Yet another wallpaper

[Garyu]

I was trying to get a wallpaper looking good and fitting in with the original Ubuntu-ish design of gnome on a fresh install... And I decided to do some of that barely readable text on it, 'cause I think it usually looks rather nice. But I can't seem to get it just the way I want it. Not that I know what I want. This result is OK, but I would like to get to the point where I can say "Yeah!" when I see it. So, anyone feel like giving me some tips on effects or other stuff I could do in the Gimp?

http://ubuntuforums.org/g/images/25211/large/1_chessieubuntu.jpg

BTW, it's my dog. Rather beautiful, don't you think? :D
Oh, by the way, the original Gimp file is here: www.ubuntusociety.org/Chessie2007052text.xcf
Feel free to play around with what I've done and so on, but if you want to publish anything from it, please reference me as the original owner (the original un-modified photo is in there as a layer). Thanks.

[mech7]

umm wallpaper? maybe for my phone at that res ;)

[Garyu]

umm wallpaper? maybe for my phone at that res ;)

Thank you for that piece of constructive and insightful criticism. I marvel at your display of knowledge about artistry. Please continue to enlighten me so that I can grow as a person. You must be the ultimate teacher with your communication skills combined with that glorious attitude. Once again, thank you, and I hope you will continue to honor my humble existence with your writings.

If you don't understand sarcasm, please disregard the above paragraph. As I said in my original post: Please give me some hints on how to improve the picture artistically. Preferably tips from the Gimp or possibly Inkscape.

[eentonig]

[off topic] Nice dog indeed[/off topic]

Concerning the artistic approach, the background is a bit to 'busy' for me. At least for a Desktop background.

@mech7: Since this is a work in progress, I see no need to spoil the available bandwith people have by placing a full size/full resolution picture. For the purpose the OP posted the image, the resolution is more then enough.

[Garyu]

Concerning the artistic approach, the background is a bit to 'busy' for me. At least for a Desktop background.

Thanks. And I think you are right. But I'm not sure how to calm it down without making it look weird. The grass and twigs gives the dog a context. If I would cut her out from it, the picture would look too artificial. So I'm not sure what to do about that... It is still a lot calmer than the original since I made the surroundings blend into the original ubuntu background. Of course, I could try changing the mask a bit...

[gordon58]

Well, from my knothole, it reminds me of a dog I once loved. So, I will use this picture like that. And I think it looks fine, yea, a bit busy...but I come from a 'making fractals' background, so busy does not seem to bother me. I am not sure about the small writing, I cannot read it anyway. But, all in all.. I think you have a god start and a beautiful friend.

[ghevan]

Well Im no expert but as you said some elements are missing to make this wallpaper breathtaking. This is merely my opinion. Contrast is missing so it looks plain and boring, text like chessie and the other text is not well integrated, changing color or adding more subtle touchs could help. I think the dog looks brown, but that just be me.

Adjust levels on partiocular channels and some color balance on some.

Here I attach you what I did with our pic. maybe you find something usefull. I didn't change to much and I tried to keep the brown as much as possible. I added more contrast and gamma to the pic. I can give you back the xcf so you can check what I did.
34678

[durand]

I like it, the dog looks awesome. You are going to post a full res image at the end, right?

[Garyu]

Here I attach you what I did with our pic. maybe you find something usefull. I didn't change to much and I tried to keep the brown as much as possible. I added more contrast and gamma to the pic. I can give you back the xcf so you can check what I did.
34678

Nice. That picture does look more...refreshing. I'm not sure I like the way that "Chessie" text stands out though. I would have it less obvious in the picture, or not there at all. But it's a big improvement. I would really like to see your xcf. :)

[Garyu]

I like it, the dog looks awesome. You are going to post a full res image at the end, right?

Well, you see, the original photo of the dog is only 1024x768. My camera does not have 10 megapixels. But you have the xcf which you can use to set the resolution to whatever you want. The original won't go higher than that though. The reason to this thread was so I could get some good tips on improvements. It may result in something else for the community later on, and of course anyone can use the things in this thread. But for me right now it's mostly a learning process. I would like to get a better understanding of why some wallpapers are just breathtaking and why my own are not. That way I can make really good releases later on. :)

[durand]

Oh ok, 1024x768 should be ok, maybe a bit stretched.