- Salazar14
- |
- Exalted Mythic Member
Posted by: x Awal x
Hey there,
Let me start off by saying that personally, I am not a real big fan of the whole grungy-vector style. I've seen it way too many times and I know it's a popular look but I just can't get around how messy it makes everything look. But, that's a subjective opinion and entirely up to you as the artist/designer. I can however, tell you some things in the overall design that could use some tweaking and why.
I agree that I'm not a huge fan of grunge style effects, but I wanted to try live tracing the image of Noble 6 which had its ups and downs.
First off, I feel the text is too high. I know it's human nature to want to put something there because it feels too empty without it but some of the best designs make great use of negative space. I would lower the text so that the top of it is aligned with the barrel of the gun. That way, there is a nice flow from the character pointing down to the text. Also, try moving the text like a hair to the right. It looks like it could be maybe 1 or 2 pixels to the left of the anniversary logo at the bottom instead of flushed with it. Really zoom in and place down a guide line to be sure. Also, bring both the lines closer. There is a little too much leading or space between the text lines. I suggest maybe half that.
Admittedly, I was really sloppy with the text in this piece. I'll definitely take your critiquing to heart and rework the text.
Secondly, I see you are trying to go for minimalist-style vector look but I think your colors could be tighter. Blue and orange are complementary colors, you should keep those the same but they need to be more consistent. The blue color used in the text is not the same blue color in the bright part of the flame or the dark part. Plus, they are of different hue. The blue color of the text should be the same color as the majority (dark part) of the flame or rather you should make the dark part of the flame the same color you have the blue text. Since you are relating the text to the flame itself they should be the same color. The flame is actually a lavender color. The bright part of the flame should be the same hue as the dark part just lighter in color. Overall, this will make for a much more consistent design.
Wow! I'm so dumb! I probably should have made three spot colors and worked from there. That might have improved some of these issues you discussed. I'll definitely play around with that so I can get a good color scheme going.
Finally, The colors you used for the spartan, dashed lines on the left, and the black text are too diverse. You have a green color for the lines that is not used anywhere else in your design and a gray/blue color for the spartan, also not used anywhere else. I would use the same color for the black text for the lines and spartan as well, whatever color you decide to use. That way, there is some unity throughout your piece. I recommend using a very dark (not rich black) gray for the black text bit and the lines and spartan. Black is such a strong color that it's usually the first thing people look at in a design. Using a very dark gray will keep your overall design the same while lessoning the effect the dark black has on the viewer so they can focus on the image first, then follow the gun line down to the text as mentioned before.
I found black to look too dark for the Spartan so I changed that to the gray you see there. I can't believe I was foolish enough to put actual black for the text!
Actually, now that I look at it, it also looks like the bottom right side of the image is cut off. I would just lower the overall image so that part is not visible.
Yeah, I was having some trouble getting my Noble 6 image working and had that very slight cut off at the bottom. I can't believe I did just think of moving the image down slightly.
Overall though I like the design. It's fairly clean and simple. I like the use of complementary colors. If you wanted to use a third color I recommend going for a split-complementary color scheme. In this case, green would be the other color so you could keep the green you have in the dashed lines and use the same color for the black text and spartan. I am not sure what program you used to make this but if it's Photoshop, I suggest using an effect on your spartan image to smooth it out some more. I would go to Filter>Artistic>>Cutout... and play around with the settings until I got it the way I wanted it. I hope this was helpful to you and not discouraging. Continue practicing you techniques and before you know it, your critiques will get shorter and shorter :) Keep it up friend!
I used Illustrator and live traced Noble 6 (which I believe I've heard Live Tracing is looked down upon in the design industry). I'll definitely look at all the filters to see how I can improve my image on Noble 6.
I loved your critique and really appreciate it! Thank you very much and I'll keep up my work! Thanks again.
Posted by: Da Muffin Man
I agree with Alwal's comments, but I really love the wallpaper. I noticed the deviant link only has low-res...Any 1920x1080 size for us widescreen guys? :)
It should have been available for download at the right of the deviantart page in 1920x1080, however, I just changed it to show the full resolution image on the page. There you go! Thank you!
[Edited on 07.06.2011 11:30 AM PDT]