Round 2 Elimination Challenge Results – RED Group

kawaii-chicken (76 points) vs. StormFangs (68 points)
yuukine (64 points) vs. channelqueen17 (60 points)
afwells (WILDCARD) (62 points) vs. Deto15 (85 points)
alenas (IC2 Winner) (70 points) vs. octofly (69 points)
ze (76 points) vs. chibimisao (77 points)

The Red Group had several amazingly tight races, with just one point separating the winners from the losers! As the Immunity Challenge + People’s Choice winner, alenas automatically advanced to the final round and also received +4 points on her final score. Congrats to Deto15 for tying with dalarty for the highest-scoring wall this round, and special thanks to afwells for filling in as super last minute wildcard for us!

(Because of rounding, total scores may be a point off from the sum of the technical/creative/meets theme/overall points.)

HUGE thanks to our awesome judges, who have once again kept up the high standard of scoring and critiquing for this round. Be sure to thank them properly!
All entries were judged by all 10 of our judges (Jay included). Each judge was given a minimum # of comments, but were given the option of commenting more if they wished.

Also, be sure to check out the BLUE group’s results!
These groups were just our way of breaking all 19 contestants into manageable posts – no other meaning is associated with these groups

Post links to your AP-submitted walls here once you’re done uploading so we can pimp them properly! Thanks <3

kawaii-chicken

Check it out on AP!

Winner (vs StormFangs)

Technical Elements: 25
Creativity/Vision: 25
Meets Challenge/Theme Requirements: 25
Overall Impression: 7
Total Score: 81 – 5 (late submission penalty) = 76

Judges’ Comments:

Tatekane: Color explosion! It’s busy and probably not advisable to be used as a desktop..but for the theme I fully expected some busy walls coming in…and I’m quite happy with this one, because there’s the character fully visible and placed somewhere you might not think to look at first because you’re too busy trying to find it elsewhere. As for it overall…it has so many elements, mascots from everywhere yet drawn in a style that meshed it together is good. Another version of this with less stuff would be great for those who collect desktop wallpapers. Nice job.

Heart464: Wow, awesome bright colors! It gives off such a happy feeling. I especially love that you added Finn and Jake from “Adventure Time!” <3

Nysha: Quite vivid colors! It’s quite interesting and has lots of character, but my eyes might start to burn after using this as a desktop, plus the icons might get lost and hard to see/find. All the jumbled shapes and things make it hard to find a focal point as well.

Gidacious: I am superbly enjoying this. Some areas (such as the smoke/dust cloud and the robot’s chest) would do well to have cleaner edges, just to help bring it all together.

sjade1: I love the little girl with the megaphone blasting out bubbles/letters, with the city background and the cherry trees and clouds with faces on them. This is incredibly creative and very nicely detailed. The color scheme also works very nicely to create a childlike theme.

I see traces of really good composition going on, and then moments where big splashes of color seem to cover it all and doesn’t really resonate with the rest of the wall. For example, the “OH NO” text, or the big bands of rainbow color curving in from the sides. While the color scheme matches nicely, I have to say bigger doesn’t mean better for this wall. The strength is more in your detail work.

The white signs with heavily-saturated text do not match with the rest of the color scheme and composition in this wall. For instance, I feel you could have changed the sign for “adventure time” to hot pink on a lighter, paler pink shade instead of bright, plain white. It’s kind of like wearing white T-shirts with prints on them – nobody does it willingly because it looks cheesy. It’s a rule of thumb that generally works on all mediums, not just apparel.

anolibb: Cheerful and vivid inspirational image, perfect for winter days to “chin up”

I like the composition and the planning behind it. I can’t say I would be able to look at it for long, but it’s an interesting and pleasant piece of work that has a good story and a lot of depth in it (depsite the simple shapes).

asa01: You’ve gone to great lengths to meet the Waldo theme. I applaud the time you put into all the details of this wall. At the same time, I feel like you might have lost sight of the fact that wallpapers have certain restraints set by their usability and effectiveness as people’s desktops. Unfortunately, my taste biases me against the very busy and the very vividly colorful walls in most cases, but even when trying to be objective, I find it to be a little much. Typical Waldo images are busy, yes, but certain compositions have worked without being as overwhelming because they contain sufficient negative space. The colors are cheerful, yes, but perhaps you could have toned it out in a few places. Nonetheless, great effort!

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StormFangs

Check it out on AP!

(vs kawaii-chicken)

Technical Elements: 20
Creativity/Vision: 18
Meets Challenge/Theme Requirements: 24
Overall Impression: 6
Total Score: 68

Judges’ Comments:

grayserg: When I’ve seen this wallpaper, I’ve told to myself – man, I like this mood.

Of course, you used too simple colors here, but It look not too bad:) even stylish… With this scan.
A lot of details and characters, It’s well coordinated with a competition theme. I like how you hide your mascot.

But I must to say to you (I want to say it to all participants): we all make a wallpapers here:)
You have good work with scan and details, you managed to keep mood of original scan. But this color scheme is too contrast and too simple for good wallpaper. Though, must notice – graffiti with Pikachu looks very well.

Nysha: The colors are a bit tacky being so bright and lacking in shading/lighting, but good job extending the scan and vectoring in all the little details. The detailed scan appears as a good choice for this theme and hiding the character.

Gidacious: This would benefit from some more contrast. It feels flat as it is. The colour is also the same regardless of where and object is in the space. There should be shading on the sidewalk, for example, in a way that would suggest distance. There also doesn’t seem to be any real hint of a light source, just the idea that there might be one there somewhere.

sjade1: I love the funkyness of this wall. Love the semi-sketchy, mangaka-like technique that’s bouncing all over the place. Actually, my favorite part is probably how you did the grass (those random strokes are really nicely balanced even though almost done in a chaotic style).

However, I almost feel thrown off by the mix of bright colors – they don’t really seem to match very well (actually, it feels very much like a child’s coloring book using very contrasty felt markers, but I’m not given the impression that’s what you were going for either).

I also wish you had thrown in a little more of your own stuff instead of basing mostly on the scan. Ex: more posters, other characters in the background, or even bumper stickers all over the walls or that crate he’s sitting on.

anolibb: this wall looks a bit like those to be printed pages for a comic book. Perfect for the theme, but maybe a bit too busy for a wallpaper. Good work on colouring and extending the original scan, but I miss shadings in the background.And I think I prefer his original face expression, because his nose doesn’t fit with the angle of his head.

asa01: Just a quick comment — wanted to say that it’s a great idea that the wall is sort of interactive, what with that pikachu graffiti! It’s a shame that there isn’t much shading and an absence of shadows. Since the wall is scenic, showing attention to lighting would have brought things up a notch.

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yuukine

Check it out on AP!

Winner (vs channelqueen17)

Technical Elements: 23
Creativity/Vision: 17
Meets Challenge/Theme Requirements: 18
Overall Impression: 6
Total Score: 64

Judges’ Comments:

Tatekane: I hafta say ‘Jonathan’ was hard to find…because he was barely visible. When the theme was announced I have this image of fooling the viewer to think ‘this is really where the character is…not there!’ not an overlayed/low opacity image =\. This is a nice looking wall overall just needed a tad bit more for the theme.

nat: First off, really beautiful vector work in this one! I love the added texture on the hair and clothing, as it better emulates that Arina Tanemura coloring style in my opinion. I think the hiding theme also worked out really well in this, as the first place I started to look for something hidden was in the apples, and that’s where it ended up being. The quality is really consistent through out, with clean lines, consistent textures, and even a very clean incorporation of the stock for the moon. And of course, the completion of the original scan looks really good too. The overall wallpaper design relies on the design and layout from the original scan, without a lot of development in the background. But I recognize that a lot of the creativity went into changing the manga scan to an anime styled vector. Good job in changing the character coloring too, as the original wasn’t nearly as vibrant as this wallpaper!

Nysha: Quite the colorful interpretation of the original scan! The moon and night sky are looking quite nice. It’s hard to tell where the main light source is coming from though, since everything in the foreground is lit, and there’s no backlighting from the moon. Vectoring is clean and crisp, though I wonder why you decided to paint the blond character’s feather boa/vest. It contrasts against the vectoring everywhere else and is somewhat messy in comparison. The dark hair of the male at the bottom seems a bit too extreme and could use some more highlights to fit in with the rest of the brightly lit characters. The black buildings in the background could also use some more defining features and lighting, since they are just simple silhouettes. Maybe even some mist at the bottom to separate them from the black window panes? Also, if you had added some of those white splotches/sparkles like in the original scan, it would have made the wall more mystical, improve the depth of the wall, and give it that extra finishing touch. As for the hidden character, I did not see it until I saw the answer pic, and then at first I thought it was just the apple. But upon closer inspection I can make out the character barely overlayed inside it. Although from the same series, the wall would look fine without him, so the hidden character appears more as an extraneous afterthought.

Gidacious: The hiding spot was more than a little underwhelming to me. In seeing the detail afforded to the rest of the wall, I would hoped for something a bit more creative. Seeing as how you more or less extended the scan here, it would have been nice to see some more creative thought put elsewhere. On a technical note, some hints of lighting on the buildings would have made for a more interesting background.

sjade1: It’s good you’re working on the technical aspects of this wall, but I also feel you should consider the creative part a little more as well. What you’ve done with the color-additions is a nice start.

anolibb: There are not too many hiding places in this wall and I think that kills the game in a second. Execution is very nicely done however, huge improvement compared to the scan. Thought the way the fur is made stands out a bit, but it’s always hard to depict different kind of textures. Still a flat look would have looked better given that’s the dominant style in the wall.

asa01: My gripe with this piece is not really about the aesthetics of the piece itself. Since this is a theme-oriented competition, it would have been nice had the Waldo theme been given more prominence in the wall. What? Prominence? Yes I know the theme is about hiding the mascot. xD It’s just putting the mascot on an apple and reducing the transparency is a very quick process, almost afterthought-like. It doesn’t give the impression that the wall was thought out and designed around this mascot-hiding deal. That aside, it is visually pleasing and I appreciate all the details you put into it.

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channelqueen17

Check it out on AP!

(vs yuukine)

Technical Elements: 25
Creativity/Vision: 15
Meets Challenge/Theme Requirements: 13
Overall Impression: 6
Total Score: 60

Judges’ Comments:

Tatekane: Well…If i exerted a lot of effort I could see mokona’s shape, barely though, and that’s already with the help of the “answer” it looks like it’s ‘outer glow’ … As I see it the “where’s waldo?” theme is not about how ‘not findable’ the character is but how clever you are in placing a very visible character in a BG and making the viewer go OH THERE YOU ARE!… Anyway I gotta say the wall looks good and very clean, good work on extending the scan

nat: First off, really beautiful scan choice for this one. The attention to detail through out really shows, and the completion the original cover scan really looks natural. The outline-less style and heavy shading in this case does tend to make her look a bit more like a paper cut out, with her face on top of her body, and butterflies added like stickers at the end, but maybe that’s the intended look. My first impression with the hidden Mokona is there isn’t a sense of looking for something in this wallpaper, or rather, if you were looking for something it would be in the kimono. The idea of a character in a crowd is the Waldo theme, and just hiding with transparency takes away from it.

Nysha: Even with the answer circled, I’m still not really seeing the character – maybe the jewel on its head, but other than that I’d have to have a pretty wild imagination to make it out. Thus the wall can very much stand alone without the hidden character. The scan you chose is very pretty and the work you did to extend it is admirable – though lacking in creativity. The way her skin and clothes are shaded reminds me of paper or origami, which is interesting and fitting to the Asian theme. This is because the tonal shading is rather flat and lacks volume – like extra reflections of color on her skin from surrounding fabric/objects, and deeper shadows/brighter highlights if you wanted to make it more 3D. Of course this flatter style is appropriate for this scan.

Gidacious: For the amount of time given to the scan, the mascot and its hiding spot are rather disappointing. There was too much focus given to the scan, not enough to the theme or creativity.

anolibb: I think Mokona is a little bit too hidden in this one. Their original shape is not obvious enough, but despite that, the execution of this wallpaper is great. Stunning image for a desktop and thumbs up for careful scan extension/ improvement.

Kalico: yet another wall that was done beautifully in terms of technical ability, but clearly ignored the idea of “where’s waldo”. Mokona was not built into the wall, as much as she was an afterthought to the wall. You score high on technical ability from me, but low in regards to the theme and creativity.

asa01: Kimono patterns are always gorgeous and I can understand when complex patterns aren’t “wrapped” so as to follow the flow/contour of the fabric. But the more important point in bringing up the patterns is that it would have been more effective and interesting to hide Mokona amongst the pattern. Right now, yes, Mokona is hard to find, but by leaving only soft shadings of a mascot to hint its existence…doesn’t feel very theme-adhesive. Rather, the topic of the wall seems to lie more with the girl. (Not sure I articulated that well, sorry. ) There are also some issues with the shadows and the shading in your piece but I fear I can’t make myself clear on them without rambling too much. (If those are of interest to you, I’ll be happy to try and find the time to explain what I mean afterward.)

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afwells (WILDCARD)

(vs Deto15)

Technical Elements: 20
Creativity/Vision: 18
Meets Challenge/Theme Requirements: 19
Overall Impression: 5
Total Score: 62

Judges’ Comments:

Nysha: Impressive for making something on short notice, but as a result, the wall looks unfinished. If you had spent more time on this, more details in her eyes and on the brooch would be welcome, plus the lighting from the staff could be more impressive. And the face is tad dark. Interesting to place the hidden character on a bead like that!

Gidacious: This wasn’t so much a “search” as much as it was a “casual find.” Luna wasn’t given a very compelling hiding spots; it feels more like she was squeezed in as an afterthought.

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Deto15

Check it out on AP!

Winner (vs afwells WILDCARD)

Congratulations, Deto, for tying for the highest-scoring wall in EC2

Technical Elements: 26
Creativity/Vision: 25
Meets Challenge/Theme Requirements: 26
Overall Impression: 8
Total Score: 85

Judges’ Comments:

Tatekane: I love this great job camouflaging the ‘yeast fungus oryzae’ It’s not that hard to find him…but it gives off that “find it” feel and it’s still visible (like how usually waldo is) but it’s on a same-colored bg so it’s like hey I’m hiding! xD and it’s a great looking wall

Nysha: This wall is simple, cute, and effective! As a watcher of Moyashimon I can appreciate all the bacterial characters and their personal little blurbs – looks like a team effort to find the yeast! The yeast is camouflaged against the yellow table, so he takes a few sec to find. But what I like is that you planned the hiding and made it an element of the wall, instead of placing him somewhere random as an afterthought. So kudos for that! I like the cleanliness of the vectoring and the little bubbles in the test tubes. I may have liked to see some other chemistry tools/items here and there, besides just one test tube rack. Maybe some beakers and other equipment around in the back or near the bottom on the left for instance. However, the simplicity is charming on its own.

Gidacious: The execution of the theme in this was well done. The tubes feel like they could use some more attention, particularly when it comes to the liquids. You included the “dark” shapes that were in the stock photo, but your liquids are more opaque than the photo’s, so the refractions would act a bit differently.

sjade1: I love the stylistic choices you made here. It feels like bread, and the subjects are all about baking – even down the chemistry tubes! Fantastic show of creativity.

Technique-wise, there could be a few improvements in some small areas. The shading for the test tube liquids don’t match well with the vector-style choices you made for the rest of the wall – just a tad too fuzzy. The waldo character is also rather faded, and almost doesn’t feel a part of the wall.

On the other hand, the composition is very nice. I like the semi-fisheye perspective you chose – it feels like we’re using a magnifying glass to take a closer look at the microorganisms in our food X). The text is also entertaining, and breathes life into each unique character you’ve drawn. Love how it feels like a living, breathing community, full of chattering breadcrumbs (or bread things, whatever you call them). Awesome walling.

anolibb: very nicely made wallpaper, cute and resfreshing theme to look at. I like the added texture and text to give depth to the soft colours and simplictic shapes. good vector work and cocept to fit theme.

asa01: Haha that’s cute. And neat. The little blurbs of conversations make for a nice touch. The perspective of the little creatures and that of the test tubes plus rack don’t match but I don’t really mind it here. Would have liked to see less blurry shadows though: most of them are standing right on the ground (as is the test tube rack) and so their shadows should be well defined.

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alenas (Immunity Challenge + People’s Choice Winner)

Check it out on AP!

Winner (vs octofly)

Technical Elements: 19
Creativity/Vision: 20
Meets Challenge/Theme Requirements: 22
Overall Impression: 5
Total Score: 66 + 4 points (IC People’s Choice Winner) = 70 points

Judges’ Comments:

Tatekane: Surprisingly I didn’t see the mascot at all until I looked at the “answer” maybe that’s because I’m not familiar with the character or the anime lol but all in all a solid wall for the theme and as desktop material

grayserg: Timcanpy?
I see only fragment of him:)
Really, it so hard to recognize him without his wings.
What about overall wall – I like these candies, but it is not enough for good wallpaper.
This background is simple and flat. This vase… I think you can make it better.
I wish to remind to you – this is wallpaper, therefore, this picture should cause desire to put it on a desktop. hmm… I don’t want to put it on my desktop. Though, I like these candies:)

Nysha: The background is pretty plain and simple – lots of empty space compared to the small section you focused on. The detail and care put into the candy is nice. Though it’s a bit odd to distinguish Tim – he doesn’t quite resemble his character. Perhaps a hint of a wing or tail somewhere could help. The bowl could use some more detailing, perhaps even a decorative pattern. And the smoke/clouds could use some white highlighted layers in front of the bowl’s base.

Gidacious: Cute idea, but this wall lacks consistency. The lollipops have a style different from the round candies, which are different from the bowl. The background feels like an afterthought when compared to the attention given to the round candies.

sjade1: I just wanted to eat this up. It could seriously go onto the window of some sweets shop in town somewhere.

I really appreciate how you were able to turn such a complicated theme into a simple container of sweets – a perfect example of Organized Chaos.

The candies look very appetizing and almost 3D-like. However, the wall as a whole feels a little unbalanced. The container, a few pieces of candy on sticks, and most of the background were very lacking compared to the hard candies featured in the center. It feels almost like they’re from different planes, and were somehow forced together.

I did also find it difficult to recognize Timcampy even after I saw the answer. Perhaps a few extra touches, or even wings to identify him a little more would help. Also, while it’s fantastic to create things from scratch and to work on originality, if you’re trying to make a representation of something that already exists, it’s usually a good idea to consider using reference stock images (i.e. you might have decided to add wings to Timcampy if you saw his picture).

anolibb: I like the shading work on the blue wrappings, but for some reason their outlines (cuts) and surreal placement make them look more like paper cutouts than a bowl of sweets with depth. The surrounding space is too big and empty, even the bowl itself lacks details compared to the work done on the sweets.

asa01: The background is a little disappointing. It is rather plain and seems rather hurried through. But I can appreciate the time you put into the foreground details and I do like the way you chose to hide Timcanpy. Two things though. First, the candies (and Timcanpy too) are stacked together and they definitely should cast shadows on each other in addition to being shaded themselves. These shadows aren’t really shown. Second, the sweets have a good range of contrast from bright highlights to shaded backsides. But this isn’t the case with the round bowl…? Anyhow, with some more work, this should turn out quite nicely!

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octofly

Check it out on AP!

(vs alenas)

Technical Elements: 18
Creativity/Vision: 22
Meets Challenge/Theme Requirements: 23
Overall Impression: 6
Total Score: 69

Judges’ Comments:

Tatekane: Nice job on making those ragdolls of the characters to make you think “Oh wait! Not that! That’s a decoy!” lol >_>;; and good environment for “Baby” so overall great job…although I would have loved to see the line art strokes polished or done in colors complimenting the element it is on.

Nysha: Firstly, good job drawing all the elements and composing the scene yourself! Adding the mouse plushie was neat, though the hidden character is still relatively easy to find. Unknown if it was the style you were going for, but the tablet drawn lineart comes off messy and imprecise – a bit more care and time taken to draw the lines would have greatly improved the look of the wall. Also, the color leaks in the wall stripes are distracting because no other elements/objects have color leaks. Speaking of color, the base colors are bright, happy, and appropriate for a child’s room, but the shading – there is only black, which contrastingly makes the room appear much more morbid and dull than it should. Give more life to the room with some colorful highlights and shadows! Overall, since you’ve simply shaded with black and roughly sketched the lines, to me this comes off as a rushed wall.

Gidacious: You have a good start here, but this would benefit from some more time. The shading could be cleaner. The hiding spot feels expected, and rather poorly executed. It would have worked better to hide him somewhere a little subtler.

sjade1: In terms of technique, this kind of has me stuck in the middle – on the one hand you have these lovely, fine, neat strokes for the stitches, but on the other you have some bold and shaky lines that seem like uncertain strokes on a tablet. There are ways to combine bold-and-thick with fine-and-precise lines, but the bolder styles in this wall really seem to detract from the finer strokes.

In terms of the theme, the plushie idea was very cute. However, the Waldo character was not drawn as a plushie and is relatively very small. It doesn’t seem to flow with the rest of the wall and seems to stick out more than a Waldo character should.

anolibb: nicely painted wall with objects well chosen and excecuted for compositon. strong colours and thick black outlining make it look more alive, but the lining on the floor does not feel right for the perspective (and proximity of items to the wall). This may be made less obvious with solving the other problem, that is shading. The items all look like floating because there are no obvious(just slight gradient) shading under them. with such style (thick outlines and contrasted colours) more controlling shading is needed for things to be visually placed on floor.

asa01: Overall, the execution seems sort of amateur. The thick black outlines don’t work for me — they rest more on the messy side than on the visually pleasing sketchy. Some strokes are rather wobbly. (Steadiness takes a combination of your hand’s natural steadiness, practice, and a good sensitivity setting.) Some straight lines would have been better of straight/smoother/better connected. In places, such as with the cushion’s frills and the teddy bear’s bow tie, it is very obvious that the brush is too thick. The ends of many of the lines could also use more tapering. And your shading technique — it will get better with time/experience. I would also advice against shading in (what looks to me like) grays (?) since they just blacken the base color and gives it a dirty appearance.

Finally, when doing shadows of objects, remember: always think about the proximity of the object casting the shadow and the surface the shadow is falling upon. The closer the two are, the crisper and darker the shadow. Considering how the cushions are all piled together and how several objects rest right against the floor, there should have been a lot more well-defined shadows here (as opposed to just blurry masses of shading).

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ze

(vs chibimisao)

Technical Elements: 26
Creativity/Vision: 22
Meets Challenge/Theme Requirements: 22
Overall Impression: 7
Total Score: 76

Judges’ Comments:

Tatekane: Hmmm like I said for another entry with the low opacity/overlayed image I feel like that way lacks the ‘hells-yeah’ factor for the given theme. If only the mushroom was in the “crowd” of mascots it would have been better…but overall I love the colors in this wall, the clean lines and all the cuteness behind cloud xD

grayserg: I like the concept of this wallpaper. You have good skill with vectors, and I see good style here. But in my opinion, that idea and colors is too simple. Interest work with mushroom, though it seems a bit not fairly in relation to the spectator, because we must have right “bright/contrast” parameters in our monitors. So, I like the composition, I like the background, I like realisation, I don’t like the color scheme.

Heart464: This was a cute collage of characters, but execution needed a bit of work.

Even though the characters are supposed to be standing in the light, the whole wall actually looks sort of dark and dull. I think the wall probably would’ve worked better if it was a bit more abstract in concept since it would be easier to let go of the fact that the characters are flat on top of each other.

Nysha: Buahaha digging this. The bright neon colors are somewhat trippy on the characters – especially Cloud’s hair – though it’s rather refreshing. I’m liking the contrast of the duller sky compared to the characters and foreground green. The overall vectoring is nice, smooth, and clean. The mushroom is kinda hard to find at first since it’s a bit too transparent, but it’s an interesting place to put it.

Gidacious: I am really enjoying this. I only have two things to mention (although they’re both shadow issues). The shadows on the “tiny hill” don’t make much sense as it stands. Everyone is standing back from the edge, and judging from their shading, the light is coming from above and to the front. This would mean their shadows shouldn’t be interfering with the hillock like they are. Secondly, the shading on Cloud’s face makes it look like he has tan lines from an awkward pair of goggles. It’d help if you could smooth that out some.

sjade1: I appreciated that you took the time to compose this out of so many scans. That’s tough work. I love some of the expressions on the characters; Moogle’s pose is adorable.

Now to the critiques x). The way the mushroom was hidden isn’t my favorite, mainly because it doesn’t fit well with the rest of your vectored characters. Waldo is usually drawn in the same style as the rest of the crowd, and setting the mushroom apart like this doesn’t feel like it fits in the crowd very well.

The way this is composed doesn’t hit a very creative note, but rather a classical note that’s been a little overused in many walls. Compositionally, this is a posing wall, with all the characters centered and standing there with nothing to do. That’s not a bad thing – just something that could use a little more creativity.

I do however love the slight fish-eye effect you did with the background. It’s very clean and very appropriate for the composition you’ve chosen.

The vector technique is also very nicely done. One of the cleanest I’ve seen so far.

anolibb: Good composition and clean, smooth vectoring. The style of work fits the concept perfectly well, and it’s a pleasing work. My only concern would be the colour of the top gradient, it’s too blended with the sword and makes the top a bit dull. That apart, nice work. Good spot and choice of mascot.

Kalico: While I think the technical ability is great, I feel like the mushroom was an afterthought. It feels like instead of building the wall around the theme, you built a wall, and quickly overlayed the image of the mushroom in there.

Overall, I like the wall, and could see even using it as my desktop, but for meeting the challenge, I feel it was sort of half-assed.

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chibimisao

Winner (vs ze)

Technical Elements: 23
Creativity/Vision: 22
Meets Challenge/Theme Requirements: 26
Overall Impression: 7
Total Score: 77

Judges’ Comments:

Tatekane: The theme was achieved so I’m gonna comment on the wall overall…The white part of the wall is being overwhelmed by the ‘grass’ looking border. It would benefit the wall if the white part was in color, like the blue swirl it has (or something in yellow) and made the swirls in white…then the focus would shift on the characters in it more and compliment the explosion of colors inside. The texture on the green(grass) doesn’t help the wall either… It would be better if it’s plain green with the circles alone, then it wouldn’t be so detached from the other elements

Nysha: None of the scans are showing up for me. This wall reminds me of pop-up book or scrapbook in its style, though I wish you could have pushed it a little further to resemble one even more. The textures here and there are nice, but it would be even better you used more to differentiate the various objects like they were made from an assortment of paper and materials. Even some drop shadows to suggest cut out paper would be neat. The bg in comparison is too simple so some artistic stationery or paper textures would be welcome.

Gidacious: Nice job crossing series here, I wasn’t expecting it when I opened the image. I’m not a fan of the grass texture, particularly because the other textures are much softer in comparison.

anolibb: Despite it being a little bit crowded it work perfectly well for both the theme and alone as a wallpaper. The overall look is like a good mixture of modern children’s books and those fun to play flash games. I’m not too fond of the big speech bubbles, I think they could loko better less obvious or none at all, but apart from this, it’s a great and well excetuted piece of work.

asa01: The textures and patterns are a nice way to make things more interesting. Haha and so many little critters! I’m not sure a white background is the way to go though. There are so many objects all over the wall (which you can’t quite help) and by that alone, the objects are already in a lot of competition for attention. This has been made to work in other pieces, but here, this competition isn’t quite healthy for the visual effectiveness of the wall. The critters, branches, etc. are all rather dark in color and really stand out when contrasted against the white. My eyes can’t rest easily.