mandissected vs. rhyeen | kicking butt and taking names later...

Rules:
1 week turn around
must use an element from the previous volley
size - keep it resonable (under 1000px each way)
rotation - doesn't really apply when you can change the size

I think that's enough but it's been a long time since I battled (over a year) so remind me if I missed something out.

Here's the serve -

http://www.mandissected.co.uk/files/envy.jpg

I know it's not the greatest but I've been out for awhile and I was lacking inspiration a bit. Saying that crits are welcomed as I think they really help, I would especially appreciate comments on how I could have blended the elements better.

Thanks.

Stock:
background
girls

hmm...a week turnaround? heck I could do a battle like that, mind if I face ya?

holy crap, welcome back mandissected :)

I think your blending is good, it just needs to come towards the contour of the girls a little more... I can still see a whitish fringe.

rhyeen: go a head, show me what you've got.

lefteye: thanks man, I guess you missed me posting in the kung fu thread! you fancy another battle in the future sometime when we both have the time? I think I need some more practice too because your skills are definitely better then when we last met.

Zacaboo: thanks for the comment, the whitish fringe is actually the lighting. On the left side it was much brighter and I used the burn + clone tools to try to dull it some and on the right I actually put it in more with the dodge tool as I felt from the background that's where the light was coming from. I guess I over done it.

k i'll get something up as soon as possible, right now i'm working on my friends computer, but i'll have something in the next couple of days.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h7...en/unleash.jpg
k, finally got some time to do image...didn't work out the way i wanted, but i'm still pleased with the final result

Not bad bawss... the one thing that pops out at me is the vs. text. Kinda big dontcha think? Great color scheme, overall flow works well. I really like your use of vectors- the ones near the girl especially. The black one adds a nice frame to that part of the image. Font matches, but it's a little strong for the image.

Mandissected... damn. welcome back... love the image, but I see some layer mask fringe in the loop of her arm on the left side.

rhyeen... color, contrast, shadows, text placement... in that order, I'm finding some flaws.

The color, while a cool flavor of "not-so-hot-pink-that-it-melts-my-testosterone-laden-retinas" it's still a color that has a good range of dark salmon to near white/pinkish. The color looks quite flat and in some places, could have benefited from a better shadow/highlights. duplicating the entire image - sans text - then desaturate, then darken the black a little bit, then change the entire layer to Soft Light and drop the opacity to 60% or so would have added some very necessary depth and shadow.

The text... I think you should have went with a white serif font that was laid out in a more "regular" fashion. The placement should have been in that area between the girl and the top right tiger and then setting it near the bottom... providing a "V" where the eyes would start in the upper left, travel down, get the text/meaning and back up and finish with your second tiger.

Over her shoulder, you can see a slight bit of overlay of the tail from a third, composited tiger... it's almost done well but I see some overlap.

Now, what do I like about it? It's laid out well, with very good tension. The tiger paw, while not as high quality as the rest of your images involved in this layout, it's actually a pretty cool idea. The smaller details in the image... they're a great addition.

Can't wait to see more from the two of you.

hey thanks for the comments guys...i'll think about them and use them later, and i probably from now on check my images in the morning when i'm not so tired for flaws and such...cause that is a REALLY hot pink, and i never noticed that until now...it hurts me eyes! :yikes:

Just to let you know I'm still here. I got injured playing football (soccer) last saturday and have hardly been near the computer since. I'll be able to start working on the pic now though and I have a couple ideas to try (I'm not sure if I will find the right stocks for my main idea). I will do my best to make the week deadline though.

I like your image rhyeen. I don't think it's too pink, I like it. I used to be scared of pink but have faced my fears and now embrace it, how very new age of me! I love the idea of the tiger face on the paw and I think you've tied all the elements together well. I'm not a fan of the text though, I can't say why but I don't like it. Sorry the crit was all personal opinion but I'm not good enough to be giving technical advice.

Sorry to hear about you injury.....glad that you are O. K. though.

Get Well...

hey i hope you get feeling better, hey don't worry if you make the deadline or not, i completely understand...and yeah, you'll notice with me...that i am not good at getting the text right, its one of my downfalls.

you still in the battle mandissected? don't rush if you are, i'm just wondering if were still doing this

I'm still in this, just had a chaotic couple of weeks. After my injury my wife ended up in hospital (nothing serious and ok now) and over the weekend I've got a stinking cold.

I am working on the return though. As mentioned before I was struggling for stocks to do my ideas so I've been switching things around, I did have an idea that would push my skills to the limit but considering how long I've already taken I'm probably going to go for something more in my comfort zone so expect something in the next 48 hours or so.

hey glad your still doing it, and seriously keep doing the 'pushing skills to limit' one if you want, i'd love to see it. I'm really in no hurry, i was just wondering if you were still alive ;)

Sorry for the wait but I just haven't had the hours I had hoped for and I really did need them. Every direction I went came to a dead end before I finally struck upon this idea, the execution isn't what it could be but it was a different style for me which I struggled with. Saying that, as always, crits are welcomed (and encouraged). Don't go soft on me just because of some troubles I had around the pic, your crits and advice are what help me get better.

Well here she is -

http://www.mandissected.co.uk/files/billboardsm.jpg

Hey man it has to be a long time since we last exchanged words. How are you doing? I don't remember if you are based in England or what, but if you are I did notice the car on the left side of the road very English huh?

Anyways... I like the image, although there is one thing that sticks out... it's the jungle beats poster, for some reason I feel the brown on that part of the image is a little to prestine. Other than that I like the image, maybe a little less dark on the shadows, try bringing that up a bit with the dodge tool. Again, that's only my opinion.

Nice to see you around these places. I remember my first battle in Flashkit was you FlashL!ght and my self.... the good old days.

Peace!

hey good to see your still alive! no actually i'm glad you just barely posted something i was gone on vacation this past week. Looks nice, i agree with the basic brown color with the monkey. The image seems a little pale for me, but then again...i went over board on the bright pink so i can't really comment ;) but hey, really nice image all together. I have a lot of elements that i can take from the image (sorry about mine...didn't really have much) so i'll have something posted sooner or later

Mandissected beautiful images I especially like the first one the second is great except I'm not feeling the sky. It seems to be either too white or too blue. The color of the sky changes the mood of an image, the montage creates a mixed emotion. Really though nice images, it's good to see actual scenes in this place other then simply a group of who knows what in mural form.

Yeah and little brother....should have stuck with the original, or at least let me look at it before you post. Pink....for heck's sake.

Well guys looks like an interesting battle, definately two pro's at their finest.

Thanks for your comments, maybe my image wasn't quite as bad as I thought!

Nep - I totally agree about the brown sticking out, I just couldn't get it to blend at all and resorted to making the whole image darker in the hope that helped but it obviously didn't! It's another skill I really need to work on. On the English thing, I am from England but that was just a stock image which I don't think is from the Uk because our central lines are white not yellow (just thought you would appreciate that interesting fact! lol)

Rhyeen - Take as long as you need to come up with a great image and don't worry too much about what you leave me. I mean it's always good to have easy elements to use but I don't want it to be to the detrement of your image if you know what I mean.

Monk - Thanks for your comments. I agree about the sky, it leaves a lot to be desired. It was pretty much ignored by me as I was concentrating so hard on blending the posters, a (pretty big) little mistake on my part. I had briefly considered getting a new sky in there from a different stock but I forgot all about it, I think I was rushing a bit too much after all the hold ups.

Everyones mentioned the lack of blending on the brown poster but nobody has mentioned the other one and I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing! Can you guys let me know what you thought of that one? Thanks

k, its the weekend and i was able to finish it...sorry if it isn't the greatest, i got carried away with the brushes
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h7...sunsetcopy.jpg
so crits are more then welcome...in fact rip my picture apart.

totally sick image man. I'm a big fan of this kind of style. burns, overlays, in my opinion this image is intact... the fact that you have those black line shapes free floating like that in the horrison make s the free floating text also look just right. This could be an image inside a magazine as is. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

i really like that too rhyeen, especially the upper two thirds. really nice colours and beautiful clean lines.....

:thumbsup:







have to point this out though- you have use the wrong "you're", it should be "your".

I really like the sparklie greenness of the road, and the overall use of color.
I'm not too sure about the text/font, but i'm the last person you need to be listening to when it comes to text and fonts.

thanks for all the crit guys...i really didn't know it was that great of an image...good to know it turned out fine :)
and i totally agree random...i have a problem with my fonts, i can never seem to find the right one

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rhyeen

and i totally agree random...i have a problem with my fonts, i can never seem to find the right one

---

I have that problem with fonts so there is likely nothing wrong with the font you chose, and it is just my skewed perception of fonts.

The image is still great just the way it is.
I can totaly see that being used as a car ad in a magazine.

mandissected, *knock on screen* you still there?

Sorry, my first few efforts haven't gone to plan (mainly due to my technical skills not being up to them) but I'm know working on one that I'm confident I can finish. It should get finished tomorrow night when I get a few hours to spend on it as my wife will be working.

I really like you're image btw rhyeen. It's pretty busy but it still works, sorry I haven't really got a crit I just like it!

Hey rhyeen something's come up which means I won't be getting a return up for a few weeks I'm afraid. Sorry about this, I don't like deserting battles but I will be back.

Feel free to have a battle with somebody else though, I don't want you to be hanging around for me.

Sorry again and see you round in the future.

:) hey thats fine, i just hope what ever has come up works out okay. I'll be waiting as soon as your ready to start again. but i think i might start a battle in the mean time