If I haven't posted recently, this is why: I've had Photoshop open for last week or so, working on my entry into Dtoid's Valkyria Chronicles contest. This is, of course, no surprise if you've ever read anything by me, but this is personally significant because it's the only time I've ever used Photoshop to do anything other than crop-and-chop. Well, to be fair I used Paint Shop Pro back eight-odd years ago to make a terrible, horrible webcomic, back when I was the kind of animu nerd that makes animu nerds look bad. For God's sake, it was on Keenspot. Keenspot! If ye dare, gaze upon the face of failure.

But I digress. Below are my entries to the contest. I actually cheated a bit by submitting both images as a one-file montage (I cleared it with Hamza), but below are the two separately. They've been resized to fit the blog because of that problem with Dtoid's image server or something.

I was going for a propaganda poster-ish look, one for each side of the war. Note that the art itself isn't mine. I just added the text, effects and background stuff. My notes below:

First, for the Empire:


Selvaria is the most recognizable character in the game (seconded only by the Edelweiss and Alicia's bonnet), and since she's with the Empire, it's no surprise that she'd be on an Imperial propaganda poster. Plus, she glows blue, which is definitely an attention-grabber. The Empire seems like the sort of nation that would try to inspire national fervor with honorable and noble-looking images, so I thought that whole "drive to the East/West" thing that was common in German and Russian propaganda would be in-character.

Next, for Gallia:


As you can see, on the Gallian end of the spectrum I decided to ape the more positive style of American and British propaganda posters. Unlike the Imperial poster, which tries to inspire and cast the war and its soldiers in an honorable, courageous light, the Gallian poster is much more straightforward, asking for enlistment outright and using the famous fighters of Squad 7 to sell the war.

I also decided to go with Alicia front-and-center rather than the Squad 7 group shot or a picture of the Edelweiss because of America's propensity towards creating characters that would-be supporters and identify with personally, the sort of thing Ellet might have come up with were she a poster-painter.

Plus, the particular picture I used (you might have recognized it from one of my older image dumps) had a style that really looked like the opposite of the picture I used for the Imperial poster. Like "Rosie the Riveter" or bomber-painted pin-up girls, the poster "sells" Squad 7 (and sweetie Sergeant Melchiott) with the rhyming slogans and the caption identifying the character. Actually, I'd have gone with Rosie if I could find some better art.

To be honest I think some actual Gallian propaganda styles would be similar to the Empire's. After all, Gallia is a principality and recruits its soldiers through a direct draft rather than as an occupation. In any case, I went with it to contrast with the Empire.

Logo-less and higher-res versions of the pics are in the gallery. What do you guys think?

Anyway, I hope I win. I actually have that art book (it was a pre-order bonus), so I'll give my copy to anyone who wants it should I win. I'm really in it for the figure.