ok the last one was just a mess but this one i spent a little longer on...when i had the chance. still a bit rushed but be brutally honest please.
Not going to be brutal but honest and hopefully helpful... First things first.. i think theres much, much more you could learn about signature design. That at the moment is what is holding you back. Lets break it down... Text Text is completely wrong, the font is the wrong choice. For a tag like this, i'd suggest handwritten calligraphic style, pixel or a gothic non-decayed style of font. Your placement of the text is also lacking. Text looks better when it's involving itself with the signature. At the moment it's just slapped in the middle. Choose a nicer font, rotate, skew, blend.. work on designing the text aswell so that it matches your tag. Render/Stock Two are a design no-no. The skull you have added actually wouldnt look too bad if it was worked with a more matching type of render, and used to create some depth. Theres an effect placed on top of your focal. Touching the side isn't too bad (it can compliment), but when its directly on top it's interfering with the focal, and taking away from the overall quality and outcome of the tag. It could also use some adjustments to make it fit better with the background. Duplicate it and play around with the layer styles, sharpen, blur parts just have a look around for what can make it suit the rest of the tag more. If its looks off, get rid. Remember if theres something which is against everything people here have said - then it probably shouldn't be there... trust me I've had trouble with this one too. Background/Effects The background is just as much of the tag as the render. Infact, people see more of it.. so it does, in a way, make the tag. Everyone can use a pretty picture.. but the best use the background, text, coloring and to an extent effects to make it work. You should use the background to add some depth to your tag and make it not look flat, or in that case of your tag like a random picture has been placed over it. Like i said theres things you probably still need to learn, which is why the BG may be lacking. I'd suggest you have a look at some tutorials. Use the BG to help with the flow of the tag. use images to create a scene of what situation this girl you have used may be in. Get rid of any render "artifacts" with a soft round brush, theres a spot of white on her head which is really out of place. a soft brush can remove this sort of thing easy. Bring objects into the foreground to add depth. theres no rule which states the focal has to be at the top of everything. build it into a sort of middle layer of the tag, blur foreground and background details to really add some depth. I'd suggest you view a few more tutorials, when you have an idea have a look at what tuts are about and work some of the ideas into your tag.. its the quickest way to learn. I hope i've been a help!
One pretty much hit it all. I would say Tutorials helped me so much. Go to like Deviant or something and just search sig tut, tag tut whatever. You'll learn lots of new techniques that you can then implement into your own tags. Oh! And whatever people say, don't get discouraged. It takes time to develop your style and learn techniques. Just keep at it.
im trying to rework my habits, i use to make...well ok at least... sigs but all got too samey, one looked like another and just looks as if i changed the render and colour. trying to push my comfort zone away... maybe a bit too far heh. but thank you soo much, ill work on this one and let you see an update, give me time im kinda busy these days.
If you want to push your style, I suggest doing lots of tuts to learn some new techniques and then mash 'em together.
i read tuts, thats actually got elements of 3 different tuts, i tried mashing them together....fail neway ill take another look make some spoofs and see if i like a type and see what comes of it
