Topic: Shanoa Painting

[GOmar]

Hey everyone, I just recently finished my first Castlevania painting (I can't believe it took me this long to do one...) and would like you guys to check it out!

Since I've been enjoying Order of Ecclesia and main heroine Shanoa is so awesome, my creative juices started to boil over and I had to paint something of her.

I hope I do the character justice, please view it here:
http://goingartistic.com/paintingseight.htm
(Second Row, First Thumb)

[uzo]

That's pretty good!

I'm curious why you use GIF as a file type though. PNG, and to a lesser extent JPG, would be much better.

[GOmar]

That's pretty good!

I'm curious why you use GIF as a file type though. PNG, and to a lesser extent JPG, would be much better.

Thanks.

I use gif mainly because I like to choose the colors that are used. When I do paintings the color for me is more important than having it more crisp (with say jpeg format).

For vector, pencil/charcoal drawings or text I would use jpeg.

Png I try and avoid since there are some issues with it and Internet Explorer 6, and they don't use compression like jpegs or gifs. I want my site to be accessible to anyone that loads it, having larger files and the chance of something not showing is not something I would like.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

In Reply To #3

Wow, awesome painting.  I love how perfect the colors came out.  You can really see the detail at times, too.

As for the PNG/GIF argument...

Those are pretty valid points, I guess... but you can choose your colors with PNGs and unless the people you're targetting are still using some old outdated IE, they should be able to load PNGs with no consequence.

As for the filesize... again, you can lower the color count on a PNG to be the same color count and even palette as a GIF, and it would end up having a smaller filesize than a GIF while having all the benefits of a PNG.

I try to use nothing but PNGs now, heh.  I used to do what you're doing, but that was quite a while ago, back when Netscape and older browsers still mattered, etc.

Now, with Firefox and IE6, there's really nothing to worry about in terms of images.  If your target audience is still using Dial-Up and still using an older version of IE that doesn't support PNGs.... then I can see your points.

[GOmar]

In Reply To #4
Thanks man, I appreciate it!

Yea I agree PNGs are in every way better, but I my site is mostly intended for employers and HR people to see a quick portfolio of my work, with no hassle and super quick load times. I don't want them to get bogged down AT ALL when viewing it, just get a taste of my work and an idea of what I'm about. Just from experience I know how frustrated non computer savvy people get, and how outdated their hardware and systems are so I try and keep my site as fool-proof as possible.

I now it's a tad overkill, and I'll admit unnecessary, but I guess I'm just super paranoid... not to mention even if my images were higher quality, the monitors these people use wouldn't even display a difference between the two for them to notice...and don't get me started with how some people let their color/brightness/contrast levels be completely off, ruining a lot as well.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

In Reply To #5

I definitely understand your concern.  I've been there.  In the olden times IE wouldn't open PNGs at all and you'd need an outside application or the thing would show the 'broken link' picture even though it wasn't broken.  Or it'd show the big rectangle on other people's PC's and they'd have right-click and choose 'open with outside application' to view it...

...and then usually these people would just give up and say "Your site's images don't load" etc.

So yeah I getcha.  And I getcha about the colors being off on their monitors.  Sometimes they're using old CRTs set to "RIDICULOUSLY CANCER-INDUCING BRIGHT" or they say "I can't see the Icons so I 'zoomed them in'" which really means they changed the resolution to 640x480 or something, so the images look to big, etc.

[GOmar]

In Reply To #6

lol yea, thinking about all of this makes me sad, and of my boss, who I can see doing all of those things, and asking where the "Back" button is on her browser.

[Nazrath]

Nice work! Makes her look almost Red Indian to mine own eye at least. Vaguely reminiscent of Moore's work, methinks.

[A n t r a x x]

The composition is nice but Shanoa's face looks too chiseled O_O