This layout is kinda a bridge between two different points of my designing era on groups. Before this I had spent quite awhile working in a very simply, yet detailed, style. This style was generally white or grey in nature. Through 8 previous layouts create had pretty much stuck to this style with very few deviations, especially the 3-4 layouts directly before this one. After this point however, I started to branch out more, and while this wasn’t really the defining layout that caused me to do so, it was one of them. To this day I’m still really happy with this one, I think it’s a pretty nice design, it’s well organized, it has nice pattern work and the fonts look nice. All in all I probably should have kept this one around a little longer before moving on to version ten and eleven, which were less well received.

Turpentine Kisses is kind of a intermediate submission for me. When I created it I didn’t spend a lot of time working on it, because the vision itself is pretty simple and is suppose to be. The render was from an older set I had created in Cinema4d, from the same batch as Blood Splatters Pink among others (I used this exact render in two separate wallpapers as well which I will upload later). The name comes from a Smashing Pumpkins demo tape which I’m fond of and sorta shares the same serene mood that I wanted to present here. Aside from the render all the work was done in Adobe Photoshop 7, the little work that there was that is. Mainly I applied several different blurring and smudging techniques along with an adjustment to the levels so that I could get those dark areas. Then there were several layer overlays with different adjustment effects to create the brighter sharper feel. There was also some light brushing on top of all that for a cloud like effect. In the end I’m very fond of this one just because it captures how I was feeling the day I made it, memories and such.

To anyone that really knows me it should come at no surprise how big of a Smashing Pumpkins fan I actually am. A few years ago I began to become interested in doing vector artwork, right about the same time as I was coming out of being interested in space scenes. I did a few small anime based vectors, stuff that would be easy to kinda learn myself. Once I was pretty confident that I could do a larger composition I decided that I would do a series of Smashing Pumpkins vectors, and although in the end I only ended up completing the one I’m to this day still very happy with it. For those unaware Billy Corgan is the Smashing Pumpkins so it is kinda fitting that I only ended up completing his vector. It was done completely in Photoshop, and is named after one of my favorite acoustic songs from the Aeroplane Flies High box set. Who knows maybe some day I will complete this series, with the new band members instead of the old.

This is an interesting addition to my portfolio. Prior to making this wallpaper in I believe early 2007 I had mainly focused on abstract artwork and layouts. Up to this point I had really not ventured out of those two areas but I decided after seeing a lot of this style artwork to try it myself. Now that being said, Apocalyptica is not the first space scene I did. Before going large scale with a wallpaper I had first completed two smaller trials to see if I could in fact get the textures and style right. Sadly this was kinda a short lived period, after this wallpaper I actually never did any more space scenes, I soon found myself interested in vectors and took my focus there for awhile. If I ever get back into doing digital art, I think this genre is one that I will want to revisit and see if I can do something a big more grandiose.

Aside from FFvii Fortress I was probably most known for my Trigun RPG known as Project Seeds. The RPG originally opened during the peek of the golden age of MSN Groups RPGs, 2003.  While it enjoyed a good run then it eventually went into the vault only to be brought back again in 2007. Two layouts came before this one during that reconstruction but neither of them ever saw the light of day. Finally I decided on a stripped down version and this is what I came up with. I have to give a big thanks to Keith Moore (Saiyen) for the vector used in the banner. I had originally used the same image from the Trigun artbook however it’s quality was less than great and Saiyen was kind enough to devote his time while I focused my work on the content.