16:50, 16th Sep 2015
Sin'dorei300: Commented. Awaiting an update.

It looks pretty good for your first icon attempt.

I myself see one greater issue. Think about the background/glow.
It is blue and your Ocarina is blue, too. What happens ? They melt into each other.

Try to experiment with different blue tones or a completely other colour for either the background glow or the Ocarina, tho I think the background is easier to modify.

Experiment a bit and try to make a clear difference between the background and the Ocarina, so the Ocarina stands out.

Hey, Arden, I was thinking the same thing too. I might give the ocarina a darker tone of blue and maybe give the background glow some transparency.

I was kinda waiting for someone to notice and comment about it. I'll see what I can come up with.

Cheers!

Hm, I would rather recommend it the other way around.

If the background is brighter than the actual object it tends to fade the object, since as brighter a part is as more it catches the attention, so I myself would recommend to tone the background darker.
But it is up to you, you can experiment with the glow, maybe it looks even better if the ocarina is darker, but not as dark as the glow fades the ocarina.

@Arden:

I've actually done my first iteration on the icon (unfortunately read your comment a bit after i've done it). I absolutely agree that a bright background tends to sink/fade the foreground object making it less defined especially if both the foreground and background are tones of the same color.

What I thought as a work around would basically just be to give the tones enough contrast and make borders more solid and defined. Actually, I'm not so sure if it worked. haha. I've made the ocarina darker and gave the backround glow some transparency while making it a bit brighter on the ocarina's edges. I've also flipped the view and messed around with the perspective to give more depth.

I'm not sure how it's gone but I think I did some subtle improvements. What do you think? Certainly, I have your recommendations noted.

Wow! Amazing work! It is creative and nice! :O

It will be very useful in some RPG maps and campaigns!

@ExSiloy

It looks great! The ocarina is much more detailed now and the shading is overall good.

In my personal opinion the glow can still be improved.
Note that this is just a personal impression and some other users consider this kind of suggestions as 'applying personal taste on an icon'. You can simply ignore my suggestions, none forces you to read and work after them.

The glow circle around the ocarina still fades with the ocarina itself. My suggestion would be to add a shadow under the glow that is over the ocarina, so there is a clearly difference between the two elements.
I think the so called glow is a sort of fog, isn't it ? Then you could think about whether there is light under this particular fog and create a shadow of it on the ocarina. This should create a clear difference.

Hey, Ardenian! A bit late on my reply. I don't mind having your suggestions at all. I'm pretty new at this and any insight from other more experienced people would help alot. Unfortunately I've got my hand full as of the moment, but really, thanks!

You are welcome

Sure, it is always a good idea to make a pause and look at it again a few days/weeks later.
You can also wait for the moderation comment, since it is the only one that actually matters, since the moderator's opinion/ feedback decides over approval and rejection.

The effect blends too much with ur object.
I suggest u to try to make the object stand out more from the bg.
U could use another hue(or a lighter tone)for those effects.
Make some attempts to see what fits better with ur ocarina.
Also, u could use a simple glow or u can remove all the effects(if it looks better enough).
It's ur choice.