While I agree that there are many wallpapers that are highly cluttered, it doesn't necessarily mean that
"simple" is the way to go.
While I have made my share of wallpapers in my lifetime, and some may be arguably "too busy" or
"cluttered", I think that it well and truly depends on the waller's desktop. (I only have 5 icons and a
calendar, with a very thin taskbar, which is why when I get the chance to make something busy, I do it X-P)
Of course, there is a difference between busy as in consciously busy with every element working together in harmony, where if one element is absent the composition or concept fails, vs.
"busy just to fill up space" busy with unnecessary stuff (mainly sparkles, I assume are the most overused
things in wallpapers to this date).
Whether simple or busy, in my opinion, both are equally aesthetically pleasing and worth applause when it looks
complete: nothing less, nothing more is needed. As long as the wallpaper is worked to a particular concept and worked
extremely well and is effective in communicating the concept, I think that busy or simple work equally as well.
As for the obsession, there are many reasons for obsession.
Some do it for the favourites, "unseen peer pressure to mass produce" perhaps.
Some do it to improve digital art skills because they just want to.
Some do it because they need a desktop- and others just do it because they want to make a wallpaper. No concept, just
do.
So there are many varying qualities of wallpapers around.
I think that the more "disciplined" artists (if I may call them that :P) are more controlled in their
wallpapers and artworks and are producing less but at a more maintained quality.
The "less disciplined", so to speak, will keep pushing out walls in a frenzy- and to tell the truth, these are
probably the most disappointing walls, because it is very hard to come up with something original or fresh in such a
short period of time and most likely will end up in redundant looking "I've seen something like this
before..."'s.
As for every single nitpick and critiquing, I think it depends on how far the critique go. If it's the basics like
composition, quality control and all that jazz (technical stuff) I think it's fine, but when it comes to extreme
personal preferences and ridiculously tiny tiny details (that shirt has one pixel sticking off it- get it away/ that
scan should be 1% smaller/ you have 1 too many birds) then it gets pretty uhm... yeah >_>
Anyways, nice topic, but I would like to protect busy wallpapers because I think that the really well worked out ones
can be conceptually stimulating :)
