A Study of Some Well-Built Tags and What to Learn From Them

[Dogenzaka]

All credit goes to the Tagmonkey forums

This isn't the REAL tut I was going to post today, but it's just something small I thought I'd post anyway and that might help others on how to learn from other tags.

BALANCEOFCOLOR in practice

Artist: Faith



What does this tag stand out to you with? TO me, it's the color representation. Although it's a somewhat soft signature without too sharp of depth, the colors, although they're complimentary somehow do a good job of softening the tag as well. It's a very soft purpley/red with some sunshine yellows that seem to go well together in this tag. Look for color combinations such as these.

Another couple of examples of good complimentary colors:

Artist: Qwertz



Artist: (Our very own Sparkle Motion, and a slight variation I made on the tag with his permission)



The blue mixes comfortably with the sunshine orange of the tag, and with many shades and hues in between the two, it gives the portrait a sense of color and balance. Try to achieve this within your own works.

Another example:

Artist: Crisseh.



Blue and red are just natural yin and yang. Blue's a very calm and melodic color, while red is vibrant, powerful, and warm. Using the two correctly can result in very colorful, yet naturally energetic looking tags. I always find it easier to pick a shade of blue, and add small teaspoonfuls of a warm color like vibrant red just to add enough flavoring to the tag. In this piece, the colors balance out pretty evenly.

Artist: Vo1ture


See here? Warm and cool colors blend harmoniously to the tag that might have otherwise just been plain cool colors or bland warm colors. It's important to mix both pastel-warms/cools and sharp, vibrant warms/cools. The left side has a creamy pink, while the right has noticeable pieces of sharp red. Along with other colors found oun the color wheel, like a light yellow, almost brown, and dark blue are added in shades to give the piece depth.


Sometimes, not every time, using a slightly different hue/saturation than white can make the tag seem more unique than if you just used plain old white:

Artist: weed+nicotine



Here, it's apparent the author probably used a layer of blue set on Exclusion in Photoshop, and then lowered the opacity. Doing layers on exclusion like this will sometimes add a different set of colors to touch your piece, and might even change it for the better. Pure white can sometimes be boring, so maybe try to use a very bland yellow like here. Or maybe even, combine the two and use them in different areas of the sig for depth of lighting!

I believe a blue exclusion layer was also used in this following tag.

Artist: Clarity



Notice how here, white might not have been the best color to base out the tag. You could have done it, and it might have looked a bit darker and less saturated, but with this nice exclusion layer, it gives the black colors more of a purple tint, and the white colors a more lime/yellow tint, that gives it less monotone and more color.

When you do black & white tags, it's usually important to make them very deep and vibrant. Since they lack any color to tell their story, they need dynamic lighting, clever use of depth and shading, and good placement to make them stand out. These tags were made by:

Vo1ture



Here the blacks and whites are all in different areas of the tag, but with clever smudging, renders, stock placement, and textures (all of which we'll get to in a minute), it feels unique and the light feels spread evenly throughout the tag, but without makin it look too confused. It's contrasted enough to where it gives significant depth and a feel of 3-dimensions to it. It's important to have your black-and-white tags achieve a look of authenticity at times, even if they lack any color.

Sometimes, however, it works to give a black & white tag one or two distinguishing colors to give them a sense of color while still keeping its monotone identity. This tag was also made by Vo1ture:



Here some light greens and blues are added to a pice that might have been a little too boring and bland otherwise some energy and flow.

Same here:

Artist: artm0nkey



Although the tag might have been somewhat okay on its own as black & white, the author used different pastel hues of the primary colors to add a bit of life and energy to the tag it might have otherwise been without.

Not every tag has to have a piece of work has to have a stock, but at least give it a general purpose or sense of direction

This piece is also by Vo1ture:



Vo1ture does a great job of mixing up different pastely colors and patterns to give this piece a proud look. Using familiar patterns like squares and "X"s in different fashions gives a boring old pattern a facelift with different colors and effects. Place these colors against a dark backdrop, and they seem to come alive. The small heart at the bottom achieves just enough personalization. Aim for this when you try to make something similar.

Artist: faith



Artist: moose



Not sure if that faith is the same artist as before, but regardless, these two tags demonstrate how using a dark backdrop in your tag can sometimes give the color a place to hide, and really balance out your tag while keeping it lively.

Stockplacement&Lighting



Once again, this is another piece by Vo1ture. Although most people probably would have taken a stock like this and added a black/white gradient coming from above towards her head, Vo1ture took a different approach, and I'd say it worked. When you have a stock like this, sometimes it's a good idea to give some creative lighting. In this case, it's as if she's standing in front of a huge source of light in which she almost becomes a silhouette. The random fancy C4Ds of a dark color contrast against the light background and make it feel individual, with some parts blending in and giving different colors. Be sure to use creative lighting in your tags without ruining it. Sometimes simple changes go a long way.

Artist: WIS



Most of your stocks will have a flow or direction they are giving off. Whether it be through their eyes, their limbs, or their expressions and actions in the picture. In this particular case, the child is turned a certain way, facing a certain direction, and blowing in that certain direction. This tells us that the flow of the tag needs to be going in that direction, in this case, the right. Here, the artist placed the stock in an area where the flow would be presently visible throughout the tag, in this case, towards the right. Using creativity and color, he/she built a great tag with correct flow and placement.

Artist: Las Vegas



Look at the stock here. Did you notice something unique about it? She has her head turned to her right, revealing her neck and hand covering it. It seems to be the main focus of the picture, the "catch" about this stock. It's important to find the "catch" of your stock and use it to your advantage in tag-making. What the artist here did is focus all the lighting and flow of this tag coming from around that neck.

Sometimes, however, light doesn't always come from a specific area, or reach the stock in a natural way.

Artist: Sacred-kun



In this piece, the light doesn't reach the stock in a straight formation from a given point. Rather, the artist used a bright array of whites and yellows in the areas where the stock's face designated it to go. In the stock, her face is lighter and apparent of being exposed to light on the left, while the right side of her face is darker. Therefore, the artist brightened up spots of the tag near that area to give it a sense of light-exposure. Even with that section of black interrupting the light, it still uses bright whites to try to convey light-exposure, and the black/purple interruption actually adds some creativity and even distribution of shade.

It's always important to focus your lighting based upon the stock. Is the stock showing a progression of shade in the direction the light is traveling? Then you're on the right track.

Artist: carbuncle



On this tag, see how the light is naturally coming from the foreground of the left side? It's naturally hitting his face from a straight angle, and therefore it's correct and looks completely natural. Notice how the artist also didn't use white as the light, but a mellow yellow (lol). Sometimes, using a color other than white for light is ideal.

Here the tag is almost completely dark:

Artist: Vexel



Sometimes it works to just use minimal lighting. This tag has very little lighting, but the lighting it uses exposes the stock at a good angle, and makes the stock the prime focus of the tag, which is your goal.

C4Ds&RENDERS
Artist: pathey



C4D's and renders are 3-dimensional pieces made in programs such as Cinema4D and Blender.
Sometimes they can be the entire piece to support your tag. Sometimes they just compliment it, sometimes they make it what it is. When the tag calls for it, be sure to use C4D's well.

In that particular piece above, the C4D renders flowing out of her elbow and dress make up the entire life and vibrancy of the artwork, supporting the lively stock. Adding a bright yellow well-distinguishes a sense of identity.



This piece was made by pathey as well. Sometimes, your entire tag can be made up of just C4Ds and renders.

Artist: salzella



C4Ds and renders are awesome at helping you establish a flow when there's almost none present initially. In this piece, the flow is coming directly from the source of light and traveling outwards to the edges of the tag.

TO BE CONTNUED... :O