What'cha think?

[mealstrom]

I made an avatar for a friend of mine and liked the graphic so much I decided to make a full-sized one. I made a full-sized version of it showing the entire gun (and without his name of course). I want to order some prints and frame them to hang in the cigar shop, but I'm not sure if people would actually be interested in buying it. I know there's a market for cigar-related art, but I'm not sure if it's just too cheesy or not.

Here's the avatar picture - I'll post a full size pic when I get to my computer this afternoon.

 

[sack]

Nice graphics, Smoking Gun Cigars? Interesting. God luck! :thumbs:

 

[Brickhouse]

Not knocking your art skill at all bro, it looks cool, no doubt.

But what's the message? To me it looks like the message is "smoking kills". Am I way out in left field here or does anyone else get that from it?

Again, not knocking the art itself, it looks great.....but I think the message is too fuzzy to hang it in a cigar shop. I can just see people seeing it and being confused.

 

[Jaster]

^^^
Agreed. Yeah, it's cool-looking, but I don't get it. Am I just over-analyzing this?

 

[br174]

Not knocking your art skill at all bro, it looks cool, no doubt.

But what's the message? To me it looks like the message is "smoking kills". Am I way out in left field here or does anyone else get that from it?

Again, not knocking the art itself, it looks great.....but I think the message is too fuzzy to hang it in a cigar shop. I can just see people seeing it and being confused.

I'm with ya on that

 

[BigJake6904]

From a fellow pshopper....

The ash looks a bit too one dimensional for the gun. The ash, though with detail, doesn't round off to the point where it actually looks like it's on the gun. I would change the lighting scheme, maybe use the blur and stretch tool a bit and then change the angles on some drop shadows.

But other than that, as far as the picture itself, and not the message, not a bad job.

Where did you get that smoke :sign:

 

[mealstrom]

It was for a guy who sends out a TON of bombs and is a huge gangster movie fan. He loves Godfather, Sopranos, and Scarface. I made it more in that light than the smoking kills light - although I didn't think about that aspect of it! I wanted it to look like the gun had been fired, but have that nice cigar ash on the end. I liked the juxtaposition.

I am not 100% happy with the ash, but I had a little trouble matching it juuuuuuust right. I do need to work a bit more on it then if someone else noticed it too.

I'll get another picture up with a few more edits done. That pics was made in about an hour, so I need to put a bit more work into it. Looks like it's great for a small avatar, but not so great for a larger picture. Thanks for the opinions!

 

[MadMonk]

I would have more of a cigar behind the ash, and then fade into the gun. It would also work to eliminate the impression that the end of the barrel is melting. Otherwise some of the other comments hold more true. This might convey the idea of a cigar better, but I do not know how many would
see the pic in the smoking kills vice smoking gun. I feel that will remain a mixed bag.
You might do some abstract color and/or geometric patterns on the pistol to help make it less ominous.

 

[stlboarder]

The image isn't showing up

 

[mealstrom]

Yeah, Digital City Hosting didn't pay their bills, so all my web domains are out. Needless to say I'm PISSED.

On another note, with that graphic what I'm doing is in the empty space above the gun I'm gluing some high-end bands (Opus X, Forbidden X, GoF, Padron Anniv, etc) - then in the empty space under the gun I'm trying to think of a cool saying to put there. I want something that makes people think "Man, those cigars are bad-ass" and relate that to the smoking gun. It's hard to find a non-negative way to represent them with the gun, but I like the graphic so much I'm GOING to find a way to do it. :laugh:

Damn those Truth commercials - they make everything cigar(ette) related look evil and deadly.

 

[MadMonk]

A lot of good art is the result of bending the rules (of art) as much as possible, and pulling it off.
Keep at it.