first version for critique. I wanted to create a balloon based design with contrast between the lightness of the balloons and what they were shaping, hence the elephant. little girl holding on to him at the bottom... let me know if she's not clear enough and i'll show more detail in the next version.

this is cool, i like how i didnt notice the elephant at first and then it popped out,

maybe you should add color to the girl?



please critiuqe mine if you have the time

http://www.threadless.com/critique/43362/20_000_leagues_under_super_mario_land

I like the idea :) But I think you should change the blue balloons to another colour, it's too close to the colour of the shirt.



Please vote for mine if you have a minute. Thanks!

the blue balloons are the colour of the shirt - well they're actually transparent so the shirt colour comes through.

i was trying to keep colours down incase i needed to add some to the girl - at the moment i've used 7, so one left!

hmm.. i also didnt see the elephant at first glance. perhaps you could change the balloons to the same color, or maybe 2 shades of the same colour, that would help solve your colour problems as well :)

Maybe use a less wrinkled shirt next time. Hard to make out the design.

Please view:

http://www.threadless.com/critique/43248/Scaramouche_2#v2

I love this, a few highlights - with a lighter blue or white on the girl and I would submit away

ps can you have a quick look at mine and give me some thoughts

Here

I like it! Maybe use a darker blue for the girl/strings/blue balloon outlines? I like the subtleness of the elephant's shape, being forced to look into something to see something else is a good thing!

highlights added to balloons and girl and the outline of the blue balloons made darker.

hopefully it should be a lot clearer now!

I love the way you highlighted the girl!

crit my new version?

so I tried to put a row of balloons up on my wall this past week... a few of them popped. I was trying to think of a way to help you design, maybe a popped balloon trailing down?

So nice! Something about the colors in the balloons bugs me tho. I'd go with a different palette, but that's just personal preference.

what would you suggest jewelwing?

maybe making the balloons look like they were sketched would complement the child holding them! like they were done in pastel chalk style, just a suggestion

really good i think,

Nice looks much better in this version! I like the way it looks right now, but it would be nice to see you play around some with the colors. Great work keep it up!

if you got time please crit me

regarding the colours - should i be looking for a more monochrome look maybe? all the balloons in various shades of blue maybe?

was thinking of looking at other colour shirts too so would adjust that accordingly as well

Love the girl. I don't think the tusk balloons are necessary though. They just come off awkward because it looks so different from the rest of the elephant.

I love this idea. However I think the ballons need more work. Especially on highlights and shadows. Right now the shadows make the ballons look flat. As if they were cardboard cutouts. Try looking at what a sphere shadows on another sphere.



Personally I wouldn't mind the girl be 1 single solid color.



hope this helps.

Agreed on the tusk balloons being a bit awkward. And it would be interesting to see them as monochrome. I like the girl as-is, but making her a silhouette might put more emphasis on the elephant.

bunch of changes in one go.

I've made it all one colour as there were a couple of concerns regarding the pallette. thought i'd give this a bash to see what it looked like and get opinions. I've also taken the tusks out and tried re-working the light and shadows on the balloons. I've tried doing this in halftone, although as halftone isn't my favourite or best subject (i'm pretty awful at it) i'm not certain if i've done too well.

compared to previous version, am i going in the right direction, or was it better with colour?

the one thing i do like about sticking to one colour pallette is that, because the design is essentially black and white I can apply it to any colour tshirt without too much fuss... would anyone like to see other colours?

yeah man thats cool, you got the whole monochrome color scheme goin on, i think it would look sick with any color shirt , and just the same color design..although as you said im not sure about the half tone effect

balloons in v2 are better. this is too sharp, the comic/cartoon theme worked well in v2



Help a brotha out: Sh*ts and Ladders

i actually like this version better! im wondering if you used a different colour from the T would it pop more? e.g. red shades on a blue shirt or so...

hmm, thats an idea agrimony. prob is i've already used 8 colours and one of the ballons is actually just the shirt colour. if i were to make the rest of them red, the one balloon would stay blue which would look funny. i'd need to drop a shade if i wanted to fill all the balloons in colour

Looks great! agree with agrimony, try maybe red balloons on an orange shirt, or blue balloons on a green shirt, etc...



As for the halftone, best way to work with that in photoshop is to create a new document with your gradients, double click the layer and under layer styles do color overlay. Then chose pure black.

Then image / mode / grayscale at the top menu bar (flatten)

Then image / mode / bitmap

make sure it says Halftone screen / Round / and that the dpi matches that of your original designs

Next window you want the frequency at 45 and the angle at 45, click ok.

Once more Image / mode / grayscale



Now grab your magic wand, make sure the tolerance is set to 1 and highlight the black area, then under the Select menu / similar

Copy what you have selected

Paste into your original design, move where you need it, double click the layer and change the layer style / color overlay back to the color you want, and just like that you have an extremely fine halftone that is hardly noticeable



there is a tutorial somewhere i am sure i just cant find it

if you use one of your darker balloon colors to shadow a lighter balloon color you can save colors

i see what you mean, perhaps you could cut down on a shade and use halftones to replace? hope it works out :)

thanks ellsswhere - that how i've been doing the halftoning, just haven't quite mastered how to do it well yet!

i hadn't played around with angles though so i'll give that a go next.

i had considered using the shadow of lighter ballons as darker ones to save colour but i thought it might end up blurring too ballons next to each other into one if the colours were the same.

will def play around with it more and try different colour shirts - thanks for your help!

i actually liked the first version about ten million times better

i liked the first version the best

try the balloons of the first version with the girl of the 3rd version

try the balloons of the first version with the girl of the 3rd version

so looks like the montone wasn't working judging by comments. gone back a version or two to start again and back to colour for now.

in this flash template there's a version of the original balloons with the latest girl (tusks still in there, i'll remove them if necessary next time), and there's a version of the balloons shaded as they were in the v3 but back in colour.

would apprecaite thoughts over which is stronger and where i go to next with this,

someone suggested giving the balloons a more "hand drawn" almost chalk like look to go with the girl... should i give this a go?



does anytone think the girl should be bigger?

I like v2

Its a really cool idea, and i love the style of how you made the girl, i like it when on one of the options teh ballons have little light reflections on them.

so i decided the problem was i was trying to make the balloons too 3d when the girl - who i really like the look of - is very flat and 2d. so i've now tried to give it an overall flat, almost graffiti like look and i've played about to make it look faded and as if it's peeling off a wall.

the girl is bigger too, and i've toned down the colours slightly although i'm still not certain over them.

i'm really just trying anything as i don't feel i've progressed much since v2 and i'm kinda going round in circles!

thoguhts?

I think I like this version the most! I can't think of anything that would improve it right now, sub?



if you got time please crit me

I think this is fine the way it is... It would also look good on several different colors.

Looks pretty good - only thing I would say is that the shirt-colour baloon on the far right (back) leg of the elephant looks like another piece of string to me - personally i'd make it a different colour so you don't need the outline.



Please check my critique for the latest version thanks

I really like this...the only think I would try perhaps is adding more strings...and fix the perspective on the elephant's back leg...keep going!

moved a balloon forward on the back leg to try make it clearer which is in the foregroudna dn which is in the background, and added some more string.

whats your guys opinion on the stressed look?

you may hate this idea, but seeing as how the entire idea surrounds the balloon figure, I think you could simplify the girl to a single color... remove the white, you could draw a new head and face that would match the style of the rest of the design

like she is in v1?

hi, i really dig this design, i mean the idea is pretty clever, and poetic in a way. But, i agree with ellssewhere, i just saw the V1, you could put the girl in v1 adding the same rusty style you did in v6...

yea i saw this when it was still on v1 and im diggin it a lot now, i like this 'rusty style' as jebs said..



the way the girl is looking right now doesnt bother me, but her size. i'd make her smaller or the elephant bigger. (:



crit mine if you can, thanks :D

thanks ninopolisel and jebs.

i just made the girl larger in this version, but think i'll shrink her back down again if you think she's too big.

i'll hopefully get on to that tomorrow, but in the mean time I've got another design up for scoring - please vote if you can!

here

thanks

V1 for sure - It is a lot more exciting, brighter, you got to remember they are colours balloons, balloons should be fun. I don't mind the highlights in V6, But I do not like the rustic look.



I like the girl being a subtle surprise.

it's much better now

only thing i would change is to change the ballon colors up a bit. other than that, i think it's perfect as is. big over small, so don't change the size of anything, you're good.

I like the distressed look, and the girl is looking great to me. Maybe brighten the balloons up but not by much, I think it works personally. Good luck with it anyway!

It has gotten much better I like this. I like how the girl isnt the subject and the baloons don't stand out to much either but they attract your attention, without looking like it was cut and pasted on

If you get a chance

http://www.threadless.com/critique/42940/title_pending

thanks

This is also a nice design digsy. I like the subtlety of the balloons and the child. The placement is great, extending out across the tee. I think this ought to be submitted. :)



Perhaps you can critique my new version of Gaia's Autumn (in blue)?

also... how did you add the distressed look? I'm not sure how to add it to images myself and i'd love to learn

not too many changes - balloons are lisghtly brighter in colour as many people suggested and the girl isn't as big as she was in the last version, but isn't as small either.

i've decided to leave her with the highlights as i think she looks strongest like this.

This is what i'll probably sub unless anyone has any further suggestions?

This is really nice. I like the distressed look on the design. It has mysterious feel in it.



Got a new version up. Crit? Thanks!!!!

http://www.threadless.com/critique/43410/Ouch#v2

Oh wow. I love this. The distressed look is really working and the elephant looks fab! The highlights are cool too IMO - though it's a different feel from the balloons it gives her depth and the design more interest overall. And oh it reminds me of Banksy! Really nicely done, looking forward to seeing this subbed.



Good luck and thanks for commenting on mine!

Very nice. I like it much better without the tusks, and it looks way cool grunged up like that. I really can't think of too much to change on this.

Cheers!

this is a great design! i think the girl could still be a little bit smaller, and i actually think the girl looks better with less contrast because the emphasis should be on the elephant. but it still looks great, even if you sub like this!



how DO you create the distressed look?? it looks great.





oh and i voted on your robot shirt. i love that too. :)

coool...

nice........

http://www.threadless.com/critique/43688/Yeah

thanks for your comments i think this one's ready for sub... nice!

i really like this and the robot one you have ... i do agree that the figure looks strongest here, but i also kind of want to see some of the colors present in the balloon connecting more at the bottom. it might not be necessary, but its the first thing that came to mind when i saw it. thanks for commenting on mine ... you're right, it's driving me crazy getting all of the contradictory comments.

i really like this and the robot one you have ... i do agree that the figure looks strongest here, but i also kind of want to see some of the colors present in the balloon connecting more at the bottom. it might not be necessary, but its the first thing that came to mind when i saw it. thanks for commenting on mine ... you're right, it's driving me crazy getting all of the contradictory comments.

thanks theevidenceisme - at the moment the girl is the same colour as the balloon highlights and the shadows on the blue balloons but thats about it. I'm not certain how i could add more colour in without adding a lot more detail for the colour to fill, and thats not something i want to do to her, i really like her as she is.

i will think about it thought definitely to see if i can work it in though, thanks for your help and suggestions

nice, could do with darker shadows if poss...

i like it but there needs to be more strings and better outlines of her face. Her face just looks off.

I like it. I think a shadow of the person going across the bottom may give it a bit of "drama" or something. other than that, very smart.

thanks for the comments on mine as well.

I really love version 5 to be honest....the balloons are just that little bit brighter which is great:)

how did you the washed-out-effect (if you can call it that way)?

Any comments on my latest one?

thats v cool like the faded effect 5 i reckon

I think you overdid the "washed-out-effect". It's a matter of preference, but I would prefer a more subtle effect and some stronger colors like in the first versions.

looked over your other versions and the wash out version is the most effective;)



Is there anyway to emphasize the guy at the bottom a bit more?

maybe just for kicks, add a tinge of red or yellow to his shirt or maybe belt buckle? that way it might tie up the entire image;)



cause you know, the elephant can't take all the spot light;)



good job though;) I be jealous

All i have to say is this is AWESOME!!!



Great Job :-D



please comment mine, id really appreciate it :-)

http://www.threadless.com/critique/42896/Retribution

a lot of comments re v5... so should the balloons be a bit brighter maybe then, while still keeping the distressed look?

i kind of toned them down because i had a couple of comment about people not liking the pallette early on. beginning to think i like v5 myself now, the girl looks better and i think there are too many strings at the moment.

oh, thanks for all the comments so far :-)

nice!



sub this!

Great idea and awesome rendering. I think you lost a lot of the subtle shading in the girl, looking at V5, V6 and this one. Too much contrast I think. Your call. Maybe a bit smaller so the elephant isn't so close to the neck and the girl is less hidden in the predictable hip-hugging folds. I don't think there are too many strings but you might try losing the arc coming off the balloons, in reality (not that this design is) they would be taut and straight down to the hand. The distress works beautifully but maybe distort the layer or break up the vertical lines a bit, so they're not so prominent. Anyway, terrific work! Cheers!

This has come a long way. I think it is close to being ready. Just don't feel like the girl matches yet.



Hit me back

I like the distressed look--- Go for the submission!



Would love

to have your feedback on this!

really dig the whimsy thing... sugg... maybe a bit more of an active illustration. elephant could be blown by high wind, maybe girl is leaning back against the strings. if that makes sense. thanks!

Distressed works well here, id say sub it,

thanks for the crit on mine.

Awesome, I like the more subtle shading on the girl in V 5 and 6, but think the ballons is cooler in this one:D Think you´re very close now. Cheers!



If you got time I've got a new version of ladder to heaven

I prefer the placement of the girl in V5. You can see her better.



Crit me please?

it's still a great one



would you mind to

Help me with my submission or / and Critique my latest?

maybe you can make it glow in the dark or uv glow



Let Them Fly! ButterFly

Secret Heart

Birds in the Shadow

Awesome, I like the placement.

I like how this is, subtle, and would submit as it is.

This looks much improved, well done. Please check my new critique if you have time.

nice, love the colors!

hmmm, i still think it's really nice, but, i think some minor adjustments are still to do...

the placement of the girl is not as good as V5 (in fact, the whole design is bigger than in v5).

The colors could be a little more vivid (the contrast of the girl is so strong, hard, that it distracts from the elephant) even if it's a whashed out, vintage effect.

I prefer also the girl in V1 (i said it earlier but, i still think it's better)

submit this great design already haha good work



If you get a chance your input would help

http://www.threadless.com/critique/42940/title_pending

thanks

Oh! I just got it! I like it.

Very nice. Wonderful idea; very sweet. I'm having a little trouble reading the girl in this version; she might need to be a little darker. Not sure why, but this is the hardest one to see her in, although that may just be because of her relation to the shadow on the shirt itself and not actually a problem in the drawing. Overall, very lovely. Definitely prefer the elephant as it is now, with softer colours and no tusks.



If you get a chance, would you mind critiquing mine? Thank you!

http://www.threadless.com/profile/910639/AltheaK/critiques

i really like the look of this! though i didn't get it immediately that it was an elephant (i think that's just me though!). would it be possible to give him those big floppy ears which are so distinctively an elephant's? maybe have the yellow balloon poke out a little above the elephant's head like it was the ear? otherwise, very nice!

This has been a marathon for you! It's looking good, really like the distressed look. I think I prefer the girl in V6, in terms of colour. I like that you have to sort of look for her as the elephant is the main focal point and then you are drawn to the girl by the strings. Just make sure you know the difference between someone checking out the design, and checking you out!!

nice, really love the distressed fadded look and that the colours aren't in your face.



feel free to ad your thoughts on mine

http://www.threadless.com/critique/43916/test_kittee

nice, really love the distressed fadded look and that the colours aren't in your face.



feel free to ad your thoughts on mine

http://www.threadless.com/critique/43916/test_kittee

wow! this has come a long way...looks ready, sub it :D

Submit it! Submit it! Submit it!





Check Out Mine!

I really like this

Very cool, looks like it's ready!



Can you take a look at mine?

agree with downing thecontrast on the girl. i prefer her in v6 actually. or maybe somewhere in between v6 and this migh be the best :)

I like it!

I like it! Go ahead and submit it : )

haha digsy where have you gone?



When you come back I have a new version of Pre-empting Disaster, do help me out and have a look if you're able!

hi isolder!

i've still got this in mind, I've just been trying to teach myself flash in the meantime so that i can start making cool little flash presentations instead. not getting very far yet though! haha!

do still plan on subbing this but am going to put up a flash presentation on here first... hopefully some time this week!

hey all, so this is the final flash version that i'm going to push into the running.

thanks for all your help so far - this version should have the little tweaks that were mentioned in the previous version. It's closer to v6 in both style and size.

hope you all like it!

Great idea, terrific illo and very easy to use/view presentation. So I say sub, and best of luck. Tell us all when it's up for voting, It would be my pleasure to 5 it. Cheers!

Yep, let us know! By the way, is there any way to track designs from people that we like? Some way to find them quickly and see if they are up for voting?

awesome design the dynamics are cool, it took a second look to realize that the balloons where an elephant which means it a design that keeps on giving...submit for sure.



BearGrillz

thanks everyone!

pushed it into the running, so will be sure to let you all know when it's up for scoring.



jnjmitchell - i don't know how to keep track of subbed designs but I do know you can mark critiques as "watched" and then filter by that to easily keep track of designs you're interested in.

I really like this! Am i sensing a possible Banksy influence?

a new cleaner version - was worried about the image quality in the last flash file

cr@p - it's too bright.

guess i'll be fixing this this evening and uploading a new version tomorrow.

sigh, i wish i could work on this at work... would save me my evenings!

wahhey, it's up for voting - show me some love please!

and a big thanks to the person who ticked the "do not sub" box

thanks for that, super-helpful

anyone interested in how i did the distressed look - i put a brief description up in my blog here

hope you find it helpful

Thanks for the tutorial and good luck with your design.

Good luck:)

I voted a $5.



If ya have the time, I would like your input.

Submit it! Asap!



Check my design out?

www.threadless.com/critique/44430/A_Mad_Mess

Love it! I think it's ready for submission :)



Thanks for linking me to the vintage look tutorial too...



Perhaps you can critique my new one, ?

Sorry, here it is:Psychedelic Soup?

time to submit.

only two more days left, please vote if you haven't already!

voted :) mine is up too!

thanks resistance, i voted on yours too

2.88 - I'm very happy with that!

Thanks to everyone who helped with the critique process and who voted and commented.

That's really a good score, my highest before "Party Animal" was 2.87. Still, a bit underscored as far as Im concerned. Maybe it's because there's a girl cutting her kite loose (similar to your girl and balloon positioning) by ilovedoodle, that's been recently printed. Anyway, keep on designing, love your stuff.

ilovedoodle

thanks quister, thats a great design by ilovedoodle.

i was hoping for 2.7-2.8 so 2.88 is a score i'm happy with.

wasn't expecting it to score as high as the robot design as there wasn't as much interest this time round, so yeah, pretty happy with that.

now i've just got to get that bloody hamster right!

i like that texture~



Could you please comment on my design too?

Snoozing Turtle

I like that texture.



Could you please comment on my design too?

Snoozing Turtle