Thoughts?

[JadorOnizuka]

I know this is very plain compared to what you guys can do, but I thought I'd post this and get some feedback/advice on it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v129/jadoronizuka/Sigs/akuma.jpg

[slayer]

You posted this in the wrong place, should be in the "Showoff" area, what you want is critical concensus. This area is for help in the production of an unfinished work or for a certain area in graphics like for example "how do I smudge?" etc. Since your work is over it should go to the "showoff" area.

Anyways, lets get on with the show. Your tag is a bit bland and boring, all I see are repeated images. Sticking with 1 single image would have been better. Now judging from the way it looks, I would say you are starting to use an image editor [photoshop, fireworks, etc] so you still have a lon way to go. I will suggest what previous artists suggested me back when I was starting. USE BRUSHES. Brushes can be your best friend, or your worst enemy; all comes down to how you use them. Some nice blur filters can work aswell.

Text is usually what kills most graphic work, so you either use it wisely or don't use it at all. In your case DONT use it, makes it look 'ugh' since it has some sort of wierd yellow glow effect and it is wrogly placed. I usually go for small round font and make it interact with the BG [to which you dont have in your signature so there is no place for font/text]

[JadorOnizuka]

Umm... that's two different images... one character.

I said it was bland compared to what you guys can do, I knew that before I posted it.

I posted it here because I was going to ask for a bit of help with the background. I wanted to do something else to it other than just leave it a plain black background, but I couldn't think of anything to do for it that would fit with the character I chose to use. My fingers jumped ahead of my brain when I posted it and I forgot to ask that part before submitting it.

[Kisit]

What he means is that you should really just stick with one render as the focus of your sig. Pairing renders is normally not a good idea unless you can find something that goes together well and looks like it should be together. In this case your renders don't really match well, so to take one out would be to create a better focus for your sig.

Personally I would work with the render on the left, it is the better of the two.

For the background well, experiment with brushes. There isn't really any other way to say it because brushing is kinda a random thing, you have to find what looks good with your render and creates the effects that you want.
While brushing use colors that are going to compliment the render. Contrast is okay as long as it looks like it still flows well with the rest of what you have going on. If you haven't already, go to Deviant Art and search photoshop brushes. You can then download tons of different types of brushes that ppl have created and it will give you more options than what is available as a default.

C4Ds are another way that you can create effect but they can be tricky and I don't think you are really ready to play with those just yet.

And for text, most of the time if you are going to use it, think the simpler the better. If your text is too flashy or the style doesn't match the theme of your sig it will make the overall effect look bad.

[slayer]

What he means is that you should really just stick with one render as the focus of your sig. Pairing renders is normally not a good idea unless you can find something that goes together well and looks like it should be together. In this case your renders don't really match well, so to take one out would be to create a better focus for your sig.

What he posted right there clearly sums up everything I would say in reply to the one character deal. I would suggest using some green/orange/white hues since those fit rather well with Akuma.

[JadorOnizuka]

Okay, thanks. I haven't messed around with brushes much, yet, but I experiment before putting any renders into the image. Just didn't bother much with that one. I think I have a good idea for it now and I'd like to show that off when I have it done, if you guys are willing to have a look and tell me what you think again. Next time, though, I'll be sure to put it in the showcase.