VOTE: Signature of The Month (SOTM) - June 2019

[sumire007]

@libertypo; Hmmm well you can technically call that a contest, since you get a price out of it, if you win (points/free card submission) Plus the upper section thread is literally called "Official Forum Contests". And calling the critics as a dissertation is a bit too much, they only told the set makers what they think it's good/bad and why, to understand their thinking, which I think it's nice!
Maybe I just have a different point of view, from a set/profile/coloration maker perspective, and like to have feedback of what I've done right/wrong for next time, who knows

[libertypo]

@libertypo; Plus the upper section thread is literally called "Official Forum Contests".

And so it says! My bad then

[sephslover]

No.1 OMGGGGGGGGGGG!!!

P.S. to #1's designer: Could you please drop me a line and let me know if that image's from a manga/doujinshi?

[laketica]

oh....... so many colors!!! I laughed when I saw #5... I just found it hilarious. The stock photo that is, not the work of the set artist, hehehe. @Swanlake77; that was quite the evaluation! I... I don't think I could ever take the time to create such a deep analysis, but thanks for doing that... I know it sounded a bit serious, but hopefully @libertypo; is all right too fellow yaoi lovers, unite!! hehe. and of course @lateChoco; you'd be all over that for #3 I SEE YOU'RE ALREADY WEARING IT omg I can't stop looking at #5. It's so funny. XDDDD

[ellymate]

My dear fellow aarin members,
this is a monthly - friendly Contest, where many of our artists (including myself) take pleasure in participating for the pure joy, exercise, artistic point of view and other various reasons. There are no rules nor criteria regarding how one should vote for their favorite, as long as the comments are not rude. Which is not the case here.

For as long as I've been participating in the monthly contests on AF, I haven't noticed a specific criteria on how members should vote for their favorite piece, I just assumed that members voted without voicing their selective thoughts or without actually taking notice of the actual gfx skills from the entries, which made me think this was all a more "friendly approach" and avoided someone feeling bad if one entry was criticized more. This doesn't mean that it's the best option or that it's wrong to point out some subtle details we see in the entries.

As a "gfx creator" I find the voting system like the one @Swanlake77; used, the best. It is constructive and I've never taken offense when someone pointed out the wrongs with my entries; that just leaves space for improvement and it also shows me that my entry is evaluated by someone who pays attention to details or has knowledge in processing and manipulating images. I believe the other gfx users kindly appreciate this type of "criticism" and are actually fully prepared to face them since they decided to display them publicly.

Because of this reasons I ask the rest of the members not to take it as a personal attack towards the artists, we don't do it nor should you. Continue to express your likes and dislikes, we will appreciate it.

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Now, I'd like to share my old style of voting that I used on sites where voters were asked to present at least two valid reasons and the character was not part of them.

#sig 1
Has really good blending, a palette of colors that are warm and fits the theme together with the flowers, but as an overall, doesn't make me think completely of summer as the main theme. it used some nice textures, there's also some brush (?), but I can definitely see the highlighted spots which give a nice feeling as an overall and totally improves the lighting of the sig. The font text is cute, but probably the placing is a little high for my tastes.
As and overall, this is a very beautiful sig with some nice blending skills from the artist *winks*.

#sig 2
I'm not completely sure if is photo manipulation or if only some minor things where added. This is one of my reasons why I like seeing the stock someone worked it. BUT, it fits perfectly in the theme! It totally screams of summer; the characters might have been placed on an already existing picture with the sea, which can show the nice blending skills of someone OR the picture was like this and is presented like a capture of a video sequence from a phone or better yet, a postcard presented under this form. The focus is totally on the characters and the font and text used screams of summer times.
As an overall, this is pretty and a total summer sig.

#sig 3
I've always appreciated this type of signatures, the working area is more restricted, which leaves the artist with little space of showing some skills. The main focus here is with the stock and the nicely placed text, there's not much work but I appreciate the good choice of font, good color palette - summer like and the overall effect. Summer cuteness.

#sig 4
Have I mentioned I love this type of sigs?? Yep, this is personal, I like the cut out characters like a pop-up and I totally like the full impact of this sig. You've guessed right, this one got my vote.
Leaving aside my personal likeness of this sig, there is perfect blending of how the cropping was done and inserted, even if the character repeats twice, it is done in a refined method. There is also the yellow color and the sunflower added which are such specific summer elements, the leaves behind the character adds up to something exotic, but the font used is a masterpiece! I believe that this font, text and perfect blending made me go for this sig from the first moment, it is very summer-like!

#sig 5
I love the color palette about this one, I like the neon-type-of-colors and together with the stock, it gives a summer vibe. The font and text are pretty, the sharpening is good as well as the lighting, but lets be honest, the characters do everything, they scream of summer and their expressions are priceless, so there's not that much work on the bg. On short, the main focus was on the characters, they get the spotlight and the glory of the sig called "summer", add the nice blending and you get a very very simple, yet, with effect signature.

As an overall, I think no 1 deserves more prasing from my part togeter with no 4.

[kerlyness]

some really good interpretations of the theme!

In the end, I went with #2. I'm really impressed at how much the picture looks like a video still.