CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

EDIT: I have now transferred my work to the Gallery, and I am expecting any comments there. To find my work, just search for my username in the Gallery.

I decided to post this in the Art Corner because I am interested in feedback, though I doubt I will have the time or the will to significantly change it.

When inkhana posted in the Bishoujo Pic Thread, I looked at her signature, and I noticed the "Official CAA Bishie Thread Member" banner. Then, I became inspired to create a banner for the Bishoujo Pic Thread.

This was an interesting endeavor. I have never seriously used an image editing program before, nor created art on the computer, in any sense. (See what you made me do, inkhana!)

I used the GIMP since it is the only imaging program I have ever really touched, and it is free. I decided to take two pics of Kanoe from X that I really liked, and then put a drop ripple in between them in an attempt to connect the two pics. Why a drop ripple? Do you know how many times they used those drop ripples in the X TV anime?! Well, I believed it was appropriate since drop ripples were used to connect events and people in that show.

Then I placed Lucida Calligraphy font text on top of the ripple with reference to Psalms 96:6. About the verse, I was trying to find a general guiding theme/principle in finding pics for the Bishoujo Pic Thread... something for members to keep in the back of their heads if they want to contribute to the thread. I briefly skimmed through Song of Solomon and Ruth, but I felt this verse was the best way to go. Depending on your translation of The Bible (KJV, NIV, whatever) the word "beauty" might be replaced with "glory." In my opinion, beauty and glory can sometimes be seen as nearly equivalent,
especially in the case of feminine beauty.

Yes, the banner is somewhat large, but that has to do with my insecurity of dealing with a small area to work with.

I am a little confident that I am on the right track here. My mother gave me feedback saying, "Exquisite, pleasant and quite conservative, I like it very much." Although she sees things that I do favorably (like many mothers do with their children), she is honest.

I hope I was able to give a sense of femininity and softness. In reality, I have a somewhat cold, harsh, sharp, and combative personality.

EDIT: Due to Mave's request, I made a smaller version of this banner. In my future banners, I will probably produce two sizes for each banner just like you see here.

EDIT: For those who want to link this banner to the Bishoujo Pic Thread remember to surround the IMG tags with URL tags with the following link:
http://www.christiananime.net/showthread.php?t=6322

Enough text. Here is the Kanoe banner and its smaller version.

Wow thats a pretty, pretty good!! I just may have too join the bishie club now!!

EDIT: inkhana, after looking at this morning, I noticed some aesthetic problems with this new version with the text. The text can be hard to read in higher resolutions, and it can crowd out the impact of the image. Since I believe in this case, the beauty of the image must speak first and then cause the viewer to react. Therefore, I will go back to the original version of the banner and hope that the impact of the image will make the viewer look up Psalms 96:6.

EDIT: inkhana, regardless, thank you for the advice. Exploration is important in artistry. Sorry if my taste in banners is a little capricious. This is my first work.

I might come up with another banner in the future, featuring a different bishoujo....

FINAL EDIT: This version has been on display long enough. I have removed it since I am not interested in spreading this version of my banner around.

Ooooh! Its pretty! Nicely layed out and I like the verse too.

Okay, my decision is made on this Kanoe banner. I am sticking with the original version (first post) because it did not have the aesthetic problems presented by the inclusion of the verse's text in the later version. The beauty of the image should speak first, and then cause the viewer to react by looking up the verse. The inclusion of text makes the image deviate from this proper course.

So you should see my original version in my banner, where only the reference of Psalms 96:6 is shown and not the text of the verse. If you do not see my original version, just press the refresh button on your browser.

Thank you so much for your comments. You gave this beginner a good deal of confidence.

I am probably going to work on a banner with Faye Valentine... still have yet to see a banner image in my mind though.

I think it's pretty cool. But a request, can you make a smaller one? I'm collecting so many banners, I need more space at my signature. LOL

dang... thats good omega. the ripple thing looks really good. you al mke such things look easy, or maybe i try to hard i thought you said you werent good with computer imaging

Ruroken wrote:dang... thats good omega. the ripple thing looks really good. you al mke such things look easy, or maybe i try to hard i thought you said you werent good with computer imaging

I am not good. The ripple effect is a relatively easy technique... yet it took me a long time to get it right. This banner compared to others created by members here is relatively simple. Besides, the pics of Kanoe already do a lot of the work for me. I just tried for simple but effective, and it was hard for me since this was my first time really editing images.

Mave wrote:I think it's pretty cool. But a request, can you make a smaller one? I'm collecting so many banners, I need more space at my signature. LOL

*sighs a deep breath.*
*thinks a bit about request.*

Kanoe reminds me in some ways of my mother, who is a stunningly beautiful woman. Hence, I do not want to put text in front of the depictions of Kanoe in the banner. If I scale down the banner too much, I run into the same problem of having text covering up the ripple and reaching into the Kanoe depictions.... I will try to work with it this weekend, and if it is possible, I will PM you what I consider an acceptable smaller version. However, I will say there is no way I can get it small as that Bishie Thread banner. That is impossible. Even if I come up with a "smaller version" (which will be just scaled down, no changes in design), you will still have to be willing to give room in your signature.

Thanks for the comments. I appreciate it.

Wow Omega, very cool banner. Where can I get that free prog you used to create it? I would like to maybe one day make myself a banner but I don't have photoshop or the money for it. Nice job, I guess if you can make a good banner, there might be hope for me yet.

Psalm 96 is a great psalm by the way. Nice choice.

First, I will quickly answer Saint Kevin's question.

Saint Kevin wrote:Wow Omega, very cool banner. Where can I get that free prog you used to create it? I would like to maybe one day make myself a banner but I don't have photoshop or the money for it. Nice job, I guess if you can make a good banner, there might be hope for me yet.

Psalm 96 is a great psalm by the way. Nice choice.

The new 2.0 version of The GIMP was just released, which you can find here. It is available for Unix/Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. They have some books you can purchase, but do realize that "Grokking the Gimp" and "Gimp - The Official Handbook" have web versions which you can browse through for free. The books might be slightly dated, but for the purposes of getting a feel for the tool, I think they are a good starting point. There is also a Gimp Users Group where they have some tutorials on some cool effects.

Okay, now for my announcement. Due to Mave's request, I have made a smaller version of the Kanoe banner and placed it in the very first post of this thread, next to the original-sized version. I have also sharpened the original version, so if you have a good quality monitor, you might see better quality of the image.

At the time of this post, I will use the smaller Kanoe banner to advertise its availability for a week. Then I will go back to the original-sized version since I prefer that size.

Nice, mucho nice! Psalm 96 is a very nice psalm, good choice. How do I join the Bishoujo or bishie club or what ever? Can anyone give me details? Do I have to draw somthing good. I'm a baaaaddddd bad bad bad drawer , so if i have to draw to get in i might not get in.

Inferno wrote:Nice, mucho nice! Psalm 96 is a very nice psalm, good choice. How do I join the Bishoujo or bishie club or what ever? Can anyone give me details? Do I have to draw somthing good. I'm a baaaaddddd bad bad bad drawer, so if i have to draw to get in i might not get in.

I can only speak for the Bishoujo Pic Thread, Inferno. I have given my take on what is "official member" behavior (bottom of the page) for the thread, and it is very easy-going, and you do not even have to use my banners, and you do not have to draw anything for that thread.

Also, I really did not draw anything in my banners. I took two images from an anime and did some editing.

I am now working on a Rei Ayanami banner.... I wanted to do a Faye Valentine banner, but I still have yet to the find the right pic and a good image forming in my mind for a Faye banner.

Since I have the feeling that the adminstration is going to use the new Gallery for its art needs, so will I. My artwork will be transferred to the appropriate categories in the Gallery, and any comments on them can be made there.

ey~Thats A really nice banner~! NICE!!

Whats the difference between posting something in the Gallery and posting something in the Art Corner?