Well it's really blurry making it look LQ. I would suggest on trying to sharpen it a bit so it doesn't look so blurry. Also get rid of that blue heart thing you have going on there cause it just looks out of place. You can also try to play with the color to make the avatar "pop" more.
I'll try to do that though i've only got GIMP so it's hard to edit colors. All you can do is dodge and burn them, but i'll try to put this stuff into practice. Thanks.
You can edit colors with Gimp fairly easily. :] I prefer Photoshop's system personally, but Gimp has a lot of similar color adjustment features. Just make sure that you do an Edit -> Copy Visible, New Layer, Edit -> Paste first, that way you can change the opacity/layer mode of your adjustment. Once you do that, simply go into your 'Colors' menu, and take a look. My personal favorites were Hue/Saturation, Color Balance, Channel Mixer (in the 'Components' submenu) and Gradient Map (in the 'Maps' submenu).
Thanks for the tips Misty! I'll be sure to keep all of that in mind while i'm saving up cash for Adode Photoshop Elements. BTW is that a good value(my price range isn't gonna extend all the way to $500 for photoshop...)?
imo Elements is a good program for the average consumer, who just wants to take pictures and make minor edits, but for something like making signatures or avatars, I've found it difficult to use. Most everyone that uses Photoshop these days doesn't pay for it, if you get my drift. If you're morally against that or whatever though, use Gimp. It's a great program, I used it for my first year or so of gfx. You can make some extraordinary things with it, a few people argue that it's equal to Photoshop. If you're using Gimp though, I definitely recommend using this site: http://www.gimptalk.com/forum/ They're got great tutorials that range from beginner to advanced and very friendly members. :]
Okay i'm on the site for a free trial and there're three types. Photoshop CS5 Photoshop Lightroom 3 and Photoshop Elements 9 Which is the best one? I'm just gonna get the elements trial and see what I can do for now.
I would say you should go with Photoshop CS5 since I think that's the best one out of the three. Plus, I think it's better for sig making in general. But I'm no expert with photoshop since I use Gimp. But really, if you can't afford Photoshop, just use gimp. It takes some time to get used to but once you've practiced with it then I'm sure you'll get better with it. I've never used photoshop so I can't really tell you the difference between gimp and photoshop, but I really think Gimp is a great program. Also, the site that Misty mentioned is really great and has helped me greatly throughout the years.
YOU USE GIMP? I never would've thought it considering how good your stuff comes out. I'm downloading the trial version of CS5 as i'm typing this as well and I can't wait to see if i'm any good with it.
