The original scan had both of its sides cut off. This posed a slight problem as it's quite elongated and in that sense not exactly the most suitable for a wall. I still liked it though, so I re-vectored it, all except for the toes. (Hence the huge circular blob there) I didn't have time to texture the beach ball since it's 4.30 am now.

I think it looks a bit plain, but I don't want to add too many things to make it cluttered. I created the background as best I could, but obviously I lack a bit of that creative flair some people seem to be gifted with. >.< Please let me know what else I can do to improve this. I can't count the number of hours i've spent painfully making this. I can't quite dedicate a lot of time now, which is why it took a few weeks just to get to this point.

Please give me your opinions so that I can proceed to improve it. I know it's not perfect, and as I'm uploading I can already see one or two flaws. ^^;

Here's the wall:

Looks really nice, i like it, plain but good =D
the mountain behind them is a little strange as the sea, but it looks OK
try to texturize this ball, its the only thing bad of the wall
(clouds are very good =D)

I'm going to make a list. i apologize ahead of time if any of it sounds mean to you. =| ^^;

1) beach ball--it's not only about giving it texture but also giving it shadows. or else it has nothing of the third dimension to it whatsoever and looks 2d, as it does now. and in my mind, somehow, beach walls were always multi-colored: red, white, yellow and some other colors.

2) the beach is x_x...it doesn't look good at all. it just looks flat 2 dimensional like an adjusted inverted noise filtered thing. and that's bad. =( it has no feel of being sandy to it. and it looks as if you couldn't make up your mind about having a white sand beach or a regular brown sand one. even if it is sand, it's not that gritty looking. try searching up other beach walls to see what the sand should look like.

3) if the parts of the beach lighted by the sun is gritty, shouldn't the shaded parts be as well?

4) the perfectly smooth gradient used on the mountain island thing behind the girls kills the mountain. again, no third dimension. shading should not be completely smooth but rather, it should be uneven according to the uneven terrain

5) papyrus is a rather mediocre font choice...i'd go for something fancier and more unique ;P

6) consider giving your ocean sparkles! currently, it looks okay as water and the transition onto the beach is okay too, but you can surely make it even better.

Text is kinda meh... the vector is great, but I spotted some color out of the line in Haruhi's arm. I don't know if it's more notorious because it's on a black background, but try to fix it if you can. I like the sea, bit I'd like it more if there was foam instead of green stuff. Also, you could do some grading since colors tend to fade when things are far away, and the sea finally melts subtly with the sky.
The sand is a bit plain... the same goes for the island (and there's a white spot on the lower right coner ^^)
I won't comment on the ball since you said you were going to fix it... I'll wait for that.

Personally I would use something easier to use like a watermelon instead of a beach ball. But that's only because it would be really hard to match the style of the scan with a texturized beach ball. If possible, add a couple sea shells and to add some life to the sand.

The text should be a lot smaller, perhaps located in the sand. Like previously mentioned, try other fonts besides papyrus. But overall nice work, espically on the water. The sand just needs a little more work to make it look better, and the sky looks pretty good. Keep it up ^^

asa01

I'm going to make a list. i apologize ahead of time if any of it sounds mean to you. =| ^^;

1) beach ball--it's not only about giving it texture but also giving it shadows. or else it has nothing of the third dimension to it whatsoever and looks 2d, as it does now. and in my mind, somehow, beach walls were always multi-colored: red, white, yellow and some other colors.

2) the beach is x_x...it doesn't look good at all. it just looks flat 2 dimensional like an adjusted inverted noise filtered thing. and that's bad. =( it has no feel of being sandy to it. and it looks as if you couldn't make up your mind about having a white sand beach or a regular brown sand one. even if it is sand, it's not that gritty looking. try searching up other beach walls to see what the sand should look like.

3) if the parts of the beach lighted by the sun is gritty, shouldn't the shaded parts be as well?

4) the perfectly smooth gradient used on the mountain island thing behind the girls kills the mountain. again, no third dimension. shading should not be completely smooth but rather, it should be uneven according to the uneven terrain

5) papyrus is a rather mediocre font choice...i'd go for something fancier and more unique ;P

6) consider giving your ocean sparkles! currently, it looks okay as water and the transition onto the beach is okay too, but you can surely make it even better.

It's ok. constructive criticism is better than no response. ^^

1) Agreed. I didn't have time to do anything apart from slapping that round shaped thingy over her leg. It was done out of necessity since this is the first time I'm doing a vector and I doubt I can draw the feet well. Shadows, textures and lighting are yet to be done (in my to do list so don't worry).

2) You wouldn't believe how HARD it is to find help on this. I've scoured so many tutorials and checked out so many wallpapers but it either turns out bad, or I find one I like which I can't duplicate. >.< Any help here would be good. I'm also thinking about the lighting for the whole beach to create more depth, but that remains to be done.

3) Agreed. They should. I was waiting for the ball's shadow before I 'grainify' them. ^^;

4) This I am a little lost. I didn't exactly use a straight gradient. I split the mountain into pieces and did the gradients that way. It was supposed to be simple, but I get your point about it looking 'fake'. I could texturise it a little I suppose... but then I'd need to learn how too. I'll see what I can do about the mountain.

5) I actually wanted a very stylish and elaborate cursive font with lots of curves for this since I really think it suits the text. However, finding one which I think is good takes a bit of time. Looking into it. ^^

6) Refer to (2). Again, it's easy to find pictures or even tutorials of water, but they either don't fit or I am unable to duplicate. Not giving up just yet though. I really want to do waves, but they just don't turn out right. >.<

I'll try to update it soon. Unfortunately, I got 3 assignments due and I'm not done with them. Will get to the wallpaper when I can...

Is that red circle supposed to censor something? Because I think you'd move it a bit to the right and up... to cover Nagato. Or is it censoring for the foot fetish crazed? Ahem anyway, the vectors are great. The vector of the red circle is also "superb"! (haha). Anyway just get rid of the circle and the wall is all good.

Its a pretty nice idea, the background and characters match very well. THe ball shaped figure dosent go well, its too 2D and dosent match. Give it shadows or something to show that it is a ball. The text is too generic also Otherwise GJ. And GL

~SLaka

The vector is wonderful but lose the text please

Made some modifications:



To those who commented about the ball... I hope it's ok now. I really just slapped a circle on the first image because I didn't have time to do it but intended to. It should be more like the new one.

Added a bit more effect to the sea and the mountain behind. It might still be a bit plain (the mountain) but I'll try again if anyone has any suggestions on how to fix it. As for the sea, I'm thinking of adding some sparkling effect to make it more sunny. Don't worry, I don't particularly like extremely bright walls, so it won't be too bright.

I still have the font to worry about. I'll browse through dafont when I have the time. I was thinking of kind of merging the sun with the font, making the light come behind the font... or just over the top. That effect would be cool I think... if I can get it to work. =/

REALLY simple font normally does the work, font that looks like Arial, or times new roman are usually the best font out there!

Also the sea still looks a bit fake, I think the mountain is sort of OK, it just lacks some details, the beach ball looks good.

Well, I would mention some background stuff, but others seem to have it covered on that, so let me suggest a few points on the vector. (hi! I'm kenny1988 and I have no life)
on the first girls leg, it looks like you have a color leak. if it's not, then the shadow needs to cover the whole part of that leg, (hi, I'm kenny 1988 and I'm a bitch)
also, on her book, it would be nice if you could put a few lines in there for the pages, cuz right now it looks like she's reading a stone tablet or something ;p (hi, I'm kenny1988 and I'm gay)
same thing goes with the second girl by her bikini strap on her chest. the shading doesn't make sense, cuz that part the sun wouldn't hit cuz of the other girl. (hi, I'm kenny1988 and I suck)
I dunno how you do your vectors, but I always make a medium grey layer behind everything in mine, and whenever I'm coloring, I just use that to make sure I don't go outside of the lines. (hi, I'm kenny1988 and i'm about to get banned)
but other than that, and the bg stuff you are supposed to be working on, it looks great! I really mean it. great.
copy and paste that, loser!

Good enough your creation ^^

I like me very much the topic of suzumiya ... and clear ... your wallpaper is original enough ^^

Congratulations

The ball is ok... The mountain still looks fake and wrong >_<
I see you didn't see the vector... you colored out of the lines in some parts. I'll add to mellykill's post, I check my vectors with white, black and grey background.
I think the sea has too much white, you could erase some as you move to the horizon?
Uh, and I don't like the text. It's just too plain. I'd be cool if you could make it like it's written on the sand, some days ago I saw a tutorial for that ^^
What else? oh, the sea. I think that the colors closer to the coast should be more saturated instead of being otherwise... also a bit of fading to blend it with the sky would be nice.

Looks better but the gradient thing on the island still makes it look like a piece of cardboard. =/ yeah, and check the vector. i didn't point out all the stuff but mellykill, my friend, has expertise in picking everything apart ;P i personally check my vectors with a white background, a black one , and one that has a glaringly saturated color that's not present in the scan. that just covers all the bases, even though black and white or gray probably will do.

and blue oceans: the further towards the horizon, the darker the blue. that's because of water depth you see. but it looks okay as is, though the white is a touch much.