Introduction Hello and welcome to the Directory of All Things G&A, brought to you by the Critique Crew. We have put this thread together to teach those new to Graphics and Arts the basics of signature making, as well as giving CnC. What is CnC? CnC is a abbreviation for Comment and Critique, this means that when you CnC you give something constructive to the owner of the piece. The whole point of CnC is to help the person make the piece better and to generally give them advice and make them better and so they will understand why their piece needs work. Elements of a Signature to Consider when Giving CnC When you give CnC, or even just look at a piece of art, either traditional or digital, there are a few aspects that are helpful to consider when forming your opinion on the piece and giving constructive criticism to the artist about his or her work. Some key aspects to any piece of art are: Depth Lighting Colors Blending Text Focal Composition Creativity While this list is fairly exhaustive, there are still more components of the piece to consider, and by no means must you use every one of the listed elements when considering the quality of the art; the list is just a guide line of the things that you may want to consider. Break Down of Signature Elements* Depth-foreground background mid-ground Lighting-light source, shading etc Colors-vibrancy/monotone etc Blending-how well blended your focal is yet defined Text-the text you put on the signature Focal-main point of view composition-overall piece creativity-originality and effort put into the piece done. Giving CnC Now that you have learned the basics of digital art making and appreciation, it is time for you to give CnC to fellow artists. Do not use statements like, “That sucks…”, “That is a complete mess…”, “I hate it…” without backing it up with some logical reasoning. Tell them what makes it “suck” or why you “hate it”. You already set the stage for a big argument because the person is naturally going to defend their work. Say things more like, “The text is too chunky, try a thinner font”, “It could use some more blending and contrast.” be sure to say WHERE the blending and contrast should be. Tell them not only what to do, but let them know how to do it. As stated above, the point of CnC is to give constructive comments and critique to the person. Creating a Signature Now that you know what the basic elements of a signature are, you probably are wondering, "Hey, thats all well and good, but when do I get to learn how to make digital art myself?" Well, this is it, the basics of creating your first (or second, or third, or fourth, or tenth, or hundredth) signature. Materials To create anything your going to need a program to make it in. Although MS Paint comes with most computers(excluding macs), its not very good for making things. Photoshop is another and the best option, however with the price tag, some people wont be able to afford it. So your last option is gimp, its a free photoshop like program although its not as powerful its more user friendly and its what most beginners use. When creating a signature, or other piece, you should take into consideration all the terms listed above(depth, lighting...). When your first starting tutorials** are great to follow, and then as you get more skilled you can use the techniques to create your own style and flair to your work. *NOTE:We would like to have some examples for these break downs. If you have a signature you would like to contribute(That means you made it or you have posting rights)please pm them to me. **NOTE:We are currently searching for beginner tutorials. If you have any(That means that it is yours or you have permission from the person who made it)please pm the links to me.
While this is really nicely written and very useful, I doubt anyone will even read this and/or CnC like this. Most will stick with their "Needs moar smudging." I liked it though.