It has been a long, LONG time since I've done one of these so please forgive me if I go wrong somewhere. I've just been rusty as hell with my lack of presence in the art boards haha
Anyway, I'll start off with what I personally think is your best work. Or the one that looks the most aesthetically pleasing to my eye.
This one here looks really good. One that I'd personally use, even. Colors are good, the lighting is mostly good what with the presence of only one light source near his face (as things should be) and effects, minimum as they are, play nicely with the stock/render. Also, the background works in tandem with your stock and it looks natural for the most part. It just blends in nicely. One minor issue I see is the overexposure of the area near his face. It is to be expected thanks to the light source being right there but I'd still have preferred to keep the whites a little less bright. Also, the "grain" effect that you've added add to the image. I don't know, just compliments it nicely. Looks good. :D
I'd advise you to stay away from indulging in typography that's situtated close the the borders of the tag. Needlessly detracts from the focal point and looks very awkwardly placed in most works. Holds true for "A Special Kind of Hate", "The Moon also rises" as well as "Majestic Maze". Typography, specifically, is a very difficult aspect to deal with imo. You gotta find the place it looks the best, doesn't detract from the focal and make sure that the font and the size you've chosen along with the placement actually compliments your stock. Which, unfortunately, I do not see in any of your works. Also, try to stay away from colors that compromise on visibility. A Special Kind of Hate's "Special kind of" is a little hard to see thanks to the black. As far as placement goes, I'd probably have placed it closer to her breast and just above her arm. Wouldn't have taken my eyes away from the focal point here which I'm assuming is her hand with the ball levitating on it? The Moon Also Rises is better in the regard that that it doesn't take detract focus as much as the other works I've mentioned but it still looks very awkwardly placed there at the very bottom. Majestic Maze's size is too big and just overwhelms the stock. Not to forget, there's the issue with "e" from Mage being almost visible due to both the text and the background being white in color (albeit with minor change in hue). One Wing Crisis, well, it was very difficult for me to actually comprehend that the word in the middle actually referred to "crisis" lol. Obstructing parts of text with stocks or effects is something that's not exactly uncommon practice in gfx but to go too overboard with it and mask so much of the text that it becomes nigh unreadable...that's something of a problem, imo. There's a difference between parts of it being masked and a majority of it being covered. So yeah. :p
Just to be brief, text is a very dangerous beast. If it takes me one hour to work on a tag it sometimes takes me 1 extra whole hour just to figure out text placement, font choice and the font size along with the colors. So yeah, typography is a difficult beast to bring down. But keep going at it and hopefully you'll see encouraging returns soon. :3
Another aspect I'd concentrate on is, well, backgrounds.
This and
this piece here - I'll take these two as examples. The former looks good for the most part. While I could go on and on about effects, what stands out to me when I look at it is that the render/stock doesn't seem to mesh well with the background at all. Stock is full of warm colors while the background is a very cool color. You were probably going for a contrast between the colors but I don't really see the background working well here. The effects themselves are to blame to a degree as well. There's a lack of foreground effects in general. Try to have some effects on the stock as well and then try blending them in with the background ones. Also, don't go overboard with blurring out of the effects in the background. Apply it in moderation and where you see fit. This last bit I'm talking about in general and not just about this one piece since I see a tendency of blurring almost the entirety of the background in almost every single one of your works. "Thoughts" has issues with the render not blending in with the background as well.
Apart from that, "Thoughts" also seems to be your weakest work so far. There are two focal points in the image, the focal points themselves aren't very clear and the attempt at blending them with the background using the smudge tool and a little bit of blurring doesn't seem to have worked out in its favor. Also, little to no effects make it very dull. The cross lines in the corners don't add to the work at all. They're just...there.
My hands ache from typing, haha. But yeah, I'll sum up my thoughts on the rest of the works in brief now:
Shining Fairy: Lighting is all over the place. Try not to smudge/blur too much of the stock everywhere to blend it more effectively. It just ceases to look aesthetically pleasing.
Majestic Mage: Text too big. Overwhelms stock. Also takes up too much space that probably should've gone to effects. Of which I see only brushes being used and not much else. Appears very flat as well.
Your Move: Two light sources here. Which is mostly a no-no in most cases here. Kinda messes up the lighting, y'know? The effect at the mid section, apart from proving as an extra light source and messing up the lighting, also causes the picture to be a tad bit overexposed over there. Which doesn't help its case imo. Try not to go with effects that are very bright and mess with the lighting of the whole piece. Also, keep exposure in check.
I'll comment on the other pieces some other time tho I guess. It has been a long post as it is lol. I wonder if you will even read all this crap? Probably not XD;
But yeah, I can definitely see you improving at a rapid pace once you fix some of your issues with blending, typography and effect-work in general a bit. Keep it up! :D Also, sorry if I sounded a bit too harsh in a few places - wasn't my intention if that's how it sounded! ;____;
Edit: Some clarification is in order, I think. :p
Going through the other responses on the thread made me realize something...it seems like I bashed your efforts on typography too much. But don't worry! Typography is just one of those things I'm highly selective about. What makes me happy is the fact that you've already grasped the concept of going with different fonts for different works. Experimentation, in other words. That is something most people lack usually. I myself stuck to just one kind of font style for god knows how long so that's definitely one strong aspect of your work and something that definitely deserves kudos, imo. So yeah, don't get discouraged or anything. BD
Also, apologies again if this sounded harsh or anything. :c