I am not trying to sound whiny. This is just getting old.

I'll spend 8-15 hours on a piece and post it in the auctions and it will sell for maybe 5-15mill after I re-list it 3 times and finally drop the price heartbreakingly low and then someone bids the sb of 5mill and I wind up having to take 1/5th of the profit I originally thought I would get. I know I'm not top notch. I know I'm not awful. Am I mediocre? I like to think I take risks and that I do have a good deal of skill, but with room for improvement. I try new techniques and I either fail at it in my eyes or in the eyes of buyers. I just feel a little hurt that I can't seem to get anyone to bid what I feel my piece is actually worth.

This is why I am asking for critiques of my overall skill.
Please include pointers on how to improve if you can.
Maybe suggest prices?

The weird thing is that I can easily sell my customs for their asking price. Why do my premades sell for next to nothing when cut and paste images and pre-cut manips are selling like hotcakes? Please help me understand this.

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xx

EDIT;; I just realized I had an old topic from November that was similar to this. I deleted the old one.

Mine don't sell well in the auctions either, you aren't alone.. So now I rarely put premades in there. 

I know I'm not alone, it's just disappointing. When I see the auctions are barren, I post an image. Then (every single time) two or three epic artists post their premades and people delete their bids on mine to bid on theirs so it's like, "OMG WHY?!" I just need to focus on bettering my art, I guess. Maybe they'll sell someday. I just like to think I have a unique style but nobody seems to want unique.

I buy almost all your graphics amberellie!!!

I very rarely buy premades so I can't really say why people bid what they do. If it's not what they are looking for then your just going to have to take what you can get. I never go into an auction expecting crazy bidding because typically it's an image I made for myself but have gotten bored with it that quick. So to sell off something I don't want, any bids are good. If I like the image then I'll keep it for myself if it doesn't sell for something in comfortable with.

I lot of people like myself don't really go for all the fancy hairs and details in a picture. we like natural looking. so if cut and paste images are more natural looking then I guess I am at fault for liking those.

also, amber, I am pretty sure i bought a few premades xD

I don't usually give critiques because when I do, I like to be detailed and it's time consuming for me to write, then re-write, and then edit my critique. However, you've brought this up before and so I'll give some "two-cents". Firstly, please don't be offended by what I say. I try to keep the tone of my critiques as polite as possible, but sometimes people still find contention. I am a photo manipulator and I am certainly not the best..I actually am surprised sometimes at how much some people like my work.   

I'll start with your "Snow White" piece:

I really like the mane and tail! I am very bad at painting manes and tails so anyone that can do it well, is awesome in my opinion. It does look a tad bit stiff (the mane more than the tail), maybe add some fly away hairs? Also, the way you've drawn the forelock around the antlers looks good. Your cutting on the horse is a little choppy around the belly, also. I think it's more noticeable because the horse has a tint of green, probably because in the original picture it was on grass? There's an easy way to fix this with whatever program you're using (at least I think all design programs have this)--use the "Hue/Saturation" controls. I'm not a big fan of drawn eyes, but I think you've done a good job with this one's. And, I'm not sure if I like the misty/foggy patches around the feet;only because I know that wouldn't happen in real life (unless it was misty/foggy). 

"Set The World On Fire":

I'll start off again by saying you do a really lovely job with the mane and tail. The forelock hairs (down on the head/eye) are straight, which isn't very natural, but that's not too big of a deal. The foreground is blurry and all one color, which does kind of bother me. A sharpen, and then gaussian blur behind the horse might've helped. The fire in the background does look good though. The dust the horse is kicking up looks a bit unnatural. The dark spots, I think are what throws it off. I think if you make the darker brown the big dust cloud and then put darker brown or brown/red small dots and then use the smudge tool to give them movement. Lastly, I think the horse could be just a tad bit smaller, just in relation to the tiger, it seems a bit big.

So, respectfully, those were just the little problems I pointed out. What I really notice, and maybe it's not so obvious to non-graphic makers/designers, is that these compositions don't really have a unifying feature. The simplest way (in my opinion) to achieve this is lighting. As a photographer, lighting is challenging, and as a computer graphic designer/photo manipulator I was so intimidated by lighting (and still am a little bit) because it seemed so complicated to me.

Now, I'm not talking about shadows and where the sun is--I'm talking about the lighting of the whole composition that creates the mood. It's what makes the dark, creepy manips look and feel dark and creepy, or the mysterious manips look mysterious, or the light and summery manips look and feel light and summery. I guess, if you wanted to put it into different terms, I'm saying your photmanipulations (or maybe some of them) don't really have a mood. This picture doesn't make me feel anything...it doesn't make me wonder about what's going on, or who the horse is or what he's doing, where he came from. I know that may sound a bit complicated talking like that about a photomanip you're selling on a virtual game but it's what make the great manips great. I mean yes, design technique is very important and may "make or break" a manip but using lighting to create a mood is pretty much the other 50%, if not more.

Also, mood isn't determined by just lighting (although, like I said, I think it's most of it). It is also determined by your design technique and the stock you choose. Many DA artists and sim manippers sharpen or (slightly) blur the subject (horse/dog) in order to make it be sharply focused or look like a painting. They emphasize the muscles and shadows on the subject to make it stand out or appear a certain way. They also may blur certain parts of the foreground or background to give the picture depth or more focus to the subject. And also (commonly seen) they add props, such as other animals, jewels, parts that may not usually be on the animal (horns, wings, antlers,..etc), armor, even balls of light...etc. to make the subject/composition more interesting. They also work with the natural lighting, this time I do mean sun and shadows and actual soft, hard, or spot light in the manipulation. 

Mood is something the "copy-paste", "natural" manips kind of lack. They have enough lighting so that they are cohesive and natural looking, but they don't really make you feel anything. They are manipulations of a subject and a background put together and adjusted to look like they "fit" together. Almost, as though it was never a manipulation, but a photograph (I'm not demeaning this type of manipulation, just kind of clarifying). So, if you want to do this kind, than do it! Fix those "little" cosmetic problems and do it! People like and maybe it won't take 15 hours. However, the more powerful manipulations, the ones that sell for $300 mill plus and get daily deviations, are the ones that have a mood.

Like I said at the start of this novel, I'm not the best photo manipulator at all. I don't claim to be in the least. I just understand the theory of how to achieve that certain, beautiful "something" some manipulators can give their work.

You cannot compare the bids you get on your work to bids placed on a "cut and paste" image. People will bid on what they are looking for. I think I speak for a lot of buyers when I say that when I bid on an image, I really don't take into consideration how long the artist spent on it. I am bidding PURELY based on the visual appeal. And I will only bid as much as I have to. It is nothing against the artist, and is not meant to be an insult to their work, but if the description says to bid in 1mill increments, that's what I will do, and if my bid is the highest bid at 6mill, that's just how it is.

Also, it really bothers me when people say things like "why don't I get good bids when "cut and paste" pictures sell so well". That "cut and paste" image could be an aspiring artists best work that they have poured blood sweat and tears into and are super proud of, and you're basically saying it's crap compared to yours and isn't worthy of the bids it's getting. I know you don't mean it that way, but that's how it sounds and it's a little insulting. Just because it looks simple doesn't mean it was easy for the artist to put together.

On that note though, I know there are a lot of images that get put up that literally are simple pictures (and are usually advertised that way) and they usually get pretty good bids, but again, people will bid on what they're looking for. Perhaps you could try different, simpler styles for pre-mades and keep your man-hours for the customs you sell.

I think with the premades that are really specific or nicely done it's hardered to bit unless you have a horse it REALLY fits. The "copy & paste" work tendes to be easier to see on one of your just general animals. I don't go for the insanely nice premades because I don't have any animals I want to put them on. The really nice images I get I tend to custom order. Rather than making premades maybe just offer up a custom slot? 

I'm terrible at graphics but this is just my stand point. I would rather buy a graphic that doesn't have all the awesome lighting/accessorys/brushes if it's something I feel is too overly specific and I'll go for something a bit more simple for my regular horses. Especially since I don't want to spend more money than necessary on anything that's not special to me.

You all have such excellent feedback, so thank you so very much! Sass, I really loved your reply and it was extremely helpful! Shae, I definitely remember my beginning manips and you are right that I'm not trying to insult anyone. The point of me saying that is that I was confused as to why some all-out manip geniuses like Zodiaque, Navi, Reno, etc. get 300mill or more in their bids and you have a beginner's work going for 10-15mill while my intermediate work is getting the same bids if not lower.

I am mostly looking for feedback on how to improve and appeal to the audience a bit better. I've been trying to cater to people wanting to buy premades for layouts. Often times, my pieces are bought for much less than I had hoped to sell them for and they wind up sized down and used on an animal (which is absolutely fine with me!) I just didn't understand the bidding scale there but I don't think I am going to any time soon lol. Oh well xD 

What I'm thinking about doing is selling my complex manips as customs only and start selling just basic pieces for premades. Then when I am not getting much custom business, I'll put something higher quality in the premades as a preview image for a custom slot. What do you guys think?

I agree with what everyone has said. Most of what I throw in the auctions is fairly simple because those have a quick turnover rate for all the reasons people have already stated. The pieces that I have spent 10x more time on have either not sold at all or have gotten very low bids, but those pieces are usually something I made for fun or practice and wouldn't mind keeping myself. Everything has a price, though, so sometimes I'll throw it in the auction for a week before using it myself to see if it fits the niche someone wants. If it doesn't or I get lowball offers, I just keep it. No harm done. 

As an aside, I think your work is lovely! I do hope that one day I can get my mane technique down as well as yours. I finished my degree in biology and just started doing art again after 6 years of only science, so it's been interesting relearning old techniques and teaching myself new ones. We are collecting our funds for a project, though, so there's no money to spend on things that aren't necessary to us right now. For this reason, you won't see us bidding on anything in the auctions unless it's a *can't live without it* situation. 

Roux