Hi again,
I've looked at the Game Start one - it seems to have similar problems - the swirly lines have an outer glow or
outline (I'm assuming you had the same difficulty as the Tales of a Hero wallpaper with getting the edges clean).
The scan of the character is a lot better in this wallpaper than the Hero one (outlines aren't blurred for one),
but there's still that outer glow and around the hair spikes the outlining isn't consistent or clean (there
are bits of black bits from the original scan). If I lean close to the screen I can also see the jpeg artifacts on the
scan that haven't been cleaned. Some of the lines on the inside of the clothing also are a bit pixellated. The text
in the top right is a bit out of place in terms of the quality/ style of image and personally I think if you really
wanted to keep it, it should be more legible and better in the lower right corner rather than the top right.
I think this wallpaper has less issues than your Hero wallpaper, and it's a big improvement. The composition
doesn't have any major concerns, I think it's just a matter of creating backgrounds that don't require a
whole lot of extracting.
The reason why we delete the items first and then give feedback is because we have the Sandbox forum for members to post
their work in first before posting it in the gallery.
But general notes on directions:
(1) Grab a great extraction tutorial so that you can get the outlines sharp and crisp. I'm assuming you're
using Photoshop; you can go to this page HERE
and scroll down to tutorials. There are 4 JPEG files that I've created and are fairly easy to follow (a bit of
intuition is required), but after getting the hang of it I'm sure you can extract and even vectorise images - so
you won't ever have a problem with scan quality.
(2) Vectorise your scans. This generally means to retrace over the scan (or background elements in your case). If you
follow the tutorials you should get great edges and no problems. It will be time consuming on the other hand. You should
do this in particular to scans where the lines look broken or incomplete. This is also a great way to extend a great
scan but an elbow is cut off or something.
(3) If you don't want to vectorise your scans, remember to clean them. Never enlarge your scans - you can make them
smaller, and when you do so remember to hold onto the shift key to keep it in proportion. To clean a scan you duplicate
your extracted scan layer, zoom in and using a smudge tool, very carefully blend in solid blocks of colour. That's
one way, but it takes patience and might not be good once you zoom out since you forget the larger picture. I think
there's a tutorial on the web > duplicate layer, median the dupe layer by about 5px and then setting the layer
to SCREEN or something like that. It's just a matter of playing around with it and seeing what works.
(4) Ask yourself if the background is the best one to include with the scan. You've got all the colours right so
far, but there are many more options than cutting out swirls.
(5) I suggest you download as many brush packs as you want from the web. This is let you have more brushes than the ones
you're using at the moment. Photoshop has a few other ones - you just have to go into the palette, and append the
other brush types they have. I find the ones you can download being much better.
Hopefully that gives you a few more tips - if you need constructive criticism, there are a load of wallers (including
myself) you can ask and we're happy to help. Sometimes we just forget to write stuff down because we just forget
lol. I hope that gives you some direction first- as soon as you get the pen tool under your belt, you're well and
truly under way.
PS: Don't forget to browse the elite/ highlighted galleries - it's important to keep your work original, but
it's also important to look at examples. It's in no way asking you to achieve that standard, but to just look
at maybe the techniques and variety other people do in their wallpapers. It will give you an idea of what to aim for/
avoid, as well as perhaps inspire you to challenge yourself out of your comfort zone. Plus we also have the Sandbox
forum ;)
