Round 3 Elimination Challenge Results

alenas (68.5 points)
chibimisao (69.2 points)
dalarty (73.7 points) – 3rd place winner!
Deto15 (74.4 points) – 2nd place winner!
Horseradish (64.6 points)
Red-Eclipse (72.7 points)
shigemitsubaki (WILDCARD) (91.2 points) – 1st place winner!!!
X-Angel-0 (67.9 points)
yuukine (65.5 points)
ze (WILDCARD) (55.5 points)

Jay and I are delighted to announce the final results of 2010 AP Clash of the Wallers! Thanks to all of the contestants for your incredible patience and understanding about the announcement delay as Jay and I worked through our respective Real Life Issues.

We had to use decimal points for the first time this competition to separate out the winners dalarty snatched up 3rd place with her dark, original spin on chainsaw-wielding chicks; Deto narrowly beat out dalarty with his brooding, well-crafted “floral” vectors for a 2nd place finish; and Tsu, one of our round 3 secret wildcard agents, ran away with the highest score EVER given by the judging panel with her gorgeous realization of a fantastical scene, and took the extremely well-deserved 1st place win. Congrats to all the winners! Also, congrats to all of our round 3 finalists. There were many beautiful walls this round, so check them all out and give yourselves huge pats on the back. You guys were amazing! Thanks for sticking through these past three months with us, and for making Clash a success

One final round of thanks to our awesome panel of uber-judges, who as usual upheld an insanely high standard of scoring and critiquing for this final round of Clash.
All entries were judged by all 11 of our judges, as well as Jay and myself. Each judge was given a minimum # of comments, but were given the option of commenting more if they wished.

For the last time, please post links to your AP-submitted walls here once you’re done uploading so we can pimp them properly! Thanks <3

alenas

Check it out on AP!

Since I had discovered AP, it has been a constant source of not only beautiful walls and scans, but also inspiration that had made me learn how to wall and use my own creativity to share it with others. I must say that I felt inspired and influenced by many wallers and walls and it’s really hard for me to single them out. But, if I have to choose, then I remember staring at walls made by anolibb and grayserg and wondering how they managed to make them look so pretty, colorful, crisp and original. One wall made by anolibb in particular was what I could call a turning point that made me learn how to work with Photoshop and start my own walling ‘career’.
My current style differs a lot from the one I just mentioned but since it’s something I’ve wanted to learn how to do for a very long time, this was a perfect opportunity for me to finally try it. Vectoring/vexeling everything wasn’t easy and I must admit I was very frustrated at first, leaving the wall and then coming back to work on it again, but as I slowly got the hang of it, I realized it was more fun than I had originally thought and I really enjoyed working on it. I’m actually very satisfied with the end result and I think I had managed to accomplish what I wanted – to get close to anolibb’s style and to finally learn how to vector/vexel everything without swearing too much at the computer screen, lol. And since it’s autumn here now and I love it, I decided to go for an autumn-ish theme and colors.
I’d also like to use this chance to thank Jay and Flyin for giving me this opportunity to participate, judges for their awesome patience and feedback and of course, I’d like to thank anolibb and other awesome wallers for inspiring me and pushing me forward without even knowing; you guys rock! <3

Technical Elements: 21.3
Creativity/Vision: 18.4
Meets Challenge/Theme Requirements: 22.8
Overall Impression: 6.0
Total Score: 68.5

Judges’ Comments:

Heart464: You’ve really managed to capture the style of the artist so well. I recognized the style immediately! Nice color choices too, just wish they were a bit more saturated.

Tatekane: I can see the relation between your wall and your inspiration wall with the style and colors and the textured BG, I would have liked to see you playing more on the colors something near the character to make her pop out more…it seems almost bland with just greens and oranges a vivid red would have made this more interesting like that cloth/belt thing or her kimono something to draw our eyes in… or making the leaves have varied colors like autumn…

All in all a very clean and well made wallpaper Congrats for being in the finals!

Gidred: You did well with showing us your inspiration here. Grayserg may have pushed the “realism” of vectoring, but Anolibb had a particular way of going about it, and you captured it well.

asa01: The best-known vector artists typically exhibit a liquid-like quality or at least a similar softness in their works; your character vector is still rather “hard”, but you are getting a little bit of that feeling in your green leaves. The vector greats also does their detailed work concisely, if that makes sense — many layers, yes, but nothing in excess. I mention this because of the girl’s obi. It has more shading layers than it needs to look good (and to fit the rest of the vector). Something to watch out for the in the future. :3 Definitely keep doing detailed vectors!

And also, for that piece of fabric that you extended from her obi…uh, images speak better than me so: http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/9624/apclashr32.jpg Flat surfaces prove difficult for most people trying their hand at detailed vectors because you actually can’t making it too detailed without going about it the wrong way and defying its contours.

vitaamin: The pastel color scheme seen in this wall has a very clean and uplifting, yet calming feeling. However, it does not work with the technique that is featured–the hard edges debunk effort to create softness. When thinking about technique in the future, make sure it matches with your style + colors properly. Additionally, all too stiff lines and shapes make the angles look awkward. Remember, keep it simple and neat, and 90% of the time your piece will be more easily understood.

Kalico: I can definitely see the inspiration of anolibb when I saw this wall. I didn’t even have to read your description to see that. The colors you used are very pretty. They probably could have been punched up a touch with a little more contrast, but they all work very well together.
My only comment would be to add a bit more detail in the background. Maybe more plants, or just interesting shapes. The wall feels a little empty.

flyin’: I really like what you did with the girl, especially her hair – the vexeling looks great! However, the rest of the background pales in comparison, mostly because there’s less detail and contrasting colors like there was in anolibb’s inspiration wall. Richer splashes of color tones here and there would’ve helped give this wall more “oomph” and kick it up to the next level.

sjade1: It’s easy to see that you put a lot of effort into learning from anolibb’s technique, and even the composition. It is nicely done, but can use a little bit of work on the flow – i.e. the obi cloth at the back doesn’t look like it’s flexible fabric material yet.
Other than the vectoring technique and composition, I think you could have added a little bit more of your own touches to the piece. There isn’t as much creativity as there could be, and unfortunately that changes this into a very pose-based wallpaper.

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chibimisao

Check it out on AP!

Mouritsa’s wallpaper focused on the theme of nature and the birth of life. The way she interpreted this in her wallpaper was really dynamic with all the right lighting, colors and concept. It really is an inspirational piece which depicts the beauty of life. I used this concept and remade it into an Art Nouveau style. I’ve always wanted to try out this style, so here’s my attempt at it. I continued to focus on green colors in my wallpaper to go along with the nature theme. The design within the circle is the Tree of Life. The lady there also symbolizes the beautiful “Mother Nature“. As for the stained glass design, i’ve added in butterflies because it symbolizes rebirth and life. Oh and if you’re wondering, the text is in Latin which means “Nature, The Mistress of Art”.

Technical Elements: 20.7
Creativity/Vision: 20.6
Meets Challenge/Theme Requirements: 21.6
Overall Impression: 6.2
Total Score: 69.2

Judges’ Comments:

kuroimisa: A good interpretation of the original piece with sound intention. However, I don’t think the intention was executed with enough clarity.

I think the stained glass could have had more fluid curves – I honestly didn’t see the butterflies until I read the description. I think the font for the title of the wallpaper is a bit stiff, and I’m not too sure about the use of the lampposts – it sets up a one point perspective and loses the dynamism of the fluidity and curves of an art nouveau piece. The choice of the lamppost also gives off a rather industrialised feel even though you talk about Mother Nature and rebirth – I think if you were to pursue the idea of a butterfly and metamorphosis, I think you would have been better off pushing the idea replacing the lampposts with something like trees, or flowers (I think of lotuses for the beauty of nature, springing out of the mud) at different heights to pursue the idea in a stronger way.

I think you’ve done a good job with the colours and made a good attempt to marry the different lineweights and elements on the wall, but I think it could have been pushed further to make the clarity of the idea resonate better.

Tatekane: Congrats on being in the finals First of all that’s a lovely scan you used I can’t stop looking at the lines on her dress. I don’t really have anything to say for the wall, I can see the relation with the inspiration wall, the nature and the lady right smack in the middle though it’s weird how in the inspiration wall it’s surrounded with life…while in this one she’s surrounded by stained glass… a seemingly cold and lifeless thing but maybe that’s why she’s separated and inside the circle? @_@;;

Gidred: Overall, I like what you have going here. However, there isn’t much cohesion in your design. The clouds match the stock and work well with both the border and streetlamps. The Tree and stained glass, on the other hand, don’t fit as nicely. I think something as simple as bring the stained glass effect to the Tree would help tie it together.

FuKu: I think its quiet good as a whole. The theme is interesting enough so is the elements used in the wall. Combination of scans are nicely done with only the main character bugging me. She stands out a bit too much becoz of the crisp background and with her lines. That is minor tho.Color choice totally suits the intentional goal here; soft yet steady color pattern I like it.
For personal taste i d like it much better if this was worked with old school style via collage or brushwork but suprizingly vectoring works as well. Very nice one.

asa01: Art nouveau! 8D And I know vectoring in a sketchy fashion is hard. Or actually, vectoring Green Glass/Tsukiji Nao’s art is just generally hard lol~ But I still wanted to note the following. Her gray shading is a tad lighter (and also covering a lot of her) and her colors overall less saturated than the rest of the wall. It sets her apart from everything and makes her look flat.

vitaamin: I love the extension of the style in this wall, it is clear that you thought about the correct way to express the essence of this wall. The flowing lines, and well placed/drawn clouds give this piece an artistic touch that fits with the intent. I will say that the background pattern stands out too much, thus detracting from the central piece for three main reasons: (1) color is too saturated, (2) lines are too bold and (3) pattern you chose is too complicated. I do feel that despite your ability to demonstrate that you put alot of thought in the planning stages, the shortcomings in the background make this wall difficult to read.

Kalico: It’s a pretty wall, and I like the concept, but I don’t feel enough of an inspiration from mouritsa coming from this wall. When I look at them side by side, I see mouritsa’s wall which is very lush, saturated with lively earthy greens. You really get the feeling of nature just by looking at it. With yours, while I think it’s a beautiful wall, I don’t get the feeling of nature. I think that whole inspiration and feeling just gets lost in trying to make the wall in the style. The green’s you used are more olive as opposed to earthy, and the shapes are hard and edgy as opposed to soft and lush.

Overall, I think it’s a beautiful wall, and an interesting way to receive inspiration, but I feel it got lost somewhere along the way.

flyin’: Interestingly this turned out to be one of the brighter entries this round ;D I love how you took the concept from your inspiration wall and gave it a stylistic twist with the art nouveau. My main critique would probably be the different thickness of the outlines throughout the wall. Because the scan of the girl has particularly thin outlines that’s not repeated anywhere else in the wall, the consistency/flow in the outlines bothers me a bit. But with that said, I think you pulled a lot of different elements together to make a coherent wall, and it makes for a catchy desktop!

sjade1: I love the Art Nouveau re-interpretation of your inspiration. It’s extremely difficult to separate Copying from Inspiration, and I think you beat that challenge head-on with your stylistic approach.
I do wish you had added a few more technical details to the piece – it’s a little bit plain, and seems lacking in finishing touches. That last push is missing – “how to make this more than just Good?” – i.e. some birds, or something to show movement; perhaps a story sequence where not only do you have the Tree of Life fully grown, but you have seeds and flowers and fallen/rotting leaves to demonstrate the whole process…etc.
I appreciate how you incorporated so many different sources into your wall. That takes work!

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dalarty

Congratulations, dalarty, for winning 3rd place!

The wall that influenced me the most in the start of my walling career was this wall by storm-and-fire. Prior to the inspiration and influence of this wall, I was drawn to abstract, collaged, and grungy walls. My influence wall demonstrated a new style and technique that I greatly enjoyed: It was clean, detail oriented, crisp with color, personal (with the self-drawn graffiti), and fun (because everyone knows a chainsaw wielding anime girl is awesome). This challenge was difficult for me because my style of walling has changed so much within two years — I’ve experimented with tons of different styles of walls, from grunge… to vector… to painting… to a giant conglomeration of everything. Lately, I’ve been working on original art that is realistic (although this recent work has been kept on my personal computer). Since I wanted to submit a wall that was anime related, I decided to apply my current realism style to an original 2-D character inspired by the chainsaw-wielding girl in my inspiration wall. I used techniques of painting, vectoring, and grunge but drew everything out to the strokes and styles of my inspiration wall. I also incorporated many of the themes seen in my inspiration wall (like the personalized graffiti, the chainsaw theme, the coloring and vectoring approach) and merged it into the execution of this wall. Lastly, to give a flavor of what I enjoy doing now, I decided to have a little fun by incorporating some depth of field which is a signature element of my latest (and future) works.

Technical Elements: 19.9
Creativity/Vision: 22.7
Meets Challenge/Theme Requirements: 24.4
Overall Impression: 6.7
Total Score: 73.7

Judges’ Comments:

kuroimisa: I think you’ve chosen a pretty interesting inspiration for this round and having your own art drawn for it is also quite interesting. The composition is also pretty cool and I think you’ve got quite something going here.
What I’m unsure about is the extent of how you have interpreted the original wall and translated it into this one – a lot of the elements are the same, but I feel that your entry has lost that wow in the original – in the original there are colours, the facial expression, character pose – these all add up to the attitude and feel of the wall. In your entry I get the sense of perhaps a maniac smile with a dark background, but I’m confused because it’s lacking blood, the floral graffiti is probably too cute for a homocidal theme – perhaps the background should have been lighter rather than dark? – I guess it’s not entirely clear exactly what your interpretation is since I’m reading it as a series of “oh it looks like… but that doesn’t conform” – but I can definitely see the inspiration. I think it just needs one step further.
Last but not least, good experimentation with depth of field – though if you’ve noticed in photography, the foot closer to the wall (and bits of her leg) should also be blurred.

Tatekane: Congrats for being in the finals

I think a texture for the whole thing would have tied the character with her environment as of now she seems a bit detached… not unless this was an extremely stylized wall with real photos and 2d characters mixed in it… but all in all trying to incorporate different kinds of elements in one wall was a nice effort

Nysha: Hehe I can tell which wall you used for inspiration! I like the cooler and darker colors here in this interpretation. Although you say you were aiming for realism, the style of the girl is actually quite simple, and has flat shading. The depth of field you were aiming for is also an interesting idea, but because her foot is so close to the wall, the perspective is confusing me why the wall should be that blurry.

nat: Even though you took a very creatively different approach, it was easy to tell what wallpaper inspired you! There aren’t that many chainsaw wielding cuties in wallpapers, after all. Love the details and textures on her sweater, and the meticulous creation of the chainsaw blades. Though the scene is quite different aesthetically from the wallpaper that inspired you, it has the feeling of a “what happened afterwards” extension of the original scene. The background graffiti does seem simplified when compared to the source of inspiration, and for me that was the most standout feature of that wallpaper. It would have been nice to see a more elaborate design on that brick wall.

Gidred: This is pretty slick. I like that the “inspirations” in this are simple nods to the inspiration piece, instead of a direct imitation. You kept it all your own. The “OKASHI” is a little too clean thought. The uniform line width and rigidity of it is apparent when put next to all those hand vectored lines.

grayserg: Wow… I was fallen in love with this dynamic composition. Hundred points for idea!
The source of inspiration is read without effort
Must notice – the realization is far away from ideal, but I like it anyway.
First, you could be add more contrast between foreground and background – the blur effect looks too simple and doesn’t carry out that function.
When you have detailed background, then you just need to add more details to vector of main character. For realism strengthening, it will be good to play with dark-light tones.
And, colors… I vote for more colors (the original has a lot of nice psyhedelic colors:))

FuKu: This one made me smile. Funky wall this with many good attributes. Colors rock…they are not vibrant yet grabs the attention asap yet they are not so pastelish detaining much attention after a while either. I really love how soft yet lively they are. Original art also looks very nice. Great way to give more sensation by hiding the face.
I am a bit troubled with the bg however. I cannot say i dont like it yet i feel more can be done and fixed as well. The angle of the ground and the size of the bricks are wrong compared to the girl. Some perception issues this one have. But again; its not “that” disturbing. I enjoy the wall non the less; very nice effort.

asa01: It’s not really a great idea to blur the wall if you are not going to consistently blur according to distance. It pushes out the character through contrast, yes, but the transition between blurred and unblurred is very awkward — where the wall meets the ground, the region where her back foot is… The graffiti is also not quite convincing in terms of its style (more like chalk drawings on asphalt maybe?) but props for doing original art.

vitaamin: I knew immediately which wall you were drawing upon, and I rather enjoy this slightly more unhinged/violent interpretation of the piece that inspired you, especially since you have chosen to cut out the character’s identity. I also like that the perspective isn’t full frontal, which gives it some added movement to further your message.

I still do think your interpretation is weaker due to both a gap in creativity and technical execution. For creativity, I would have liked to see more interesting colors in the background and a more haunting or at least mroe dynamic design in the background. From a technical point of view, the uniform blur and stiff shapes/lines created too much emphasis on the central vector which ended up not being as interesting.

flyin’: I really appreciate the thought that went into this wall – and how you were able to take your inspirational wall and come up with a great original spin to it. The only super nitpicky critique I have would be on some of the white graffiti bits in the background, the brick outlines were lost and so the white bits look “floaty” if that makes any sense. In comparison to this photo for example where the brick outlines are consistent throughout. The floatiness adds a bit of surreal-ness, but not sure if that’s what you were gunning for xD I’d also be curious to see what this wall would look like with more dynamic lighting. But overall, I love the mix of elements and little details here and there – the texture on the veil for instance <3 Congratulations on a great piece of original art + wall!

sjade1: Your inspiration wall is one of my own all-time favorites as well .
The composition I can see is a tilted version of storm-and-fire’s wall. I do like how you decided to tilt it and keep things at an almost fish-eye perspective, however the girl doesn’t seem to fit with the background at all. This sense of divided planes is also emphasized by the almost complete blurring of the background brick wall, versus the completely clear and outlined character in the front. Overall, I think both the imagination you could have added to this piece could have been better, and the technical areas could use a little bit of work – try stepping back and taking a look at it from a different perspective.

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Deto15

Check it out on AP!

Congratulations, Deto15, for winning 2nd place!

By a brief retrospection of events from my youth, memory tells me that there was no wallpaper that formed my walling existence, hovewer I do recall a wallpaper that impressed me when I first crossed the Gates of Animepaper. ‘Twas a highlight at that time, wallpaper by Anolibb called Summermoon. Being a vector wallpaper was enough to make it refreshing, as the distant kingdom of Animepaper still didn’t arrived at vector age at that time. Moreover too, Anolibb’s amazing craftsmanship allowed it to reach level that is remarkable even today. And as if that wasn’t enough, her specialty were vectored flowers, which were prominently featured here as well. After centuries of dwelling inside Animepaper organism I’m yet to see flowers as beautiful as those. For now, I’ve created wallpaper that features a great ammount of detailed flowers too, hoping that perhaps they’ll make this mythical waller to surface yet again.

Technical Elements: 24.1
Creativity/Vision: 21.0
Meets Challenge/Theme Requirements: 22.1
Overall Impression: 7.3
Total Score: 74.4

Judges’ Comments:

kuroimisa: Well executed wallpaper and great use of the scan and flowers for a personal take on the inspiration.

Tatekane: Like for every comment I give…lemme congratulate you for being in the finals On to the wall, It’s well made, seem to justify the inspiration piece and nothing I really can comment on regarding the execution and concept so all in all a solid wallpaper :]

Nysha: Nice and clean and great work on all the details! I’m not too fond of the text placement, but I do like the bright red color most likely caused by using a blending mode on the text. If some of those roses close to her body (where the light is strongest) had some of that bright red as highlights along some of their petals, I think that would definitely add some spice to the wall and break up some of the monotony of all those similar roses.

nat: I can definitely see the influence in this one, even before reading your description. I would have guessed an additional style due to the color scheme though ^^ Great scan choice, you picked one with enough detail to make grayscale not look flat or boring. The roses are beautifully detailed, and you did a nice job arranging them, I don’t feel like I’m seeing the same rose over and over again. Finally, the lighting really brings this piece together, with the dark corners concentrating your focus on the girl and the roses immediately around her. My only qualm is the text design, as it seems overly plain for the level of design choice reflected in the rest of the wallpaper.

Gidred: The flowers are a nice touch, that really was her signature. The typeface feels a bit unnecessary, particularly because it pulls a lot of the attention to it. The shading on the roses could use a bit more love as well (The all over shadow, not the detail of the individual flowers).

grayserg: In overall view – you’ve made a perfect wallpaper. Very interesting work. Good concept, good realisation. I like these roses and this glowing text. Perfect color balance.
It was not so easy to find some criticism for this wallpaper – your work with vector comes close to ideal, but I’ll try to make some remarks. In my opinion, her face and body need some more details, because that amazing background looks more detailed than main character. Also, her legs need some contrast for foreground, though I must notice – I like this balanse betwen dark and lights tones. And another moment – It would be fine to add some more shades for red color here. It could be add more dynamic and expressiveness to composition.

FuKu: Ok i am seeing a lot of shiny vectored walls lately. And by lately i mean for a very long time actually; and most of them are nowhere near the quality they should be. This one surpasses those with clean & tidy lines. But as a wall its not interesting at all. Maybe its becoz the red rose + monocrome theme used a lot in recent months i get used to seeing it. The craft itself is good as i mentioned but it lacks many things like good lightning and other small details. Roses and darkness just wont cut it if u want the audience to feel anything by looking at a piece. To be very honest i think this piece can look much better with colors and other details even.Scan is so nice yet the darkness here is so overwhelming at some point. Typo also needs to be removed or placed on something. Its not whole with the wall at all.
A nice effort non the less but seems a bit rushed after vectoring ended.

asa01: Hmm I guess the most important issue I have with this wall is the sea of roses. I understand that a sea of red would have been too overwhelming but the way they have been blackened isn’t very attractive to me. It obscures the shading/highlighting of the roses and makes them look dull and flat. The few spots of brightening could have helped but they don’t quite because they weren’t applied according to the 3D contours of the petals and they whiten the roses as opposed to lightening them. The roses also don’t seem to cast distinct shadows in each other, which doesn’t help the illusion of them being all layered together. I do, however, give you thumbs up for the effort of making so many roses. xD The character vector has a smoothness to it. :3 I’d be careful with her fingers though, ’cause right now they look flat instead of rounded.

vitaamin: This wall knows how to keep the message and composition simple to highlight the main character. Clever use of lighting and text create and eeriness, while flowing shapes make it easy to read. The darker reds allude to a gothic nightmare of romantic, vampiric quality. The only thing I would change is perhaps brightening some of the flowers in her hair/near her and filling more black space in the bg to give it more dimension.

Kalico: I can definitely see the inspiration from Anolibb in this wall without me thinking it was anolibb that did it. To pay homage to her beautiful lower vectors is the prefect way to draw inspiration from her. The wall is very well done technically, and I can absolutely see where the wallers style is coming through as well.

Very nice wall, and a great one to ed the competition with!

sjade1: I have to respect you for tackling flowers – they’re not the easiest things to vector. It’s obvious you have a very strong command of technical skills in this wall, and it’s a clear reflection of the wall that inspired you. However, I do wish you had taken it a step further and showed us your interpretation of that inspiration not only technically, but also creatively – while the skill is there, the level of imagination can still use improvement.

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Horseradish

Check it out on AP!

Well, I must say that this round’s theme really got my brains to work REAL HARD. I was glad that my waller’s block didn’t last that long.
My wall has two inspirations: 1) from the simplistic yet stylish iPod walls of Tama-Neko, and 2) from the KICK-ASS typography walls of AssasinXXX. It also showcases a current style that I recently tried and loved—-also it also shows a technique in which I hope I can improve on.
What struck me the most on the iPod walls of Tama-Neko is that it is even though the elements are minimal, it’s still organized and complete. Also, it involves the love for music. I chose to wall a BECK wall (even though it’s my first time doing it because I haven’t watched the series yet) because it’s an Anime about music—-loving music. How my wall came across with some typography is because of AssasinXXX. His typography just KICKS some ASS. The way he brings it together to make the whole concept of a wall complete is just AWESOME. Just as he has told me, sometimes, listening to music is a good way of helping when you’re doing a typography wall. BTW, the song in my wall is “JOURNEY” from BECK itself. It all comes down to music. LOL. Kidding.
But anyway, what I want to prove/point here in my wall is the typography. I kinda associated it with the round’s theme. Typography, no matter how long time goes by, it will still be timeless. It won’t phase out. Ever since the world began, typography came from calligraphy itself too. Calligraphy has been used by our ancestors all around the world. As time goes by, it still hasn’t phased out. It just keeps on evolving and evolving. That is how I came up with the idea of creating and finishing this wall.
The technique that I want to improve on is the shadowing/blending/highlighting. As you can see, it has still some flaws in there. Hahaha.

P.S. **i’m sorry if i can’t explain myself clearly in the description. please let the wall speak for itself. i’m having a hard time finding the right words to say right now. hahaha.

Technical Elements: 19.2
Creativity/Vision: 18.5
Meets Challenge/Theme Requirements: 21.2
Overall Impression: 5.7
Total Score: 64.6

Judges’ Comments:

Heart464: In the technical aspect, I will say that it’s a clean vector. It looks like you were trying to incorporate several techniques/styles, but it comes out mismatched. Overall, a decent wallpaper, but could have used restraint with things like the texture, grunge brushes, and text.

Tatekane: This wall would have been a bit more interesting if the splotches of color/text would be on the character at times and not just on the background to tie it all up and maybe less paint splotches. The character’s chin is a bit weird I think you missed shadowing the jaw area and the line for his chin is a bit too low.

For the theme I was a bit confused on your description of the relation with Tama’s ipod walls, you mentioned simplicity and music, you got the music but her minimalistic approach is definitely not seen in your wallpaper with all the loud elements you have… but I guess I’m just being too literal ehehe… But I can see your Assasinxxx inspiration with having text as one of the main focus in a wallpaper

Theme aside it’s a well made wallpaper Congrats in being in the Finals!

nat: I noticed the subtle change in expression for Koyuki from the original scan, although since the change was only with his mouth the overall facial express became a little unnatural in the wallpaper. Excellent detail on the guitar and shoes though, it’s easy to lose patience when working on something so pattern intensive ^^ I really like the title text part with “Another Chapter Begins” but the rest of the text doesn’t look to have had as much design put into it, as the motion doesn’t quite flow with the movement of the character. When I look at it overall, the title text, texture, paint splash and character combined create a really nice wallpaper, while the wavy text seems more like it was added on top of all of that and not as well incorporated.

Gidred: I see more of Assassin in this than I do Tama (which isn’t a bad thing!). If you hadn’t said Tama was an inspiration, I would have been hard pressed to see it. That aside, the crease down the wall is distracting, particularly since it’s not centered on the subject. There doesn’t seem to be an real correlation between it (the Crease) and him (Yukio). On another note, you have a good start going on your modeling. Definitely practice from reference, places like his arm would benefit from that.

asa01: Haha I can’t see that scan without seeing Kalico’s wall. xD Anyway, I’m not quite fond of the texturizer filter (I believe?) or the fold in the paper texture you used as the bg (unnecessarily breaks the flow of the wall). Nice effort to make visual use of the text though! I’ve always felt like typography is more about text as art/objects rather than text as words/phrases of a certain language. You’re still sitting more on the latter side so keep experimenting! As for the shading, you might want to consider breaking away from the uniformly soft-edged-ness. The uniformity makes it uninteresting and the blurriness, especially when contrasted with the crisp shapes and outlines, is a little odd-looking.

vitaamin: This wallpaper certainly presents and interesting, albeit not entierly new, concept and lays a good foundation with its spontaneous character. However, certain poorly executed aspects cause this wall to fall short of its true potential. (1) The all-too-dark colors do not express the freedom and movement that is seen across the wall. Try to lighten up the colors and use more highlights, in painting as well as the background to bring a sense of livelihood. (2) The very modern, urban text does not match stylistically with the rest of the wall which draws upon a more grunge texture. Instead, try combining grunge elements (such as splatters) on a cleaner canvas to mesh the two styles more effectively.

Kalico: My favorite thing about this wall is actually the colors in the background. I also think it’s clever how you had the fold down the middle of the wall to be like a book and thus playing off the idea of chapter, but I personally would have liked the wall better without it. I review the walls by making them my desktop (functionality!) and the crease just divides it in haf a bit too much. I actually also would have liked to see the scan take more from the colors in th ebackground. Maybe make it a touch more stylized.

That said, other than the idea of music, I’m not seeing tamaneko’s ipod walls in here too much other than the reference to music which isn’t really a style so much. I really only see the inspiration from assasinxxx’s walls for visuals. The typography for the “title” of the wall looks really nice, but the text in the background could have used some more interest.

Overall, a nice wall. and a good entry for the final round

flyin’: I’d be curious to see what this wall would look like without the texture, since the vintage look sort of relates to the title text, but the fold down the middle is a bit distracting x] I think a solid-colored background might make the character and the overall design “pop” more.

sjade1: First, great sources of inspiration. I especially agree that AsassinXXX has incredible textart is an eye-opener.
That said, I do feel you still need some work on the combination of both Tama’s texture style and AsassinXXX’s typography into one complete wall. It looks like this wall is still very rough on the edges. I’d suggest trying to eliminate the use of drop-shadows or 3D-effect outlining, and observing different color palettes and how they match or don’t match.

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Red-Eclipse

Check it out on AP!

I believe the first time I entered AP – the site that led me to walling and creating better graphics – a SirBoingal0t wallpaper was being highlighted. Although I love all his works, the one that sticks best to my mind is the wallpaper “Red Torn Orange.“

My wallpaper is an attempt to improve on a skill I’ve been practicing lately – painting. It is also an attempt to give tribute to SirBoing’s techish/architectural style. A “lite” version of his wallpaper, if you will… (Perhaps super diluted but…)

Technical Elements: 22.0
Creativity/Vision: 20.2
Meets Challenge/Theme Requirements: 23.8
Overall Impression: 6.7
Total Score: 72.7

Judges’ Comments:

Tatekane: Haha the minute I saw this wall I knew what was the inspiration piece xD so good job on that hahaha and maybe who the waller was lol now for the crit…I would have liked to see a bit more on the architecture, it’s plain… and the scan is a poor choice I think, it’s hard to think up an environment for her pose…lighting needs a bit of work too…she’s so highlighted at the front yet the building she’s standing on seems shadowed…if you played more on the lighting and made it dramatic and had a dramatic sky too it would have balanced out the plainness of the architecture…nice try on a Boing wall and congrats on being in the finals

Nysha: Ohoho I recognized the tribute even before I read your description! Excellent choice and great bg construction. (Plus there’s lots of “orange and red” too!) It’s very smooth, clean, and softly painted. I have to agree with your “lite” description though, because although you have some jets and a few details here and there, the overall wall is actually quite simple in the detail aspect. There could be more “things” to look at in the wall, since it seems rather desolate and empty. But don’t get me wrong ; I think you did a great job and this entry is one of my favorites.

nat: It’s easy to see your influence for this wallpaper, especially through the background and not just the character art chosen. I love the fact that you used the original scan as opposed to vectoring the image, it just makes it more genuine (though the scan could use a little cleaning). The way the blades are breaking into the ground also looks great, and adds action to what would otherwise look like a still piece. Nice work overall, it would be interesting to see how far you could take this style with a bit more time!

Gidred: Well done trying out Boing’s style. Ironically, it reminds me a bit more of Tate’s “Boing” walls simply because his walls had a cooler hue map to them, while hers were on the warmer side. The stock could use more attention. Your orange glow around the edges doesn’t seem like a complete thought. The start of one, yes, but not quite finished. Also, the texture of the scan is obvious when put next to the smooth paint job of the background. An overlayed texture would be an easy fix.

grayserg: Nice colors. Unfortunately, this only one thing that comes to my mind. I like these warm shades but this is all. Here is a bright example when I have feeling that concept and composition is too simple for final round. Of course, you have good skills, and good technique. But in my opinion, the perfect idea is more important than perfect realization.

asa01: Been a while since I last saw an Ugetsu Hakua wall! A shame the scan wasn’t really cleaned (?), since the fuzziness is really obvious against the smooth background. Always had a weak spot for awesomely sci-fi (dark gray) buildings with their lines and panels. xD I see efforts to show that the buildings are reflecting the orange sunlight, but it can be taken a few steps further to better blend the dark cityscape and the bright sky. And the girl — I see orange highlighting, but still, she doesn’t blend in and the lighting on her does is inconsistent with the scene you’ve set out.

Two other things: the “Docking Bay” text’s perspective is off (doesn’t match the floor) and how can the girl and her giant…swords(?) cast such stark shadows while nothing else in the wall does?

vitaamin: I really admire that you’ve been able to recreate a cohesive background that looks natural in terms of style. The inspiration succeeds because it creates a very subtle, but easily identifiable mood and tone that I don’t think your wall was able to capture. What I’m missing from yours is a clear consideration of where she is standing and why she is standing there to make a better decision on what color scheme/background elements you needed to convey your overall story.

Execution-wise–while this is a minor detail, it comes up quite a bit–I will say that the sky is far too saturated to be in line with the character. Firstly, the background should mostly be less saturated than the character in general and secondly if you compare the highlights in the sky + character you will realize that the character looks much cooler.

flyin’: Sir Boing is surely a hard inspiration to follow technically, so I applaud your effort! The inspiration comes through loud and clear. Technical nitpick – in full view, I can still see a bit of white around the girl’s shoes, and some of her legs’ outlines/edges look a bit shaky. Overall though, good job on the wall – definitely a nice tribute to a truly inspirational waller!

sjade1: The level of detail on this is definitely getting close to SirBoingal0t’s style – kudos for meeting the challenge perfectly .
The only things left to suggest are to continue in that direction. I think you have the basics down, but need to keep working at it to achieve an even higher level of detail – such as in the background, where there’s not just a sunset but an almost complete cityscape (this is a LOT of work haha). But I believe you’re getting there.
The character could also use a little more refinement, but I can see you cleaned it up very nicely and kept it along the same guidelines as your inspirational wall.
The only thing missing, I think, is your own personal touch of imagination. I can see your focus is on technique right now, but I hope in the future you can make your own twist to this technically-detailed style.

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shigemitsubaki (WILDCARD)

Check it out on AP!

Congratulations, shigemitsubaki, for winning 1st place!!!

While SirBoing’s redtorn orange wall wasn’t the first wall I saw on AP, it was the wall that spurred me on to make every wall progressively harder- it basically set the bar that I work hard to reach to this day. (Obviously, I haven’t reached it. Yet or ever.)

His style is tech, but my heart belongs to buttresses, pillars, and framed windows. Therefore I just borrowed the scan he used, and the general positioning of the girl (high area, city spread out below, etc).

Technical Elements: 28.1
Creativity/Vision: 27.3
Meets Challenge/Theme Requirements: 26.5
Overall Impression: 9.4
Total Score: 91.2

Judges’ Comments:

kuroimisa: This entry is beautiful and I’m amazed you drew this from scratch. I am also impressed that you refered to an architecture book for this – it’s a remarkable effort and result.

One thing you possibly overlooked though – the main building (the one with the green pitched roof overlooking the water) – architecturally the arch (on the “second storey”) should be lined centrally/ symmetrically with the pitch of the roof, so that the red window/ ornament thing should be directly above the arch. So just that bit needs to be shifted a bit to the right so that the loads are distributed correctly. Otherwise, this is a beautiful entry. Nice work

Tatekane: One of the walls I knew instantly what wall was the inspiration piece…and one who actually got an element from that inspiration piece and put it in the wall =o but even if the scan wasn’t included in I would still recognize it, because of the detail and the perspective. I like how the inspiration piece is like the future version of this one…lol which is weird since it’s the oher way around haha anyway great job! and congrats for being in the finals

Nysha: Another tribute to the same wall! But very different and original as well. The colors and details in the cityscape are particularly impressive, and that book you used for inspiration looks like a great read! You also reconstructed and redesigned her body too. This time it’s more of a medieval/fantasy world appropriate to your style instead of the techy kind, and I think it fits nicely. If I were to point out anything, some areas, like the greenish building to the left of the lion’s tail, and the proportions of her lower legs look like they can be improved on/cleaned a bit. Great job overall!

nat: This is really beautifully executed. The imagination in the city is great, it really looks like something out of an RPG. I also really like the way you changed the clothing on the character to make her fit the period. One thing that bugs me is the level of detail on the close up items versus the far away city. The foreground lion seems less detailed than the one behind the character, and is lacking in much of the texture given to the other (which really makes it look a lot more stone-like). Same with the climbing plants—if I can see faraway tiles on rooftops, I should be able to make out close-up leaves. But seeing as those are the kinds of things that only come to mind when you feel like you’re looking at something “real”, then job well done

Gidred: Sweet deal. I feel like, for being so close to the views, the lions could use a little more attention to detail. Such as the face of the one on the left, particularly since there’s so much detail given to the cityscape.

grayserg: What a perfect color balance… I like it very much. For me – this wallpaper is much better than the original (source of inspiration) forgive me SirBoing Great idea, great style, great technique. Your feeling of colors is just ideal for me. What do I want to improve in this wallpaper? More depth maybe. Despite an excellent color decision, you need a tone compensation for background.

asa01: A stunning retake on your inspiration wall. I was reminded of the original work, but at the same time, this is distinctively you-flavored. The background is beautifully crafted. I keep on getting distracted by two things though: the pink flower in the bottom right corner and the worry that she’s gonna fall over. xD

vitaamin: I find myself increasingly surprised and delighted with your ability to create scenes. This wall shows a great example of an unexpected composition that works: the foreground is actually less detailed and darker than the background which actually draws focus on the birds eye view of the road ahead. It instills a sense of adventure.

I personally feel that this wall is overall too cool, some yellows or orange midtones would have added to the lighter, more serene mood that you have managed to create. On technique, I also feel her face is awkwardly constructed.

flyin’: Stunning! You definitely knocked this one out of the park xD In your own way, you definitely caught up to your inspiration, and then some. The attention to detail is wonderful to see. And the amount of work done on the original scan to make it fit the fantasy setting… beautiful paint work. This entry is inspirational xD Congratulations on an amazing job well done!

sjade1: This has gotta be the my most highest-scored wall this round. I am impressed.
The style of painting is incredibly detailed, and at a level that I haven’t seen on AP in a very, very long time (in fact, I can’t even remember the last time I was so impressed by a paint-style wall).
The challenge is not one that’s easy to beat because it requires artists to confront their most admired inspirational pieces and make their own take on it without copying. You defeated this challenge with flying colors . I can clearly see your take on SirBoingal0t’s wall, while also transforming it into your own in almost every way – the painting technique, changing the background into a fantasy land from LOTR, the coloring and lighting changed to your own unique vision of the Land of the Unicorns (sorry, had to say it!). Incredible job.

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X-Angel-0

Check it out on AP!

maybe isnt the most beautiful wall of all time, but it was a valuable original artwork, when I saw that wall, i thought “people can do that with their drawings!?”, I’ve been trying improve my drawing skills first, and then learn about digital painting, I know I need to improve more in both, but this is my attempt to an original wallpaper, inspired by that piece, that made me jawdrop in that time. I drew this months ago, it was based on a dream I heard, I thought it suited well with my inspiration wall, so I vectored/painted in my style. Original artwork is the best in any gallery online, and it brings a bigger smile to everyone to see something never seen before on a scan or google, etc.. ^^’.

Technical Elements: 20.0
Creativity/Vision: 23.7
Meets Challenge/Theme Requirements: 22.5
Overall Impression: 6.7
Total Score: 72.9 – 5 (late submission penalty) = 67.9 points

Judges’ Comments:

Heart464: You must have spent a lot of time drawing all those bones. It gives off a very dark feeling, but the door in the horizon maybe symbolizes hope?

Tatekane: Congrats for being in the finals A very nicely made dark-themed wallpaper but without your description I would have been lost on the connection ehehe but since you explained that it’s about having original art that spurred you on in walling I got it

Nysha: I agree with you that original art work has that certain charm and is very fresh, and your work is admirable. It’s brave to make a completely original wall, so props for that. I would say your shading could be cleaner, especially on the bones, and you can add highlights when you shade too. Without the highlights on the edges of things, the wall looks very drab and bleak. Since the angel girl is the main focus, I think you should put light orange/yellow highlights on her wings/dress/hair to make her stand out more from the bg.

Gidred: You did well by lightly hinting at your inspiration while still keeping it your own. Your painting could use a bit more contrast in places, parts feel flat. I know it’s the time of day when everything is flat in terms of said contrast, but it’d serve you well to play up some visual interest for the wall.

asa01: Wow so many skeletons/bones! Must have taken a long time. O: As for the painting, you might want to try avoiding doing purely soft brushing and be careful so that the shading meets the outlines instead of leaving these unshaded fringes. Also, might want to be a little careful with color choices — her pendant really, really stands out since it is the only object with a cool, saturated color in the wall. Perhaps the emphasis was intentional, but toning it down a little will help your viewers focus on and follow through the rest of the story.

vitaamin: There are so many great things going for this wall: the fantastical yet grim scene that you have managed to create, the interesting perspective that adds an element of mystery to the story and the general color scheme that you used to create mood. However, I think that this wall could be much more effective given better execution in technique. Currently, it is too dirty and flat to really take full advantage of the scene that you have created.

flyin’: I love the surreal imagery – you really managed to capture a dream-like quality in this wall. There’s a lot to look at, but the muted colors of the background draws the focus to the girl and the sun-door… perfect color palette and textures. Congratulations, this is definitely a beautiful wall that I wouldn’t get tired of looking at any time soon!

sjade1: At first glance I admit I wasn’t taken in by this wall. But after taking another look at it, I realized it had a very nostalgic, story-like quality that’s not easy to achieve. Add to that the fact that this is an original wall, I have to applaud your creativity on this one. You met the challenge head-on, albeit in a more subtle way I think. Rather than choosing technique or composition by themselves, you took the concept of the creative process behind the inspiration wall and turned it into your own.

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yuukine

Well here is my entry. This wall represents the style i want to improve and its monochrome. The wall of inspiration are all made by deto15, but here are two of those which made me love monochrome.
http://www.animepaper.net/gallery/wallpapers/Deto15/item80559/ and http://www.animepaper.net/gallery/wallpapers/Deto15/item64254/
i always loved use of one color and black and white, so deto thanx for being my inspiration and his walls will always be what impressed me and made me want to wall that style.

Technical Elements: 18.2
Creativity/Vision: 18.1
Meets Challenge/Theme Requirements: 21.5
Overall Impression: 7.8
Total Score: 65.5

Judges’ Comments:

kuroimisa: Inspiration well executed.

I’m only going to make some constructive criticism on one thing – and they are the lights on the buildings. Lights in the distant buildings should be fainter and the windows could have varied in opacity just slightly just for some visual variation. The windows on the buildings on the right also should (for next time) be lined up and are of the same size, as building facades are built based on grids (especially if we’re talking about high rise buildings in the city, they are definitely using regular grids, unless we’re talking about a spiral tower with rotating floor plates or something).

Tatekane: Congratulations for being in the finals first and foremost

I can certainly see the inspiration wall in this one, but I can’t help but wish that the cityscape was done better, for such a ‘serious’ looking character the buildings look very pop-up book-like I would suggest observing real-life photos of a cityscape to get the right idea on how it’s supposed to look… like this http://lh4.ggpht.com/_YeVVfegW8Vc/R8EHaivYw8I/AAAAAAAAYjg/5pj6cg3j97w/C68160021.jpg

Nysha: Oooooh I like this one very much! I think you nailed the moody atmosphere and I particularly like the composition. Great scan choice as well – you really cleaned it up and made it gorgeous on a wall. Since the guy is titled at an angle, that leads me to believe the perspective is titled, so the city buildings should be titling along with him instead of upright like they are now, or he looks like he’s leaning dangerously and about to fall over (if he’s not leaning on something to prop him up). The windows of the skyscrapers also seem rather large, scarce, and a bit too evenly placed – make them more randomly lit, smaller, and probably add more of them too. The font of the text is rather simple/generic – with the mood and scene as it is, an edgier or more stylized font could fit better.

nat: I could guess your inspiration right away with this one, which is a good sign. I really like the character image you chose with his face half in shadow, it really makes the design with one part in color stand out more. And the simple style of the city works better than expected with the simple style in the line art overall. I’m not a fan of the font, probably because the words “Sin City” will be forever etched in my mind with a different style, but I like that you emulated the moon above with the “C”. It probably would have worked better with a non-serif font though.

Gidred: Nice job channeling Deto’s monochrome sensibility. I’m not much of a fan the typeface, you may try without and see how you feel about it. The buildings leave a bit to be desired. I think a little more attention would serve them well.

grayserg: I like the dynamic and rhythm between black and white. Good, courageous work with vectors. On the other hand – you’ve lost a difference between foreground (main character) and a background. I think that those white rectangles (windows) on background might be less contrast. Now it looks little abstract and psyhedelic (that, by the way, not so badly) but is hard to read overall composition. And, it would be desirable very much – to add more fine (tiny) details to foreground and the main character.

FuKu: Sexy choice with the scan; totally grabs the attention as soon as u see the wall. Very clean vectoring as well with decent use of light. Even if its monochromic you still managed to give some good depth and lightning to it so props for that.There can be more debris out there to put in more drama and depth but thats totally personal preferance. The windows are just too…obvious rectangles if you know what i mean. Also not all the windows should look the same or should have the same brightness. You seriously; i mean seriously rushed it there. They disturb the wall’s coolness. Some small blur effect on a few with more variety of rectangles ll do more better i think.Solid white is just disturning there…totally.
Saying that i have no other complaints about it really.

asa01: Haha his pose made me think immediately of one of Jay’s walls~ Anyhow, I actually don’t mind the simple 2D rectangular shapes of the buildings. That could probably work quite well. But I can only say “probably” because I feel like the windows have made things a little less believable and a little more comical. They would look better if they had been more aligned instead of random, and a little dimmer (especially those on the far off buildings, which you nicely lightened to blend more with the sky).

vitaamin: The scan provided you with many opportunities to create a moving and dark scene, however by not deciding on stylistic intent and not spending time creating fluid shapes, you have stifled the wall’s potential. On the one hand you seem to be going for the glowing/gradient effect with a more textured/detailed approach, but the background is too deconstructed in interpretation to fit with this scenario. Giving the buildings more dynamic shapes would have alleviated this problem. Moreover, while the scan has alot of movement, your stiff lines both in the character and background have not captured this advantage.

sjade1: While this does meet the basic theme requirements, I do not feel that going monochrome by itself is enough of a challenge. This is kind of like picking a favorite color and using only that color for a wall – which is fine and stylistic on its own, but not quite the finalist-level wallpaper I’m looking for.
It’s a bit of a pose-based wallpaper, and a generally predictable composition. However, the basic technical aspects are strong. I would challenge you to make something new and outside of the box with monochrome, and not simply monochrome itself .

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ze (WILDCARD)

Check it out on AP!

Inspiration
Music: Mumford & Sons
Style: scorpionblaze

Technical Elements: 18.2
Creativity/Vision: 17.2
Meets Challenge/Theme Requirements: 15.0
Overall Impression: 5.1
Total Score: 55.5

Judges’ Comments:

Heart464: Like the clean shapes. Color choices are nice as well. Would be more fun to see more things added to the background design.

Tatekane: First, congrats for being in the finals

But… The theme specifically mentioned “A wallpaper” not an artist style in deviantart but putting that aside I still didn’t see any connection with your wallpaper and that artist’s work…

Nysha: Hmm I’m not really seeing how much you were inspired by those grungy street-art pieces or how much your wall style resembles them. It seems it’s unfinished and left just in the beginning vectored stages, without all the added details and textures. There could be so much more you could add to this wall.

Gidred: In looking at your inspiration point, you would have done well to include some gradation in the form of “traditional media.” Markers overlap, watercolours are, well, watercolours. Something along those lines would have helped give hint at your inspiration, and also given some fluidity to your background. The rest feels a bit stiff in comparison.

asa01: It looks like a work in progress that is on its way to becoming something good — not sure if this was a time issue…? The background elements are shaping up well and the vector is getting there but overall, the wall doesn’t have the VOILA complete feel. It is lacking in finer visual quirks/details and in any overall impact, which one can easily see/feel in ScorpionBlaze’s work.

flyin’: I actually really like the simplicity of this wall… it’s extremely usable, and it looks nice on my desktop. The limited color palette adds the right amount of pop in the right places… it kinda reminds me of crap’s vector works ;D The biggest problem with this entry though is that it doesn’t respect the challenge theme, which specifically asked for the inspiration to be a wallpaper, and without a full description, we don’t really know if this wall showcases your current style or a style you aspire to, etc. Which is a shame because as a sucker for simplicity, this wall is right up my alley – but I had to dock major points from the “meets theme” category :/