Artist: Nesnesa

Program Used: Photoshop CS5

First Impression: 8/10

I like the green cosmos (it's my favorite color). Other than that it's a bit plain.

Technique: 16/20

Okay. I can see that you know how to blend and use masks really well. Some things that I would fix:

~​The reflection behind the title text. The reflection just doesn't fit. When I first saw the poster, I wasn't sure what the black bar behind the text was all about. It's not necessary, but it works better if you brighten up the poster (see Theme/Mood).

~The thin gray frame around the poster is not necessary. In fact, I think it takes away from the poster as a whole.

~Lighting is too dark. With the exception of half of Daehyun's face, the green cosmos, and the text, everything else is just kind of blah, and really indistinguishable.

~This poster is way too big. Your poster is sized 700x850 which is too big to see all at once on an AFF story. A general rule for making posters (at least in my experience) has been to keep the canvas size between 400-600 for the width and 500-700 for the height. When I create posters, I use a 500x650 starting size, and then adjust according to what needs to go in the poster, if it's landscape, etc. If you are afraid that your stocks or pictures won't come out well, then you should probably up their quality. HQ textures and stocks are generally really big to begin with, but shrinking them down to fit your canvas size is better than having a huge poster. Also, if you are using small pictures, DO NOT enlarge them to fit. They will become pixelated, and look bad.

Resources 20/20

Like I said with my first impression, the poster is kind of plain. You get full points because of the resources you did use, you used them well. See Theme/Mood for more details.

Composition 19/20

With the exception of the missing assassin elements (see below), you did a great job. 

Theme/Mood 6/10

Well, you were going for dark fantasy, and I think you got it down. The only thing is, the poster is too dark. Daehyun's face is hidden too much by shadows, and the city at the bottom is lack luster. It can be fixed by brightening up the poster. I tinkered with the lighting on this (of course it's not going to be the best because I don't have the original layers, but, I gave it a shot). Here's what I did:

• Duplicate the original, and set the duplicate blend mode to divide, with an opacity of 12% (layer name: Divide). 
• Make another copy of the original, set the blend mode to screen, and the opacity to 4o$ (layer name: Smart Cold). 
• On the Smart Cold layer, I used an action called Smart Cold (part of this set of actions). Put this layer between the base layer and divde layer. 
• Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer as a clipping mask to the Smart Cold layer, with the settings: without colorize, hue +62, saturation -12, lightness -27 (layer name: Hue/Saturation 1). 
• Duplicate both the smart cold layer (layer name: Smart Cold Copy) and the hue/saturation adjustment layer clipping mask (layer name: Hue/Saturation 2). Change the settings of the copy of the clipping mask to: with colorize, hue 98, saturation 45, lightness 0.
• Both Smart Cold layers, and their hue/satuation adjustment layer clipping masks should be between the Original and divide layers. It should look something like this:

• Duplicate the original layer one last time and place the duplicate right below the Divide layer (layer name: H/S Curves). Change the blend mode to screen, set to opacity to 40%.
• Now, make some adjustments to the Hue/Saturation and Curves of this layer. 

All done!

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Now, I got a bit carried away there, but I highly suggest lightening up the poster. Play around with the curves, levels, and the hue/saturation. It won't detract from the dark fantasy theme, and make it a little more appealing to the eye. 

You also said that he was suposed to be an assasin? I don't really get that from this poster. Adding in some stock of maybe some bullet holes or cracked glass or something would encompass both the magic and action parts of this theme.

Typography 9/10

You did great on the typography for this poster. Just remove the reflection and you'll be all set.

Extras 10/10

Good job! I think you did fantastic work with this poster. 

FINAL SCORE: 88/100

Thank you~

aeru @ Enticing Perfection