Art Does my first (and only haha) banner suck?

[Guest Midnight Rush]

I made this banner for my own use, and tried a bunch of things with paint shop pro. I have never used the program before, and it was mighty confusing. The colors look kinda weird and I never figured out how to use the text right lol, but it looks decent for a first try I think...

I wanted a Kaji sort of banner so... here it is.

[StarShine]

This is your first? I say it's great for a first. I tried doing stuff with photoshop, it just came out cruddy. Anyways it's good, it can use a lil work. Maybe try to focus on pictures that blend better together, and make the text a little bigger so we can all read what it says. :) My eyes aren't what they used to be. lol

[Guest Midnight Rush]

i couldnt get the text to work lol, your right it should be about 5 points bigger. what did you mena by pics that blend better together? please excuse my ignorance. Thanks for your comments, much appriched.

[Syk3]

[quote name='sarah3099']Dang! I can't even come close to that! 0_o;;[/quote][color=#30415d]Welcome to the boards. Please read the sticky on constructive criticism before posting in this section.[/color]

[Syn]

Well...heh

First off, the text placement is way off, plus, as was already said, it could be bigger.

It looks like you've gotten lazy on the cutting out also, that really needs to be sorted out, it just looks tacky, plus its grey and white so it sticks out too much, not in a good way either.

So yeah, for a first try, its not bad. Obviously a first attempt isnt going to be anything great, and I dont want to be negative but all this "thats awesome for a first try, thats great!" that kinda stuff doesnt really get anybody anywhere.

So try and stay clear from overloading your banners with anime characters and the opacity thing, thats probably the biggest thing i'd suggest.

[Skye]

Well, Ilike it, what program did you use? The text is hard to read, maybe if it was more solid... I like the pics you use, and the background is awsome. ^^ Keep it up!

[Baron Samedi]

[color=darkred][size=1]It doesn't "suck" as such. However, there are a lot of things that could be improved. Number one, and perhaps most importantly, is a border. A simple thin black line will often do, and complement a banner nicely. A banner isn't really complete without a border I feel.

Wherever you click on the text tool, something somewhere should change. From there you should be able to alter text sizes and formats.

Also, you have four or five images in the banner...not good. Every single [well, just about] first banner I have ever seen seems to be crammed with images. Why? It just doesn't look good.

Crop closer to the body [grey picture for instance], don't overload your banner, add a border and [i]practice, practice, practice[/i] and you will get better very quickly. Not a bad first attempt.[/size][/color][size=1]

Aesthetics: 3/10
Technical: 3/10[/size]

[Guest Midnight Rush]

yea i see what you mean, it seems quite overcrowded. i will try to figure out how to make a solid color background so i don't need the images as filler. the text was small and misplaced by accident, see i accidently clicked a button and it made it all funky like, so as i learn the program better they will look nicer.

[Dan Rugh]

This could turn out to be a good banner. Usually when you use one black and white picture, you should make the whole banner black and white. That picture of Kaji sticks out too much, not to mention it's not cropped correctly. Also, the transparent picture of Asuka overtop of the other one should be taken out completely. It looks really strange. Other than that, the text needs work and that's it. Not too bad, I guess.

[Guest Midnight Rush]

Every one was saying how I used too many images, so I made one with better text, a border, and only 1 image. here she is:

I spent a lot more time cropping it this time, it looks better.

[Roxie Faye]

[color=#9933ff]Much better than your first attempt. There's something seriously wrong with the picture though, the pixels are distorted, like you saved the file oddly, so they distorted themselves. What a shame, because it's really nice. While normally I wouldn't suggest a border so thick for other banners (as in future reference), the choice you made "went" with the yellow, becuase black and yellow just work together really really well.

As for the good points about the banner: You stuck to one character, which was really nice. The yellow color was also a good choice, a perfect contrast for the purple hair. Besides, the yellow also made me think that she was on a trpoical beach, which goes well with what you words are. And lastly, the witty words you have there are great. I just absolutely love them - purely awesome. Great image overall, a details to be improved upon (try and get the quality of the image up, if that's even possible), and definately MUCH better than your first image. Go you! ^_^

But hey, what do I know about images? (certainly not as much as the people who make them constantly)[/color]

[Guest Midnight Rush]

Thanks, I picked the yellow by accident lol, but it worked out. As for the image quality I accidently hit the blur button, and then couldn't figure out how o undo it. THe sharpen button apparently doesn't work... But you are right, its kinda distorted. It did go through a whole bunch of different file types so that might be it too....

[Pyrophobic]

First banner - Hehe, when I started making banners I couldn't do anything like that. I think that the left side with the background and the hair working harmoniously would suffice by itself - the stripes run nicely into the locks of hair - if you don't want the banner to become too crowded. I agree that sometimes minimal detail can deliver the best impact, and certainly your second banner achieves that. The monochromatic image does seem to cut the banner up, and the edges aren't clean enough by far, but I know it would be difficult to blend the image on the far left with that on the right. They have completely different colour schemes. Hot to cold colours seldom ever works. As I say, though, the layering is very effective on the left and certainly better than most of the stuff I can do in that respect.

Second banner - Yeah, good use of complementary colours in the purple and yellow - it really elevates the figure from the background. Of course, it does look extremely pixelated, so you do need to try to get the sharpness of the images that you did in the first banner. The text suffers in the same way - nice font, but loses a bit of its appeal through the graininess. The addition of a border is certainly a good idea. I appreciate that the blur-sharpen balance is tricky to achieve, so keep trying and I'm sure your improved grasp of composition will be extremely effective.

I'd love to see how you continue with your banner-making - and don't degrade yourself in the thread title! You needn't, since they're good efforts for first banners. ^_^

[Boo]

[color=gray]The first banner is nice for a first ever, but it aint great. You didn't take the time to take away the edges ( -) around the black and white one, which doesn't even fit in either lol.
A plus point is that you already use transparancy, but a minor is that the picture below it is still not to be seen since its hidden away completely behind the asuka. But she fits with the bg
Asuke shouldve been placed higher than she is.
The text is small, hard to read and misplaced.
I would give it a 6 just because its a first.

The second banner however. When someone says: Don't clutter it with anime figures, it doesn't mean you have to make it plain lol.
The girl is very pixely. Perhaps the original picture was good quality but when you lowered the size it looked crappy.
The border is way to thick. make it one pixel instead.
The bg is plain, one color. And the text seems to fall away on it at some parts.
this one ill give a 4½ because you took the advice not to make it too cluttered. Keep taking advices and tips should be the key to become "teh man in graphics". And ofcourse hellalot of practice lol.
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[Baron Samedi]

[size=1][color=darkred]This is much better. I think anyway...aside from the aforementioned quality problems, I like this. If you want to undo something straight away, press Ctrl+Z. That will undo something.

A thinner one pixel border would do nicely. Maybe a few lighter yellow lines on the background would be good. Export at highest quality...and it'll all be good.

You're getting better already. Nice cropping work.[/size][/color][size=1]

Aesthetics: 4/10 [Quality Control]
Technical: 6/10[/size]