SOTW 133 Voting Thread

[Saga]

The theme this week is Vertical Signatures. Please remember, that while posting isn't necessary in order to count your vote, it is encouraged.

Also, please remember that you CANNOT vote for your own entry, and you will be disqualified from this SOTW, and the next two SOTWs if you do so.

Here are the entries I received :

1:

2:

3:

4:

5:

6:

 

[moogling]

This was a really tough one. In the end, I picked #5. I love the brightness (go figure), and the colors used. It's also very clean, appealing, and original.

Great job to everyone!

 

[CassinoChips]

I like #1. Just kind of playful and light. The text on the balloon is a clever touch as well.

 

[Big Casino]

I love the blurring and sharpening in number 4 but i have to vote number 5. Ive a very very clean tag and the positioning is excellent. Vert tags are hard to place.
The pink lighting catches my eye, i think its brilliant and again i think its placed excellently.

 

[Mitsuki]

I was stuck between 5 and 6, and but I voted for 5 in the end. It's a little more aesthically appealing to me due to the color theme used: black, red, and white primarily. I love the way it looks as if she's positioned against a wall due to the textures used behind her. The three red tints added the final touch to this elegant-styled work. Really impressive.

6 is also excellently done. The cute subtle effects on the bottom is quite noticeable as it works up its way to the upper-right. The color theme is quite appealing to look at too and this was executed just as good as 5.

 

[The Illusive Man]

This is a real toughy this week, so I'm going to give comments to each and every one before I decide one a piece as I feel there ALL worth mentioning.

1: I really like the balloon with the writing as I feel it has excellent text placement, and the low opacy climbing effect brush has an excellent enhancing effect.

2: This is a very good Kuja sig, probably one of the best one's I've seen, you have really taken the ball and run with it with this one and your use of lighting and negative space really make the image very appealing.

3: I love the effect you have used of making it seem like the arm is coming out of the image, excellent use of lightning and great text placement.

4: Now this one I really do like, you can really see a LOT of effort has gone into this piece, as lew mentioned the use of the bluring and sharpening tools here have done wonders for the piece, the light on the characters face makes it stand out from the rest of the sig, making it a very beautiful piece.

5: I really like this one too, the proffesionalism in this piece is second to none, excellent lightning effects, perfect choice of brushes, making the most of negative space, truly a fantastic piece.

Edit: 6 didnt appear for me at first but now it has, I'll comment on it as well.

6: I really like the brightness and light colours on this piece the brush strokes are well placed as is the text, the brushes and colouring does well to frame the character

So after straining my mind over this for a good few minutes, I'm going to give my vote to number 4, but they are all excellent pieces and you should all be very proud of yourselves, you really rose to the challenge!

 

[DeadFantasy]

I think I liked 6.
Looks very crisp, clean and very vibrant. The colors blend very well and I like the tone and bright feeling of this piece.
Though, I wasn't really digging the butterflies tbh

Overall though, I like it!

Good job guys! :]

 

[Sexy Beast]

This was so hard to choose. all the ones were done so very-well, and i am not sure it will be easy for me to choose, but number 2 got my vote simply cause it had a great concept IMO.

Great job to everyone

 

[Kandy-Sugar]

I was really intrigued by both 5 and 6 but went with #5 in the end.

It is so clean and vibrant looking.

The colours used look gorgeous and the tinges of red along her look amazing.

The texture of the background is really appealing and the lighting at the top is focused well onto her face.

I like the bit of motion blur that seems to be happening doing the bottom of the signature too.

A very pretty piece indeed.

Well done to all!

 

[Bambi]

They are all ace, Im going for the last one though, I love the image and the colours, and all the snazzy stuff at the bottom

 

[King Sean]

I voted for number 5

It was very vibrant to me and I like the color effects that were used. The render used caught my eye as being very innovative, and I liked that the artist used the height of the canvas to bring out the woman.

Nice job, guys

 

[Daenerys]

4:

6:

It was between 4 and 6 for me. I love the blurring in #4, and I think the sharpening is a neat idea, but it's a little over-sharpened at the top which detracts from it a little, I think. I think it would have been more effective if the sharpening was more subtle. It's still a gorgeous piece, however.

#6 really appealed to me, even though it's such a girly tag xD I love the colours used, they're really effective. The lighting is fantastic too. I wasn't so sure on the black text, especially since it goes over the border, which is something I personally don't like. The image is gorgeous though, I love how blended it is and the effects at the bottom in particular are fantastic.

It was a really close one, but I went with #6.

 

[Crazee Dayzee]

I meant 5, but I accidently voted 4.
I love the simple, milky background and the red lighting.
The flower designs also add a lot of flair.

3 comes in second because I love the well placed effects and text, but I think the black by the arm takes away from the piece.

 

[Saga]

No worries. I've done that once or twice before myself.

Changed your vote to #5 =)

 

[SapphireStar]

OMFG, this has to be the most difficult one!!! Im torn between 4 and 6 like Stevie, this is difficult. Just to say I love them all and all are stunning and fabulous. But the one Im going to chose is number 6. I love the colours, text, brushes and image used. It was a tough decision, well done guys!!

 

[The Witch]

I love the blurring and sharpening in number 4 but i have to vote number 5. Ive a very very clean tag and the positioning is excellent. Vert tags are hard to place.
The pink lighting catches my eye, i think its brilliant and again i think its placed excellently.

I have to vote for number five too. It's just very pretty and eye catching.

 

[Warbsywoo]

1:

I thought this was done rather well. I love the subtle variety in color that doesn't overwhelm your eyes yet is effective enough to be noticed. It's simple yet elegant but isn't flashy, which is a good thing.

The only thing I disagree with with the design is the placement of the text and the text in general. It's blended in perfectly but I'm just not a fan of how bold it stands out. That being said, I thought it was pretty clever to put it on the balloon rather than having it float somewhere, but I think it draws away from the nice warm glowing rectangles on the bottom half.

Pros: Great composition, although not much seems to have been done with it. Great color scheme, value scheme, lighting (although a deeper lighting scheme could've worked better to create depth).

Cons: Text.

2:

This one is really simple in composition too, although I could tell there were a lot of things done to the stock image to get it to have the same textural and visual qualities that it has now. The color scheme is great, not a lot of variety makes all the colors seem unified. Couple speckles of dots here and there to make it look interesting.

To be honest, I think a lot more could've been done with the effects, but then again having it subtle and muted might have been your choice to begin with...but the sig doesn't have that pop that some of the other entries have. =\

It's a great study in depth though. I like how the stock seems to emerge from the cloud-like...thing in the foreground.

Pros: Great composition. Nice depth and color scheme. Subtlety is great.

Cons: Not a lot of pop.

3:

Interesting composition. I like how the right arm just pops out like that (I don't know if you painted in the shadow or what, but it looks interesting nonetheless). I'm not really a fan of red and white color schemes but you made it blend in really well here.

I think the range of values isn't spread out enough. By that I mean...there's a lot of really light areas but that isn't balanced out by a lot of dark areas so it makes the whole composition seem really light and flat and it takes a lot out of the stock, making it seem less of a focus than the arm and the microphone.

Nice subtle C4D effects though.

Pros: Nice effects, interesting composition, text is blended in really nicely

Cons: Too light, takes away from the focus of the sig...I think >.>

4:

I like this one a lot. At least I think the top half of the sig is really well-crafted. The red makes the eye focus in towards Ruby's face and it's a really nice trick to make someone look at where you want them to look.

Obviously I think it was intention of yours to pack on that focus by totally blurring the bottom part. I just didn't like how it seemed to have been overdone. =\
Maybe some effects could've been placed there instead.

What could've been nice was if you made the glow on her face a lot more spread out so that it looks like it's coming from somewhere other than her face. Then you could lightly erase the parts around her face to get a nice subtle effect. But this idea was good too.

Pros: I like the focal point. xD

Cons: The blurring, but it's honestly not that big of a deal.

5:

I like the gradient on the background as well as the rocky/papery texture on the upper right and on the middle left. The stock was washed with a nice consistent color scheme that stands out against the white and brown background. I thought that was really nice. Again, the 3 pinkish lights add focus to the stock, though I think having three of them with the same amount of intensity kinda blurs where you intended someone to look at the stock (i.e. you probably just wanted people to hone in on the geisha but the 3 lights make it seem that you want people to look in other places --- don't know if this would be a good idea, but maybe changing the opacity on each of the light circles so that they're all different?).

Great effects too. Not much I can see that's ineffective here.

Pros: Great tag overall.

Cons: Not much. Absence of text is actually quite welcomed by me.

6:

I think this is a nice counterpart to Sig #5. The color scheme is brighter but generally the same and the nice flow of effects is really really interesting to me.

The only thing I have to really comment on is how bright the whole thing is, maybe the contrast between background and stock could've been intensified more because at some points it seems like the girl is in fact part of the background.

As a sidenote, this could make a great poster design or something.

Pros: Great composition, great colors, text is actually really well done.

Cons: Background-foreground issues, but those are minor.


I'm torn between #5 and #6.

 

[Saga]

This weeks winner is Stevie Nicks!

Congrats!