Critique Clinic – June 24, 2011
June 24, 2011
How does it work? Each week on Friday, I will open the clinic to any artist who wants an honest peer review and critique of a card which gets plenty of clicks but no sales, so something’s probably not quite right. Or perhaps you’re a newbie who isn’t sure if a recently submitted card is up to a marketable standard. Anyone is welcome to participate. In fact, I encourage everyone to at least look at the cards in question and read the critique comments – you may learn something. The purpose of the clinic is to help artists improve the commercial appeal and marketability of their cards.
THE RULES
- ONE card per artist only.
- Card must be for sale at Greeting Card Universe.
- Only 5 artists will be accepted per weekly clinic – first come, first served. If you miss out, you’ll have to wait until the next week. International artists, if your time zone doesn’t permit prompt participation, get in touch with me and I’ll try to work something out with you.
- To submit a card for critique, post a link to the card’s details page at GCU in the comments section of this clinic post. Check through the comments before you submit to see how many cards have already been submitted that day. If the number is five, please do not post yours. Any cards posted after the limit is reached will be deleted from the comment thread.
- Any artist is free to comment and/or give a critique of a submitted card. HOWEVER, post-and-run comments like “great card” or “you suck” will not be tolerated, nor will abuse. Criticism should be constructive, not destructive. Play nice or you will be banned.
- I also won’t tolerate temper tantrums if you decide your “artistic integrity” is being stepped on because you asked for a critique, and someone told you the photo you’re using isn’t in focus. If you can’t take honest criticism, don’t submit. Once gets you a warning; twice and you’re banned from submitting in the future.
- Artists who critique may do so by giving their opinion, posting an example of another card, or pointing the submitter to a video, on-line article, or other helpful suggestion.
- Don’t forget that artists who are giving you tips and helpful advice are volunteering their time and trouble. Be nice. A link back to their store on your website or blog is appreciated (but not mandatory).
- You are free not to take any advice offered. There’s no guarantee any card will be a bestseller, so don’t come into the clinic with unrealistic expectations.
- Once you submit a card for the clinic, you may NOT submit again for 4 weeks – fair’s fair.
- Rules may change as we go along and we see how things turn out, okay?
So without any further ado, I declare this week’s Critique Clinic open!
Share this:
14 Comments
leave one →
GCU Community 
Hello everybody,
I’ve got these beautiful wildflower cards, at least I think they are, and have been getting a lot of clicks on them, but so far no sales.
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/community/gcu_product.asp?pid=666980& return=/community/my_cards.asp?page=2
This is the most blatant with over 202 clicks and no sales. Its a Best Wishes for someone leaving for a new job. I’ve also got the same image with a two congratulations cards for expecting baby(109 clicks – 0 sales) and Quinceanera(67 clicks – 0 sales) then another Thank You – Love(23 clicks). Combined that seems like a lot of clicks for one image to not have any sales, then again perhaps I’m expecting more than I should. I have no idea what others click counts are on cards.
I’m open for a good critique.
Thank you, Randy
Randy, here are my immediate impressions: the image of the flower appears distorted and badly cropped. Because your frame is almost the same color as the flower’s background, it’s doing nothing to make the central image stand out. The text also appears distorted. And you’ve got more space at the bottom of the entire design than the top, so it isn’t vertically centered. Possible fixes might be to go back to the drawing board with your image, see if you can get it to look a little more professional and less like a snapshot; pick up the flower’s violet color and use that as a frame; and re-do the text so it isn’t distorted and in a solid color rather than outlined.
Corrie
Good morning Randy,
I have to agree with Corrie. The photograph itself needs a bit of a soft focus applied to the background. The entire photo seems too grainy to me. I think you would receive some sales if you placed this image on a white background, like a white mat, add a shadow to lift it off the background a bit and add simple, crisp text below the image. Crisp and clean is professional when it comes to showing off a photograph.
Something like this:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/-Commitment+Ceremony+Wedding+Invitation+Gay+Lesbian-greeting+card-591347?pid=591347&aid=137017&f=1&ref=cb_card_title
Randy, I like the picture, but I want to point out that the link here does REALLY distort the picture as opposed to the link you posted on the forum before you knew how.
It ‘s a very pretty flower, just wanted to add my two cents,
This could be a really gorgeous card without the filter. I feel filters must be used very sparingly and only to enhance the original photo.. I like the lettering but i wonder if some of the picture could blend more towards and under some of the lettering. Hope you get some sales on this soon:)
Eugenia
Thank you both. Norma at the forum noticed that I submitted my edit this card page for my example. I changed the link at the forum to my store page, but am unable to edit my comment here. I’m trusting that noone here will do anything with it and if they do, be my guest, I’ve got plenty of other work to do. lol
Back to the image and the presentation. It was an effect I was looking for that artificial almost unnatural look, but you both are probably right, it doesn’t work. The colors of text on the front were picked from the image itself, but probably the wrong thing to do. Also, this image was cropped from a larger image to single out just the one flower, so I’m sure that some sharpness was lost and why it appears to be a bit grainy. Adding the text and the backgound kicked up the size to be acceptable at GCU, but still doesn’t help the image itself. I really liked the effect, but now it’s two to one against, so guess that’s a good sign I was wrong. lol Plus I really trust what you two say, hard to argue success.
Hopefully, I’ll get some more critiques as this is great! Nobody hardly ever criticizes your work at the forums, kind of like the ole, “you look nice, today!” brushoff. so there you go along thinking you’re putting out a great product when actually you aren’t.
Thank you two again!
Best always, Randy
Randy said “Nobody hardly ever criticizes your work at the forums, kind of like the ole, “you look nice, today!” brushoff.”
Hi Randy,
What you just said there makes me wish for a ‘tweaking thread’ at the forum where people just post their cards and request *tidbits* of advice to help tweak a card/picture or inside verse. Not necessarily what you’d call an entire critique. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE this clinic – but 4 weeks between critiques already feels like an eternity to me – lol. Anyhow, it’d be nice to have an area at the forum for just tweaking…get other’s opinions on what slight improvements might help to make a card better. Maybe there’s already something at the forum that meets with this wish…but so far it hasn’t been easy for me to locate, if there is.
Now, just to make my post adhere to clinic rules, I’ll give you my opinion on just one small aspect of your card. The text. Corrie said to redo the text in a solid color with no outline. But I don’t think it would be bad to have just a very, very thin outline in a color that is just slightly darker than the text itself. I think I’d also try coloring the text using shades of the deepest red/burgundy in your flower. Not sure if it’s a color that would work, but I’d try it if it were my card (unless you’ve already tried it…then disregard – lol.). 🙂
Cindy
“Once you submit a card for the clinic, you may NOT submit again for 4 weeks – fair’s fair.”
Oops. I apologize for missing this rule.
Cindy
Thank you Eugenia!
I’m not really adept with the photo editing tools. I use a program called Picasa and I’m thinking what you are referring to as filters are what they call effects, like saturation, warming, tinting among others. And like the name implies, they are only for effect. I did use the warming on this to give it that effect and agree with you on going larger with the image blending it into the border and under the lettering. Then I will definitely have to change the coloring of the lettering to make it stand out! But knowing my original image, think I might be best suited just changing the image completely, still using the same flowers, but a sharper image.
Love your facebook page, you’ve got some really cool artwork. Love that lion with the big grin.
Best always, Randy
Hi Randy, just to add to Eugenia’s discussion on filters. Saturation, Warming, and Tinting are not effects, those are part of a Digital Darkroom because those things have been done in a traditional darkroom for years. What I call effects are the FILTER GALLERY where you can Stylize, Distort, Render and add Artistic effects. I mention these filters in this photo tip article if you are interested.
http://salonofartnewsletter.weebly.com/1/post/2011/01/photography-tip-for-nov-dec-2010.html
Thank you all for your input! I took some of what you all suggested and recreated the image with a double border and crisper sharper text. I went with off-white text and a narrow violet colored outline picked from the darkest part of the petals as Cindy suggested. Also if you notice I lightened up the background and gave it a softer feel like Doreen suggested. Hope it works, I do like it much better as it has a softer feeling that fits with the categories I chose for it.
Thank you all again and if you have any suggestions on this new image or anything related to the card, please feel free!
Best always, Randy
I like your rework a lot, Randy. I’m not crazy over the double border, but that could easily be just me : )- Nice image (patting you on the back) LOL. Seriously, I like it.
Hi Randy, I don’t usually critique; just don’t feel comfortable in that hat, especially with strangers. It’s so easy to misunderstand each other… However, I would make one suggestion to you (I think you don’t seem like a stranger because you are a vibrant presence in the GCU forum.) It is my personal feeling that the text on the card front, should not fight for space with the image. Either plaster it firmly on top of the image or make sure they each have their own space. Remember, this is just ‘my’ opinion. In the end you have to put forth something that you are pleased with. I remember one of my music composition professors told our class, “You don’t have to follow the rules. It is however, your responsibility to learn all the rules and practice them; THEN you choose which rules to use and which ones to abuse.” So you and I Randy, keep learning for sure, but in the end, we decide what WE like and go with it. And we are so blessed to have this community of talented and learned folks, who share their expertise so unselfishly with us.
Randy, I got turned onto GIMP – it’s a free program and has quite a bit of editing tools to play with – and it’s FREE!!!
I am having to learn to tone things down a bit as I like to play with all the effects and what not but from what I’m learning – what looks good on a computer screen doesn’t always translate as nicely to a card – so I guess less is better… I love doing the text embossing and frames and beveling and what not (in style or not, I don’t follow the trends as I probably really should)…
Anyway, the edits look good to me… it is a beautiful bloom and you got it really pulling one’s attention.