Valkyrie ★

[Zelda]

I'm beautiful in my way
'Cause God makes no mistakes
I'm on the right track baby
I was born this way
♕

Welcome to my gallery! Er, I'm not really the best at biographies but I'm Kaori and I've been making graphics for two years. n_n
I still have a lot of improvement to go through, and I still don't feel quite there with my work, but that's why I'm posting some of my recent graphics to get some opinions and criticism from you all. I hope you enjoy this somewhat simple gallery. :o

All G&P Rules apply.

I c o n s // ღ

T a g s // ☨

Spoiler:

I've always had a hard time getting through a flow for tags, but if I must say so myself I am kind of getting the hang of it. I'll practice some more and try to get some more of my work in frequently but for now much criticism is appreciated. :]

Enjoy!
On a side note, please ask before using any of my work. Thanks. :)
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[Anastasia.R]

FIRST COMMENT.

Well, I always liked your icons. =3

I haven't seen much of your tags that often. =x But, yeah, I think you make beautiful icons. THEY'RE SO MUCH BETTER THAN MINES. XD

I also think you have a better and easier time adding text to your icons. I still wanna add text to my icons, without making it look weird. XD You make the text look awesome. =o

^ This, I'm gonna say, the text looks weird. Did you add the text, or was it a stock with text?
PRETTY STUFF, I WANNA SEE MORE!​

 

[Nameless.]

Oh yay, more critique comin' your way! <3

I like this, but it's a bit too harsh and unfocused. The focal point is obviously her face, but it just feels like she should have been positioned more to the middle.
The colors are a little too brilliant and make it hard to look at the icon.

I adore this tag like crazy. The flow is absolutely beautiful, and the colors are brilliantly done for the entire thing. The way you fixed the little mistakes that were made was done well too. ;D The only problem I have on this one is the text. It just doesn't really fit the picture itself and the font on "Dorian Gray" is a bit too attention drawing because of the pillowing between the letters. It takes away from N and Touko a bit too much, and that disappoints me. ;_;

For both of these, the flow is absolutely brilliant. It follows their movement perfectly and helps to make these tags serious eye-candy. The problem this time also lies in the text. It doesn't quite flow and it feels like it should sink more into the background as to not draw so much attention away from your focals. Do you see the lovely light texture line you put by their names? I think next time you should use text transform [Ctrl + T] and tilt the text slightly sideways to flow with that light. Typography is a delicate thing to work with, but it can make something excellent when it flows with the picture. Making both the focal and the text [if you put any] harmonious is key to a great tag.

I love what you did with this one. How you made the texture in front of her flow upwards, as if the force is knocking her back... brilliant. However, the light texture you put over her needs a bit of erasing. [Put it on a separate layer so you erase only the texture] Where to erase is up to you, but you should try to make it look like the light is ~wrapping~ around her. It helps to sync your effects into the graphic itself, and makes it look more natural. :3
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[derozio]

You've got a wonderful eye for colors, Shinchan. I like all of your icons. I had only seen some of your icons earlier, but now after seeing these I can confidently say what I said earlier - You're beginning to become a terrific icon designer like your big bro. XD;

I like the first two tags more than the other three. The first two have colors, composition and some other aspects which have been pulled off in a better way than the others. But yeah, like Nameless said, the text in the second one could've been better. Still, it is at least better than what you've done in the next two tags. I'm not really a fan of the effects in the sonic and the shadow tag. It is more like you pasted the renders over some pretty background and didn't really do anything in order to blend them. Those tags lack blending and..uhh, the text. The text is really away from the focal and draws unnecessary attention. The font itself doesn't fit the tags. Although the placement of text in some of your icons is just awesome, the placement in those two tags are just..uhh, not really that great. You know what I mean, right? ;;

The last tag..I'm not really sure what to say about it. Although the effects look nice and there's definitely flow in it, I don't seem to like it as much as I should. Maybe the effects are a little too messy for my liking or something? To me, it looks like you overdid those wavy line effects to the right. Even the effects on her body put me off for some reason. But that's probably just me...

 

[moments.]

These are gorgeous, love those tones of not too saturated, but still very appealing. I can never replicate this style...

Anyways, I think it is very clear colouring and placement is your strong point and why your icons are of a ridiculous standard. While I don't really want to sound mean or anything, your tags don't meet the same standard. I think that first tag there is your best, only because it isn't sort of overdone with effects.

For my money, there are a few different styles of tags, all if done right are just as impressive as the others. There are the sort of minimalistic, almost photomanipulation tags which use sort of lighting and textures to really make the tag, and there are those typical sort of bright, colourful, full on anime tags. I think you would do very well with the first style as you mentioned you have trouble with flow.

However, if you can master flow, which isn't really that difficult, just a knack you sort of pick up and start to see, then I think you will improve dramatically. Perhaps try putting a stock/render there, and do effects going diagonal one way, then flip the effects so they go the other way. One should look distinctively better than the other, the bad one just won't look right.

 

[Zelda]

Thanks for some crit guys! I do agree with the overabundance of effects in my tags, as they have never really been my thing. I'll take some of your advice and try to look at tutorials to help me get ideas too. :)

Also @ moments. - I totally agree. I've always focused on working on icons, and have only recently started to try making more tags. I have a lot to learn still, but I'm willing to. XD

I'll do an update later today, hopefully.

 

[Abnegation]

Spoiler:

I really like this icon. I must say. I'll say this now so that I don't have to repeat myself over and over again. When it comes to anime icons, it's always a good idea to make the primary colours pop a lot. So these are your reds, greens, blues, yellows and so on. You did it very well here, especially your blues and red. However the one thing I would recommend for this icon would have been to make the background a little more blurred and the focal more sharpened. That would really bring this one out a little bit more, but there's little to complain about for this one.

Spoiler:

I think that the primaries are a little too vibrant here, you should bring down your contrast just a little bit, as the background is no where near close to the colours of the focal, so they class a little. You brought out the colours well but a little too much, so just be careful about that. If I were you I also would have made the image a tad smaller as the focal takes up a little too much of the icon, you don't want your focal to cover the entire thing, your eye needs somewhere to be drawn to, and here it would have been better if there was a little bit more negative space.

Spoiler:

The colours here a are a little too dull. I would suggest finding a medium between this icon and the last one, and here I would have positioned the stock a little more to the right as it seems the face is a little too far away from where your eye would immediately look. So just think about vibrancy and stock positioning here.

Spoiler:

I've never been a fan of BRS icons due to the colours being so murky. So I urge you to try and go a little different with them in future, try changing those greens to something else, like reds. But regardless, this is a nice icon, if anything it's just a little too busy. Never be afraid to erase some parts of the stock. The chains in the BG for example, this can be done for all icons, but just think about how busy this looks and what you want to stand out most. Negative space is an important part of iconage, and here it's just lacking.

Spoiler:

I find this to be a little too bright in places, especially the bottom right, I'm not sure why there's just a section of brightness there, it threw me off a bit. Even if that's a part of the stock, don't be afraid to burn it to match the rest of the icon. Your blues here should be edging slightly more away from megenta here as there's a little too much of it on the hair here.

Spoiler:

What you're missing here, is contrast and sharpening, I think the focal needs to be sharpened and your BG needs to slightly blurred as it is. The reds are also a little too high here, I would recommend working with some other colours here in future, yellows are also a little strong. However in saying that, it's nice and easy on the eyes. Though speaking of eyes, I would recommend bringing hers out, make them shine!

Spoiler:

Not one of the better of the bunch. I think that you've just over done it on colours, and it does look a little too over saturated. Though I wouldn't say the original stock was that fantastic to begin with. So be careful with stock choices too. It would be a nice icon however, if it was just not so overdone with colours. Also the lighting in the background feels a little odd, just watch out for those things.

Spoiler:

Again, I think your issue with IRL stocks, is that you go over board on the red tones, sure the person looks more tanned but it really doesn't look natural. If you wanted to get pretty advanced here, what you could have done is lasso'd around the lips and cut them out, then pasted them in a new layer back in the same position, and made a clipping mask of selective color to change their color specifically, to make them stand out. I think you could have sharpened the focal and then blurred the BG here to make it work better. Other wise you have a nice icon.

Spoiler:

This icon feels overly saturated, on the face mainly, but only in compared to the rest of the icon. Though I'm not a fan of this stock, nor do I like the positioning. I personally would have gone way differently on this one, rather than going for the obvious, brightening the lips and such. Probably not one of the better of the lot, it's quite rough on the eyes.

Spoiler:

The only thing that damages this one is the fact that the lighting is very heavy, and the lack of sharpening. I'm sure it wasn't easy bringing up the yellows without making the lighting go up however. The only thing you could have done to bring it down would have been by working in curves and finding out where the lighting is on the chart. If you've never worked with curves before, then start practicing, it's quite hard to get right and only by experimenting will you get it right. The colours around the eyes are nice, though a little more sharpening is needed.

Spoiler:

There's little I can say about this one, it's great. Though, you should start working with textures and things to add to an icon, here there is a nice space to add some squares or pixelation (filter>pixelate>mosaic) in the top left corner. Again, sharpening the focal and bringing down the reds and making the BG more blurred would have made this one better.

Spoiler:

I really like this one also, though the reds are a little strong again. They would be much better if they were less saturated. Also the text is quite hard to read. Nice positioning but I would have done something about those colours, or added a colour fill behind the text.

Spoiler:

Gurl, you really need to watch them reds! Here, it would have been nice if you worked with curves again, just to make a little contrast, though I think the pink (ie. reds in selective) just go overboard a bit. Though nice stock positioning and nice colour choices, but work with curves and watch your reds and you'll be alright.

Spoiler:

You should definitely work with more texture adding like you have here in the bottom right. Though just like tags (and text in tags) you should bring those dots closer to the focal.

Spoiler:

Grouping these together because I'm lazy as they're all the same. Though I like these, nice stock placement and nice colours. Though you could have brought out the magentas just a little but more. And I'm not fond of the BG colour to be true, it's a little too close to the colour of her bow.

Spoiler:

Nice work on the shadows, I like how strong they are. Though, what happened when you made the shadows stronger was that the hat became too dark. Try my lasso & clipping mask of selective method for this, or use curves possibly. I dislike the blues in this one, so work with the cyan & blue in selective to make the colour feel more appealing.

Spoiler:

Not much I can say here really. I like it though, it's very artistic, though if I were you I might have added some sort of texture or something in the top left, somewhere in that negative space.

Spoiler:

Blues & cyans are just a little too heavy here, so be careful with that. Also the text may have looked better if it was slightly bigger, red and not a generic font (looks like Cambria or something.). Again though, nice stock placement, you could maybe make the text closer to the focal and make the yellows stand out a little bit more.

Spoiler:

Nice colours, nice placement, but not so much for the text. Text must be close to the focal as f it is too far away, it will create a new focal when you should only have one. I also would have made that text a little bigger and possibly a nice pastel red colour rather than green, but not so much that it would distract who looks at it.

Spoiler:

I like the effect you did on the hearts, but they look a little murky and low quality. However, nice icon in general, but I would have made the colours feel a little less un saturated, as it looks like there's too little contrast, but not so much that it makes the icon bad, it's quite nice as a whole.

Spoiler:

Black and white icons really need depth, so don't be afraid to work with dodge, burn, sharpening and blurring a lot with these type of icons. Though there's little to complain about here, just try make them feel a little more deep in future. Add some shadows with burn and bring out the focal with brightening it.

Spoiler:

Not fond of the colours here, feels a little too cold, so be careful how much blue you use, blue is a rather strong colour, therefore use it wisely. Again, I wouldn't be a big fan of the stock to begin with, just be careful not to overload your image with too much of one colour.

Spoiler:

Again, think textures, in the negative space. It would go well here if you had some comic book styled decoration. Good icon though really, blues are a little heavy so just be careful with that, and the pink wire, I think you could have made it brighter with dodge to make it stand out a little bit more.

Spoiler:

Nice use of texture, but her left hand side shoulder looks blurred, so be careful that you don't made that come across, even when you're not purposefully meaning to blur it. Though the text could also be seen as being a little too heavy as I found it to distract me from the focal, which made the icon feel a little too busy again.

Spoiler:

Bring the text closer to the focal or put it in a thinking bubble to make this icon perfect. I love it really, great colours, which scream "childhood" to me. Also be careful with pinks, they can be hard to read when they're used with special fonts, a little too vibrant.

Spoiler:

This is a really artistic icon, I do like it a lot. But the clarity is quite low, it's hard to figure out exactly what's going on. So just be careful you don't over do it when you bring out the luminosity of colours.

Spoiler:

Watch your reds, the hair is a little over done, but only a little. So just try to bring it down on the hair, and the rest would look great. I love the bow and the contrast is great. But the hair and parts of the face are just a little blushed. So try the lasso method again.

Spoiler:

Finally, this one lacks a little sharpening in the fur. And it would be perfect, the stock just feels a little plain and a little unedited in a lot of places, I think you could have possibly just brought the depth out in this by dodging and burning and by using curves really.

Some of the best icons on PC here though. This, this and this, are by far my favourite. Just watch out for depth, positioning, over doing some colours and making use of some negative space in certain icons. Good work, I'll help you out with tags too, but at the moment, this will have to do. <3

 

[Zelda]

Thanks for all that crit, Gav. I do see my misuse of reds and I'll try to use your method. :>

As for now, here's just a small update.

Three of those icons were not recently made however.

 

[moments.]

Much better use of reds! Tones and shades are really good in this one! That single round light (bokeh), did you add that? If so, I think it is positioned a bit weirdly because it stops exactly where she is. If you added it, move it a tiny bit over her arm? Anyways, lovely icon!

Really like this one! Mainly because of the speech bubble plus shadow, but also the colours are gorgeous am a total sucker for that really light grey with cyan...

Tag tag tag. Alright. When it comes to tags, treating the colours like you would an icon, is hard to make it really pop and be aesthetically appealing. While the effects are very good, (I would've only really added some more foreground effects), you have that sort of dark, washed out scheme, which works on icons, but is a bit dull for a tag. This tag has bright colours, purples, blues and magenta. Contrasting them with the black background and really brightening up the focal and the colours would do this tag a world of good. Also it will help bring out the depth which is always good. :P

 

[Zelda]

Thanks. :)

As for the first icon I didn't add the light texture there but I agree, it looks weird there. :s

 

[derozio]

https://i53.tinypic.com/2vajjtl.png

I really like the effects in this one. The colors sorta kill it though. Could've been very yummy if it weren't for the dull colors, Shinchan.

 

[Speed]

That one's my favorite, I like how everything goes together and how the colors fit so nicely.

 

[~Ryukaa]

This banner... I can't get over it. xDD;;
I love the color scheme, the drawing, and how much that text fits right into it!

These two are probably my favourite icons of the lot. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for blue. xD;

 

[Zelda]

Just another update. :]

Meh, I guess you can consider this a LP. I've been practicing on flow a bit.

For the fourth icon, I added a lighting effect and used a simplistic brush with the words "Love" on it. Then I used a heart shape to fill up some space, including in the 'O'. Nothing really special today though. :c

 

[Belinda]

Oh, Shinell you have some stunning icons here, gurl. I love your use of textures on your latest icons. <3 Also, loving that LP it looks really great and the colorings are gorgeous on each of your graphics. I do hope to see more and try to expirement more in banner making. Hey, I may not have some long constructive criticism like Gav, but I've came to support one of my favorite graphics maker on PC. n_n

 

[moments.]

totally still a tag in my eyes Alright, colours, like your icons are great! The two things that stand out to me are the text, and those orangey effects under the text. Those effects look pretty random and messy and I don't think add anything besides a distraction to this piece.

As for the text, firstly I think it could be closer to the focal so it doesn't draw the eye away from the focal. You could move the text up and to the right so the 'a' fits in between the closest foot and the shin. That little gap in there.
Also the space between each letter is a bit much for my taste, it is neither really far apart to give a certain look, and it just looks sorta disjointed, not smooth and flowing. Same goes for the gap between the lines of text (move 'flash' up more).

Lastly, the view of the background is almost fish eyed, and I think some lighting to emphasise this might be a nice addition. By burning / darkening the outer edges just a little bit of the background, it will help draw the eye to the focal point and make it all pop nicely. And instead of the white soft brush over those effects at his feet, maybe change the setting to like colour dodge/linear dodge and reduce the opacity heaps or use the dodge tool if you are on PS. It just looks a bit cloudy.

Your colours are gorgeous, perhaps try putting heaps of effort and practise into effects so they can catch up the standard of your colours cause really the effects/composition are the only things holding you down. You have the adjustments down wonderfully!