Art First Banner In 6 Months

Well I decided after a long 6 months to come back to making banners and I might need some tips just to get the hang of things again. Opinions would be very helpful :)

 

NICE!

 

Hello hello Shadow, I'm here to give you my thoughts:

Left side of the screen (nether area):
-It's far too dark (fix = slightly, but not dramatically, increasing the brightness so it isn't as dark)
-It's unbalanced compared to the right half of the screen (fix = after editing brightness, raise the red alpha channel to a higher decimal)

Character #1:
-The blur is heavily distracting from the point of interest [the character] (fix = remove the motion blur; it's often messy, especially if you're trying to cover more space)
-Iron sword throws off the entire composition's hierarchy (fix = lowering the contrast so it's not so brightly lit and white, you want silver)
-The effect on the sword is awkwardly placed (fix = the lightning draws the eye away from the character - if you want, make it brighter towards the hand so that you look at the tip of the sword and get guided up the blade to the body to the face, which leads us to see the main text)
-Lightning in incorrect and unrealistic (fix = think about the fire; it gives off heat and light, so you don't need the side not facing the fire to be as bright as the side that actually is facing it - try darkening it, use a reference or a photo of yourself to see how casted light plays with shadows)

Center background (nether area):
-Banner overlay makes only some parts bright and the top super dark like the left side of the background (fix = play with blending modes so that it doesn't make such a difference; and you really don't even need the overlay banner because it serves little purpose [maybe make it thinner])

Center foreground (banner + text):
-Your tracking, or space between letters in a line of text, is too wide (fix = decrease the tracking to a smaller number - play around with that and also your kerning [space between individual letter groups] until you find something cleaner and more concise)
-Having that low-opacity black banner makes it seem like you couldn't work with your background (fix = with darker colors and a brighter, more colored background [especially warm colors like red, orange and yellow] make it easier for black text - especially if the weight of the type is heavier but not too condensed)
-Gradients are a no. Stroke outlines are a no. Black text on any form of a black banner/backdrop is a no. (fix = remove the gradient and stay with a dominant spot color, remove the stroke because your text really doesn't need it due to the high contrast between shades, and never make black text on a black background, no matter how see-through it happens to be)

Character #2:
-Motion blur (again) is extremely distracting, especially around the right of the head (fix = same as for character one, refer to that section for "character #2")

Right side of the screen (nether area):
-It overpowers the left side due to it's general brightness (fix = as I've said, the left needs editing; I explained that earlier)

For any further questions now or ever, feel free to contact me via private message - best of wishes and keep up the great artwork! Even though I gave a lot of critique, I still definitely enjoy the concept.

 

It's* (apostrophe)

 

TH3R3 AR3 TWO TYP3S OF P3OPL3 1N TH3 WORLD

 

Niiiiiice job there