About:
Oh my gosh! This layout is so cool :) It's the second version of my domain and it features Ashe from Final Fantasy XII.

The colors are what grab my attention at first. I'm known for experimenting with color combinations and trying not to do the same thing twice. I haven't done any gray, green and pink layouts before so this qualifies as new ^-^ All the elements have a soft, calming effect that's easy on the eyes. Mostly all the colors are toned down or grayed giving it that effect. The exception being the links, which are a brighter green than the rest of the layout. But for some reason, they just seem to fit.

I tried many new techniques with this layout. When I started, I knew I wanted to do vector art. It's difficult to see in the thumbnail, but Ashe really is vectorized. Vectoring is just so much fun to do! Basically, you simplify the colors (I use the posterize filter) to give the image a flat look...almost like sheets of construction paper layered on top of each other. Even though the colors are simplified, the overall look of the picture appears more complex. A paradox? Hmmm...

At the time, I was tired of searching for brushes. In case you're unfamiliar with PSP, brushes are different designs you can paint with using the brush tool. In some cases, they're almost like stamps. A lot of people share the brushes they made by allowing others to download and use them, but most require a link back. I didn't feel like spending hours searching for brushes that I most likely wouldn't find so I ended up making my own. Now, I haven't spent that much time making brushes so the ones I created weren't that good at first. But I managed to make some small circles that looked cool...so I used them. You can see them in front of the links and above Ashe's head. They turned out well, so I'm happy :D

The large semi-circle behind Ashe was a bit of a challenge but none the less fun! I created a separate picture and used the shape tool to draw a bunch of circles, each one a little bigger than the last. All of them were in different layers, which made moving them around and on top of each other easier. I positioned all of them in the corner of the paint document and colored each one a different hue. It basically looked like a rainbow when I was finished. A rainbow with a huge number of layers @_@ Ok, so I merged the layers and copied the picture, then pasted it into the layout. Then, all that was left was to choose how to blend the picture to the rest of the layout. When all was done, the rainbow was mostly green with a bit of red or purple in the middle. Very cool :)

Let's see...to make the picture look softer, I used the Edge Preserving Smooth option in PSP. This makes jagged edges disappear. It worked good with the text box and character.

This layout is a good example of unity. Every element (the background, text box, links, etc.) are all separate yet tied together using a repeating theme...in this case, it was circles. The background is a repeating quarter circle pattern, the links have circles in front of them, and even the content box has a rounded corner as if a circle was cut out from it. All these things bring a layout together and look more natural...at least that's my theory n_n

Is there anything I don't like about it? Well, It looks great on my computer but not so good in 800 x 600 so I worry that it's not compatible in all browsers. That's the problem with frames and the only bad side of the layout. Everything else is a HUGE improvement from my last one! I just want to eat it up!!