ALPHONSE Free

This is really stunning. Very beautiful wallpaper and all the versions are equally attractive. I must say though, that the soft airbrush-style is a bit too soft and makes the details look a bit blurry; especially when there is no lineart. It would be nice if her edges were a bit sharper or you could keep it a bit blurry but blend with more colors to give the wallpaper more depth and a dynamic feeling. I still like the wallpaper(s) but not as much as I like your sharper walls.

First of all i'm gonna write about the character's vector. The issue that i find with it is that both face and body have a clean and detailed shape while the rest of it looks blurred, especially on clothes, hair and hands. This makes the image unbalanced, but anyways i must say the her face looks really pretty and you did a nice job there. About the revisions... I liked the idea on rev4, the moon and cathedral give a nice atmosphere and fit the image well, the only problem is that the hard black outlines of the fence dont match the vector's style since she doesnt have any lineart, so there you have a character/BG blending issue. In the end, rev4 works for me the best!

To me, your version 5 has the best color balance and contrast, which makes it a more engaging image and consequently a more lasting wall than the other versions. I'll explain why. First of all, this time you did well choosing a dark violet/blue to shade the edges of the sky instead of your usual dark gray/black. Using colors like the dark blue-violet makes the sky richer and have more depth than black could. Second, you used a dark reddish brown right behind her head, which contrasts nicely with her blue eyes and flame, and draws attention right to her face. Third, you kept the bright highlights and dark shadows on her body and hair, which helps make her stand out and gives the wall good tonal contrast. Lastly, you kept her skin a natural fleshy color instead of tinting it and rendering it off-color. This fleshy color also goes well with the reddish background too.

While the thumbs look ok for the other versions, up close they lack the color variation of version 5 to make them interesting. This means that after using them for a while on the desktop, people will grow bored of them faster and desire to rotate to a fresh new wall. Version 5 has more focus to keep your attention longer, and it is solely due to the colors and contrast, which I explained in the above paragraph. Version 1 needs darker areas in her hair and clothes, otherwise it's too flat. Version 2 would be ok, except her skin is too blue and homogeneous to the sky, blending her in too much. Version 3 is too monochrome with little to keep interest, and version 4 makes her too muddy and dark, diminishing her presence in the wall.

And up close in all versions, the blurry shades that bleed outside the edges of her body and hair are distracting. The white highlights on the top of her head, and the left side of her torso are guilty of this. Remember to keep what you're blurring inside a mask to prevent this from happening. If you wanted to create an aura/glowing effect around her instead, there are better ways to do this.

Overall, while version 5 is not perfect (it can use a stronger light source from the upper left to explain the highlights in her hair, for example), if you keep walling with the better color control seen here, visually your walls will improve greatly.

I think you kind of overdid it with the blurring, especially on the clothes. See, the problem is that I'm used to seeing this type of blur on objects that are in the immediate foreground, so my eyes don't compute when told to adjust to half of the image blurred like that XD If you really want to keep a more blurry look on the clothes, you can delete the top/bottom edge of the shadows with a brush of 60% hardness (that will give them a smooth yet firm look).

As for the background, I feel it's not "dramatic" enough. You can play with perspective (tilting the clouds), add something else (like the edge of the Earth/sea in the further background) or add some more details to the petals. Speaking of which, the further ones should be a bit darker. And you can also add more detail to the flame, it's a great opportunity to get a more impressive look.

And to end this, try to be careful when painting/blurring shadows, especially on hair. It's a hit or miss, and in this case it kind of points out that not all the lines/curves are as smooth as they should be (I'm talking about the hair strand on the bottom right).

Not to be mean, but I've looked at more of your wallpapers over time and seen people advise you to spend more time on them; I think you're a very good waller and you could be even better if you took that advice. It's a pity when potentially great walls end up "normal" because of being rushed. Try to pay more attention to lighting, sharpness, details and movement, otherwise you'll just end up with a vectored version of a scan and nothing more. All in all, I think the fifth revision is the one I like most, for the cyan/brown contrast.

There isn’t really a good sense of depth between the character and background since both of them look awfully blurry. The blue flames (BRS trademark) coming out from the character’s eye could use some more intensity, glow and shades to make it stand out a bit more. For matter fact, lighting could have been dealt better to make the whole thing more dramatic, thus more interesting.

I gotta say that the first version (turquoise version) looks unnecessary (you practically overlay a colored shape on top of it and changed its blending mode). I also see you keep reusing some elements from your previous walls a bit too much (like the moon for example). As far rev.4 goes, besides the fact you’re reusing elements, the background and character do not match, making somewhat inconsistent.

If you ask me, I’d say that the whole thing looks rushed. Like something you quickly put together for the sake of submitting something (wasn’t a week ago you submitted a wallpaper? And after that, didn’t you submit another one and another one?). Well, that’s my frank opinion about this, no harsh feelings intended to you or anyone else that likes it.