Portfolio Born of the Dragon's Paintbrush

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I'm sorry for the lame name. I couldn't think of one better.

This is essentially a topic wherein I will store all of the banners I have made since joining Lake Valor. I will most likely not include older works of mine, as they're not really relevant and most of them aren't nearly as good as my more current works anyway.

They will be sorted into 3 main sections: Dragons, Non-Dragons, and Other. Knowing me, the first section will be the largest by far. The last will be if I ever end up creating anything besides signatures and I don't know where to store it, but more likely than not it will be largely empty.

Regarding signatures (i.e. anything that isn't under "Other"), they will be shown with the following format:

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Unknown Rainbow Dragon (0, P, 450x150)

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The signature-sized version of the introductory banner I use for my gallery here. Obviously the number isn't 0 - any banners I made before LV would have a '<1' - but the number is given for the sake of example. I made it at about the same time as this thread, though, so that should give you a good idea of when it happened. It's not my best work, but it's definitely passable.

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The first part will be the name of the creature/subject in the banner itself. Banners in this topic are sorted in alphabetical order by name. If I don't know the name of the creature, it'll go under "Unknown" (and thus alphabetised under the letter U). For the sake of clarity, the full name of the creature will be used, even if it's more commonly known by a shortened name.

The number will be the banner's chronological ordering, with 1 being the oldest to date. This is only given for progression purposes, so you (or I) can see how my works have progressed. If it's from before I joined Lake Valor, the number will be a <1. If I went back to an older banner and redid it, I'll put a + after the number rather than making a whole new entry.

The next will be a letter T or P. If it's T, it means I created the banner by using a transparent render as a base before adding in other images/effects afterward. If it's P, it means I created the banner by using a pre-existing picture as a base (before adding other images/effects to it later). If there is also an F, it means it's one of my personal favourites.

The final numbers are the banner's dimensions, width by height, in pixels.

Lastly, the banner will be inside the spoiler tag, and may also contain a few of my personal notes on the making of the banner itself.

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A few ground rules for this thread:

• Obviously, all Lake Valor rules apply, both general and section-specific. There will be no exceptions, be it on your part or mine.

• All of my banners I made in GIMP, for those curious. So, you don't need to ask what software I used. Also, if I make 1 banner that has multiple versions/editions with only slight variations, I will usually post the direct image of only 1 of them, and leave the raw links to the others below it.

• You are free to comment or speak on the banners, though I'll usually only tend to respond if I'm asked a direct question. If you say anything to the effect of "your work is cool; keep it up", I'll definitely nod politely, but I most likely won't respond.

• I'll update this thread over time, but I usually won't post each time I update, as updates will generally only be 1, maybe 2 banners. However, I may post periodic updates after uploading a lot more banners, such as updates every 3.

• The best way to check for updates is to look at whatever signature I'm using right now. If it's something you don't recognise, check this thread to see if it's anything new.

• I do not ask for constructive criticism. I am already well-aware of my own techniques and shortcomings, and always note where I can do better for next time. When I finish a banner, I never scrap it if it's at least reasonably presentable. My banners will never be totally perfect and I don't expect them to be.

• (Most of my banners are really just the result of trying out a new effect on GIMP I haven't tried before, and seeing how it turns out. I learn by experimentation, and this thread is basically the storage of all of my experiments.)

• My banners are not to be used by others. Unless I state explicitly otherwise, my banners are for use by only myself. If I find you are using any of my artworks herein, I will treat it as art theft, and act accordingly.

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Latest Banner to Date: Void Ogre Dragon (78)

Dragons (A through M)​

Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon (40, PF, 480x240)

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The big four-zero! Since this coincides with an update post in this thread, I really wanted to make this one special, as much as I could. To that end, I made a very few specific decisions. Most of them have to do with the number 40, because I'm a numerology geek.

The banner itself is #40 in the list of banners I've made here, the update post I'm going to make in this thread will give me a post count of 2400 (a multiple of 40), the dimensions (for both height and width) are both divisible by 40, and the avatar dimensions are both divisible by 40 (it's 160x160, though the forum will scale it down so that's not as easy to see). However, on a few of the layers, I chose to put some of them at 75% opacity (rather than 80%, a multiple of 40) because of the slight differences that resulted. I wanted to put them at 80, but that was about the threshold they got too 'overboard' for me. I guess the 40 doesn't go that far.

Choosing a dragon is pretty much par for the course for me, yes, though Blue-Eyes isn't something up my alley; I exploited the small loophole in that Chaos MAX is the only DARK Blue-Eyes monster (rather than LIGHT), even though it and the banner are both rather bright creatures. I actually decided not to use a render this time, as it diminished from the overall quality of the banner, and was rather distracting, especially as far as the lightning bolts are concerned. I found an excellent background to just add lightning bolts, since it's mostly dark - I can just paste in the bit with the lightning bolt, Colorise that layer as desired, and then set the layer to Lighten Only - I basically add on the lightning bolt without having to make a render. I did this a few times on the corners of the banner, and I think it turned out wonderfully!

Minor update: ...I've only been using this for a few days and it's grown on me tremendously, much more than I thought it would!

Bluish Flame Liberator, Prominence Flare (33, P, 500x250)

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I've noticed I tend to get very attached to the Hard Light layer setting. Also lens flare, though that not quite as much. Hue layer setting isn't often convenient, but when it is (as it was here), the result is actually quite amazing.

Borreload Dragon (49, P, 480x240)

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I'm aware this isn't as good as my other stuff, but it was a pretty stressful week when I made this, so I wanted to use my healthy outlet. I didn't have a plan; I just tried sticking stuff together until something worked.

Chrono Dran (43, T, 450x250)

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Normally I do a slight Gaussian blur on the render as I duplicate it to other layers, to make the edges more smooth. This time when I was at the end, I did that to the entire banner, and it had a very good and noticeable effect, much more than just blurring to the render. I'm actually pleased with that, and may use that technique more often in future.

Beyond that? Not much. I did a thing. Is a cute. That is all.

Clear Wing Fast Dragon (35, P, 480x240)

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I know the colours are a bit lighter than what I'm used to (I wanted to try for a green that was lighter than emerald, but just as vibrant), but I think it turned out okay. Whoosh~

Cyber Dragon Infinity (16, PF, 500x250)

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This one was a big challenge because of trying to get the layers to line up just right. Here I reached an odd moment in that anything I tried to add or edit made it worse, so I had to stop there. I shifted some layers around and there were a lot of different combinations (Burn and Value are decidedly weird), but I decided to go with this one. I'm rather pleased I was able to capture the infinity shape as well as I did.

D/D/D Dragon King Pendragon (6, P, 450x200)

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This was definitely an earlier one because the card artwork itself was oddly grainy and very difficult to work with. The colour scheme works, but on the whole it's a bit disappointing, so I probably won't try this often. Its light counterpart is Odd-Eyes Sabre Dragon.

Dark Armed Dragon...girl (9, P, 420x180)

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Sometimes when I make banners, I have to pretend I know what I'm doing. This is one of those times.

Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon (10, P, 450x200)

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Definitely cleaner than some other things! But dang it's still a stupidly long neck.

Dauntless Dominator Dragon "Яeverse" (42, PF, 450x250)

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Really this just started as trying to construct a new selfie for myself. I found the picture of this card entirely on accident, while searching for pictures for another personal project I was working on, and then found it. I remarked it was perfect (because of the pose, honestly), and all it would need would be a few edits to make it worthy. Here is the full-sized picture; a scaled-down version exists in my Q&A thread as well.

This one I started with that big image, edited that, and didn't make anything signature-sized until I was done. The main thing for me was the full picture, and I'd decide how (or if) I wanted to crop it down after that.

Dazzling Quintessence Crystal, Athora (64, P, 480x240)

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Nothing too special here; I felt like simply unwinding. I like how it turned out; the colours play well off each other. Job well done, I think.

Diabolos, King of the Abyss (55, T, 450x250)

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It's official.

I have now created a banner so diabolically crazy that even I don't know what the hell I did - or how I did it. I got an idea, and then one thing led to another and I ended up here.

In the process, I learned how difficult it is to search for images/wallpapers of randomly-placed intersecting chains. Answer: Really freaking difficult.

Eclipse Summon (1, PF, 450x150)

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One of the very first banners I made after coming to LV, so done because I needed a banner for my namesake dragon, or else my name would have very little context to go with it. Before this I just had a generic eclipse (the celestial phenomenon) as my avatar, but now I had a mainstay to fall back on.

Evilswarm Ophion (8, PF, 400x150)

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I made this not long after my Gungnir, Dragon of the Ice Barrier set - which is interesting by itself, given how Ophion is, in lore, the corrupted counterpart to Gungnir. However, I am much more pleased with how Ophion turned out, so much so that I have tended to associate more with Ophion over Gungnir as of late - probably because it's black.

Firewall Dragon (75, T, 480x270)

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Hell yeah, I got Firewall Dragon off my WIP list finally! I've been sitting on it since about #61, but better late than never, right?

Instead of continuing off my previous draft, I decided to scrap it entirely and build from the ground up. It gave me a chance to use that blue fire background that I'd never used (so rarely, in fact, that I'd apparently deleted it months ago and had to go redownload it).

There's also a larger 800x800 version of the same, and not scaled down - click here to see it.

Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon (44, P, 500x200)

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I didn't think I would ever make a GEPD banner since there aren't really many good renders of it, and of the one I wanted to use, it would require a lot of work to finish - similar to Tachyon, actually; I found the picture I wanted to use for each of them both on accident. Here you see the result.
I ended up breaking my rule of 'scale down at the beginning, not the end', though I have a specific reason for doing so, namely that I want to use the larger version of the banner for something else. The original banner is 750x400 (which isn't quite a record due to Simon Blackquill); here it is if you want to view it. (It's just the same thing but bigger.) This is also the same image that I use for my topic The Mind of Eclipse, sans text.

I also experimented with a two-tone border this time (I normally only do one-tone banners, though mostly because I didn't think about two-tone), and I really like the result! I should probably do two-tone banners more often.

Gandora the Dragon of Destruction (37, T, 450x200)

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This is just a cropped and scaled-down version of a wallpaper I made. The actual wallpaper is further down in the post. I scaled it down into a banner because the techniques I used were basically the same ones I used when making a signature, so I figured it wouldn't be worth it to do the same thing twice.

Gravity Collapse Dragon (73, P, 450x200)

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I wanted to get back to my old aesthetic and make a dragon banner again. Then someone got me into a conversation about Cardfight Vanguard, and I wanted to then make a banner with a Vanguard character in it. So I combined the two.

Easier said than done because I've already done all of the good choices.

Gungnir, Dragon of the Ice Barrier (5, P, 450x200)

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(Image not here right now. Check back again later.)​

Meet my favourite of the Ice Barrier dragons - Gungnir, the middle one.
Originally I thought with actually using the card render itself, as it's by no means a bad picture, but due to the height restrictions that banners generally impose, the picture itself became unworkable, as Gungnir's artwork is more of a square shape. (Later on I did, and you can see it at the end of the link list, but it's...nowhere near as good.)

I ended up using a fan-drawn picture, combining it with a snowstorm picture to give the snowflake visual effect you see. And when placing the final layer on this banner, I got indecisive with which visual effect I wanted to use...so I just tried them all, as you can see below.

The above variant shown has only a base effect applied to it. I have other variants of the same, though the links are now dead so there's not much point in showing you them now.

And here's a different one altogether, even though this one is more boring than the above:

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Holy Dragon, Brave Lancer Dragon (66, P, 480x240)

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Hurrah, I finally finished a banner I'd started but didn't conclude! Now to never start another banner without finishing it ever again.

Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane (15, PF, 600x240)

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Sometimes I love having no idea what the hell I am doing when making banners. This is one of those times.

Signature-sized version (450x180) found here. (It's the same thing, just scaled down.)

Interdimensional Dragon, Bind Time Dragon (25, PF, 500x250)

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Given all the gears in the wings and all, and how the original image tended to have more bland colours, I thought this one would actually be pretty difficult. As I remember, it actually wasn't, at least not as much as I'd anticipated to be. And that's a good thing, because I love how this turned out.

Jester Demonic Dragon, Lunatec Dragon (58, P, 500x270)

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Playing with light is a rather entertaining, yet very precise and demanding, discipline. The original image is actually very blue, though it does support bits of red and orange throughout. On a whim, I decided to try and put a bright red overlay on it, and that seemed to have done the trick. From there, I refined the object further.
This is definitely not a normal size for me, but the nature of the original picture demanded it.

Lightpulsar Dragon... sorta (31, T, 500x250)

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Well, it STARTED off light, but I wanted to see if I could make it dark. Playing with Divide, Grain Extract, and Subtract layer effect was pretty interesting, to say the least. I had this end goal in mind, but didn't see it until I hit Subtract and just went from there. It involved a bit of toying around.

I made the light (regular) version as well, that you can see below - they're the same banner, just with very minor tweaks. Here's a link to the render I used, for those curious.

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Meteor Black Comet Dragon (76, P, 450x200)

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Ah, a chance to unwind! Originally I had 2 different pictures of the same thing, which I liked for different reasons. Randomly, a thought came to mind "what if I combined them to use as the base?" and, using a Hard Light setting on the layer, I did. It looked absolutely amazing, so I knew I was on to something.

Interestingly, I was trying not to make it too red so as not to drown the other colours out, so I fiddled around with a few of the layer settings and turned it black - like a burnt-out black. I asked around for a few friends as to which to pursue, and most voted for the black (which was my preference too), though one of them said I should go forward with both if I like them both, as they convey different moods.

I couldn't deny the merit of that, so I went ahead and made to finish both. And they both ended up looking amazing. You had a great idea, so thank you; you know who you are <3

The red one, as you can see, is above. The black one is directly below.

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Dragons (N through Z)​

Number 62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon (50, PF, 500x250)

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50 already!? Hot damn, it doesn't feel like it's been that long - even though I know I've been at Valor for over 2 years now. Pretty crazy to think about, isn't it?

Like Chaos MAX at 40, I wanted to do something special at 50 as well. Dimensions are pretty common, though I wanted deliberately to use 500x250 and see what I can get. The original image is pretty large so I had to scale it down, a fact I'm not totally pleased about but something I had to do. I tried to make the scaling as non-obvious as possible.

Like lightning was the main effect for Chaos MAX, for this one I went with meteor showers. It's kinda hard to describe a photon, but it is a particle of energy, and I do like things to be rather subtle in my banners. A lot of the planning process involves very slight and subtle differences I can make with just tweaking the layer settings ever so slightly.

Also I think this is the first time when I've just put a layer with "Normal" at 80% opacity. Pretty sure it's the first time I've used "Normal" for any layer that wasn't a border or the base layer. It had interesting consequences.

Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon (23, P, 500x200)

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I get by with a little help from my friends.

Odd-Eyes Arc Pendulum Dragon (67, TF, 480x300)

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This only took 20 minutes to make. I was expecting to work on this at least 60. That boggles my mind.

Odd-Eyes Gravity Dragon (28, TF, 450x270)

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This dragon also has a stupidly long neck, and this time I didn't notice until I was actually finished with the banner. I made the border non-obvious (I used Burn this time, which oddly was the least visible option - normally it's the exact opposite), when normally I prefer to do a fade-out, as you probably notice.

It's also taller than any other banner I've done to date - 270 tall, and that scaled down from 360. However, I felt due to the high quality and shape of the render, it deserved no less. (Even Bane, which was scaled down from a larger form, wasn't that tall - but it was 600 wide.)

Odd-Eyes Sabre Dragon (11, P, 450x200)

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I made this banner to troll Lunar as part of an inside joke, for a brief period of time. Its dark counterpart is D/D/D Dragon King Pendragon. It's not as grainy, which is good, but it's also more plain, which is bad. All you can see is its head and neck. This would mark a future trend for me having troubles with dragons with very long necks.

Omniscience Dragon, Hrimthurs (29, P, 480x240)

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Sometimes I like to unwind and make a banner out of a dragon that tends to be adorable and endearing, rather than imposing and powerful. This is one of those times.

As you may have noticed, this is the same banner I use for my Eclipse Expounds series of articles that I write on Lake Valor, with the bottom bit (where the letters are) cropped off.

Redox, Dragon Ruler of Boulders (56, P, 450x270)

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The only reason I made this banner was so that I could make an 'earthwyrm' pun. I truly have no other reason for doing so.

Sacred Tree Dragon, Jingle Flower Dragon (4, P, 450x150)

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I made this for the very first contest I was a part of on LV. It was a signature contest for Oktoberfest in 2015, so therefore it was autumn-based. I know very well that I tend to do better when I'm utilising blues and purples in my banners, and do noticeably less well when I'm not. This banner is proof of that - it's not bad, but I wouldn't call it too good.

The original dragon in question had more to do with the season of spring, as it was green and pink. Shifting the colour balance away from that was the first challenge.

Sacred Tree Dragon, Rainbow Cycle Dragon (70, T, 490x280)

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Ah, a renewed attempt to make a Nature Dragon! Looks much better than the last one if I do say so myself, and this time, I knew what I was doing! Dimension-wise, though, multiples of 70 are really quirky. I'll probably stick to 60s from now on.

So, I had the idea for this as early as #51, but wasn't able to really follow through with it, as not only was the picture in question weird and non-transparent, but I didn't have many ideas for it at the time. It was put on the back burner and forgotten until recently, when I had a friend of mine (who's learning Photoshop) take a crack at making my source image transparent - and the results were beautiful!

I had to try a lot of different things as I wanted this to really work - I didn't want to make something merely cool, or vibrant, or just bright. I wanted to make something beautiful. And I hope I've done that here. I can safely say that I've never used so many different rainbow layer effects in my life.

My only regret is that Chris isn't here to see this. There is also a larger non-signature version of this image, found here.

Schwarzschild Dragon (2+, P, 480x240)

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I like to experiment a lot with banners. And in my early days, I experimented a LOT, for good or ill.
However, as I've made more and more, I've tended to get a bit better with my experimenting - and to test that out, I decided to revisit this older banner and redo it from almost scratch - I kept the dark purple colouration as a base, but then varied it out from there, more clearly illustrating the black hole effect.

The older version of this banner is here.

Shooting Star Dragon (7, PF, 500x200)

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Similar to Gungnir, this is an instance of when I went with a fan-made picture of the card rather than using the render outright. The render would have been awful in this case not only because of its square shape, but the wings were lopped of, so I'd have to find them completed elsewhere anyway.

I then dug up a rather unassuming background (if memory serves, I believe it was another Yugioh card, 'Stardust Shimmer') and decided to roll with it.

Below is the purplish variant of the same, which I honestly prefer:

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Slifer the Sky Dragon (12, P, 450x200)

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I pretty much just used the card artwork outright. I didn't use any other images for this.

Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode (34, T, 500x250)

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I tried to make this in the same day as Bluish Flame, but then I ran out of time (and ideas) in the day. This one was tricky because I didn't want it to stand over the background but I didn't want it to sink back in again. I had to end up using the Divide effect more than once - and that is not something I usually do. But that's good, because it means I'm experimenting more.

The above is the 'default' version. There's another slightly more subdued in colour, found here.

Star-Vader, Nebula Lord Dragon (19, P, 500x250)

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It's a little different than the other Vanguard dragon banners I've done, and it was made as a temporary substitute/holdout over Schwarzschild Dragon. Totally different style, I know; it's just so shockingly blue. It works, though.

I made this around the time when I was looking for a bunch of space backgrounds and wallpapers to use. It was a good day.

Star-Vader, Planck Dracokid (77, P, 420x200)

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Something small but basic to start things off. Also the kick-off to a theme of banners I'll be using and tying together, so that may end up being rather thrilling.

Star-Vader, Turndown Dragon (45, P, 480x200)

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I find that #E0A7F1 is a delightful light pink colour to use. Also hey, I finally put out a banner that I actually had on a to-do list!

Starving Venom Fusion Dragon (53, T, 480x240)

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Cropped out and scaled from the desktop wallpaper, which came first. Scaled down from 600x300 (so it's at 80% scaling), to avoid minimal quality loss when scaling down. I had to toy with the larger dimensions a lot to produce something that wouldn't be too prone to looking bad.

But, like Gandora before it (which also was made from a desktop wallpaper), it actually looks pretty nice on its own, scaling or no scaling.

Stealth Dragon, Magatsu Gale (17, PF, 450x160)

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It's like combining a love of dragons with a love of ninjas. Nothing could possibly be wrong with this idea!

Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms (57, P, 450x270)

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Well, it is the counterpart to Redox, and I had it on my mind as well - and it was something I've wanted to make for a really long while - so, might as well. This one was definitely harder in terms of difficulty to make it look good. I hope the result is worth it.

The Winged Dragon of Ra (60, T, 480x240)

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Sixty is a very neat number, and also a very significant one. I therefore wanted to make sure that the banner I chose for #60 would be worth the glory due the number.
Of course, that didn't stop me from working on 3 different banners at once, trying to figure out which one would work best. (It would have been 4, except I didn't actually start working on the fourth one.) I was sold on Ra when I started off forming my base and I liked the appearance of it (the base looked like this).

And at this point, I can safely say that this is the first banner that I've set on fire and that looks positively stunning after doing so. (My others before this ended up 'just okay' or just downright weird - red and orange aren't always colours I do well with.) Plus, Ra is a pretty iconic figure among dragonkind, wouldn't you agree?

Tiki (52, P, 500x300)

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Did something tricky with the banner at the start. Liked the result. Rolled with it. Became tricky after that, but it was a nice challenge.

Yes, Tiki is a dragon - for those of you who play Fire Emblem, you already know this - so she still counts, hence why she's in the 'dragons' section. Specifically, this is her Awakening incarnation.

True King of All Calamities (38, P, 450x180)

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Image not here right now. I plan to re-do this signature entirely, at some point in the future.​

A banner I made for a signature competition in February 2017. In reality, I had been wanting to make this particular signature for quite some time, though evens and my schedule meant I couldn't find much time to set aside for it, so I wasn't able to do so until recently.

The theme of the competition was 'fantasy', and since most of my banners have dragons in them (which are already fantastical creatures), I really didn't have to go much out of my way to find a thematic image for the contest - all I needed was to find a good-sized image and get to work.

Unknown Gem Dragon "Kaleidoragon" (59, TF, 480x240)

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This was fun. This was definitely a challenge, but also definitely very fun to make. I don't often get chances to work with transparent renders, but even among those, this one was clean and easy to use, and really let me unwind.

Void Ogre Dragon (78, P, 450x250)

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"So what were you doing again?"
"Screwing around!"
"...yep, that sounds about right."

Wizard Buster Destruction Sword (14, P, 480x180)

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I think this was my first foray into smaller, 'cuter' dragon banners. Not something I do very often because there really aren't that many banner-worthy pictures of such out there (and of those, I'm pretty sure none of them are black), so it's not a practise I do often - but not always by choice.

 

I am fairly decent with pencil and eraser, as far as attention to detail goes, though I know I can only draw a handful of things. I know I can't draw human anatomy to save my life, for instance.
I also only do pencil drawings whenever I'm inspired - which amounts to about once per year. But they're nice to do whenever I find time - though I usually am only incentivised to draw when I intend it as a 'gift' for another.

I standardly do not take requests, since I know my scope is limited and personalised. If it comes up, I'll have to see.

Edit: I have so many made banners now that they're spilling over even further!

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Non-Dragons​

Apoqliphort Skybase (72, P, 450x200)

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Only 8 layers and an opportunity to make a tacky pun? How could I possibly say no?

Decode Talker (69, T, 420x180)

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ayy 69 ayy 420
I wasn't sure what the result would be like, but I wanted to get the idea out of my head so I could focus more on other projects. I decided that this would be my subject for this particular banner.
Decode Talker is from Yugioh (surprise surprise), and is a Link-3 monster with 2300 ATK. All of the Code Talkers are, actually, but I think Decode Talker would work best in a banner, personally. Nothing special, but I aimed on the small side this time.

Deskbot 005 (36, TF, 450x250)

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Another thing where I did something on accident (the blue-green effect over the entire image, rather than just part of it), and the result turned out beautifully. I think the best part about this one is that it has so much potential to it. I didn't put any text in it yet - I might do so with another rendition of this, in future, because I don't think text would detract from the image at all.

Dio Brando (39, P, 480x240)
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DIO (46, T, 480x240)

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You were expecting a signature, but it was I, Dio!
You read it right - Dio Brando, the central antagonist of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. I wanted to find a picture of him in his Phantom Blood (Part 1) outfit, since I prefer that outfit much more to his outfit in Stardust Crusaders (Part 3) - not just because it's more purple, which is a colour I'm used to, but because it's also less plain. This did require a lot of extensive searching and sifting, because most of his memelord status came from him in Part 3 (and his Stand, 'The World'), and in the end I didn't find much to go with. The shot above was taken from Part 1's OP, which was the best material I had.

I ended up siding with that because, as I started work on the banner, I had an idea in mind, and after only 5 minutes of work, the banner looked like this. I could tell by that alone the finished product was going to turn out amazing.

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Wait, you mean there's more? Yes there is! I went and caved to go make a Part 3 DIO banner as well. This one took a couple hours, because like the first one, I wasn't sure quite how to go about it and what I wanted to do, so I spent a fair chunk of time on my drawing board, so to speak. After about 20 minutes on said drawing board, I did manage to get something that I liked the look of, and all I had to do after that was make it prettier.

And so I did.

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Gunner; Etrian Odyssey II (63, T, 480x240)

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I was about to lament that Gunner was my first Etrian Odyssey-themed banner, and that I could have gone for something better.
Then I realised that it wasn't - Hoplite was. Ah well, crisis averted. Still, I'd like to try a slightly different Gunner style for next time.

Hoplite/Phalanx (27, P, 500x250)

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Something I made for my Etrian Odyssey III game journal. Assigning a bunch of Valourians to different classes on the team, the one left for me was the female hoplite. I remember finding the original picture a long time ago, and, given how the original is already pretty impressive, trying to upgrade it further was not easy whatsoever. It was a challenge - a challenge I loved.

Kaede Akamatsu (74, P, 480x270)

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26 March is the birthday of Kaede Akamatsu, one of the characters of New Danganronpa V3.
To celebrate the occasion, I made a happy Kaede. I also made a sad Kaede.
(I started with the sad at first because the colours worked nicely, and then I transitioned to the happy one after that. I actually prefer the happy one more.)

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Katarina (3, T, 450x200)

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I think I made this the same day as Schwarzschild. I probably shouldn't have, because it's pretty bland even for me.

Kyouko Kirigiri (21, P, 450x150)

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Like the Simon Blackquill banner, I made this in anticipation of the indefinite-hiatus Azelf Wright: Ace Attorney event. The Simon one came first, but I'm more partial to this one because I like Kyouko more as a character (she is Not-Mia-Fey, after all), and there's a lot more going on in this picture.

Plus, I was assigned the role of prosecutor, and I could imagine Kyouko playing that part fairly well.

Lillie (71, TF, 480x240)

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It feels good to work on something sweet and relaxing. It feels even better to surprise people with nice things.

Only Lillie is permitted to use this banner. Lillie, the matching avatar is available upon request (if you don't have it anymore).

Mesprit, the Being of Emotion (54, T, 500x200)

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I can now safely say that if the render you start off with is hard to work with, your end product will be hard to work with. Not only could I not find a large enough image as a base, but the awkward positioning of its dreadlocks made background noise an issue. Not an impossible fix, but...annoying. Oh well. If I actually planned to use this banner at any point, I might have cared more.

If you want the render I used, feel free to ask me. I haven't uploaded it anywhere but I have the file saved, so you can bother me on Discord or something for it.

Nightmare Doll Master, Brenda (41, P, 480x240)

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I wanted to see if I could make this banner thinner, experimenting with different dimensions like 400x240, 400x180, and even 300x240. I couldn't do it. That, and the background with the strings and marionettes was amazing, and I didn't want to leave it out.
Beyond that, it was basically a challenge to get it bright but not too bright, so the details would be visible enough. I think I did okay.

Noel Vermillion (13, T, 450x150)

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I decided to make this banner around Christmastime. No points as to why.
Except now that's been supplanted by Christmas Dio so I'm not sure what to make of that.

PSY-Framelord Omega (30, T, 500x200)

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The lead-up to this banner was my making and preparing the render for this, since there was not one already done. However, that was only the beginning of the struggle, as after that this banner became aggravating to make. The main reason for this is that the render in question is taller than it is wide, so as far as dimensions go for signatures, it would be very hard to fit it in while not being too tall. I'm surprised I pulled off one of my usual sizes when I did. It isn't one of my better works but it's certainly decent.

I made the render for this myself; if you'd like to use the render for Omega too, here is the link for it.

Relius Clover (22, T, 450x150)

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BlazBlue characters are fun. Relius has always been a personal favourite due to his logical demeanour and fighting style. And his gag reels are equally amusing. FOR SCIENCE!!

Sheba; Golden Sun (68, P, 420x180)

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ayy 420
I got bitten by the creative bug, saw this picture, and decided to try something smaller for a change (though not necessarily in that order.)
Yes, I know Jenna's the one who actually gets the Witch class; shut up

Sheoldred, Whispering One (65, P, 450x240)

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First banner of 2018, and it's my first banner ever in which I literally decided to remove a bunch of layers, wanted to like the look of it, and scrapped everything else to start from scratch. I've come close to starting from scratch on many a work, but this was the first time I actually did it.

My unfinished projects will remain unfinished a little while longer.

Shichimiya Satone (51, T, 500x300)

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Holy crap, there was a crazy amount of experimentation involved here. I used some old effects (like supernova and desaturated background subject) that I haven't used in a VERY long time, and some effects (like lens flare or partial blurring of a layer) that I've NEVER used before. The process was pretty insane, all things considered. Much of the challenge was to stop the banner from getting too dark, but at the same time, not make the flaws too apparent (I'll admit the render I made was a pretty quick and dirty one, but it worked for its purposes).

Only Lillie is permitted to use this banner. Lillie, the matching avatar is available upon request (if you don't have it anymore).

Shun Kurosaki / Shay Obsidian (61, T, 480x240)

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Occasionally I reach a point where a part of me thinks "help, I don't know what I'm doing".
But sometimes another point chimes in with "but let's keep going and see what happens".

Simon Blackquill (20, T, 450x200)

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Like the Kyouko Kirigiri banner, I made this in anticipation of the indefinite-hiatus Azelf Wright: Ace Attorney event. I made the mistake of starting this banner at double the size (900x400) and scaling it down at the end to its current size. It didn't turn out bad, but that is generally bad practice - if I want to scale it down, I do so at the START, not the end.

Snake Witches:
Black Snake Witch Chicory (47, P, 450x240)
White Snake Witch Mint (48, P, 450x240)

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Sometimes you don't need very many layers to make something amazing. This was certainly the case here (only 4 or 5 layers were involved) and they've turned out looking beautiful.

I made these two banners at the same time, side-by-side, since they're thematic opposites of one another. The same steps were used in creating both banners as well, with only very minor tweaks. Mint (the White Snake one, below) was a bit trickier, since I was juggling 3 colours at once (red, blue, and purple) to make it, as opposed to Chicory's 1 (blue).

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Sol Titanion (26, T, 500x200)

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Take exactly what I said about the Jingle Flower Dragon entry, but replace "Oktoberfest 2015" with "Summer Spectacular 2016", and you have this banner. Exact same story, exact same colour difficulties, everything.

The theme was fire. So I made a banner where everything was on fire. Everything. ...It wasn't so hot after all.

UB-02 Beauty "Pheromosa" (62, T, 300x300)

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Sometimes experimentation can be fun. Sometimes it can absolutely suck. This set was easily BOTH. I mean, seriously, a SQUARE? Who DOES that? I've never made a banner with a width-to-height ratio less than five-thirds-to-one.

I also broke my earlier rule of "don't wait to scale down until the end" and made both of them in 800x600, which is a four-thirds-to-one ratio (and with basically the same steps, not unlike the Snake Witches) before opting to make them square at the end. For the record, I much prefer the former of the two.

Full-size fractal one: (link)
Full-size warp one: (link)

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Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger (18, T, 500x250)

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I made this banner specifically for Gengar's Grin as part of a contest on LV in February. I don't remember the precise theme, but it had to do with making a signature or other piece of art for another member. I saw GG had an Ulamog signature, but it didn't look the best, and I thought I could do better for him. Thus, this was born.

Only Gengar's Grin is permitted to use this banner. GG, the matching avatar is available upon request (if you don't have it anymore).

Uxie, the Being of Knowledge (32, T, 500x200)

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A really hard part of trying to get this banner to work was the colour balance. Since the subject is yellow, and the background colours were close to blue, there wasn't any way I could get it to reasonably blend in, without becoming very dark or just a totally different colour - and, as you might be aware, dark yellow is not a good colour to work with. So I just decided to leave the subject as-is but make it as smooth as possible, to look like it pops out of the picture. Conveniently, the background I used is the same as the one I used in Omniscience Dragon, Hrimthurs, and I was listening to the same song while making it too (Echoing Library from Etrian Odyssey IV).

But the hardest part of all was making the render to begin with. It was a royal pain to deal with (to put it lightly) because the original picture had its subject blend into the background as well, so I had a lot of bits that were rough around the edges. If you want to make your own banner with the same render I used, here you go; experiment as you see fit.

Wynn the Wind Charmer (24, P, 400x200)

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I had a few different reasons for making this. One of them was in anticipation of my 'pun name', but I have a few others. I'll leave those to your imagination, though I will say that using pictures like these is not standard procedure for me.

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"Cheer up!" (1664x1384)

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Something I drew for my white dragon friend mostly on a whim. After getting a few details about appearance, I took what mental images I had, and then compiled them together as best I could. Both of them are chibi renditions of our dragon personas; I'm the one on the right.

One thing that stood out, during the detail-fishing process was that she said she had a continual ":<" expression, as if always slight worried or anxious, so I managed to turn it into a more uplifting message. In fact, that detail was what gave me the inspiration for the title, and this drawing is as much for her as it is for myself. Cheer up, dragon buddy!

Skeleton: 1 hour; Detailing: 1 hour; Shading: 55 minutes, so this took me just under 3 hours total to do.
Source images: The left dragon, The right dragon (with minor alterations to each).

The above is a downsized preview (about 35% size); you can find a link to the full-size image here (at least until the link collapses).

Gandora the Dragon of Destruction - Wallpaper (1680x1050)

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My first attempt at making a desktop wallpaper! It's a bit silly and has a lot going on, so it's essentially what I do for my banners but on a much larger scale. I think for a first attempt it's just okay, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so you may think differently!
Due to LV's image uploader constraints, I had to use Discord's upload function instead; LV images cap at 1600x1600, and this image is wider than that.

Starving Venom Fusion Dragon - Wallpaper (1680x1050)

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I had so much fun with creating the Gandora wallpaper way back when, I simply had to try my hand at another one!
Yes I know I've migrated to Imgur, but I don't want to put super-large images on Imgur if I can help it. Plus, I shared it on Discord first, so Discord it is (for now).

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(Note to self: I have not migrated Gungnir or VFD yet, because I'm not particularly fond of those banners right now. Haven't migrated Ulamog either, but for different reasons.)

Upcoming project wishlist:
A lot of things. I nab many images from the Internet I like the looks of, and when I'm inspired, I make banners out of them. I go by what I'm in the mood to do.

 

As I said earlier, I edit in the banners as I finish them, but I don't post again until I've added at least 3.

Well, now I have, so here's the next 'quiet' update:

• Added in Uxie, the Being of Knowledge (banner #32), which most of you have been seeing me use for the past few days.
• Added in Bluish Flame Liberator, Prominence Glare (banner #33). I'm not going to use this one just yet, but I want it for when I feel up to it.
• Added in Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode (banner #34). I'm going to be using this one for the next couple weeks now.

 

Every so often I try to put an empty line in each of the spoiler tags, to cleanly separate the images from the text explanation I put below them. I know one time a while ago I tried to do this, and the lines simply disappeared after saving the edit. They're there now, thankfully, so it looks neater, but who knows how long it will be before I turn my back and they're gone again.

Ah well, nothing to it.

Since my latest post in the topic I've added 3 more pieces, so as is custom, I bump my portfolio topic with an update. They are Clearwing Fast Dragon (35), Deskbot 005 (36), and Gandora the Dragon of Destruction (37), with Gandora being what I'm using right now as of when I posted this.

Gandora started out as a desktop wallpaper - which is also in the OP, so I guess it's technically 4 more things - and then I just scaled and cropped it down to banner size, since I noticed I was using a lot of the same techniques when I was making it.

Next update will hopefully get me to the nice round number of 40.

 

I got tired of waiting for Satix to change his Jotaro signature. I guess I caved first.
Then again, this is post #2400, so I kinda wanted to make this special.

Since the previous post, I've added in 3 more pieces to this thread:

• True King V.F.D. "The Beast" (38)
• Dio Brando (39)
• Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon (40)

I was using #39 up until recently, and now I'm using #40. I haven't used #38 yet in my signature, but I entered it in the recent signature competition for Community Month 2017, so it's added in here too.
Chaos MAX was banner #40, and I saw post #2400 coming up, so I figured, hey, why not time my next post just-so? Now to prepare myself for other challenges.

 

Wait, when did this post get here? Oh shoot, sorry Clef; I didn't even notice. I was so used to this thread just...collecting dust.

Signature making is something I like to do to unwind, relieve stress, or otherwise relax. It takes me a fair amount of time to make one (I must set aside an hour of time at minimum, to be safe - though I've been known to go up to double that), but it is definitely worth the effort at the end. Also, it's pretty and I like having various options. It's a nice outlet I've found.

And yes, there is definitely a recurring dragon theme, but knowing me, that should be no surprise, ahaha.

...Okay! Since my previous post I managed to add in 5 new signatures I hadn't mentioned yet:
:: #41: Nightmare Doll Master, Brenda (aka "Master of Puppets")
:: #42: Dauntless Dominator Dragon "Яeverse" (aka DDD, and the picture I use in my Q&A thread and as a 'selfie')
:: #43: Chrono Dran
:: #44: Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon (I really like this one - it's also the banner I use for my The Mind of Eclipse blog topic. Well, I like pretty much all my banners, but you get the idea.)
:: #45: Star-Vader, Turndown Dragon

Of those, #42 is probably the most recognisable one out of those you may all have seen (I want to say that picking it as the number #42 isn't a coincidence, but I'm honestly not sure), so there's that.
Hopefully this thread will be a bit more buzzing, but I won't be too bothered if it goes back to its old hobby of dust collection again.

 

Did somebody just bump my topic? Because it looks like somebody just bumped my topic.

You're aware that GIMP is freeware, right? There is also GIMP Portable, a version designed to be used on flash drives and other portable media (though it can still work just fine on a physical computer).
...It's basically for those peeps that can't afford Photoshop, or who would prefer a simpler program to work with.

I thought I linked where GIMP's website was found, but apparently I didn't. Ah well. You can find and learn about GIMP here: https://www.gimp.org/
The download is free and there are absolutely no strings attached.

 

I don't, no.
That probably wouldn't do me any favours anyway, since I prefer a signature style where all of the elements blend together, rather than having one element just stand out above all the others, even if it's the render...no wait, especially if it's the render, because my signatures have a lot going on in them.

 

It's nothing too special; I just make a solid line border around the outside and apply a Gaussian blur to it. Then I further tweak the layer settings so that I pick the one that looks the nicest. The colour I pick for the border will vary banner by banner, but I've usually had better results when using a border colour that isn't predominant in the rest of the banner.

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In any case, I suppose I could put a brief update post here as well. I've had to migrate all of my gallery images again - this time to Imgur, because Photobucket recently adopted a policy that prevents hotlinking of its images anywhere without a paid plan (and saying how much said plan costs will cause anyone to have a heart attack from sheer disbelief, so I won't say any more), and plus, Imgur is nice with its short URL names, so it keeps things neat. (It's why I originally began by uploading all of my banners to Tinypic, which I'd still be using if it got along with my browser.)

Anyway, since my last update post, I've managed to make 3 more banners:
#46 DIO - Most of you have probably seen this one, I'd had it for a while, and would have kept using it for longer, though when I suddenly became a Super Mod it didn't match well with the colour, so I swapped it out for Prominence (which I had made months ago and had never used once).

#47 Chicory - What I'm using right now on this post; she has a blue colour scheme.

#48 Mint - Chicory's counterpart; she uses a red/blue/purple colour scheme instead. I'll probably swap on and off between these two for a while, based on my mood.

Having the day off can make me strangely productive at home.

 

Got 3 more down! I suppose I wanted to wait until five, but between the Catcher incentivising posting, and the special occasions I've had with banners lately, I figure it's worth a bump.

So here are the 3:

#49 Varrel Load Dragon - I made this during the Summer Scramble during a particularly stressful week for me, so that's why its quality is a little lower compared to a few of the other things I've made. It did work to relieve my stress, though. (Apparently the English official name is 'Borreload Dragon', so once I see the official name printed, I'll probably tweak the alphabetisation accordingly - which is a shame because too many things start with B.)

#50 (Number 62) Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon - the counterpart to the #23 Tachyon Dragon I made earlier. I am a dragon that feeds and absorbs on light, yet most of the time I don't give any off. All that light has to go somewhere, right? Like with #40 Chaos MAX I wanted to be particularly adventurous, and I am pleased with how this one turned out.

#51 Shichimiya Satone - I won't be using this one myself, due to a few extenuating circumstances. This one started off okay, but later became a lot harder than I thought it would be. It came from a lot of small rough parts cobbled together, but the end result was definitely worth it. Wasn't it?

I have my next project in mind (it's another big imposing dragon, before you ask), but the question is whether or not I'll follow through with the planned idea or get derailed by a totally different one.

 

It honestly depends. When I mark it with a T, I don't distinguish between whether the image came transparent already or if I made it transparent myself. I sometimes add commentary if I ended up making it myself, though not all the time.

In this particular case, the foreground Shichimiya render I made myself, while the background one was already transparent when I found it. I try not to make the renders myself whenever possible, as I know I'm not the best at it, though I do at least a good enough job that it's passable and I can hide any small flaws. (If you want examples of renders I made myself, you can check PSY-Frame Lord Omega and Uxie the Being of Knowledge; I think I left the links to the renders I made. If they aren't there, you could always ask me for them later.)

I have 2 (maybe 3) banners in mind for what I want to tackle next, but the problem with 1 (maybe 2) of them is that fanart of them is basically non-existent and I don't want to work just with an in-game 3D model. I don't think a deep Google Search will help me here either.