Art Industrialization 1.5

[OtakuSennen]

[color=navy]As some of you may remember, a while back I created a banner called "Industrialization", which was basically my first non-anime banner, as well as my first half-decent one, in my eyes. Instead of cropping a picture of a character from Evangelion or .hack and pasting it on some sort of background and putting my name in the corner, I took some pictures of cooling towers, made them completely black, added some detailing and put in some fog and a background. The end result was Industrialization.

Now, tonight, after being reminded by Syk3's new Kenshin banner that banners do not always have to be blatantly displaying every little detail, I felt like making a different version of Industrialization- Not a sequel, but a variation. I took the elements of the first version that I didn't like, got rid of them, and kept the stuff that I liked and made it better. I changed the fonts, and here we are three hours later with Industrialization 1.5.
[center][img]http://otakusennen.250free.com/Industrial-1-5-web.jpg[/img][/center]
This time around, I think that things got a little more plain. The original version had a background with what was supposed to be an ocean, along with a bit of a rocky island. There was also some poor cross-hatching as well, which most people thought was really the weakest part of the banner. I got rid of those two things, left that space to the smog, and I think things are better off now.
[center][img]http://otakusennen.250free.com/Industrial-1-5-ava.jpg[/img][/center]
The Avatar isn't too different from its original version. I just used cool Photoshop brushes to go over the radioactive symbol, and added some smog. Very simple.

Comments and criticism will be greatly appreciated.[/color]

[James]

[color=#707875]Beautiful, Sen. Out of all the work I've seen from you, this is my favourite.

I really like the banner. It really hits the sweet spot for me. It's very subtle, but it tells you so many things at the same time. The smoke stacks (or whatever they're called; I forget), are really obvious symbols in terms of their shape -- everyone's seen them, everyone knows what they are. So the fact that you've used them as silhouettes is clever. The radiation symbols only serve to further enhance that point.

I also really love the smokey effects you've used with the whole thing. It looks almost as though this image could have been a photograph taken on a clear day...but the smoke and grit is so heavy that it's blocking out the sun. It's like a night time scenario has been created simply due to the smoke stacks. I really like the way that the smoke kind of "wraps around" the stacks themselves, so it's as though they're almost 2D silhouettes enveloped in more of a 3D space.

The text at the bottom is effective -- the font, and the treatment you've used on it works very well.

I would say, personally, I would [i]almost [/i]prefer this banner without any text at all. It's just a very powerful image. It's very imposing and dominant. It almost looks like the stacks are sitting there in the darkness, brooding away amongst themselves, you know? That emotional effect has been produced to a fine degree here.

The avatar is similarly good. You've kept the same colours and texture, but only maintained the radiation symbol. It's such a great symbol, it works really well in images like this. And the fact that you've scratched it out a little only adds to the effect.

So, this is by far my favourite work of yours, Sen. You've improved by leaps and bounds, since I first began seeing your images. I have absolutely no doubt that it won't take you long to really rival the very best artists in this community -- your work is improving at a remarkable speed. Excellent job.[/color]

[Shinmaru]

Your old Industrialization banner was good, but this one is even better, I think. I really like the mixture of light, wispy smoke and thick puffs of smoke pervading the banner. Looks plenty cool. I also enjoy the scratched-out radiation symbol you have in your avatar...there's just something about it, heh.

Like James, I think that it's easy to see just how far you've come and how much you've improved since you first started creating banners and avatars. You've become very, very good since you first started and I can say with no hesitation that you've made some of my favorite banners that I've had the pleasure to see on OB.

So, yeah, enough ***-kissing, just know that you've done a great job :p

[Baron Samedi]

[size=1][color=darkred]Excellent work Sennen. I really think it is something.

The colour and variation of shade of the cloudy/smoggy background gives this banner a really...violent feel to it. It oozes with threatening vibes, like a storm gathering. For me it has the vague hint of being on the ocean's edge..it looks vaguely like you can see an island and some ocean [bottom left hand]. It is the same sort of colour as the day seems to get when a heavy storm is approaching....and it seriously rocks.

One thing about the banner that I am not too sure about is the text. Maybe you could have tried the other GF Ordner font, instead [It is GF Ordner, isn't it?]. I just think that the black squares don't look so good. As James said, maybe no text would have been better. It isn't a majorly bad thing though.

The avatar...hrrrmm. Not my favourite. I think that a cutout of some smog and the secondary stack would have looked a lot better. I think you faded the Nuclear symbol a bit too much, and that the plain lined texture overlay isn't exactly right for the feeling. Something a bit more random would have been good, I think.

However, this is a very very nice combination.[/size][/color][size=1]

Banner: 9/10
Avatar: 7.5/10[/size]