Okay so. This is my first wallpaper ever. I originally made it at 1280 x800, the resolution most Vista laptops are at, and I resized it slightly to 1440 x 900 to meet the minimum widescreen resolution here. In my opinion, practically no image quality was lost.

I submitted it in, but then was notified that it got rejected because of:

-Image quality problems.
-Background composition issues.
-No Description.

I know what to do about the description, but if anyone took the time to give me a critique or something, I would greatly appreciate it. c:

Well I'm no expert, but it seems like you just pasted Renji over the background. Maybe get rid of the white outline around him? As for the background its nice but slightly plain... Maybe making the Squad number more visible and maybe a bit of text? I'm not an expert, but something seems to be off Hope that helps

The image-quality issues was definetly about the extraction and maybe the lack of cleaning.
Judging by the look I'd say you're using Photoshop, so look up some tutorials on extracting with the pen tool to get a nice, clean extraction.
Also use the "Smart Blur" filter (only a very low setting would be needed) to get rid of any scanning imperfections in the image.

The background is far too simple, basically using some basic Photoshop filters/effects and brushes.
Browse tutorials in the sticky of this forum labelled "Resources" (click on "resource pool" link, then go to "Tutorials") for interesting ideas to add to your wallie.
(Personally, I'd say the background/total idea is un-salvagable... the idea is the most important part of a wallpaper in my opinion, so you should spend a little more time thinking of one.)

Good luck~! :D

An okay start...but...

The image quality of Renji really isn't that great; the colors are kind of dull and the overall quality itself is somewhat grainy and blurry.

Composition-wise, the light red rectangular border that surrounds him isn't good since it cuts off his arm and the top of his head. Unless the original image was like that, it's still a no-no. The white glow/border that surround the image isn't too good either. It probably might be better if you make the white border thinner (like to a pixel or 2) and softer, or remove it completely. And some of the extractions isn't clean either.

The background does look pretty cool so far; perhaps you can try to work on it more, but I think it's good the way it is. The symbols though, looked like they're just placed/smacked onto the background. Find a way to fix it a bit, so it doesn't distract away from the main image (which is Renji), like maybe put in the middle or something.

Overall, yeah, your wall does need work. If you're unsure whether your work is accepted onto the gallery or not, post it here in Session Zero first.

Hope that helps. ^_^

Don't use such a massive stroke after you extract it
Keep it to like 2-4 pxl

clean up the scan a little bit.
and if the scan didn't have the arm, draw the rest of it or work something out to hide it.
And you definitely need to work on the background more, it's not suiting renji very well.

Its okay if you like plain stuff


my advice would be to use some brushes