Okay, so I'm trying to make some gargoyle emotes for a forum Based upon this cool image but there are several problems.

• As you can probably tell, the shading looks horrid. Too much contrast? When I try to darken the highlight a little bit or even take it away it looks worse. And it makes me want to slap a biotch. >.<
• I think with the ears AND the horns their might be too much going on. But I'm afraid to take away the horns because I'm worried it'll look like a purple mutilated Yoda, and if I take away the ears I'm afraid it'll look like... a horned smiley which is just kind of weird
• I'm afraid it looks more like a faun than a gargoyle.
• I think going greyscale might help but the thing is, I'd like to throw in some purple since the forum I'm doing them for has a lot of purple.
• It has to work on a dark background because the forum is dark.
  

I feel a little stuck at this point. Need some crits/ideas/general help.

Thoughts?

*EDIT* So I thought maybe since the gargoyles weren't working too well that'd I'd give owls a try.

-->

I kind of like these much better. And I do like the outline around them as well.

More thoughts?


Edited by Aleiav - 26 March 2008 at 12:33pm

perhaps an light outline would be necesary of the forum theme is dark, just to not sacrife the owl itself colors in order to make them pop out. a gray maybe? something subtle, because yellow is already the main color already. also, i would use this yello to emphasise the expresion of each emoticon. this is, use a more saturated yellow in the beak to make it stand out more, and improve the readability of each expression.