around with gradient maps and selective colors. The evening sky and vivid bird icons are awesome so try to take that direction. Of course, you're free to do what you want but that's just what I think.

As for the tags, well, those are a good start. I'd recommend viewing some tutorials from the Tutorials & Resources thread stickied at the top of this section. Those will help you, I'm sure. Stay away from scanlines, if possible. They just do more harm than good.

Thanks + Good first post [EDIT it's an alt lol nevermind]

The colorful bird might be more of a product of the stock I used but I'm not sure. I sort of liked the washed out feel but your crit is definitely valid and I'll work to make more colorful stuff going forward. And as for the scanlines I have to say I'm a fan, but I probably wouldn't be using them on any actual tags I make with c4ds, I just sort of threw them on for those banners because I only used brushes, colors, etc.

Well, in either case, the bird-like icon is the way forward, in my opinion. And I'm not saying icons which have washed-out colors don't look good. You can check out Abnegation's art dump and see the 'redemption' icon or the one on its immediate left. Can't really post links right now so yeah. But my point is, if you go for washed out colors, it should mostly be devoid of monotone or have something to compensate for it. Going through your works I can't help but feel that way. But thinking back, honestly, I wonder if the term 'washed out' is appropriate here. I think 'lack of contrast' might be a better word. Whatever, I just hope you get it. Anyway, another tip that I'd just drop here is the text. If I were you, I'd avoid text like the one in the first butterfree and dialga icons. Also the kind in the basketball player no '22's icons. They just do not add to the work, in my opinion. Text looks better in the first and the second icons, though.

As for tags..well, I was a fan of scanlines when I started out. But they quickly became old. If you prefer them I can't really do anything about that. But I really hope you post your non-scanline versions here too if you choose to include them.

Drekavac said:

Well, in either case, the bird-like icon is the way forward, in my opinion. And I'm not saying icons which have washed-out colors don't look good. You can check out Abnegation's art dump and see the 'redemption' icon or the one on its immediate left. Can't really post links right now so yeah. But my point is, if you go for washed out colors, it should mostly be devoid of monotone or have something to compensate for it. Going through your works I can't help but feel that way. But thinking back, honestly, I wonder if the term 'washed out' is appropriate here. I think 'lack of contrast' might be a better word. Whatever, I just hope you get it. Anyway, another tip that I'd just drop here is the text. If I were you, I'd avoid text like the one in the first butterfree and dialga icons. Also the kind in the basketball player no '22's icons. They just do not add to the work, in my opinion. Text looks better in the first and the second icons, though.

As for tags..well, I was a fan of scanlines when I started out. But they quickly became old. If you prefer them I can't really do anything about that. But I really hope you post your non-scanline versions here too if you choose to include them.

Click to expand...

Naaah, about the scanlines I just sort of kept them since the tags were 'simpler'. If I start practicing making tags like the one in your signature I definitely won't use them going forward. Also, do you have any specific tips to give my icons contrast, other than just experimenting; I'm eager to learn any tricks.