^Yeah, go get GIMP. Before I sprung for CS4, it served me well. Now, firstly, higher quality render. The background (if you create one from scratch (like I do) or use another image) needs to fit with the render and give off more... pizazz. I'm not going to critique you text, since I'm absolutely no better with it *cough*. Other than that, great first signature. Better than mine, and I even had an actual graphics program. I recommend (once you get GIMP) to go look up some tutorials on deviantart. They can do wonders, and even help you find your style. Hey, maybe some of them even use the same style you like and you can just make signatures in that style for the rest of your life~