Procrastination + Inherent Lack of Motivation. HALP.

[Exceladon City]

So, I'm pretty new to this asking people for help on art thing. I've been goofing around with GIMP for about 2 years now? Or something to that effect. Anyways, I've been looking for tips, techniques, critiques, inspiration and the whole shebang on my work. It's pretty mediocre (read: bad) by comparison to the things I've taken a gander at around here. So, needless to say I have ALOT to improve on. Anybody here experienced in the Art of GIMP 2.6 and is willing to help me not be bad at being artistic?

I'll post a few of my "works". Try to refrain from ROFLing at them...or do. Whatever works for you.

[collapse=sigs]

-Made out of boredom. I eventually gave it to D1AOS because he didn't have a sig. I just changed the "Lightspeed" to "D1AOS"

-Made out of boredom as well. He's my favorite DBZ character outside of Android 18.

-Made this one for a guy that I was crushing on. He studies Entomology (Bees and Butterflies) and likes Pokemon.[/collapse]
[collapse=Scrapped T-Shirt Idea]

-Had an idea to create T-shirts back when I lived in Louisville, KY. I still want to but I don't think this would appeal to the general public around here in Champaign, IL. Most are college students and there isn't an urban art scene (graffiti and the like) around here. That I know of anyway.[/collapse]

 

[Neon Ness]

Don't worry, we make a point of not rofling at people's work around here.

I guess I'll just say this, GIMP is simply a tool. The basis of your improvement will come more from figuring out what you want to make and learning the fundamental principles behind your process. There are probably a thousand different ways to do things in GIMP, the more important thing is knowing the desired result.

I wouldn't call these bad really, if you want to improve I guess there are a few things. On your Tshirt logo--the starburst effect makes the words difficult to read. The words are the main point of the design, so getting rid of the effect behind the letters might be an improvement. Also, if you're trying to appeal to an "urban" crowd that would be interested in a graffiti look, a rigid, blocky font doesn't seem appropriate either. A lot of graffiti text is freeform and curly so that might get the feeling of your design across more clearly. I'm not a graphic design guru at all, but maybe some things to think about.

I guess I would classify the work you've shown here so far as being closest related, like I said to graphic design. So improvement might come from looking at professional designers' work and seeing what they do right. Or studying composition, color theory, typography--the list goes on. Those basic art principles apply to making sigs/banners or any other genre. Knowing those basics will allow you to use GIMP for a specific purpose, instead of just messing around with the tools. In fact, if you've been using it for 2 years already you probably don't need much more instruction on using the program, I don't think that's your problem.

Hope that rambly text wall was helpful. I'd be glad to see more work, the more you do the more we can help you improve.

 

[Exceladon City]

Don't worry, we make a point of not rofling at people's work around here.

I guess I'll just say this, GIMP is simply a tool. The basis of your improvement will come more from figuring out what you want to make and learning the fundamental principles behind your process. There are probably a thousand different ways to do things in GIMP, the more important thing is knowing the desired result.

I wouldn't call these bad really, if you want to improve I guess there are a few things. On your Tshirt logo--the starburst effect makes the words difficult to read. The words are the main point of the design, so getting rid of the effect behind the letters might be an improvement. Also, if you're trying to appeal to an "urban" crowd that would be interested in a graffiti look, a rigid, blocky font doesn't seem appropriate either. A lot of graffiti text is freeform and curly so that might get the feeling of your design across more clearly. I'm not a graphic design guru at all, but maybe some things to think about.

I guess I would classify the work you've shown here so far as being closest related, like I said to graphic design. So improvement might come from looking at professional designers' work and seeing what they do right. Or studying composition, color theory, typography--the list goes on. Those basic art principles apply to making sigs/banners or any other genre. Knowing those basics will allow you to use GIMP for a specific purpose, instead of just messing around with the tools. In fact, if you've been using it for 2 years already you probably don't need much more instruction on using the program, I don't think that's your problem.

Hope that rambly text wall was helpful. I'd be glad to see more work, the more you do the more we can help you improve.

Thanks. It did help a bit. I think I need to

Spoiler

take some adderall so I can actually finish a book or tutorial

read up on composition, color theory, typography and the glorious list of subjects.

The T-Shirt design effect was meant to be like an optical illusion. The further away you are, the clearer the words. Well, atleast that's what I had in mind.