Ariadne, you have SUCH a great eye for image placement! Especially balancing two or more images in a banner and making it look *right*! you do such a great job at that! It seems to just come naturally too because I can't even FIND a banner of yours that doesn't have the right balance and form! Absolutely stunning!

I can also see how much you improved during the Cookoff, which is awesome! (since that's sorta the whole point of the cookoff!)


Personal recommendations (From a fellow PSP user!) :
Don't be afraid of more contrast! A lot of your banners (especially pre-cookoff) are very texture heavy (which you said helps with the coloring, so understandable!). However, sometimes this can lead to a "washed out" quality where the shadows aren't very dark, and the highlights aren't very bright. I usually go back and increase the contrast in the images after I've added the texture to try and get the same black/white intensity as without the texture! Or even lower the texture intensity so the original contrast can be seen through...
For example, this one is excellently done, while some banners like this one don't have quite the depth in the shadows!

(not even sure if that makes sense... sorry!)

Also, don't be afraid to step away from more heavy texture usage now that you've figured out the colorization thing! Textures are supposed to add to the mood of an image, not take it over!

Again, great job! I look forward to seeing more of your work!

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Thanks for the comments, megan! I definitely see what you're talking about with the contrast and texture usage. It really helps to compare some graphics side-by-side and look at the differences.

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sig set by Nurr
It is the small, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love.married Mr. Darcy 6/14/2012

I've been going on a graphic-making spree the past few days, so I have a big update here:

LotR:





























Downton Abbey Claim:

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sig set by Nurr
It is the small, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love.married Mr. Darcy 6/14/2012

The glow on the first Sam one is so beautifully done! I really like it. And the Merry and Pippin banner is really great.

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going on a journey through my old claims

It's been a while since I've made graphics, but I recently got the free trial of Photoshop Lightroom, so I've been using a combination of that and GIMP to make some new ones (Photoshop for editing the images and GIMP for combining them). Thought I'd share the results: a bunch of Merlin banners!

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sig set by Nurr
It is the small, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love.married Mr. Darcy 6/14/2012

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- married fingon fingolfinion 6/4/13 -
~art credit~

I don't think that it's anything specific... the main effects I used were a combination of high exposure and contrast, sharpening, and lots of luminance. I think the blue-ish effect mostly has to do with the original color of the pics; the edits just enhanced the effect. Sorry I can't be of more help!

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sig set by Nurr
It is the small, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love.married Mr. Darcy 6/14/2012

I really love the composition of the blue and purple Morgana ones and the Merlin one. Perfect placement!

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going on a journey through my old claims

ditto lol and the same for the Mordred ones

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Bob Seger 11/19;Celtic Thunder 9/29
Gettysburg 150th!!!

I've got some more Merlin banners that I made over the past few days, though surprisingly few feature Merlin himself and a whole lot feature Morgana:

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sig set by Nurr
It is the small, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love.married Mr. Darcy 6/14/2012

Sorry for the double post, but I've got some more banners that I thought I'd add. Again, most of them are from Merlin (a bunch of Gwen), plus a random Sherlock one that I did for fun. I've also been doing a little more work with textures and color editing than I usually do... let me know what you think!

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sig set by Nurr
It is the small, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love.married Mr. Darcy 6/14/2012

Mmm, I thought I'd commented on the Gwen one in your sig! Apparently not. I really love it! And I love what you did with the coloring on the third Gwen one and the second Merlin one!

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going on a journey through my old claims

Thanks, Nurr! Those are some of my favorites as well. The pictures on the second Merlin banner are actually from one of my favorite Merthur moments in season 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUtBhvJIs9A

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sig set by Nurr
It is the small, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love.married Mr. Darcy 6/14/2012

And some more (high-res stills for the win):

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sig set by Nurr
It is the small, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love.married Mr. Darcy 6/14/2012

Aaah, I like what you did with the first Morgana one! Cool picture choices. And your coloring on the "magic" and Mordred ones are great.

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going on a journey through my old claims

^ Thanks! I've discovered the wonders of promotional pictures... http://www.farfarawaysite.com/merlin/index.html <-- that site is where I've been finding lots of Merlin pics, if you're interested.

Here's a few more (I'm kind of fascinated by Morgana at the moment, if you couldn't tel... ):

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sig set by Nurr
It is the small, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love.married Mr. Darcy 6/14/2012