Thank you very much for the critique, because that is something that I really appreciate.
Yes, majority of my creativity is in text...I atually only started making icons, just for something different to do, and now I've become very invested in it. Unfortunately, some of your suggestions are ones I'm not capable of doing simply because I don't have Photoshop. -_- I borrow the program on my school's computers if I need to, but to do all of my icons with it would have me in the computer lab for hours and hours. I use a free program called "PhotoFiltre," which means all of my textures are on the somewhat limited side...
That NaruSakuSasu Icon is definitely not one of my betters *headdesk*...that's why I made so many, I couldn't find one I thought looked nice enough, but I hate to get rid of physical progress. The final one is much better, but I still could do something else with it...
I saw the different variations you made to the icon and I like them, because it lets me see what you're talking about, except for the pink...(as you can tell I'm more of a dark color person and for the most part don't use light colors, such as pink and yellow, which irritate my eyes just looking at them. But I guess just because I don't like them doesn't mean I shouldn't use them when they're appropriate, right?) And I'm horrible with backgrounds, so I usually remove them from the equation altogether and go with a solid color and maybe a texture. Shading is something I'm still trying to learn... I can't use layers with PhotoFiltre, which is what I've been told you should use to make them. Are there other ways to do them without using that?
I've never actually put much thought into the font and how it effects the icon, as I am limited to what I have and what I can find on Free-Font websites. I just usually go with what looks like it's readable because sometimes my "nicer" fonts leave much to be desired in the forms of legibility once shrunk to icon size. But that "Candara" you used is a nice bold one that is easy to read. I'll have to look around and see if I can find it/something like it.
I'm going to have to disagree with you about skintones though. The tones you show for example don't seem like proper ones for Naruto. I know my skin tones aren't the best, but I'm not going for a "natural human" look as much as I'm going based off the colors on my manga covers and colored chapter covers. Sasuke's skintone always appears a mix of yellows, oranges, and light tans (not including the cover/chapter cover of him in CS2). There is no pink in his skintone whatsoever. Some of the skintones are messed up on purpose due to the saturation/contrast/gamma lighting/effect and such I was using at the time, but yeah, for the most part I just need to work on them not all being so obviously different colors (and not so yellow...because some do look far too yellow after upping the saturation).
Thank you very much for all of the suggestions! I really appreciate them and definitely see ways I can improve from your comments. They really do help, even if sometimes hearing all the ways improvements can be made is a little hard.
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Yes, majority of my creativity is in text...I atually only started making icons, just for something different to do, and now I've become very invested in it. Unfortunately, some of your suggestions are ones I'm not capable of doing simply because I don't have Photoshop. -_- I borrow the program on my school's computers if I need to, but to do all of my icons with it would have me in the computer lab for hours and hours. I use a free program called "PhotoFiltre," which means all of my textures are on the somewhat limited side...
That NaruSakuSasu Icon is definitely not one of my betters *headdesk*...that's why I made so many, I couldn't find one I thought looked nice enough, but I hate to get rid of physical progress. The final one is much better, but I still could do something else with it...
I saw the different variations you made to the icon and I like them, because it lets me see what you're talking about, except for the pink...(as you can tell I'm more of a dark color person and for the most part don't use light colors, such as pink and yellow, which irritate my eyes just looking at them. But I guess just because I don't like them doesn't mean I shouldn't use them when they're appropriate, right?) And I'm horrible with backgrounds, so I usually remove them from the equation altogether and go with a solid color and maybe a texture. Shading is something I'm still trying to learn... I can't use layers with PhotoFiltre, which is what I've been told you should use to make them. Are there other ways to do them without using that?
I've never actually put much thought into the font and how it effects the icon, as I am limited to what I have and what I can find on Free-Font websites. I just usually go with what looks like it's readable because sometimes my "nicer" fonts leave much to be desired in the forms of legibility once shrunk to icon size. But that "Candara" you used is a nice bold one that is easy to read. I'll have to look around and see if I can find it/something like it.
I'm going to have to disagree with you about skintones though. The tones you show for example don't seem like proper ones for Naruto. I know my skin tones aren't the best, but I'm not going for a "natural human" look as much as I'm going based off the colors on my manga covers and colored chapter covers. Sasuke's skintone always appears a mix of yellows, oranges, and light tans (not including the cover/chapter cover of him in CS2). There is no pink in his skintone whatsoever. Some of the skintones are messed up on purpose due to the saturation/contrast/gamma lighting/effect and such I was using at the time, but yeah, for the most part I just need to work on them not all being so obviously different colors (and not so yellow...because some do look far too yellow after upping the saturation).
Thank you very much for all of the suggestions! I really appreciate them and definitely see ways I can improve from your comments. They really do help, even if sometimes hearing all the ways improvements can be made is a little hard.