Heya guys. I haven't really made anything lately...but I decided to do some stuff today. Hope you like them.
For the first one, I like the way you made it. The right side being so blended into the background really offsets the left side and the string. My only complaint is that the right side is blended in a bit too much (the legs and arm are a bit too blurry for my tastes). On the second one, it's just the opposite. Though the colors work well with the stock again, it just stands out from the background too much. If it were blended in a bit more, I think it'd look better. Aside from that, the shadow on his neck looks a bit weird.
The effects in them are not bad, but you have way too much contrast in both tags. You should not have super bright on one side and super dark on another. It throws the piece too far off balance. The first one's stock is so pale compared to the background that it its shape is barely definite. It blends far too well and it looks more like a pale spot than anything. Because of this the eye is averse to it and the actual focal point is the orb in the center on the left side. The second tag has a similar problem where you have a very bright stock/render and a very bright background for it, but on the left side you have something extremely dark. You have too much orange and and not enough dark around the render itself. I disagree with Cat. It blends too well, but has also been sharpened and dodged so that it is hard to look at. You should lower the contrast from left to right and instead work on finding the right balance of contrast between your focal point and its surrounding area. If you want people to look at a certain part of your image, specifically at a render, then that render needs have a definite shape and while it should blend, it should also draw the eye. Now, I am not against lighting and contrast, because you need light to make shadow, and you need shadow to give light depth and form. But I am saying that too much of either will destroy your chances of getting good depth. Making an area too bright will scare the eye away from it. Like staring into a lightbulb. Making it too dark will make the eye look for light elsewhere. Specifically, the eye looks for lines and details. Solid colors are a bad idea, especially if they blend with something that does have detail right beside them. It will detract from the detail of the render to have a solid background the same color as the render. Ichigo's air would be almost invisible if there were a black line between it and the render. That is a bad sign. The last pointer I have is about the text. Instead of putting the text in a flat, plain line, making it fully visible and putting it in a corner, you should move it around and make it accentuate your focal. In the first tag, you might want to lower the opacity and make it curve around one of the bubbles using the path tool and then "Text along Path" or "Text to Path". In the second tag, you could place it along a line in the render, like one of the spikes in his hair. Or you could a hide portion of it behind him so that it is still readable, but so that it makes him appear to be at the forefront, adding depth. Play around with it. Keep it up.
