What does it still need?, Feedback and possibly free brownies ^_^ Options

[RomanticHarmonie...]

So, I made this layout. It's my 2nd layout like this (3rd DIV layout) and I feel like it needs more. I made it for a contest because the girl told me to get more originality.

Could anyone tell me what more it needs? I was told to give it more space at the top and more to the banner but idk what to put on there. Feeback is very much appreciated.

purple flowers & brownies

[S-Majere]

Yes, the background is a little bright and although it looks clean and tidy does lack design. I'd like to see some font and brushes being used and p'raps even a pattened background to take the plainess down a notch - and take down that code for the ad remover! Xanga is only free because of it's ads - remove that and they'll have you.

[RomanticHarmonie...]

Yes, the background is a little bright and although it looks clean and tidy does lack design. I'd like to see some font and brushes being used and p'raps even a pattened background to take the plainess down a notch - and take down that code for the ad remover! Xanga is only free because of it's ads - remove that and they'll have you.

The ad-remover is only for the private page. it does nothing to affect the public page. I'm not sure why. Also, do you have any suggestions for brushes? I use Paint Shop Pro 12. ^_^

And I will look for a subtle background to use for that.

[bigtrey90]

well to me originality in your case would be taking your header, and creating something else from it.

that would be better than placing a image from the web as a header.

[RomanticHarmonie...]

well to me originality in your case would be taking your header, and creating something else from it.

that would be better than placing a image from the web as a header.

so add brushes to it?

[bigtrey90]

yeah and maybe experiment with different filters, and see what you get.

look up some tutorials as well.

[RomanticHarmonie...]

I fixed the background to an image. Feedback on that would be nice.

Also, for brushes, could someone explain that to me. I've never used brushes before and the only tutorials I could find didn't help that much.

[venti-anemoi]

CB has some good PSP tutorials.

Here's one for importing brushes.
Or another one if the other was confusing.

Here's the full PSP tutorial list. You can find tutorials to do all kinds of neat stuff in PSP.

You're not limited to brushes. You could also use textures, filters (does PSP have filters? I'm not familiar with it >_<), whatever you'd like. It's completely up to you. :] I think what most people are saying is just do more with the image. It's hard to tell you exactly what to do with it because it's mostly a matter of personal preference. What do you want it to look like in the end?

Good luck! :]

[RomanticHarmonie...]

I'm not exactly sure what kind of brushes to use. I kinda like it natural but i may fade the background a bit to where only the purple flowers are color. Feedback on this?

[RomanticHarmonie...]

The theme is purple so I decided to do a simple purple layout with the picture of flowers and a slight faded background and then people started giving me suggestions on how to fix it.

Any suggestions on how to make it original? I made the stylesheet myself.

[venti-anemoi]

I actually didn't think it was that purple. In fact, I thought it was pretty well tempered with the white background color. *shrugs*

The idea of fading it so that only the color purple shows through and the rest is greyscaled isn't bad, but since your picture only really has two colors (purple and green), I don't think it would do much.

On that note, you could also incorporate some green into the stylesheet. Green and purple can look nice next to each other if you pick the right shades. You can search "color palettes" on google and get sites that'll let you search by hue/shade/color/etc. For example, here's one I found on this site:

http://www.colourlovers.com/palette/347006/Chain_Drug

[If I'm confusing you, just tell me and I'll stop posting here. >_< I know I tend to do that.]

//edit.
Sorry, I just realized that none of this really addresses the issue of doing more to the image. <_< God, I'm horrible at giving advice.

[RomanticHarmonie...]

haha you're fine. thanks for the advice though on the general look of the layout. that's just as important as the image itself.

[tokyo-rose]

I'm not exactly sure what kind of brushes to use. I kinda like it natural but i may fade the background a bit to where only the purple flowers are color. Feedback on this?

No, I think you should keep all of the image in color. I was thinking that you should fade the image colors so that it looks softer and matches better with the current background pattern. The violet flowers don't quite match the lavender stripes.

[RomanticHarmonie...]

I brightened the banner and softened it. Does it look better?

I also added some green to the layout. Let me know if I should change it back or not.

[venti-anemoi]

The image looks kinda.... blurry now..... o_O