Tennis' banner shop

[art-of-tennis]

I like making banners. I do sketching sometimes too, but not nearly as often. I guess this'll be my art thread. xD

I'm a big narutotard. lol.

Older banner that I made for a site I help run.

Banner made for my wifi trade partner. (arkeis.com is credited for the render)

REALLY old lol. I made this for someone in wifi as well, but that was when I was still getting used to GIMP effects.

A sketch that i did. :) Luffy is awesome.

Kind of average wifi banner that i made for somebody.

Really basic sig that I made for a friend of mine.

One of my older banners made while I was still discovering some of the ways to use GIMP.

First sketch I did soley with GIMP. (man do you know how difficult it is to draw with a mouse? @_@)

Lol, I made this when pokeguy in wifi was getting into trouble. xD More of a joke than anything. Decent banner though.

That's one of my more recent banners. Kind of nice. (arkeis.com is credited for the render. Most of the other pokemon banner renders can be found on pokemonelite2000.com before I spiffed them up)

Banner I made out of boredom for someone in wifi.

Another banner I made out of boredom for some random wifier. xD

Some random banner made for the same wifier as below. My personal favorite banner.

Bored and made a banner for another wifier. (I tend to do this a lot, mostly when i can't stand their current banners...)

http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/oo16/tennisisawesome/Uberbanner.png[img]

Made for the same wifier. [B][SIZE=4]PLEASE GUYS DO NOT RE-USE THESE BANNERS! IF YOU WANT A BANNER I WILL MAKE YOU A DIFFERENT ONE![/SIZE][/B]

[SIZE=2][IMG]http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/oo16/tennisisawesome/GI-2.png[/SIZE]

Another banner I made to advertise gameinciter; the site that some friends and I run.

Banner made for a wifier.

Wifier banner again. xD

Another banner made for wifi. Man I hate the colors in this... >.>

I have a lot more sketches, but the computer I saved them on is a different one. If I get on it, I'll upload some more. The other places my art is uploaded too isn't able to link here and show, so when i get time I'll put them on my photobucket. Basically, I'm willing to make anyone a banenr if they provide me with a render and what they want it look like. (it must be appropriate though, ofcouse... )

 

[Genesis of Oblivion]

Do you take requests? If so could you make a banner saying Metadragon's Trade Thread, make it include all the dragon types.

 

[art-of-tennis]

Yeah, I will do requests. (provided when they're submitted that I have time on my hands) If you provide me with a render, than yes, I will make one for you. I prefer to have a maximume of three renders though...

 

[Genesis of Oblivion]

ok, here we go: The words MetaDragon's Trade Thread at the top with a Flygon looking awesome underneath.

 

[art-of-tennis]

ok, here we go: The words MetaDragon's Trade Thread at the top with a Flygon looking awesome underneath.

Ok, I'll see what I can do. (next time please POST the render though...)

 

[Mastadi]

I like your banners, however, there are a few things that are wrong with these. First of all, the pokemon seem to stand out of the background too much. Also try to use less effects, such as glows and flares. However, your works more on the bottom seem fine when it comes to the use of special effects. And one last thing, on some of them, the text is hard to read. Try to pick the colours more carefuly next time ;)

Keep up the good work :)

 

[art-of-tennis]

I like your banners, however, there are a few things that are wrong with these. First of all, the pokemon seem to stand out of the background too much. Also try to use less effects, such as glows and flares. However, your works more on the bottom seem fine when it comes to the use of special effects. And one last thing, on some of them, the text is hard to read. Try to pick the colours more carefuly next time ;)

Keep up the good work :)

The older banners (a.k.a. the crappy ones) are the ones toward the top. I'm guessing those are the ones you mean. I recently discovered some different ways to make banners, so that's how I made the lower ones.

 

[darkie]

I must say, your pencil drawing is quite good.


Your digital art, however, isn't so good. With experience you'll get better, but here is some advice. The way you seem to make these is just background + render. That really is a bad way to do it. Integrate your render with the whole image. 'Looking cool' is different from actually being aesthetically pleasing.

 

[art-of-tennis]

I must say, your pencil drawing is quite good.


Your digital art, however, isn't so good. With experience you'll get better, but here is some advice. The way you seem to make these is just background + render. That really is a bad way to do it. Integrate your render with the whole image. 'Looking cool' is different from actually being aesthetically pleasing.

Thanks for the compliment. (I had a picuture that I based it on, so that sketch wasn't really hard) As for the digital art comment, would you mind elaborating on what you mean by, "Integrate your render with the whole image?" I just started making banners about a month and a half ago, so I'm still learning that kind of thing.

 

[darkie]

Do you mind if I paste examples (of some of my own stuff)?

 

[art-of-tennis]

Not at all.

 

[darkie]

I'll just link them, since this is your thread, after all.

Anyway, look at something like this. It's not really a background + a render, but something that flows. Here are a couple more examples that I've made - 1 2 3

Along the same lines, consider working on your textography a little. There are various tutorials all over the internet that can help. Just keep working at and you'll get better, I assure you. My stuff used to be.. not so great, too!

edit: Sorry if this comes across as rude; I am only trying to help you!

edt2: Flurries gives really good advice. He phrased it a lot better than I could have. :b (And I'm pretty sure I used Photoshop.)

 

[Flurries]

You definitely know your way around GIMP better than I do, but mind if I give some artistic pointers?

You seem to like either grungy or "electric" themes, and while they can look good, you must remember to make it appealing to the reader. There's nothing wrong with the backgrounds you use, in fact, they're quite good, but you seem to just throw things on them and call it a day. In particular, your text is very hard to read and almost blurry. Here is some constructive criticism from my point of view.

1) When applying text, either make it contrast the main color, or have a well defined border. If you fail to do one of the following, the text gets "lost" in the picture. (Like in your Kingdra one, the word 'trade' is hardly visible)

2) When adding pictures, always start with a bigger image and downsize it, not the other way around. If you try to expand, the pixels blur and the image becomes fuzzy. If you must make it bigger, try making it shadow-like and blend it into the background. This should hide the faults a big.

3) Choose a color scheme BEFORE you start. If you wanted to make, say a watery themed banner, sit down and think. "Okay, I want blue, but a sea blue, and maybe a light seafoam green? Oh, and anything that accents it should be a light gray color." Think it out and place the colors next to each other. You can alter the colors in many programs, and it will look better.

4) Try applying more than one effect. Maybe make all of the banner grungy or metal-like, but then make the main focus, whether text or an image, very clean, crisp, and organized. This is more pleasing to the eye.

This is all I can think of off the top of my head. :)
Good luck!

@Darkie- Very impressive. I assume you use photoshop?

 

[DougJustDoug]

The guidelines are pretty clear about banner threads:

All avatars, banners, and requests for those graphics belong in this thread. Separate threads that consist only of banners/avatars will be locked.

I see one non-banner in the OP. The rest of this thread has already turned into a bunch of banner requests and comments. Take this to the proper thread.