★ // Sophisticated Idioms

alisaie · Jul 2, 2011

★ // Sophisticated Idioms

gallery of graphics made by BinaryPeaches

Introduction

Hi guys! This is BinaryPeaches, and after a good moment of thinking, I decided that perhaps it would be a good idea to make a gallery. I've been doing graphics for oh... a good twoish years now, though I still have a lot to learn. My strengths are more in iconning, so do expect to see more icons than tags here. There will be some tags here as well, but I'm not nearly as great at them than how I am at tags, so anything to help me improve (on both icons and tags) will help immensely. For the most part I use Photoshop CS2, and some of these icons might be older than others. Most of them have been made within the past 1-3 months though. Again I would very much appreciate comments and constructive criticism. Thanks!

If you'd like, you may use any of the graphics here with my permission, and only if you credit it somewhere. Graphics will be organized by type, and then by alphabetical order by fandom, with other at the bottom. New Graphics are under the first spoiler.

New Graphics

Spoiler:

Avatars/Icons (100x100)

Spoiler:

Avatars/Icons (150x150)

Spoiler:

Signatures/Tags

Spoiler:

Miss Doronjo · Jul 2, 2011

You know that I've always adored your 150 x 150 avatar. <3 The 100 x 100 icons aren't too bad eaither; I love the ToA ones. <3

As for the Signatures and Tags, they're pretty cool;; the only thing I would say...to just try more styles. See which ones your more fond of. ALso, someone suggested me, which I'm going to suggest to you, to maybe try and letting the focal "stick out more. i.e blurring the background a tad, while sharpening the focal.

Other than that, not bad!
/I'm not good at critiquing, but yeah. :3

Sydian · Jul 3, 2011

I LOVE ALL THE GUY ICONS AND I'M SAVING THEM FOR MY COLLECTION XOXO. I have nothing else better to say except that though. it's like 4 am and yeah haha.

Mew~ · Jul 3, 2011

I'm not amazing at criticism, but I guess but the only thing I don't like about your work is how much you sharpen your images, I just don't think it gives them that smooth feel. But I could understand if they were blurry or whatever. xD

/Love the Shaman King stuff btw.

alisaie · Jul 4, 2011

@Derk: Thanks! :D I have more 150x150 but I didn't upload them for various reason. xD I'll do my best to show more of them in the future though! <3

@Shawn: Because of how I work with graphics (no tuts, blah blah) I tend to stick with one thing until I somehow end up making another style to work with me. I'll will indeed try out some of the things that you suggested/others have suggested to you though. n_n

@Syd: You are welcome, Syd! I'll try to make more Guy icons in the future y/y?

@Mew: Thanks! I's funny, because I've actually been told in the past that sharpening is a good thing. However, I will agree with you somewhat, since in some of my icons (last Hao one) it looks a little bit too sharpened. I'll try to tone it down a little, but it bothers me when something is a tad bit too blurry in my eyes (your avatar for example).

Anyways, here's a batch of Criminal Mind icons and some 150x150s. I fail so hard at real life icons compared to animated/fanart so C&C will be lovely for the Criminal Minds ones.

Criminal Minds (100x100)

150x150

Miss Doronjo · Jul 4, 2011

Your icons are once again gorgeous~ :3

I WANNA USE THAT GENIS AVATAR SOMETIME! =O
/if its alright. :3

alisaie · Jul 4, 2011

'Course! I'm quite fond of that one myself, particularly due to the fact that I messed with depth a little bit on it. I'll definitely be trying to do more depth like things in the future with some icons.

alisaie · Jul 15, 2011

Le de la new stuff. Everything but one icon is Shaman King.

100x100

150x150

Tag

alisaie · Aug 10, 2011

Haven't seen done much since (I don't do much when I'm not constantly changing themes, I guess). Tossing up these banners though:

Oh, there are also the two themes I made for the Theme contest for the GT8. I'll just drop them here as well.

Swan Theme:

Jirachi Theme:

Both won first place. yup.

derozio · Aug 13, 2011

I've always been a fan of your icons, Tara. I bet you already know that! XD; Loving your Mithos icons and some of the ones you've colored. This one, especially, is one of my faves. Some of the icons you made for the Criminal Minds set are also pretty darn awesome. So yeah, as far as icons go, I have no complains. Just try not to force text in them, though. This one. Seems like the text is forced. Remember, text isn't a necessity for icons. They're only placed to fill space. Although it seems like this is the only icon where you went wrong with text, so its all good. :P

Now, coming to tags (the only kind of graphic pieces I'm decent at lol)..hmm, I think you need to put a little more effort into your works. For now, in most of your works, I can see that you've been relying on brushes too much. Try to keep the usage of brushes at bay. Go for textures and c4ds. They're a much better alternative. And yeah, look up some tutorials if you haven't. There are some good ones at signaturestop. ;)

I do understand the fact that tags aren't really the kind of pieces you specialize in, but it doesn't mean you can't put some effort into it and try to excel into it, yeah? I'm sure you'll improve a lot. Just a little effort is required. :)

So yeah, some nice works here. Icons, in particular. I'll be looking forward to your updates.

alisaie · Aug 13, 2011

Derozio said:
I've always been a fan of your icons, Tara. I bet you already know that! XD; Loving your Mithos icons and some of the ones you've colored. This one, especially, is one of my faves. Some of the icons you made for the Criminal Minds set are also pretty darn awesome. So yeah, as far as icons go, I have no complains. Just try not to force text in them, though. This one. Seems like the text is forced. Remember, text isn't a necessity for icons. They're only placed to fill space. Although it seems like this is the only icon where you went wrong with text, so its all good. :P

Yeah, you can see that I don't use text often, and that's basically the reason why. xD Funny thing is the fact that I like the icon, and thought the corner was too empty without the "Legendary". Idk anymore. :P

Now, coming to tags (the only kind of graphic pieces I'm decent at lol)..hmm, I think you need to put a little more effort into your works. For now, in most of your works, I can see that you've been relying on brushes too much. Try to keep the usage of brushes at bay. Go for textures and c4ds. They're a much better alternative. And yeah, look up some tutorials if you haven't. There are some good ones at signaturestop. ;)

heeeeere's the funny thing. The six banners that are at the top do have CD4s in them. ;^^ If I remember, the tag with Colette (blonde girl)'s only brush is the stars, as well as Lloyds. The First one (Green haired and pink haired) doesn't have any brushes, and I don't quite remember the others. out of those six, the last one has the most Brushes. Maybe I used the CD4s so they look like brushes? The last two that I posted (as well as the Jirachi) have more brushes, and the pink one I messed around with textures a little.

I think my problem is that I can't have too much going on, or else it'll look bad. Simpler is better has always been a motto to me when it comes to graphics. ;^^ ~~Aka I have been putting in effort last one (not the jirachi one) took a few hours to make~~. ;;

On a side note I can't follow tutorials to save my life. Everything is trial and error for me, so while it may not look like effort is put into them, they all have taken a while to be made (I think the quickest one made out of the bunch was the Lloyd one).

Thanks for the comments. :) I'll try to make it so it looks like there is effort put into the tags, but i'm not kidding when I do say that I do spend a while on said tags. The Princess Hao one is actually version 2. First one was much lighter so I didn't like it.

derozio · Aug 14, 2011

Yeah, you can see that I don't use text often, and that's basically the reason why. xD Funny thing is the fact that I like the icon, and thought the corner was too empty without the "Legendary". Idk anymore. :P

Well, you could've done something else to fill space. Idk what though. XD; /proved that he is a n00b at icons
But yeah, 'Legendary' definitely doesn't fit there. :C

Hmm, I see. Well, what do you usually do with the c4ds in your works? What kind of blending option do you use on them? Sometimes, it is better to leave the c4d as it is without using any kind of blending option like 'soft light', 'lighten', etc on 'em. Keep them as they are, position them in a place where they might look good and erase some parts of the c4d using a layer mask if necessary. I do that in, like, every single work of mine. (But that's not saying I completely neglect the blending options :P)

And yeah, when I said 'look up some tutorials', I never meant to say that you're supposed to follow those tutorials word by word. I mean, I, myself, have yet to make a tag where I followed a tut from start till the end. I'm a guy who always relies on trial and error too. ;) Sometimes, just looking at the tutorials and getting to know new techniques helps. I mean, I wouldn't have known a lot of things I know now if it weren't for my habit of going through tuts. I never follow them, but I always go through any good ones I can find. Trust me, it helps.

And lol Tara, I kinda follow that motto too. I mean, I used to. XD; I always used to make very simple tags at the beginning. But some people urged me to go for different styles instead of the one I used to have at the beginning. Most of my tags which I made earlier were very simple, if you remember 'em. Mostly consisting of 3-4 c4ds at the most. Not saying simplicity is bad. Some simple tags actually look fantastic. But yeah, that is when they don't lack in aspects like lighting, depth and stuff. Sadly, a lot of your tags appear flat. They lack good lighting and blending. You ought to work on fixing those issues.

alisaie · Aug 14, 2011

I think it does, and I've been told by others that the text is fine. ;^^ Guess what appeals to some doesn't appeal to others.

I'll try the whole depth thing, but it's going to take a while for me to get it right, mainly because my eyes are sensitive to things that are blurry (probably why some of my icons tend to be sharper than they should). I'm going to be keeping with my simplicity because people do like it (while it looks like you don't like 'em all too much. ;^^) and improve on that in specific. I'll try different styles as well, but I don't want to become like other graphics artists here. So overall, I'm going to make my own 'style' and just continue to improve on it.

derozio · Aug 14, 2011

I don't really have a problem with you keeping the simplicity in your tags. The main problem in your tags isn't your style, it is the fact that they're flat. Once you work on depth, I'm sure the results will turn out great. Like I said, simple tags turn out great too. Only if they have everything like good flow, good depth, good lighting etc.

And nice outlook you have there, Tara. Every graphic artist should try to develop his/her own style and not copy anybody else. That's the right way to go. ~~I never said you should just abandon your style, did I? :o~~

As for your tags, I never said I don't like anything from 'em. I do like the colors. :)

moments. · Aug 14, 2011

I can see the C4Ds in the first 6 tags, and just to further Dero's point, for the effect you've got, not the main effects, but still visible, it never works to leave it on Normal and reduce the opacity. You can put it on Screen/Linear Dodge (or the other ones from that section) but if you keep it on normal, never reduce the opacity. It just looks messy because it doesn't stand out enough, but it is never hidden.

Again, just noting on something Dero said about your tags looking flat, you actually don't need to add blur to the background or anything. Your tags are very simple in colour, like you seem to only use a few solid colours, and no shades or hues. This makes it look flat because it gets rid of a sort of 3D aspect of the piece. I think brushes are limited in this aspect because unless you get the really good ones with shading built in, it is hard to get a good varied colour palette without crowding everything.

Which leads me to say that a lot of your work is a bit messy, and it just doesn't feel like you're nailing flow in a lot of your tags. I guess you also make it a little harder for yourself by choosing fairly static renders without much obvious movement, and then they are nearly always placed in the very centre. As a rule, and if you know of the rule of thirds (google it up), you will know that if you divide the canvas into 9 equal blocks, the hot spots are just off the centre of each axis. If you move the render a bit to either side, you will see it just fits a lot nicer, and that in turn will help you get flow going as well.

colettetag2.png
Either way, this is by far your best piece. The stars I'm a little iffy on, but it feels the best because of some of the things I mentioned before. There are a wider range of colours and hues which makes it feel deeper, the stock isn't right in the middle, and you've got a few different colours (yellow/black/blue) instead of just one or two.

You've got the basics well and truly down, but I think you're limiting yourself a little bit by using all brushes and very few C4Ds. If you can try and incorporate C4Ds into your work as a primary source of effects, you will find a lot more success I believe.
I know you said you want to establish your own style, and C4Ds are definitely done to death, but if you want to move forwards and be more original, you have to start with things that have done before. I like to think my style is pretty different to people here at PC, but back when I was less experienced, I did all the generic stuff. Brushes, C4Ds, fractals, vector, I literally did it all. But if you get better at other styles, you ultimately take elements of those and forge your own. You can't just make your own style up, you need to borrow from other styles, and how you reflect other works ultimately will be your style.

I'm not trying to force you to go down any particular road or telling you not to make your own style, but you need to experiment with everything else out there and get grips with the different techniques involved in different styles, even if you don't necessarily like them.

But yeah, keep up the good work, and you've definitely got the potential to improve a whole lot!

alisaie · Sep 6, 2011

As you know, I thank you for your comments, even though I didn't say so here, moments. <3 I hope that I managed to put some of your crits into this next tag, but then again I probably did a horrible job at doing so. xD But that's for you to judge if you so wish. :3;

aaaand two icons. haven't really done much when it comes to graphics lately. ;;

moments. · Sep 6, 2011

'Tis my duty! :D

yohshkjsda3copy.png
Alright, this is definitely an improvement from some of your earlier stuff which is a good sign!
There are a few things that could go with some tweaking though, but they are all partial things, just little things that need tweaking, not removing or changing or anything, so you should be happy with that! :D

Ok, so first of all, your use of C4Ds is quite good, definitely a clear sense of flow going one way, but to the right of the render, it isn't as strong as the left and it feels unbalanced. You just need a few more effect C4Ds, ones that stand out and really drill the flow home on that right side and you'll be all good!
As for those red and blue stroke outlines of the render moved to the left, they aren't strong enough. At first I thought they were pixels around the render where it wasn't cut well, but that's just because you either lost a bit of quality or something and they feel really thin. If you just duplicate each of those layers so it stacks a bit more, that'll bring it out a bit more and make it clearer.

Thing that I feel is the weakest link in this tag are the colours. It isn't monotone, but it almost is, and it feels a little dark and bland. Just things like Curves layers or gradient maps, just to bring out some lighter and varying colours will help this tag a considerable bit.

But otherwise, this is definitely a step in the right direction! You're use of C4Ds and effects in the foreground are excellent, definitely help blend the render, and the text is quite good! Placement of the text is good, that box is good, the colours are quite good too, the only thing I'd mention on that is that you've made them a little too transparent. If you just bring the opacity back up a bit, I'd say go 100%, generally, if you go sort of lower than ~90%, it starts to look weird, but a safer way to get the same effect but keep the solidness and quality is to just leave it at 100%, and choose a slightly darker (or lighter depending on colour of background) shade of the same colour.

The icons I'll just say that you can afford to beef up the colours more, either with selective colouring, vibrance or saturation layers, but you just need the colours to pop a little bit more. The second icon is a lot better, but could still use some tweaking.

Anyways, very good job, I can already see the improvement, just keep at it and make keep on churning out tags and you'll see the improvement mount on!

derozio · Sep 7, 2011

THAT is definitely an improvement. You've got flow down, you are getting a hang of c4ds and your text is, perhaps, better than the text in most of my tags till date. :D; Most of the stuff that can be said about this tag has been said by Massimo, but I'd like to say something: Colors in a lot of your icons are top notch. Try to do the same thing on tags, perhaps? ^-^

As for those red and blue stroke outlines of the render moved to the left, they aren't strong enough. At first I thought they were pixels around the render where it wasn't cut well, but that's just because you either lost a bit of quality or something and they feel really thin. If you just duplicate each of those layers so it stacks a bit more, that'll bring it out a bit more and make it clearer.

Omaigawd. I just noticed that after reading what he wrote here. XD; I, too, thought the render hasn't been cut properly. If you do plan to use stroke lines in tags, make sure they are prominent enough. Like he said, they aren't really visible all that clearly. :o

I hope you don't mind me posting here, Tara. After all those horrible, demoralizing posts, I'm kinda embarrassed. But yeah, couldn't stop myself. :<

alisaie · Sep 15, 2011

Thanks you two! I'll definitely be keeping all your comments in mind when I make my next tag! (Whenever that'll be; I need to find another render before doing so!) Maybe I'll see about tweaking the current tag as well, and see if I can fix the little things that were wrong with it~

For the two icons I was trying something different with the first one (TotA icons seem to be a bit hard for me to icon, derp) and the screenshot for the second one was really dark so it didn't help much. xD But I'll still keep your words in mind!

(And don't worry, derodero. You can still post here~)

alisaie · Sep 18, 2011

New tag, as well as some more icons, yeah. |D

★ // Sophisticated Idioms

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alisaie

Miss Doronjo

Gaiden

Sydian

fake your death.

Mew~

THE HOST IS BROKEN

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Miss Doronjo

Gaiden

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derozio

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moments.

quixotic

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