(Untitled)

[mrpanadabear]

Yay! I just got some results back from icontests (don't worry, they're finished) and I was wondering if I could have some critism, what I could do better?

I'm not sure if there's a specific format for this.

But I have three icons I would like critiques on. Thanks for your help!

1234

Comments

[mrpanadabear]

Wow, I can't count. Four, there are four. >

[possibilities]

I think you should play around with borders a bit. Border brushes or blocks of colour, or skinny plain boxes, or something. I like #2 as it is, but I think the rest might catch my eye better with borders. It can tie together an icon that might look unfinished otherwise.

You go for a lot of strong light textures that are... well, really strong. They're so strong that they grab the focus from the subject. Textures should be contributing to the focus on the subject. It's hard to explain; mostly it's practice. But, again, your #2 is good and #4 is closer to good than 1 & 3.

#1 looks out-of-focus and kind of washed out. Colourwise, I think you need to make the darks darker and the lights lighter. Or try a dark chocolate brown layer set to "Overlay" and play around with the opacity, to see if it brightens up the icon. See what that does @ 54% opacity? It made the colouring look more intentional -- instead of washed out -- and helped the image look in-focus at the same time. :)

[mrpanadabear]

I think I love you.

[mrpanadabear]

I fixed it. Actually, it was because I had a spazz moment and had to repost it and then I fixed it on my computer and then I was like wutever and submitted it.

[brightspark117]

I like number 2, because you have good textures, and you used them well. Maybe you should've put the red light into the corner, because when people look at it, they immeaditly see the light, not Chi. On number 3, you could've turned the light tecture to be on Renji's side. And move the tiny text more to the left so it won't cover his head or something.
For number four, I think the picture is too close-up, so maybe have it like more backish.

[w_e_n_d_a_l_x]

I can only see one. the other three don't show up.