Lets try this again

[pinksonia]

First off, boo on you LJ for deleting this whole thing the first time I wrote it out. That button at the bottom I hit, it's call 'Spell Check' not 'Delete', so thanks for that!

For the past couple of weeks I've been starting to teach myself how to make icons mostly by following tutorials over at gimp_tutorial. I finally feel like I have a good enough sample to ask some advise from those more acquainted with the art form than I am. Mostly I want to know how they look. What needs improving (I'm thinking text integration and probably some other things)? Am I doing the icon equivalent to writing a Mary Sue (you know, something that has more experienced people shaking their heads and saying "hopefully she'll grow out of it soon")?

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Created with angelamaria's Icon Table Generator @ Bauble

Comments

[aquietmess.livejournal.com]

I'll throw in my two cents worth.

Your cropping is good and that is in most cases the important part. The coloring is okay, I just think the colors in #14,12,15 and 10 are too much reddish/greenish. Hm, text, I still have my problems with it, but I think the text in #16 looks "pixely". Did you use anti-alias?

[pinksonia.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that was just the kind of input I was looking for. Interestingly enough, each of the ones you mark out as coloring problems are ones I used tutorials for, so I guess I should trust my own judgment more with regards to coloring. Or at least gain a better understanding of the color balance menu so I'm not just following other people blindly. Now I have a specific place to start my search for more info.

I don't know what anti-alias is, so I'm pretty sure I didn't use it. What does it do?

[aquietmess.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I don't know how to explain it, I just know it can make your text a bit smoother, see the user manual under "options".

From my experience I can say, that tutorials can be a help, but you don't have to follow each step. Tweak the settings to your liking :)