Art Finally Trying My Hands At Digital Art O.O

[Phobia]

Well..prepare for some horrendous work on my behalf. I finally found my PSP 8 disk and installed it into my comp...Then remembered I don't know how to use it for anything. Heh.

But, I gave it a shot anyways. Sooo..Since I'm a Jing King Of Bandits fanatic..I took an image of jing as a child, use the picture tube and whatnot, and the other tools I DO know how to use..and made this...........terrible, terrible thing that disgraces Jing, and just artwork in general. See for yourself.

[IMG]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j1/F34Regime/BannerTry1.png[/IMG]

Mm..little side note I decided to add.....If anyone like..Ezekiel..or KW..or..any of you extremely talented people whom I adore and envy all at once, wouldn't mind giving me some tips, or pointing me in the direction of some really good tutorials...I'd love you forever and...uh...make horrible artwork for you until the restraining order kicked in. XD

But yea, lol. I just..don't really seem to know how to figure out PSP..I think it hates me, or I'm just too stupid to realize all of what it can do. Heh.

[jigglyness]

It's not really the matter of being "stupid". You just need to get used to the program and gradually getting better. I'd say the only problem is where the background meets the stock, try to blend it together instead of having that obvious border where it meets. And for the text, try to make it stand out a little more. Having the text the exact same color as the backround tends to make the text fal into the background and become illegible. :)

[Riku]

[COLOR=RoyalBlue][SIZE=1][FONT=Tahoma]Aww... Phobia.... I can't believe that you actually think that I was born a PS artist!!! *hugs you tight* XD Trust me.... I was and still am just like you.. just trying to get better and used to the program of digital art! Don't worry... if you just keep practicing and messing around with it, you're on your way to going to the Art by Request Studio and making banners for people! Trust me on that. n.n

Anyways, about your banner... XD

I actually think it's really good for your first (or re-attempting attempt XD) at PSP. I don't really know because I have PS 7.0, but it still is pretty good. I shall put in some helpful tips! XD

1. Lettering: Uhm... I can't exactly read what you wrote. Try making your font color a little bit darker or mess around with the contrasts and stuff. Also, fool around with different fonts or even download some so that you can find a good one that would fit with what you're trying to do. I would suggest DaFont.com, which I have loving put a link for you [URL=http://www.dafont.com]here.[/URL] n.n

2. Background: I must say that I really like the effect that you used in the purple background. What did you do to get that? C: Anyways, agreeing with jigglyness (love you, by the way XD), you should blend the stock (picture) with the background a little bit better. Try to use the smudge tool or something. That's what I always do.

3. Border: a must MUST need for making your banners have a little bit more distinction. Trust me... people on the OB are a bit picky about that.... don't mind them. XD Anyways, yeah.... you should learn how to do that. =D

In conclusion, this is a good first for you. Also... use stamps and tutorials. Just go to search engines like google and type in Photoshop Tutorials. You're bound to find some there. n.n I really can't wait to see more of your work. Keep up at it!! After all, I'll be commenting more since you love me so much. XD

Keep it up!![/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[SunfallE]

[COLOR=RoyalBlue]I wouldn?t call it horrendous. ^_~ It?s definitely a nice start. The things I see that could be improved is - one the color of the font. Since it is so close to the background it blends in and is difficult to read. The other would be the border between the background and the picture you added. It?s a little harsh and obvious. Perhaps you could remove it closer to Jing?s face and not use anything to make the edge soft. If right along the face line a hard edge might look a little better. ^_^

Also as Keyblade Wielder mentioned a border would give it a nice finish. Oh and Keyblade Wielder, even though it was meant for Phobia, thank for the link on fonts. I?ve been looking for some new fonts that were up for grabs. I?ve looked but so far most of what I found they wanted to charge you for the font. [/COLOR]

[Delta]

[COLOR=#656446][SIZE=1][quote name='Keyblade Wielder][COLOR=RoyalBlue][SIZE=1][FONT=Tahoma]3. Border: a must MUST need for making your banners have a little bit more distinction. Trust me... people on the OB are a bit picky about that.... don't mind them. XD[/FONT][/SIZE'][/COLOR][/quote]*coughs* Hi, Phobia.

I'll give you a little tip, chief. See, I've always felt that OB's grey background draws color out of banners without borders. That's why unless I'm using really rich, dark colors or I'm going for subtle transitions into the grey (see my avatar for both cases), I put borders. For that banner, a simple black border would work but something along the lines of hot pink would look really rad!

The color scheme you built up on is really appealing and the quality of the anime screencap (is it a screencap?) is good. As for the text, it would be nice if you put a border around them letters or a shadow effect, at the very least. I'm not familiar with PSP but if you look up Photoshop's [i]Stroke[/i] and [i]Drop Shadow[/i] commands, you'll get an idea of what I mean.

Like KW (indirectly) said, nobody's born with mad PS/PSP skillz. So please check out [URL=http://www.pixel2life.com/][b]Pixel2Life[/b][/url] for tutorials. Their PSP collection ain't as extensive as their Photoshop archives but you'll get [i]tons[/i] of ideas for your future works. Also, play around with the commands in PSP. Abuse the Undo command, yeah?

I wish you the best of luck and I hope to see you soon in Art by Request, chief. ;)[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Ezekiel]

[SIZE=1]Trust me, man, compared to the crap I was spewing out when I first started PSPing, this is a masterpiece.

As a Paint Shop user, I have one BIG suggestion: [B]Stay away from the tubes[/B].

They restrict your work majorly and don't really allow for any artistic flow, also, they're too chunky and 'in your face' for my liking. It's so incredibly easy to make brushes in Paint Shop. (If you?re not sure how, PM me and I'll tell you) so search for things on Google to use for yourself, you'll get much more satisfaction.

Most of the other things I would have said have been picked up on already. But as KW and Delta said, borders are essential for colours that blend in with OBs background. It doesn't have to be a solid border (I sometimes used a dashed line) but as long as it's something darker to separate the dull grey from whichever colour you used.

Practice makes perfect, my friend. And as Delta put it so nicely, I hope to see your around more often.

And thank you; thank you so much for mentioning me. I'm honoured and flattered.[/SIZE]

[Phobia]

Well, I'm going to be checking for tutorials more and more to try and get a feel for PSP 8. I've tried using the later versions. Those versions being 9 and 10, but they didn't really appeal to me. It seems they're a bit too jazzed up for my liking.

Thanks for the tip with the fonts. I can see what you're all referring (did I spell that right? O.o) to. As for the border thing, I'll see what I can come up with. The reason the stock image looks..well..offset and a bit mutilated is because I still haven't figured out how to properly crop the stock image, or resize it so I could get the whole thing. I also had a hard time trying to make it look as if it belonged as the foreground, or even was a part of the background art.

KW: The nifty pink background is just the fire tube on PSP. I just did a bunch of different sizes to get nice contrasts of oranges and yellows, then accidently did something to turn it blue. That's why it looks like there's burn marks on some parts. Then I merely used the Change To Color thing and made it pink. Was my first time usin' pink, but meh. I thought it looked nice enough.

Delta: Thanks for that little tip. Soon as I refind my PSP 8 disk I'm going to do some more images. I might try an avatar or two as well.

Ezekiel: Yea, I understand about the tubes. It took me about 30 minutes to get those flames looking right. I'm going to drop you a PM so you can tell me how to make custom tubes, because once I know that...WATCH OUT OB! XD You'll be seeing many a weird, sometimes cute, but most of the time just plain "Whoa" things coming from me since I'm not very conventional.

Thanks for the tips and criticism guys. It really helps me out now that some things were pointed out. This post will be edited later with some work I manage to do today if I get the time.

[COLOR=RoyalBlue][b]EDIT:[/B][/COLOR]

Alright well, I put some custom brushes in my PSP, and I almost right away saw what Ezekiel was speaking about when he said not being able to blend with tubes, but having more freedom with brushes. Granted I'm using PSP 7 since my PSP 8 disk disappeared, I just messed around.

Now, I know this is very simple, but I wanted to test the brushes thing out and see what all I could do. So, I give you this.

[IMG]http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i221/DimensiaP/bn1.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i221/DimensiaP/MidnightBoredness.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i221/DimensiaP/EyeInTheSky.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i221/DimensiaP/DigiPaintTry.png[/IMG]
EDIT: I made the last three pieces just now around midnight. Quick little 5 minute jobs messing with brushes, except the rose. I managed to find something I'm slightly happy with and good at. Criticism is a must on the rose! :P
I just searched around online, and saved that pic, cropped it, and sent it to my white background. I wish I was able to highlight the leaves and the flower a lot, but once you get down past size 6 on the airbrush, it turns solid and doesn't have a fade effect at the edges, which I simply love.

Anyways though, let me know what you think etc. All tips and comments are welcome, even bad ones. Helps me grow as an artist. (Yes you evil people whom only like to hate on things, I'm giving you my artistic permission to slam this so I can write your names down and haunt you. XD)

[SIZE=1][COLOR=RoyalBlue]While I understand why you needed to, double-posting is strictly forbidden around here. It sort of clutters up the forums, so instead, you can evil your original post if no one has posted yet to add in extra stuff. Or, if you're just looking to bump it, you can copy the post contents, delete the post, and repost. Get it?

I edited your post ... hope you don't mind. Contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks!

- [b]Retribution[/b][/COLOR][/SIZE]