When making small sized tags taking a simplistic approach don't make your render so big and off to the side but don't center it either experiment with different positions until you find a good position that goes well with the composition
The text is really bland and way off over there sometimes a simple good font can make good text if you position it well don't put your text way off in the corner away from your main focal keep it in a point of interest you don't need huge effects on it but you don't want shitty simple comic sans either
[IMG]https://i86.photobucke*****m/albums/k100/financeranger/Gamespot/jacksotwha.png[/IMG]
[IMG]https://emob180.photobucke*****m/albums/x208/blane-tags/Apollo-1.png?t=1267645875[/IMG]
Add more stuff to your work now don't just whore everything you have on there but just doing one thing makes it very bland and makes your work boring practice with the smudge with different settings, brushes, and strengths to find a good effect try to not make your smudge blurry because that's what happened here you pretty much just blurred stuff while smudging and that makes things just look novice
find something you like and don't try to just copy other peoples stuff obviously you're gonna be influenced by people but copying every part of something isnt very satisfying while I do agree that when learning that is a good way to practiced different techniques it's something I do you're not going to lean to do something all by yourself maybe you cam but it's going to take a long time but while learning I say that you look at some tuts or some psds to learn how people do things
Incorporate more colors into your work you don't necessarily need to use a whole lot of colors just different shades of a color can make something be not monotone don't just take colors from your render and put that on because it'll come out monotone and make things boring if you are going to use varied colors make sure to use colors that complement each other a color balance adjustment layer or a hue adjustment can be used to help that situation and some brushing on a layer with linear dodge and a low opacity can make things pretty cool too
Monotone
Not monotone
[IMG]https://emob180.photobucke*****m/albums/x208/blane-tags/flyborderlessfull.png?t=1293628002[/IMG]
see there's not many hue differences but it still end up not being monotone
Complementing colors
[IMG]https://i134.photobucke*****m/albums/q92/chris_lyden/opydc6.png[/IMG]
Color Scheme Designer 3