Art Wallpaper #2 - Lain

[AzureWolf]

Here's my second wallpaper. Unlike my first wallpaper, there's actually a color scheme behind this one. That's thanks to SasukeUchiha, though, as I originally had the wings blue with a black background. O_o In the end, I think I got a better understanding of why a color scheme should be used after I completed this wallpaper.

Anyway, that background is a picture of actual clouds, which was one of the last things put in. The whole angel idea came to me when I took Lain out of her stock picture and staring at a blank canvas with her in the middle.

I owe much thanks to SasukeUchiha, for supplying the stock picture, pushing me to make another wallpaper, and making sure I maintained the color scheme while adding stuff. ^_^

Critics, do your thing, it will be much appreciated.

[SasukeUchiha]

As I said before you really did a great job on this, those wings you made are amazing, and your overall idea for this was very well thought out. Expect me to be bothering you to make more, I really like this alot.

[Hittokiri Zero]

To be honest while this a step up from your previous wallpaper and I think your attempts to keep a single color scheme really payed off, this wallpaper is not my cup'o tea. The wings are really just lacking any kind of texture or shadow, to really make them look like "wings" they're more flower-ish if you ask me =\. The typo is another thing I have a major grip with =O the placement, font, and blurryness are really detracting. Hmmmm... what else... oh yeah the two bars the one on the top and on the bottom -_o. If you look at the really good wallpapers you'll notice that those aren't really there, sometimes you might see the bottom bar because it is covered up by the start menu but most of the time you will see neither bar. I know when I made alot of wallpapers I used to use bars like that too, but in time you'll most likely grow out of that, the alternative is to really just create a little typo with your name and shove it in the corner of the image =P. >_>... i'm not really liking the colors either... but i'll save that for later, the clouds were a nice idea for the wallpaper though =O. The entire wallpaper is kind of opposite from what you would normally see in a Lain Wallpaper (instead of dark you have light, instead of grim you have happy??) in that sense I liked this wallpaper too =).

[Haze]

Whoa. SImple as that....whoa! VERY nice work here Azure. Kind of OOC for Lain, but still really good. I was able to scrounge up two gripes though. The black outline that is around Lain. Sometimes it is there, other times it isn't. You need to either fix that to where it is fully around her, or get rid of it. Kind of distracting, especially where it leaves at teh top of her head.

My second one is the clouds. You need them there, but they aren't the best in the world. Did you draw them yourself? It isn't that they are horribley ugly. It is that they don't look....I guess you might say "fluffy" enough. CLouds are fluffy, and yours....aren't. I do like how you made the ones on the bottom have depth though. It is just the edges on them that I donot like.

So now that I have made my gripes, I will say all of the many many things I love about it. For starters the colors are amazingly good. I'm not sure I have ever seen an anime wallpaper with so much color and vivacity, much less a Lain wallpaper like that. I like the "angel wings" around Lain, but I think they look more like flower petals. But they look perfect the way they are so don't change them at all. I disagree with Hittokiri about the lines at the top and bottom. I like them. And your little sig thing on the bottom.....so cool. I love the kanji (I'm assuming) behind your name. Good stuff.

This is better than my second wallpaper, by far. Mine was....*shudder*.....uglyness in the extreme. But yours is simply gorgeous. Keep it up!

-haze

[AzureWolf]

[B]SasukeUchiha[/B]: Thanks. I think I thanked you enough over AIM, so I'll leave it at that. :)

[B]H.Zero[/B]: Isn't a typo an error that you type? From your post, it sounds like there's another meaning that I'm not aware of. That little "signature" thing isn't visible, so it's not big deal, IMO. As for the "Lain" text, I guess moving it above the wings and in the clear sky area would have been a good idea. I wasn't thinking of that for some reason. The text was the second to last thing I added, so all my concern for positioning was used up.

Same thing goes for the choice in font: I wanted a handwritten one, and went with the first one I came across that I had not used before.

Thanks for your compliments and complaints. I'm glad that I'm improving.

[B]Haze[/B]: Yes, you and H.Zero are right: it is out of character for Lain. Sara said something about Lain never smiling, which I can agree with after going through an entire archive of Lain pics. Eerie...

The black outline... What can I say. This pic of Lain was interesting it many ways. Particularly, the coloring and outline were very hard to differentiate between. You would not believe how much SasukeUchiha was complaining about my cropping. In the end, I think he laid off after I improved it quite a bit from my original crop.

Heh, as I said before, that BG is a pic of real clouds + 5 median noise. That's all that was done with them: I'm not responsible for anything except the color of the BG, haha. The depth of the clouds is just enhanced by the 5 median noise. I don't have much experience with clouds, but I bet there's tricks to fluffify them. If I ever need to use them again, I guess I'll try different things.

Alright, I won't change the wings, haha. Yes, the color scheme is thanks to SasukeUchiha. I kept deviating from it, and he kept saying, "go back and add more orange in the transition," or, "no, that doesn't match at all." Basically trial and error until I got the coloring right.

Yeah, that's AzureWolf and AzureWolf in kanji. I like that font - one of my favorites.

I've made too many banners before this, so it's not really right to call this a second wallpaper. Therefore, it's not proper to compare your second wallpaper to my second one.

Thanks a lot for your comments. I'm honored. ^_^ Funny thing is, the halo was my favorite part of the wallpaper, yet no one said anything about that. O_o

[Hittokiri Zero]

[quote]H.Zero: Isn't a typo an error that you type? From your post, it sounds like there's another meaning that I'm not aware of.[/quote]

Typo is short for "Typography" ^_^. Meaning the actual font + text and the design around the font, that is what typography really is. So when someone says something about your "typo" that's what they are reffering to not a misspelling =). Atleast when your talking about graphics that is x_X.

[Mimmsicle]

[COLOR=darkred]I just want to start off by saying that I really like what you've done here, Azure *nods*

Here is something more specific for you to take in *lol* :
[/COLOR]
[COLOR=darkblue]I personally don't think that the "Lain" text should be included. Maybe if you put it somewhere else, but right now it's cluttering the prettyness up. >__>

The clouds around her face - right above where the wings start - they feel a bit "sharp-ish"... I think it might be the white poking out.

The soft/muted colors does wonders for this "placid" wallpaper ^_^

I absolutely LOVE the "boxes" you put on the upper and bottom part of the wallpaper.
It looks like the wallpaper is a still frame from a movie - very nice effect !

The halo reminds me of a type of hat. What else am I supposed to say, huh? :p
[/COLOR]
[COLOR=darkred]I really, really like this banner and when I catch you online I shall tell you so again ^_^

- Mimmi[/COLOR]