Help me with my wallpaper

[bigtomrodney]

Hey guys,
It's come up a few times before that I've become the world's number one Inkscape fan. Not to be confused with someone who knows what they're doing though I am busily working on vector art most nights.

I've also become a big Ubuntu fan and now use it exclusively with the exception of my recovery USB stick I keep with me. So as was inevitable I've decided to do some Ubuntu vector work to keep my mind occupied. This is just my own work and is in no way official. Anyway, I made a first stab tonight at a wallpaper for Intrepid Ibex (8.10). This is pretty rough and I'm just looking for some feedback. Honesty would be appreciated so no need to tiptoe around me...I promise you won't hurt my feelings.

There'll be a lot more work on this but before I start pulling nodes around and tearing out my hair trying to get the colours right I figure I'd look to you guys for support. Unfortunately the images are being resized when attaching them but I've added the source SVG in a zip file.



Any thoughts?

[elija]

That's showing a lot of promise.

[fingal]

It rocks! Keep working on it, because I want to see the finished work.

[Artesia]

Nice! One thing I think could use some tweaking is the brown-gray layer on top of the slope. It's very solid and a bit overpowering. Either give is a slight gradient, or make it thinner, or make the bottom edge of it more jagged (like its top edge). Making it jagged might be a good way of introducing a little detail into the right third of the image, which right now is too simple in comparison to the rest. Or maybe add a hint of grass, like what you have behind the goat (not necessarily with a different color, just with lines). Right now my eye is drawn to the almost-straight line it forms with the brown slope underneath.

I would really like to see the right front hoof showing.

Lastly, the light-colored, uppermost layer of the slope is too close in color to the lightest part of your background gradient so the two fade together underneath the belly of the goat. But you did say that you stilll have color tweaking to do, I know.

I think you did well with the proportions, the location of the goat, and the overall composition of the piece. It is a regal, graceful and powerful animal and that shows here nicely. (I hope Intrepid will be, too!) Although I'm probably biased cuz I'm a Capricorn...

[questio verum]

Da-a-amn, Big Tom! You got skills! That is every bit as good as something you'd find in one of the trade rags. Was that all done with Inkscape?

As for a critique... I wouldn't remove anything you've got there. Artesia's got a point about the upper right quadrant, but won't there be a logo or something there? If not, I might make some small change. I'm not sure what though. It already looks so good. Mebbe some embellishment. You know... a light-toned flourish of some kind, like a plant or the release code name or something. But hey, listen to your creative voice above all. You are obviously onto something. Thanks for giving us a peek.

qv

[elija]

Are you going to be submitting it for inclusion in the distro?

[bigtomrodney]

Nice! One thing I think could use some tweaking is...I would really like to see the right front hoof showing....It is a regal, graceful and powerful animal and that shows here nicely...

Thanks Artesia, I very much appreciate all of the feedback. I'll be working on it again tonight so I'll be reading your post again in a lot of detail I agree about the front hoof, I had been thinking the same. I think I'll lighten up the whole piece; I had been sticking close to the colours of past wallpapers but I think it's a bit too strong. I'll probably put an Ubuntu logo on the right but I figured I'd get the art right first.

Da-a-amn, Big Tom! You got skills! That is every bit as good as something you'd find in one of the trade rags. Was that all done with Inkscape?

Yep, all done in Inkscape. It's one of my favourite apps now and is right up there with Amarok and K3b in my books. I have to admit though the Ibex isn't all mine. I used the trace program to build a couple of layers from a photo I saw. I've been manually tweaking it and by the time it's finished it should be a lot more abstract or at least more simplistic. I think I'll be adding some detail to the gradient. I think perhaps something like stars. Like a milky way in the back? It'll be subtle enough. I just want to get the whole 'Intrepid' thing across so I want some element of exploring the unknown or a difficult journey.

Are you going to be submitting it for inclusion in the distro?

Haha...I think I'll just get it finished first Something like that would be a dream but I think in the meantime I'll settle for the vector exercise. Thanks for the vote of confidence though.

If I get anything significant done later I'll post an update. Thanks again for the praise and criticism guys. I very much appreciate it.

[Oxygen]

I'd like to see it
a) As the official desktop wallpaper for Ubuntu Intrepid
b) In 1440x900 resolution for us Widescreen folk

[bigtomrodney]

I'd like to see it
a) As the official desktop wallpaper for Ubuntu Intrepid
b) In 1440x900 resolution for us Widescreen folk

Well I can help you on the second one. The thumbnail was of a 1280x1024 PNG but the source svg is actually widescreen, at 1920x1200. It will work as wallpaper on both KDE and Gnome if you'd like to try it for size. Maybe wait for a bit more work on it though

[Oxygen]

Well I can help you on the second one. The thumbnail was of a 1280x1024 PNG but the source svg is actually widescreen, at 1920x1200. It will work as wallpaper on both KDE and Gnome if you'd like to try it for size. Maybe wait for a bit more work on it though

Oh, right.

Does it come in different colours? If there was a blue shaded version for use with KDE that would be relevant to my interests.

Also as much as I'd like it to, SVG doesn't seem to work... it's listed as a supported file format but the picture won't display on my desktop.