Russie Babbles: Evolution [Collaboration]

Good evening, Darlings!

Another Russ and Roth shenanigan post is up right ahead, but this time, we won't be dealing with books. Unlike our last Collaboration, which focused on lit, this one's going to focus a little more on how our Photoshop skills have grown over the years...particularly, our banner-making skills. 

Basically, Roth told me about how her upcoming blog banners have changed and that she's evolving in terms of style. With that came (another) challenge: what if we checked out our banners since 2012 and reacted to them? I told her this, we dug up our banners (thanks to Picasa Web Albums) and lo and behold, this post was born. 

You guys can check out Roth's post over here!

As usual, the Read More link is right below - feel free to laugh at my poor skills. :'D

Year: August 2012

Face: N/A

Reactions: *cringes all over the place* god why

Yup - here it is. The very first banner for Apotheosis, which was then called The Constant Flux.

If you'll notice, I showcased my actual name - Arianne Maxine - instead of how I go now.

That time, Russie Huffat hadn't been invented. :3 

next one please

Year: October 2012

Face: N/A

Reactions: It's as dark as my soul, amazing

I really have no idea where this one came from.

I was probably tired of the first banner and tried my hand at this one...

I have no idea why 2012!Russie was content with this. Why.

Year: January 2013

Face/s: N/A

Reactions: The cheesiness. It's everywhere. GUH.

Basically, this banner came to be because I wanted something better.

That, and a friend joked how dark the other one was. Haha!

Year: 2013

Face: Zooey Deschanel

Reactions: Hey, it's Zooey's first appearance!

...and really bad font picks...

Ahh yes, I remember this one...

I recall wanting to put a face on the banner, and choosing Zooey.

Little did I know that she would be the face for the succeeding ones...

Year: August 2013

Face: Zooey Deschanel (A. Maxwell)

Reactions: Everything is okay except the next on the right jfc

I remember liking how this banner came out a lot - especially the text on the left!

However, I can't say the same for the text on the right. Whoops.

Maybe if I removed the shadows it would be better...

(Russie likes shadows too much smh)

(shoutout to the hipster triangles in the background)

Year: January 2014

Face: Zooey Deschanel (A. Maxwell)

Reactions: Definitely one of the better-looking ones.

Zooey once again, and I have to say that I like what I did with this!
My favorite part has to be the lightning strikes in the background~

Year: March 2014

Face: Zooey Deschanel (A. Maxwell)

Reactions: Why did I make that yellow outline effect.

Wasn't a fan of this one, haha. I didn't really feel it compared to the last banner.

I also remember not knowing what to put inside the text bubble...

Definitely not one of the good ones huhu.

Year: June 2014

Face: Justin Timberlake (S. Peters)

Reactions: This might be the start of my better banner-making days. =w=;

It's Peters! And he's looking pretty good, to be honest omfg

I really like this one - I remember making this in celebration of his birthday.

The only thing I'd change would be the out of place blue circles, haha.

Year: August 2014

Face: Zooey Deschanel (A. Maxwell)

Reactions: Too much going on in the background guh

Blogsary banner!

There's too much going on in the background. Nyuuuugh.

I like my choice of colors though. :3

Year: January 2015

Face: Natalie Dormer (S. Viridia)

Reactions: It's Skylar's debut ahh

I recall making a lot of modifications to this, jfc.

One of the pictures I used was Nat as Cressida, but I scrapped that.

Instead, I used a pic of Nat at her most Skylar-esque~

Year: March 2015

Face: Liza Soberano (A. Sanchez)

Reactions: TGC Banner #01!

For the five TGC banners, I just changed two things:

The background's Hue/Saturation and the center image. :))

(I might have been lazy, shh.)

I have to admit, though, that I like the 'uniformity' amongst all of them~

Year: April 2015

Face: Emilia Clarke (A. Young)

Reactions: One of my favorites from the TGC Banners~

Year: April 2015

Face: Rita Ora (V. Herman)

Reactions: This was actually supposed to be fully yellow. #oops

Year: April 2015

Face: Natalie Dormer (Asterious)

Reactions: Picture used was Nat as Margaery Tyrell!

And yeah - this isn't Skylar. *grins*

Year: April 2015

Face: Nadine Lustre (G. Rivers)

Reactions: My favorite out of the TGC Banners!

I'll admit: Nadine and Liza are the only Filipino FCs to be featured as banner faces so far.

I'm hoping that I can change that come 2016 - because who knows what I'll be up to? ^_^

But yes, this one has to be my favorite. Even though I had some issues with image-cutting at first...

Year: April 2015

Face: Jenna Coleman (M. Russet)

Reactions: There may or may not be a change

A number of things I noticed while making this disaster:

1. Zooey Deschanel (A's FC) frequently makes an appearance every couple banners. This is because A is my main OC - she's where it began and is my central muse. *laughs* With that, Zooey is definitely the main face of Apotheosis, despite the different focuses during various points. She'll make an appearance again soon, so look out for that~
2. I really like water color/nebula/sparkly textures - I like color in general. However, there were times in which the color was either too much or wasn't standing out greatly at all. Other times, the colors clashed with one another. Hopefully, I can move on from those errors. 
3. Starting with the latest banner, I really want to implement my "philosophy" when it comes to banner making (or graphics in general). It's pretty much this:

If the background is eye-catching, make sure the text and/or the focus (faces) are simple. If the text and/or the focus is eye-catching, make sure the background is simple.

As much as possible, I want to keep getting better. *nods* Learn from my mistakes and all, yeah? If anything, I'm thankful that my old selves made those...really bad banners. If they saw it as something great, then I should also see what I make as something great too. ^_^

Thanks for being with me during this post! Definitely hoping for more collabs with Roth soon (aka the R and R Shenanigans), and I hope to see y'all soon. <3