After much mucking about (and lots of suggestions from a lot of people), this wallpaper came together. The Characters (left to right) are Kobiashi Hatoko, Suzuhara Misaki, and Hikaru. Each are vectored from screenshots taken from the series. The Misaki/Hikaru screenshot came from the show break of the first 12 episodes, and the Hatoko screenshot came from episode 23 near the end. Neither screenshot was very detailed so a lot of interpretation was needed to bring them up in quality, particularly on Misaki since no shawow detail or highlights are indicated at all. Hatoko needed highlights for her hair as well as a tweek to her expression to make it fit the the wall.

The background took a number of tries before a suitable balance could be reached. The theme "chasing the dream" came during the time of trying to marry the actions of the characters with the background, hence the swirling Cherry blossom petals. Misaki seems to be trying to catch the petal directly in front of her, and having the time of her life doing it. Hatoko follows close behind, since they were both chasing the dream of becoming champions of layer. Many comments were made concerning the colors of the petals, but after adjusting that about a billion times (and getting still more comments about the colors) I finally decided they are what they are... Maybe I just don't know enough about it to make it work perfectly yet.

Oh well. It's still fun chasing the dream.

Here is a 1600*1200 version, essentially the same just a tighter focus.