I stumbled on a tweet by Oestrus from Stories of O that she was looking for a new signature banner to be made by someone. It was a fun project that I really enjoyed doing, and would not mind doing a few more to add to my resume of WoW related artwork. If you like what I’ve done for Oestrus, let me know and I’ll make one for you too!
Stories of O original banner
She liked what I’ve done and asked if I could change the banner text to her name. She mentioned she wouldn’t mind changing that to her site’s background too. Wow! I am humbled to have been asked by a fellow blogger to make something for her site. We are currently discussing this project and I’ll be posting as it develops for my fellow artists as a sticky post until it’s completed for those who want to follow this story 
This is the final banner with the text name changed to Oestrus:
Stories of O's final signature banner
As for the background I may be making, let’s take a look at her site as it is currently:
Stories of O: original background
My initial thoughts are to add the image of the character I’ve done and keep the overall design. The character will have a transparent background, so the color of the background can be changed any time. The gradient was just so I could play around with blocks and see better but it looks good too. Putting in the image of the character throws off the balance of that were consistently balanced throughout all elements in the top fold of the design. This is why I thought the logo should be shifted over with the menu going underneath. She can adjust the menu text’s color accordingly to the background color for readability.
I thought the character could go behind her rotating banner, I am not sure if I’d want her feet showing up underneath or have it look like she is standing directly behind it in the backdrop. We could even have the logo over lap the picture of her character. There are tons of ways I could shuffle things around, but this is as simple as it can get for what she has in mind.
Stories of O's concept background
December 14, 2011:
Hi guys, I know you all are anxious to see the end results of the banner I am doing for Oestrus. I’ve been busy lately but it is coming along slowly and steady. I finally finished the character today and thought I would put them up for you guys to see the work I’ve done so far. I am hoping to complete the banner tomorrow so I can move on to a new project
This was done in Photoshop using a graphic tablet for all shading and highlighting I’ve done on the character. I also added more texture to the hair/fur of the Tauren, and tried to make fiery feathers for the shoulders. I didn’t think it looked great leaving that part of the shoulder undefined, it doesn’t look like anything… but flames. So I decided to kick that up a notch and make it look even nicer. I’m not sure what I’ll do for the cut off part at the bottom, but I will most likely be applying a gradient (from black to transparent) from the bottom to the top to fade the bottom out.
Oestrus's orignal character illustration
Oestrus's final character illustration
I put the character on a black background, but it’ll also look great on any other colored or white background Oestrus may decide to use for her site. The only thing I have left to do is make the logo text and we’re golden. Stay tuned for the final result!
December 27, 2011:
And now we’re all done! I announced that I was done with the project a while ago and were awaiting some kind of response from Oestrus to wrap things up. But the holidays hit, so things got busy for everyone
Let’s get on checking out the goodies here:
banner 1
banner 2
banner 3
banner 4
banner 5
banner 6
This was actually a failure on my part. I originally sent Oestrus all the files from the banner project, including any concept ideas or files with layout ideas. With the files, there were also some finalized banners but I forgot to include the actual saved hard copies of the banners I did (above). I didn’t notice the files were missing from the folder I forwarded to Oestrus until I recently decided to clean up my laptop on the way back home on a bus. As soon as I got home, I saved the files and emailed them to Oestrus apologizing for my error.
Turns out she’s just been busy with the holidays and all good things life has to offer, she has given me the go ahead to publish everything here. It was a honor doing this project and I would like to thank some people for helping me in this project. Oestrus, for giving me this opportunity to make a banner for her site and Jadissa for his help in providing me the graphics I needed to make the background. The original background came from the package he sent me, and it is seen on the original layout. I’ve used it throughout the banners, because I also love it ^^.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this journey from starting something new to the very end. I enjoy constructive feedback through means of critiques, so don’t be afraid to ask questions!
In other news, I’ve been invited to do a banner for Endgame Farming, while although it is not a WoW centric site, it definitely has content that applies to WoW in the broadest sense. I’ve become a frequent visitor there and I’ve been corroborating with the author with his move from blogspot to wordpress. I accepted this fantastic opportunity, because this is also one of the sites I enjoy wandering around. You can bet you’ll see a upcoming post on what I’ve gotten to start with and ideas, similiar to how I started this post for Oestrus’s banner. I’ve given myself the deadline to get everything done and delivered on December 31st, in time for his grand opening on Jan 1st. Stay tuned for a new post on this upcoming project!
