First six tags of the year.

Demaian

Demaian

Disturbingly Beautiful
Joined
Nov 14, 2006
Messages
118
Location
WACKEN Open Air
Gil
0
I haven't posted my work here yet, been kind of a recluse that way on that.

Anyhow, I'm looking for some die hard truth CnC. Bash and thrash so long I see to it that there's truth.

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Aki, SID.

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Reita, The GazettE.

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Ruki, The GazettE.

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(Request) Lily Cole, Model

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Hiroto, Alice nine

You'll notice most of my tags will feature males, quite simply I'm sick of seeing women. Sorry I don't take requests (there are execeptions).

I'm kinda glad I was able to bounce back on my feet so well since I was in a really bad slump earlier this year, and I mean it was pretty bad.
 
You've got a good style, especially the two "Ruki, The GazettE" ones ... very vector art and it works nicely. :)
 
Really nice work. You capture the emotion and atmosphere of the stock exteremly well and twist them into you're on idea even better. Colours and lighting are very nice and text is good tooo...Keep it up!!
 
Sakura said:
I love all of them.I wish I could do that kind of sigs.
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Thank you, but it's a long journey, but if you keep trying to be creative and put your ideas out there, you will climb the ladder. =D

Keep experimenting and trying things out you've never done in PhotoShop before, you might just be suprised on the things you stumble on.

Smirap said:
Really nice work. You capture the emotion and atmosphere of the stock exteremly well and twist them into you're on idea even better. Colours and lighting are very nice and text is good tooo...Keep it up!!
Click to expand...

Thank you kindly, I've tried hard to get where I am now. I'm still deciding if this is the thing I want to do when I'm older. Color, and especially lighting are new things I've learned recently.

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If you would like some tips here are some suggestions I am providing.

About Color:

-Try other things other than Color Balance especially. You definantly want to try out Selective Color and messing with the color channels.

-Messing with the Layer options. This thing is a must for trying out color. What I mean is, those layer types like Overlay, Screen, and everything else will come in handy. For example, in the tag that I had with Aki from SID, I used cyan and green colors in a pretty bright solid hues (try not to pick colors that are so close to the grey area all the time, because adding grey basically dulls the color). The cyan and green happen to bounce off brightly in the fact that the colors are I guess a bit more saturated instead of being close to the grey on the color chooser, and they stand more brightly on dark colors (the black of the stock) when they are set on Screen. The way I apply the colors is by brushing. No need to fret, they don't need to be fancy brushes since defaults can work just fine. I just used an airbrush.

-Brightness & Contrast is a a very important option. You must keep in mind that, don't always saturate things too much or make them too bright or too dull, then again, this can be your preference. I usually up the Contrast as much as I need it, and either decrease the Brightness, increase, or keep it at 0. I almost never lower the contrast. This aspect might also help to create one of the most important things in tags, depth.

-Choose your colors wisely, know what colors work well together. If all you can think is hotpink and black, I'm sorry my friend, not only is that cliche, but it's kinda sad. Know your Color Theory and I may suggest you even look at some Vogue magazine for inspiration or something, or in some home decor magazine and look at their painting palettes.

-If you want some real eye candy, don't do monotone as it tends to be rather bland looking. Monotone is basically using a single color like blue and its tints and shades (light and dark blues and might include white and black, the extremes of light and dark). Using one color might just throw your viewers off from even glancing at it, for example, I or maybe someone else might hate the color blue. Monotone as I've seen, tend to be lacking in the contrast and standing out parts or basically, the 'wow' factor.

About Lighting:

-Brightness & Contrast does indeed apply to this as it does above. Also, learning how to use tools like the Dodge, Burn, and Sponge tools will help you. Keep in mind of lighting in the world around you. When you want to mess with the lighting in the tag, make sure it looks realistic and reasonable. In my opinion, this was the hardest thing to grasp for me, as for a long time, I wasn't able to shadow my drawings too well, but tag making has sort of helped me with that as I began to be more keen on observing pictures. If you use realistic photo stocks, they might help you learn lighting if you observe where the light is coming from and where it is brightest and/or where shadows are darkest.

Anime pictures might not help you as you are looking at something that is basically second-hand and not the real thing. The lighting may not be perfect and is rather simplified rather complex than it is in a real photo. I guess once you start moving to using real-life stocks, they help you in the depth department too. Oh there's lots more to learn.

Simple run down of the Dodge, Burn, and Sponge tools:

Dodge: I mainly use this to brighten areas or add light as this is what it does. In all these other tools, keep in mind the opacity, how bright you want it.

Burn: A tool I mainly use to add shadow and darken areas. Make sure you don't over-do it either, again, careful on the opacity level.

Sponge: This has too options, to either saturate or desaturate the area you are brushing on. Saturate basically brings out color or tones it up, while desaturating does the opposite, it turns the color duller or down a bit. It might sound that one is better than the other, but trust me, you may end up using both as have I to adjust even the original stock colors.

EDIT: Sadly... I don't do tutorials. ._. I just kinda tutor.
 
The first and last tag definitely got my attention. They look very great with style and colours. Text placement in most of your tags is great...definitely something I usually pay attention too, since I love playing with text myself.

Keep up the great work ;)
 
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