In this thread you can post your entries for the Picture of the Month contest.

N.B.
-You can post one and only one entry here
-Once it's submitted, that one will be judged. So be sure your work is completed before posting it here.
-Don't post anything else, such as comments or questions. The other thread should be used for that.

For the ocean themed contest. MSPaint.

Is that a parody from Hitchhiker?
:D

I like the whales, are they jumping?

PS - The long and narrow approach to the picture makes it seem very stylistic.

EDIT - Wait a sec, I'm trying to upload my entry.

I believe this topic is for entries only, so idle chit chat sort of breaks the rules, BUT, they are flying I believe, swimming across the sky, parodying the seagulls, and less Douglas Adams masterpiece.

Well, I'm trying to upload my entry, but it's not agreeing with me.

Imageshack doesn't like the filetype of the image, and PNG screws up the colors.

cool one GiantMidgit ... :ok: :ok: :ok:

My entry for this is (once again) a photogaphy I did during my last holiday with adjusted looks, contrasts and colors.

(I will edit this and submit my entry once ts done, I promise)
Ok, just to clear some stuff up in case some people are confused, you are allowed to use text in your picture, and you can use photographs and such, like Swiss', you don't need to entirely make it from scratch.

Ok, this is my artwork:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7.../OceanFury.png

I hope that all the Monkey Island fans will be happy with this!

Enjoy :ok:

The ocean was a photograph I took of a local beach and filtered it several times to change colours and smoothness to get a fantasy effect. The mermaid I created using a laptop scroll pad. And the sparkles were good ol' PSP tubes.


Coming....thanks, Swiss :)

--
swiss' edit:

http://www.moccador.de/magicwater2.png

edit

Wendy, I love your picture. The sparkles really give the impression that it is a magical place. The mermaid is really well drawn.

:ok:

It be a new month, new pictures, aye. I might make an attempt at the next one.

Welcome everybody to a new and fantastic year 2006.

May the crativity of this forum prosper and bloom even more than in 2005.


To begin the creative process in this year we have the judgement of the "Pic of the month".

The topic was "Ocean" and we have a few participants. As we decided in the bgeinning of December our judges now decide on which work is the best.

So let me introduce the judges! Ladies and Gentlemen her is

- Taikara - the sweetheart of the forum
- The Chosen - whose comics just RULE
- Aristharus - the catman
- Fruit Pie Jones - a philosopher a pilot a prophet ....
and
- Sean - formerly known as Magic. The guy who is damned to be always #2

*applause*

Now please dear judges tell us what you think!

Thank you Swiss.

TheGiantmidgit: I like this picture. Its so weird and colourful. The horizon effect is also cool.
Swiss: Hmmm...i cant figure out anything nice nor bad about this one.
Quintopotere: Nice work, altought the joke didnt make me laugh.
wendymaree: Beatiful work. I like the sparkling effect.


My vote goes to TheGiantMidgit.

*crowd cheers*

Wasn't we supposed to judge upon categories?

I haven't been provided with any so I'll make up my own!

Originality - I'll base this score upon how unique the image is
Blend - This category allows me to judge how well each image piece fits together.
Relevance - This will my assessment of how well the image is related to the original topic.
Feel - This will be my personal opinion on the image altogether.

TheGiantMidget
Originality - What can I say? Anything made in paint entirely from scratch is original. Your piece has a very 'artistic' feel. You've taken the topic and presented us with an alternative representation of the theme. It's a very surreal image. I'd give this an 8/10

Blend - You've created everything yourself this category is NULL.

Relevance - You've captured the theme well, you have captured the essence of the theme and yet managed to present something unique. It's obviously associated with the 'Ocean' stimulus you was given. 8/10

Feel - The image is brilliant, you're paint skills are exceptional and you've exploited them well. You've presented us with a nice looking image but for me it's too 'simple'. 8/10.

Swiss

Originality - This for me is the main problem with your image. You've created a great piece and captured a brilliant image to manipulate. However it's the sort of image I would expect to emerge. It's a great picture but really isn't all that original. However, the colour use is something unique and that for me is the redeeming feature of your image. 7/10

Blend - It's one resource picture and as such this is NULL

Relevance - For the same reason that you scored low on originality you score high here. The image is instantly assossiciable with the ocean stimulus and has a 'fresh ocean' feel. Great 9/10

Feel - The image composition is great, it really makes me think of the ocean. The way the colours have been muted and manipulated helps produce a very 'oceanic' feel. The simplicity of your image is a plus or a drawback depending on who you are for me it's a negative. Still a great picture. 8/10.

Quinntopotere

Originality - You suffer from the same problems as swiss, you've given me an image that is instantly assossicable with the theme but isn't unique, it doesn't have a twist. The characters present a slightly original feel. 7/10

Blend - The two pictures blend quite well. The cuts are good but the way they transition with each other is harsh. 5/10
Relevance - It's an ocean based image but the characters look out of place to me. 6/10
Feel - To be brutally honest I don't like it. It's just too simple and to me looks like a 'cut-paste' affair. Sorry. 6/10.

Wendy
Originality -The fantasy feel you've given to the image works really well. It helps create an image of beauty. It features the main source and offers a unique twist. 9/10
Blend - The way the mermaid.sparkles and photo source all go together nice. It looks like a well painted surreal fantasy scene. It all goes together excellently. 8/10
Relevance -The image is obviously ocean related and yet offers originality. Well Done. 10/10
Feel - I like everything about the image, the way the layers blend the unique twist you've used. It's all just so good. 9/10.

-----

Scores
- GiantMidget = 24/40 – 60%
- Swiss = 24/40 – 60%
- Quint = 24/50 – 48%
- Wendy = 36 / 40 – 90%

Wendy is my choice.

Note: I corrected some spelling mistakes but lost the format tags.

But the characters live in the middle of the ocean! :blink:

Anyway, you made a very professional review :ok:

Hey Sean, your catagoritzation is biased towards photoshop works, case in point, then "Blend" thing, meaning Swiss and I get screwed out of a full 25 percent because of our medium.

But thanks, both of you. Good to receive feedback.

I like TGMs best.

TheGiantMidget:

I really enjoy this picture. My only criticism is that having the whales in the sky at the top of the picture is a nice point of interest, but the sheer height of the image throws off the balance of the composition by creating a sort of jarring empty turquoise space in the middle of the image that draws more attention than the actual details of the image.

8/10

swiss:

I really like the feel of this piece! I wish you had posted the original, because then I could get a better idea of what work was done to create it. [soapbox] I believe it's sort of unfair to pit what may be pure photography with a few tweaks against the work of other artists who are working to create the images themselves digitally (especially pixel-art - that is a soul-wrenching task at times), or compositing pictures to create a new image. As the photographer, you naturally have a better feel for the spirit of the original image than you would if you were working with someone else's pictures, not to mention a totally different set of resources than the other artists. It's just a totally different animal, really. [/soapbox] However, I think it's excellent - the balance of your composition with the lines and the shading is something wondersome - it all fits together very well.

9/10

Quintopotere:

I'm mostly going to have to agree with Sean on this one - it's an okay idea, but it does suffer from a copy-paste feel... it would be *highly difficult* to blend a pixel image with a photograph naturally, but it can be done a bit cleaner. Also, your resource piccy with the wave is a bit icky with artifacting, which distracts from the total image. Try finding a cleaner resource pic, and go from there. As for the font - if you look online, you can find the Monkey Island font (It's called Caslon Antique, I believe), which would have been nicer to tie your pixel into the background pic. Or, a bitmap font could have worked wonders as well.

6/10

wendymaree:

Beautiful resource pic, with a nice overall composition. I'm very interested in what you've done to it, and I wish you had posted the original resource as well. My one criticism is that the picture tube you've used for some of the sparkles looks almost like pixel-art sparkles in the bigger sizes - which doesn't really blend in with the flowing lines and colors of the resource pic. It takes away from the "magic" feel and pushes it into seeming unreal and forced.

8/10

Even though I feel less digital work may have been done to create his piece, I am judging on the end result (I went with the which would I buy to put on my wall approach to judging), and I feel that swiss's piece is the best.

You've all done an excellent job, and to those of you who have incorporated pixel-art, or worked with pure pixel-art, I commend you, it is a difficult beast to tame. Especially TGM's - that really is a gift you've got there. And Wendy, if you tweak it a bit, I believe yours has the potential of being the best of all of them for overall feeling :)

Whatever.

Everyone judges in their own way.

Yea, I really like Swiss's. Good composition, well done piece.

My apologies for the late judging to everyone. I've been extremely busy, and actually I still am, so I will be brief for now, sorry for that. I was going to write more about them, but I don't have time now, and most of my points have been said by the other judges already anyway, so here goes:

TheGiantMidgit: I have to disagree with taikara on the positioning of the whales. I like the shape of the picture and the feeling that the whales are swimming across the clear, blue sky (instead of the clear, blue ocean). The picture's very well drawn, I'd never have the patience to make something like that in MSPaint.

swiss: A magnificent photo! You've done a great job adjusting the colors and such and the cropping (or something, I have no idea what the right word for "rajaus" is in English) of the picture is excellent. The only con I can think of is the text "Oceans", I'd somehow like the picture more as a mere landscape without the text. Or maybe it should have a more subtle font, color, size or something.

Quintopotere: LOL Gotta love the Monkey Island thing. Otherwise the picture is pretty simple and the pixelated Melee Island pier could blend in better, but Guybrush and Otis earned you an extra thumbs up. :ok:

wendymaree: I completely agree with taikara on this one. Because I'd just end up saying everything she already wrote in different words, scroll up and read taikara's post on this. A beautiful picture, anyway.


It's a very hard decision as all the pictures are very different. We should've had different categories or something as photography and pixel art are two pretty different things. I'll still probably have to choose only one, so my vote goes to...

swiss

I know it doesn't have any effect on anything, but I'll just have to announce a very close runner-up, too: TheGiantMidgit! It was very close, I almost ended up rolling a die to decide between you two.

Congratulations for the winner, and thanks to all who participated for the great pictures. Too bad we missed Pigggy's and moogle's entries, though.

...and the balances tilt in favour of Swiss. Very much deserved though, great shot. Do you have any photography about? I'd like to peruse some other pieces.

Well... I've not to wait for what FPJ is going to vote to know that I'm the looser :cry:

Thank Aristharus for the :ok: and the LOL

I really didn't dare to even think about having more votes than your masterpiece. I love it! It looks really like my favourite scene in Douglas Adams Hitchhikers Guide.

For my other photos ... well you found them already ... (for everyone else: check my sig)

thanks to everyone who liked my photo and thanks judges for the very good statements on our works so far ... ! :ok:

:cheers:

Thanks for taking the time to look and make comments, Judges. All very helpful. :)

Congrats, Swiss! :ok:

Where is mr. Jones anyhow?

AFAIK, Mr. Jones isn't much of a home computer user - he is mostly on when he needs distraction at workies ;)

Ah, thanks, was wondering. See him around irregularily. Hope he gets bored on the job soon so we get the last vote in.

Current Standings:
1st: Swiss
2nd: Tie between Wendymaree and I
3rd: Quintopotere
4th: All the artists who neglected to participate. Shame!

Waiting for FPJ, I want to entertain you explaining the meaning of my pic... :yawn:

I used a real photo for the ocean wave and the pixellated pic of Monkey Isalnd just to emphasize the difference between two things: the reality and the fantasy.
I would express the danger that we live nowadays, where the everyday life (the reality, the mathemathical reasoning, the science) is submerging our fantasy side (our desire to be amazed)...
The last resource (I suggest), when we see the wave coming upon us, seems to be the irony :D

I hope you understand what I mean... :tomato:

Sorry it's taken so long! I haven't been hung over since New Year's Eve nor burned up in a wildfire. Tai's exactly right - I don't spend much time on the Web at home, and yesterday was a holiday, so this is my first time on here since last year! All right, on to the vote. My choice for the winner would be swiss. That's a very nice shot of a lighthouse on a rocky coast. Reminds me of Maine. My only issue with the picture is the text. It seems out of place, and the font makes the whole picture look a little like a 70s prog-rock album cover. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Nice jobs from everyone who entered! I'll try to be a little more prompt with the judging next time!

The theme is ocean...o_0
And, I'm sorry guys, I know the dealine is two days from now, but could I have another week? I was going to work on it over the break, but my power was out for the past 3 days so I wasn't able to do anythinggggg...

Uhm, guy, the judging is over, it's, uh, the whole thing is done..

I guess that means Swiss wins. Congratulations Swiss. :ok:

Exactly. Wait for the next one.

Thanks a lot guys! I didn't expect it ...

My personal favourite is definitely TheGiantMidgit! (Cool works and LOADS of pixels brought into a kewl image!)

This thread is closed and merged with the judging thread now!

So let's see what the next "Picture of the month" contest will look like.

Big thanks to our judges and contestants!
:cheers: