That's right, I have a 30-day trial to my advantage to learn all that I can about making signatures. Hopefully, by the end of this project, I'll have the ability to make a piece of artwork to the best of my ability. I have made mediocre signatures in the past, and they don't cut it for me. So, I dl'ed a trial of CS2 (my loophole from the CS3 trial) and decided to play around. I have already learned things I didn't know, but currently, I'm trying to continue my old design and style. Problem is, I can't achieve this goal, because I don't remember how I even did it!

This piece was an attempt to rejuvenate my ability, which was a bit of a failure.



This is my most recent attempt that I understand how to do (I don't know much else)







This piece was my most favored piece back in the day.



I have absolutely no clue how I pulled this off. Mainly, the skill here is the text glow. I can't seem to remember how to do this (it was my own method, damn me for not making a tut). Also, in my most recent work, I can't make the font WHITE, it always comes out silver (as you can observe above).

My question to you is, did I do well for being a year apart from my mere intermediate experience? How does my current work compare with the older one? Any suggestions? What should I do to improve? Any tutorials I should check out?

Thanks in advance.

glow:

open the layer options of the text and add a "outer glow".

done.

as for other things, you should check some tutorials, mainly novice and moderate ones since you mainly have done brushed tags.

here's a great site for tutorials, you need to sign up to get access to some of the tutorials, and get 25 or 50 posts (i forget) to get access to all of the tutorials: www.chaosgfx.com

other than that, just try and expiriment with stock photos and blending options. that way you can start getting some nice things together