Hi everyone! This is only my second post, but I am looking forward to a lot more! I'm not sure if I am posting this in the write place or not, so lemme know if I need to move it!

My mom and I took some pictures of my brother with his guitar recently... She thought it would be cool to do some sillohuette shots to play with. His birthday is coming up and I thought it would be cool if I could make a fake album cover for him to hang up in his room. (Which is decorated in guitar/fender stuff.) His name is Jared (obvi!) and his band on the Guitar Hero games is Turkey Jerky, so that is where the name comes from.

I'm posting this on here, because I feel like it is lacking something.... or maybe I should change a lot of things, but I think I need some fresh eyes. Hope you guys enjoy the pictures! and I'm welcome to all ideas and criticism (even though I would never call this finished).

This is a link (http://whitaarin.smugmug.com/gallery/3293174#182846810) to the picture I've been working on along with the pictures that I have been working from. I was going to put up a .psd of the "final" picture but it is way too big... and I have got to going so if you want me to post a .psd or .jpg let me know!

Can't wait to hear your great ideas!
Whitley

Hi Whitley,

You silhouette look is a nice look. Kind of arty, yet minimalistic. I rather like it. What I feel that you need to fix with this though, is your shadows. The shadow on the lettering shows the light source to be lower than the letters, angled up and to the right. The shadow on the figure in the back ground is angled down, and is too dark, and the other figures don't have shadows at all. When you make your shadows, think about where your light source, or sources would be, for the scene as a whole and then make your shadows accordingly.

Whitley,

I think it's great what you are doing for your brother. Because this piece is a hipster album cover, I think you would really enjoying using some 'grunge'. Here is a link to a tutorial, but more importantly a free source of "Grunge Brushes":

http://www.bittbox.com/photoshop/reverse-grunge-easy-texture-technique-in-photoshop-and-others/

Take what you want from the tutorial, but be sure to follow the links from the first paragraph and get his great high resolution grunge and splatter brushes. I design a lot of album covers for an online game called project rockstar, and find that grunge goes a long way in turning a normal old design into something pretty darn cool.

-Guy

Thanks so much! I am working on both of your suggestions now!
and I LOVE the tutorial! :D

Well, be sure to come back and show us what you come out with.

Ok, I am not sure if I did the shadows right. I set them all to 151 degrees. What do you think of the background? I used a picture that I took of my brothers guitar. I can't tell if it is too much or not. I've had a lot of fun playing with the "grunge" technique though!

That looks really good. Congratulations. I'm glad that you learned something new as well.

I'd say your shadow look much better. Your grunge technique looks very good as well. Nice job.

Guy, I looked at the tutorial that you posted. A little different than I've seen before. Added it to my stock of neat tricks. Thanks!

Thank you so much!

My next question is.....what do you think about the lettering/font? I'm not wild about how it looks now and I have switched it over and over but still can't find much. It's hard for me to not make it look too "girly". hehe. my brother would not like that. :D

and thank you guys again so much! i am really excited to be joining such a nice and helpful community and can't wait to get to know more people!

Whitley I think you are off to a great start. I like how you have the 3 shadows placed, and try looking here for some free fonts.

http://www.dafont.com/en/

Well, my brothers birthday party was moved up, so I went ahead and ordered the copy I had done, so I thought I would show everyone. I am going to look at the fonts website now! Thanks so much!

His middle name is Daniel, so I made the J & D big to also be like his initials, I thought I was pretty clever for coming up with that. hehe.

I ordered it in 16x20 because he is in to guitar posters and decorations right now and I will get a frame for it!

Thanks for all your help and if you think of any more ideas, let me know! I am still working on it!