@ Movingtarget A pretty decent program that I've found, and have used for a few vectors I've done on my own is Inkscape. It works pretty well, and is far easier than Gimp, and some other photoshop progams to use, in my opinion.

Here's the site

And if you don't feel up for navigating through it; here's the download link (Sourceforge)

Just saw that you were looking through programs, and this one seems good to try, (easy enough for me to figure out P(>_<) ) before you go blowing the money. Personaly I wish I could afford PS.. being a student blows.

If you go to view your own post, at the bottom there is an edit feature, it seems like you just started a new one and tried to delete the old one to fix errors in your posting. Seeing 5 of the same topic posted up can be a little agitating to people popping into the forum. That aside.

The blocks randomly placed around don't seem to have a pattern, it seems like your intent was to show them breaking off of the pink block background behind Asakura. You could always try taking out sections of it and adding your own in or distorting areas to show that the background is warping off like that. Or I could be completely wrong about your intent.

Overall there could be more on the wall while still keeping the simplicity, but it's a great start. Far better than my own starting tries XD

It seems to me like where the wire flips up, right around where the line through the reflected text is, the turns on the reflection are too sharp. Also where the wire does a loop-de-loop it looks to me like it's touching the ground again as it's coming down before the next time it goes up, but when it goes up the reflection seems like it's sitting way up in the air. (I may be wrong, was getting a brain cramp thinking about it)

(Personal Preference) Another thing I noticed was how at the bottom of the window it seems to end at a quarter pane (if that is a window). The result is almost an optical illusion, which really hurts my eyes if I look at it too long P(>_<)

Other than those couple spots, I really like it. Nice work!

I think the Hell Butterfly and the Text could probably be less blurred and given an engraved effect instead. I think because of the bright nature of the logo, you'd need to use a brighter character as well. You could also try some lighting effects on the background text and butterfly to make them stand out more (brighten up the wallpaper overall as well), maybe some 3d lighting effects.

Lighting effect tutorial.

Here's a tutorial I found to show you basically what I mean (It's for gimp, but could probably be used with Photoshop as well). As for the foreground, you'll have to figure that one out yourself. Find a clear scan that you think would fit the text in the background.

I'm not completely sure how these would turn out, but I hope I at least helped. :)

Another tutorial (seems better suited for Photoshop)

Ahhh! You did it! I was a bit vague on what I was trying to say before, but it looks like you perfected it. I like it.

There are a few places on Suzumiya that could probably use some touch-up. The long strand of hair sticking out looks transparent as well as a few other places on her skirt and... basically places that stick out. Suzumiya seems like she could be darkened a bit as well, but that's just my personal taste.

Overall it looks good, it flows well. ^_^

Another thing you could try is Gimp or Inkscape for vectors. They're both open-source so they're free and can get the job done pretty well.

Gimp http://www.gimp.org/windows/

Inkscape http://inkscape.org/download/

Not the greatest, but both are completely free, and by the sounds of it would be much better than what you're currently using.

Looks pretty good to me, could maybe use some text and your signature.

A few little things I noticed were a couple solid parts on the cloud above the lady's head (near the top of the cloud) and it seems like her shadow is going the wrong way from the way the rest of the shadows look. Another addition could also be a shadow on the tree. Some dirt or something could also be added under the grass, just things I noticed on my first glance. Hope it helps

Other than Meer needing a little cleanup, you could probably do something with the background. When I look at it I almost have to squint because of all of the pink.

Maybe if you made the solid pink sections behind the text transparent with another background behind that (with more colours) it will reduce the power of the pink. At the moment it seems a little overpowering.

As for the emoticon, it seems fine to me, if you just click on the ones above your post. It tells you the thing you're required to type to get it to appear in your post. (n_n)-b

I like it. The only thing that sorta bothers me is how everything looks so... sketchy. If you could work with Grimjaw a little to change that, I think it would look awesome.

If there was something you could do to make the colours overall a little more vibrant, that would also help.

If at all possible, you should make the grass get smaller as you get closer to the horizon. Without setting a prospective, it seems like the character is a giant standing next the the cathedral about to crush it. Also, you may want to think about moving the cathedral even farther towards the horizon, as the picture seems as if you're looking on an almost downward angle. With the cathedral so close to the character in position and size and having the prospective of an upward angle it somewhat throws it off.

It seems like something that should tower over the character or at least be on a reasonable-comparable scale. Just my opinion, hope it helped :)