Marie's Graphics Collection, A small collection of my creations

[AutumnBee]

I've been creating Graphics for years. It has been off and on, however.

I decided to post all my work together, so there may be some Supernatural themed ones in the mix somewhere. I hope that's alright.

After all, the importance when viewing a piece is that of its quality, not its theme. ;D

Keep in mind that this is a mere glimpse of my creations, as I do make at least one piece everyday.

Also, I can create something in almost any style. It's highly likely that I already have in the past. Just ask if you wish to see.

I work with Adobe Photoshop CS, Adobe ImageReady CS, and occasionally Corel Paint Shop Pro X.

I just need a pen tool, layer modes, default brushes and flexible brush settings and I'm set to create things in any program. ;D

This post shall contain collages and signatures.

Okay, the first few things I focused on were
collages:



http://i41.tinypic.com/2zpjrxg.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/2d9v8gg.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/xdec1v.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/24w6deq.jpg
http://i43.tinypic.com/8xv9ki.jpg


Signatures, my current passion:

Some Intern Work at Black Sun Graphics:
(A small collection, as I have completed many pieces there.)











Some personal work:













Some requests for a different forum:











Any comments are highly appreciated.

[SCOOMBER!]

these are amazing!!
I MUST see more. MUST
Great stuff though hun
I look forward to a next post.
-__- there will be a next post *pokes* hahahaha

[Dean's_Gal]

They are spectacular love the Wall.E one, it looks like it could be a painting. Also love the Jensen one in your sig

[Senator Seth]

Oooo...an effects style signature artist...now this is rare for this neighborhood. What's more interesting is that you have effects style signatures, but what I like to call LJ style wallpapers, very interesting and very rare to find.

I think your wallpapers/collages are really well done and look very nice. Your signatures however, seem to be lacking the same quality. You do amazing text work in each of them, but the effects themselves lack flow in most cases and also lack a kind of elegance. They seem just kind of put in there in most cases. Of course I'm not a big fan of effect style signatures in the first place so I guess I'm a little biased. The only art I like with effects are the ones where you can't tell the effects was added, which is extremely hard to do with stock which is why I admire those that can do it so well. Keep trying, however now that you have come to our little corner of the graphics world, you should maybe try other signature styles as well, it's always good to expand your knowledge.

[AutumnBee]

Thanks, guys. I'll post some more. (Old for now, more recent work later)

@signatures lacking the same quality -

This is where I highly disagree.
I wouldn't call my collages or blends elegant at all, but thanks for that. xP
I actually find collages and blends to be so much easier and less time consuming to finish. Blending, collaging, and rendering comes very easily now. It's what I did when I was younger, much of which I look back to and see numerous flaws.
The process of creating them is much simpler, and requires less thinking on my part.

I can make one in under 30 minutes. It's actually what I do to relax and unwind while working on a single focal effects signature. It's rather easy to place images together without having to deal with depth and lighting and effects so much.

On the other hand, the effects style can take over an hour to produce with proper depth, C4D placement, smudge technique, etc. The slightest thing can throw a piece completely off.
It's also much more aesthetically pleasing to me.

Here's an animated example of how much goes into a single piece:
(Yes the dirt in front of Wall-E is done through smudging. The debris are C4Ds)



With small pieces such as signatures, I will definitely, personally, go with the single focal effects style.
Blending, manipulations, colourizations, and collaging appear in my larger pieces only.


@learning to be more diverse with styles -

I can actually do both. xD

I have done both depending on what is needed for the particular situation. (or, in terms of requests, what is asked for)

I'm interning for an "effects style" board as you call it. So, that's what my current signatures will look like.
In fact, all those intern pieces have passed their critical inspection. o_o

Text plays the smallest role as the focal is most important in these. I know the lines interns are often told are: "If you're going to make the text huge, just make it large and centered, don't bother with images." and "Remember depth and lighting. If it looks flat, you've failed."

Depth, lighting and effects are center stage with decorating the focal. Flow in those particular ones are generally accepted as correct in those types of communities. It's what they focus on with interns.

Different graphics communities, different views. ;D

It appears to me that the majority of gaming forums, signature-centered forums, Photoshop forums, and the like completely favour the "effects style".

Fan-sites, Live Journal, blend challenge websites, etc. favour the collage and blend styles.

I've been to both.

So, I can do both separately or in combination.

For example, here are older signatures I managed to dig up:







I've even done layouts. xP

ITo illustrate more of the other style -
(Ew) really old graphics I made years ago:
[Do keep in mind that these last few were made by me when I was only in 8th grade....... x_x]

Click the links to enlarge



http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/3223/image4uv4.jpg

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/9924/headqq1.png







http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/2635/head9tl.png

http://img315.imageshack.us/img315/1756/head7lh.png

That's where I'll stop for now. I'm just illustrating more diversity.

At this point, I can basically work with most styles. (As long as you give me enough time if you're asking for a real vector. o______________________o Those take hours/days/weeks to create from scratch.)

I can also appreciate most digital art and the techniques behind them. The only thing that irks me completely is when images are not blended well at all (e.g. someone's shoulder is going into someone's foot randomly through feathered erasing) and when people's idea of extracting an image from its background is through a feathered eraser. That's what the pen tool is for.

[Senator Seth]

I would agree that blending and collages take less time, I make a lot of my stuff in 15-30min. However, like anything else in life, you get out of it what you put into it. A lot of my stuff as been those 15-30 min works much to do as you said and relax, however I've also spent hours on pieces of that similar style to make them the best that I could, and they usually come out to be my better pieces obviously.

I've found that artists that make effects style signatures tend to agree with you, and say that any style other than effects is not truly "art". I tend to disagree, the reason why so many of those artist believe that the "effects" style is more "artistic" is because it takes more time. Which it does, absolutely, and in some ways that's a good thing. I know from my experiments into effects signatures that working with that style really helps you focus more on the elements or design more than mindless creation like I sometimes do. However, I would have to say that you must spend more time with the effects style to make your piece look more elegant than you have to with a blending style, more over I believe that both styles require a great deal of talent and time to make well. And yes, most gaming and more graphics oriented forums focus around the style of effects, but I've also noticed that in every single case all of them are pompous idiots who do not appreciate any other style and put you down for not being like them. This is not the nature of art nor creativity, so I let them go their way while I go mine. All I can warn is to not become stuck in one style like most of them. You currently have diverse skills, don't be limited to one style over another because of what other people tell of you. Try combinations or something completely new, whatever! Just don't fall into the "Graphics norm", it's not a good place to be. The people here are good artists, who try new things, who have passion for what they're making, and who love what they do. That's why I come back here. The kind of joy and appreciation here cannot be found on any graphics forum, at least from my findings.

On the subject of text vs...everything else. I completely disagree with you. Every aspect of a piece is as important as the next. I think text is not an exception. The text can completely change the mood of a piece and can set it up entirely. If the text is wrong, from style to placement, then the piece and the hard work you put into it mean next to nothing. If everything doesn't come together in the end, then what is the finished product? However, for amateurs, like myself, I believe you have to look beyond the text sometimes because the hard work is what we focus on, and sometimes we all forget to keep concentration all the way through the process. That's why I sometimes leave the text out, I'd rather display the hard work I've put in thus far without adding that other element, which for me personally is sometimes a hit or miss.

My last comment for now is only that there is a certain elegance that is only found in simplicity. Now I'm not saying that the effects style can ever achieve this and that blending always does, absolutely not. Rarely do blending pieces come together in such a way that is truly elegant and beautiful, but the same goes for effects style signatures. It takes a great deal of talent to be able to make effects flow and balance so perfectly that they are elegant.

Oh, btw if you need true inspiration, check out The Luminarium. They are without a doubt, the best group of young digital artists in existence.

[xlozx]

Your art is really amazing Love it

[AutumnBee]

Thanks xlozx<3

For me, it's really my mood. xD One week I feel like immersing myself in a Blend Challenge forum, so everything I make is with the blend/collage style.
The other week, I'm completely into the effects.

I have encountered people who criticize both styles, that's where I pull out my other. XD On one of the last gaming forums I've been at, they say "Ew, you have more than one focal!@!@ Who can have more than one focal?!?!" To that, I pulled out my single focal stuff. Hee! That's what I like about knowing how to do them both.

However, some of the Graphics forums I have seen are open to both. They just focus more on effects and are well-versed in that style.

I know the Black Sun Graphics community doesn't put them down. In fact, some of them use a combination in the Large Piece of the Month, Personal Graphics sections.

Regarding text - I've been told by the Intern teachers to just have text small, lowered, and near one of the critical points from the "rule of three". It's placed to avoid ripping, as they say. That's for single focal signatures, for sure. That's what I was referring to. It does make or break the piece, too, which is why they have us making it as small as possible, so it wouldn't distract from the focal. Everything's about the focal; do not cover it, do not distract from it unnecessarily. That's the point in that style.

In collages and blends, it's fine to have it larger, with more "oomph" and such. xD

Mmk, more intern work as I've passed the 20 needed to go on to Intern 3.



My first ever sprite signature, completed two days ago:







And one for random experimentation:

[Dean's_Gal]

They look fabulous

[Senator Seth]

Indeed, I hear much of those same comments. I listen and try out almost anything people tell me on forums for suggestions because that's what I posted the work for...was to get feedback and ideas. So yeah, I try out almost everything, but I just go with what style I feel like...whatever that might be, probably much like you do.

I never really liked text that was too close to the focal. Sometimes it works, and it works best obviously with effect style signatures because as you said, it's all about the focus and to have text do its job it has to be with the focus in effects signatures, but I never liked how scrunched that felt. It always feels like you're trying to scrunch more into the sig than there is room for. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I like text to be kind of off to the side and sometimes it needs to stand out, other times I like it to be off to the side, but just kind of blended in....it becomes part of the work instead of just something on top. But there are so many ways to do text and to work it into a piece, it just depends on the piece and the artist.

Nice work on your latest effect signatures. I like the first and the last ones the most. I just like the colors and flow most in those two.

[AutumnBee]

xD That's actually how I would sum up effects style - Try to fit as many little details as possible in a tiny canvas (max I've seen is 400x150, smallest would be 300x100) without distracting from the focal. It's interesting trying to find exactly how many C4Ds, stocks, lights, brushes, clipping masks, gradient maps, smudge layers, sharpen, blur, filters, etc. have been placed on one and if the stock was rendered or not.

Thank you, guys. I'm actually glad the last one turned out alright as all I did with it was rendering, smudging, clipping masks, some displacement, and colouring.

Two more:





And an animated version of the froggie one:

[xlozx]

Gorgeous work

[AutumnBee]

Thanks<3 I highly appreciate the comments.

Made something quickly to practice rendering by pen tool for a little:



Those edges were really easy to cut, though.

More intern stuff:





More old requests:




(He wanted it to be "explosive" xD)







Note that requests are done with the specifications they give.
They would specify if they wanted animation, the type of animation, style, theme, etc.
It gave me many chances to practice variety.
Many times, they asked for things I have never made before.

[x...H.I.M...X]

wow your art is so stunning! Love the anime banners

[AutumnBee]

Thanks, x...H.I.M...X

I appreciate it.

Two old avatars for requests: