Elwe's Hill of Random Creations and Whatnot

Hiya and welcome to my thread! Here, you'll find random things, from fanart to original works. (Even poetry!) Most of these were created as experimental pieces (all part of the learning experience!) or for funsies. As I'm not taking any art classes, any comments will be greatly appreciated since improvement isn't such a bad thing. Enjoy!

Latest News: School will be over soon, so hopefully, I've have time to learn more about PS and drawing. Yargh! I'll also have a story up when I'm done procrastinating! I also have updated category banners posted in addition to the normal text headings. Lala.


Some posts contain more than one work, so some scrolling may be required after clicking on a link.
I have thumbnails for all of these, so if you're just browsing, it may be easier to just scroll through the posts rather than clicking on a link.
Oh, and works in progress won't be listed, as that might end up cluttering up the index.

(FA)=Fanart
(OC)=Original Creation
=New




3 Newest:
Xenosaga II KOS-MOS Wallpaper (FA)
Photoshopped Birdie Photo Attempt #1(OC) (#2)
"The Camel Man" (Poem)(OC)





Wallpapers (None of which are "done" yet! Okay, well, the decent ones are asteriked.)
Click on link, scroll to wallpaper, click on thumbnail, and you MAY need to click on new thumbnail

Abstract Butterfly Wallpaper (OC)
Fate Stay Night Wallpapers 1 - 1.6 (Yes, 6 versions!) (FA)
"Reach for the Stars" Wallpaper (1280x1024 and 1024x768) (OC)
Rurouni Kenshin Wallpaper 1 (FA)
Rurouni Kenshin Wallpaper (Samurai X) (FA)
Rurouni Kenshin: Kamiya Kaoru Wallpaper (Fixed!) (FA)
*Rurouni Kenshin: Yukishiro Enishi Wallpaper (FA)
Xenosaga I: Chaos Attack Wallpaper (Fixed!) (FA)
Xenosaga I: Chaos Wallpaper (FA)
*Xenosaga II KOS-MOS Wallpaper (FA)




Drawings
Final Fantasy X-2: Paine (Black Mage) (FA) (Click here for a larger version)
Flower (OC)




Avatar and Sig Sets
You're welcome to use these if you're so inclined to do so, unless otherwise stated. Credits would be nice. *ccooough*
Fate Stay Night Avatar and Sig Set 1 (FA)
Fate Stay Night Avatar and Sig Set 2 (FA)





Digital Drawings/Paintings, Colorings, Photos, etc. (In other words, "Other Stuff)
Random Girls (OC) Don't look.
Photoshopped Birdie Photo Attempt #1 (#2) (OC)





Words
"The Camel Man" (Poem)(OC)

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Thank you so much for the tips! I really do know nothing about this, but I'll be sure to keep those pointers in mind next time.

Quote:

I am assuming you are using photoshop, or something along that line.

Yes, I'm using Photoshop 7.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

RockgamerXIII: Thanks! Yeah...I always have issues with faces. I actually went on a face-drawing spree in order to practice drawing them, but they still look pretty bad!

Rydia: Thanks! By the way, I do have a larger copy, but it didn't turn out too well on the scanner.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Thanks! The Paine one took about 6 hours, and the flower one took around three hours. I think.

-------------

I'm moving the ones I posted earlier over to this post so I can index my stuff. Woohoo!


You MAY need on the new "thumbnail" that appears
Rurouni Kenshin Wallpaper 1
I felt like making a Kenshin wallpaper.





You MAY need on the new "thumbnail" that appears
Rurouni Kenshin: Samurai X Wallpaper
This was back when I just got Photoshop, so I decided to play around with it and see what I could do. Hah, experiment!
Anyways, I'll try to fix this one up sometime later, as it still needs quite a bit of work.






You MAY need on the new "thumbnail" that appears
Final Fantasy X-2: Paine (Black Mage)
Here's my first actual drawing with the new pencils (I think) I received for Christmas a couple months ago. I hate how her face turned out! It doesn't even resemble her. I hope it's not too traumatizing.






You MAY need on the new "thumbnail" that appears
Flower
I had this one on my XChange portfolio before the crash. Well, it's here again! I based it off a gorgeous photo of a flower I found online.






You MAY need on the new "thumbnail" that appears
Random Girls (Ha, that's a horrible title)
This here is my first, sad, attempt at coloring. I didn't want to trace over my lines with pen in the original drawing, so I just scanned it as it was. I really need to read a tutorial, since this was the result of random clicks for 6 hours. And it still turned out pretty bad. Time to learn how to do it correctly! Anyways, I didn't really like how the girl on the right turned out. So yes, this was another experiment.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Nevermind about that one.
Here's the new one:


Rurouni Kenshin: Kamiya Kaoru Wallpaper
You MAY need on the new "thumbnail" that appears


Here's one that I just made today. (Can't really see much from the thumbnail! It's textured though.) I just realized that you have to click on the thumbnail after clicking on the thumbnail. Whew. Anyways, it's another Kenshin one, but I borrowed the flowers from Honey and Clover.




You MAY need on the new "thumbnail" that appears
Rurouni Kenshin: Enishi Wallpaper
I modeled this one off the Kaoru one I did earlier. It didn't turn out quite as well as that one though.

I was speaking idiomatically.

ROBOTRON: Thanks!


Here are a couple quick wallpapers I made today. They're not too spiffy, but oh well.


You MAY need on the new "thumbnail" that appears
Xenosaga I: Chaos Attack Wallpaper
Ehh...randomness. I just noticed a few mistakes in this wallpaper. A new, revised version will be up soon!

Okay! Let's see if this one's better:





You MAY need on the new "thumbnail" that appears
Xenosaga I: Chaos Wallpaper
Even more random. I don't really love how this one turned out. Oh well; it's too early in the morning for this. -_-






Click on the thumbnail and then click on the new thumbnail that appears
Abstract Butterfly Wallpaper
This actually started out as an abstract doodle on lined notebook paper, but when I drew it, the page sort of got wrinkly. I then went to scan it only to find out that the ripples in the page showed up, so I played around with it. With the image at this level of darkness, it looked much flatter than before, so I decided to turn it into a wallpaper. It's a tad dark. [/life story]



Click on the thumbnail and then click on the new thumbnail that appears
Here's the same one, except it has a poem on the right.



Click on the thumbnail and then click on the new thumbnail that appears
More of the same, but this one has the "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" quote from Macbeth.

I'm open to requests, if you happen to want a custom-made one for that. (ha!)

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

ROBOTRON: Thanks again!

Imkylepiano: Thanks! I have quite a pile of drawings, but a lot of them are pretty bad. Oh! And I'd be happy to see your FSN drawing.


I realized that a couple of my wallpapers have some big flaws in them, namely the Chaos and Kaoru ones. On this monitor, I can't see any of that, but they showed up on our new LCD monitor. I'll have new versions up later, as those mistakes look really bad.

FELIPE NO

That's a very nice drawing, Imkylepiano! It's a great improvement over the Naruto one you did earlier. I really like what you did with her hair. Good job!

Originally Posted by Imkylepiano=)

OOoooo, speaking of FSN, is it ok if I request a wall paper? If you need renders or anything, go to www.fatestaynight.org, they have everything (including a wonderful gallery, and all bittorrent episodes). That would be really nice!

I'll see what I can do, although I can't guarantee anything, seeing as how I'm still figuring things out right now.

What size do you need?
Also, is there anything specific you want? I'm not familiar with the series, so I'm just randomly choosing characters right now.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

That's a very nice Naruto drawing! Perhaps you could thumbnail that, just in case there are some 56k users lurking around.

I whipped up a simple one really quick, although it's rather bland. I might actually try for a more creative one when I have more time.

I have a few versions of them in 1024x768. I couldn't really make up my mind. If there's anything quirky showing up, please let me know, as I'm currently using the half-functional monitor right now, so I can't see too much.



Click on the thumbnail and then click on the new thumbnail that appears
Fate Stay Night Wallpaper 1
Requested by Imkylepiano=)



Click on the thumbnail and then click on the new thumbnail that appears
Fate Stay Night Wallpaper 1.2
Requested by Imkylepiano=)



Click on the thumbnail and then click on the new thumbnail that appears
Fate Stay Night Wallpaper 1.3
Requested by Imkylepiano=)



Click on the thumbnail and then click on the new thumbnail that appears
Fate Stay Night Wallpaper 1.4
Requested by Imkylepiano=)



Click on the thumbnail and then click on the new thumbnail that appears
Fate Stay Night Wallpaper 1.5
Requested by Imkylepiano=)



Click on the thumbnail and then click on the new thumbnail that appears
Fate Stay Night Wallpaper 1.6
Requested by Imkylepiano=)

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Thanks!

I just realized that the link for the Paine drawing was weird. Anyways, that should work now.

Fate Stay Night Avatar and Sig Set 1
Just for funsies, I made an avatar and sig set based off the wallpaper. Joy. Yes, I know that there are three avatars. Seriously-- my indecisiveness needs to die!



Usage History: Imkylepiano



Fate Stay Night Avatar and Sig Set 2
Here's another set based off those wallpapers I made earier. I mean, I already have the images extracted, so why put it to waste?


Usage History: (none)

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Yay!
(Credits, although not mandatory, are appreciated. )

How ya doing, buddy?

Haha, thanks.

Your new drawing is amazing! I really like what you did with the hair, and the shading has really improved! The foreshortening isn't too bad either. Great job!

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I'll have to fix up that first FSN set, since I could see the red stuff on my old computer. This should be finished after I transfer my GFF folder onto the new compy!

Here's another FSN set, since I only have those FSN pictures on this computer. I'm thinking about fixing that white bubble thing at the top so that it doesn't end right at the edge of the sig, but the zoo calls! Therefore, I'm not adding this to my master index yet.

Fate Stay Night Avatar and Sig Set 3





Usage History: Imkylepiano=)


I was also planning on posting a poem, but I'm still thinking about it. It may end up in an anthology or magazine (of the amateur variety, of course), so I don't want my name getting out. *****coooouuuuggghhhhh***** The chances of it gettting posted here are very high!

I was speaking idiomatically.

Thanks, DarkLink2135.
-----------------------

Okay--I still have to fix up those old wallpapers, as well as that sig, but because I'm such a huge procrastinator, that obviously hasn't been done yet. Rest assured, I will do it, since I'll have plenty of time over the summer.




"Reach for the Stars" Wallpaper 1280x1024 w/ Matching Icon
Click on the thumbnail and then click on the new thumbnail that appears
Here's a quick mashup I made while waiting for the shower, as I don't really want to attempt something involving more effort right now. Once I start something, I have to finish it all in one sitting, except for quick changes, and I don't have hours to spare during the school year. Yadayadaya.

I can't seem to figure out how to make an arc. The help file in PS isn't quite responding, and my quick Google didn't help much, as it only rambled about warping text. In the end, I made the blue swish out of "__________." So yes, that's text!

I also threw on a matching icon for XP. HAH!




"Reach for the Stars" Wallpaper 1024x768
Click on the thumbnail and then click on the new thumbnail that appears
It's the same as the one above, but resized and cropped to 1024x768.



I'll have a story up as soon as I move it over from the old computer. If I can dig up my birdie photo, I might post that up too. It's somewhere....
In the meantime, here's a prehistoric Haiku I composed years ago. Yes, it's old, and I've shared it before.


Snow
Falling snow shall rest
upon the sleeping mountains,
eternally still.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I'm still procrastinating.

I can't find that story, so it's probably in one of my backup discs. JOY! However, I do have the abridged and poem-ized version, so here you go! Because I stink at titles, I shall name it, "The Camel Man," even though it's not about a camel man. There's a reason why I'm not a writer!

----------------------------------------------------


"The Camel Man"
On a not-so-special day,
the camel man
died
beneath the
burning sky,
a brilliant red sun
descending behind an
endless curtain of golden crops.

Doug carried the man’s sparse frame
to the makeshift graveyard,
a desolate spot of land
surrounded by an expanse
of emptiness.

He then headed toward
that rocking chair, now
worn and battered by age
but still standing,

From there,
he watched,
with cloudy eyes,
the brilliant spectacle before him
the sky, a palette of vivid colors—
crimson, indigo, mauve, amethyst—
bridging the gap from the fading sunlight
to the darkness that inevitably followed.

Ah,
the man thought, as he did ever so often,
this is life.

And he began to sob
in joy--
for the beauty of the sunset,
in sorrow—
for his departed friends.

Tears streamed down the man’s
weathered face as
the sky’s many hues
washed together and
became a blurred,
kaleidoscopic world
before his teary eyes.

Somewhere in the distance,
he heard a faintly familiar rumble.
The crops bowed down solemnly as
a sudden gust of wind swept past them,
rattling the loose timbers of the
old, wilting house that stood nearby.

As the darkness closed in around him,
the man,
hunched over in his creaking chair,
could hear--
amidst the swaying of the crops,
the drums rolling away in the distance,
and the calculated cadence of his rocking chair--
the soft,
comforting
pitter-patter of
raindrops—
one,
two

FELIPE NO

Thanks! No, I'm not actually watching it, but I just had a folder of FSN pictures saved on my computer, so I decided to use them!

Caster, eh? See, I would have never known!

Most amazing jew boots

I'll see if I can check that out over the summer then! Those screenshots looked mighty fine, yes.


It's photo time, but not really!

Once upon a time, I went to Disney World, where I purchased a disposable camera at a wonderful price--$18. I thought to myself, "Well, that's okay, as long as I get my pictures!" HAH! Well, none of them turned out good, and the only one that wasn't all dark and faded was this:



Okay, it's still pretty bad. Well, I decided to do something about it! >:B

Luckily, I just read a little about Layer Masks yesterday. Earlier, I was having TONS of trouble with the image because when I decided to change saturation or contrast settings, some parts of the photo would end up all messed up. Since I was having trouble with getting the image to look more colorful without completely ruining other parts of it, I decided to give the Layer Mask thing a go! Because I have a horrible habit of skimming over tutorials, you can imagine the fun I had with it, even though it wasn't rocket science.

The end result, which was a tad too blinding, was this:


2 whole hours.


Here's a less blinding version:



They both look too dark (or saturated?) on one monitor, and on the one I'm using now, they're "fine." If I make it any lighter (and I don't mean vivid), it ends up looking too light here. Both my monitors are at similar settings, but the image end up on the extremes. I give up! :ninja:

Revised image (6/8/06)

Jam it back in, in the dark.

(More sizes and versions here)

It's Xenosaga time! Erm. I guess I discovered the magical powers of Distort>Wave. Actually, the background is both a mix of a distorted lens flare I made beforehand as well as a screenshot from the official site. Anyways, this one's 1280x1024, not 1024x768, unlike most of my other ones.

It started out having a different version of KOS-MOS over on the right in normal colors, but it looked a bit funny. I'm planning on trying that again for the 1024x768 version to see how that fares. I predict horrible, horrible things.

Oh, and I'm finally going back to fix those other failed wallpapers. Haha!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

G'day, Kazyl!

I didn't even notice the absence of the shadows in the 2 new versions, so no, that was completely unintentional! It was probably one of my clone rampages.

Yes, I did smooth out the feathers on the bird in the foreground. Let's see if I try to get some of that texture back. It's finger-crossing time!

Thanks for the feedback!

Double Post:
Okay! I went back to the original, but I couldn't really find too much texture there. Regardless, I tried adding some of the texture from that one onto the third image. Hopefully, it's a bit better.



On a related note, is there a way to make the texture more dramatic? I tried Levels and a couple other things, but I'm just taking a shot in the dark here. I'm not quite sure how to go about this.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Thanks, Rockgamer!
___________

By the way, here's a 1024x768 version, since the 1280x1024 version will look funny if scaled down to 1024x768.




And here's another version of the 1280x1024 one, with KOS-MOS a little darker. I saved this one at a much higher quality level than the other one, which explains the fact that it's around 500 kb.



(For reference, the original can be found here)

_________________________________________

And on a completely unrelated note, I finally fixed up those wallpapers that I promised to fix ages ago. Yay!

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Naruto, eh? I'll see what I can do? Any deadline in mind? Also, would you prefer "the usual" style sig, or a rectangular one?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Thanks, Lady Miyomi! Services, eh? I doubt I'll have enough skill for that. Crystals, ice shards, and awesome swirlies still elude me. And I actually consulted a tutorial for those out of desperation!

Oh, and sorry for the looooong delay, Kyle. I just got back from vacation not long ago, and I still have to get some images.


Okay, then! Here's a banner I've been working on a while ago. Okay, well, it also contains some of the page beneath the banner. Anyways, it's still not done, as there are parts that I need to fix up some more. I've obviously been playing with blending options again.




If that's too confusing, I've cropped out the stuff beneath the banner in the following image and deleted the leaf, which technically isn't part of the banner. Yay for .psd!




What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

No, not really.

It was actually for a site which I'm not really planning to make. Originally, I had wanted to make a new site for myself--one of those free ones. It wasn't going to be a fansite, like my previous ones, since there are already plenty of those. And they're pretty good, too.

Thus, I took this as an opportunity to actually make a site banner from scratch, which was pretty fun. I think all of my previous banners contained videogame or anime characters!

As for the site--I fail at coding, so I'm still playing around with the idea. I seriously doubt that it'll go anywhere, as I usually trash my sites and start all over again before reaching the halfway point.

FELIPE NO

Quote:

I like it, it looks really sleek. I think those would work well as buttons on the website. I don't know if it would be too busy, but I think it would look even better if you could bring each element closer togather. For some reason I could never really get the polished look of you graphic artist. :3

Thanks, Magi! Yay for the :3! Closer? Mmm, you mean something like this, with less space between the jewels?



I thought the same about the buttons, but I did make some buttons anyways. They turned out a bit funky, though! The backgrounds aren't transparent in these, and I do think the banner buttons would look nicer.

Spoiler:

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?