My Rejected Avatar/Icon., Akward or not? Options

[SkeleBoy]

1.

The image is from one of Within Temptation's music videos.
So she was singing.
When I paused to take a screenshot, it looked like she was smiling.
But I guess it looks really akward?
That's what my reviewer said anyway.
They said it ruined the icon.

What do you think?





Here are the other three that got rejected:

2. The reviewer said: "Graphic choice is awkward, and text doesn\'t match."

3. The reviewer said: "The four color boxes and text\'s color, style, and placement doesn\'t suit the avatar."

4. The reviewer said: "The text doesn\'t match the image in terms of the background glow and positioning, and the image was overly contrasted."

Any thoughts? Critique? Comments?






Oh, and this was the pending one (now accepted):
5. Feel free to comment on it as well. This one's my favorite.

[libertie]

I'm glad you did this, actually, because when people do this with their submissions that get rejected, it's honestly the BEST way to get good feedback. Kudos to you for having the guts to do it, I really respect that.

As far as the image quality, I don't really think it's that bad. What's really causing these to get rejected in my opinion would have to be the things you're doing to add to the icons. The text, shapes, etc. seem out of place. I would consider looking around and seeing if you can develop your "eye" more - look for things that stick out and try to avoid them. There's really no substitute for experience - you'll get there eventually. :)