Two Is Better Than One: Voting For An Archuleta Challenge!

Hello there! I'd first like to thank all 8 of our participants in this challenge! Woot!
The reason I have this poll located here in the Off Topic section is solely because there is not as much traffic in the Creative Side as there is here, and we need all the votes we can get! Mods, feel free to move this if you think it is necessary.
If you have no idea what this challenge was about, take a look at our original thread so you can catch up on the details!: http://www.archuletafans.com/index.php?sho...=29657&st=0
Please vote for your favorite blend. Anyone can vote - blend artist or not! This poll will stay open until March 21st, I believe! Please please please vote (:
Once voting has been completed, the results will be posted in the Creative Side! I will post a link in this thread when the time comes.
The blends have been placed in a random order.

Blend #1 -

Blend #2 -


Blend #3 -


Blend #4 -


Contestants - please do NOT make any comments about which blend is your teams' blend.etc.
Voters - please do NOT make any comments that would identify which blend you voted for.
Thank you, and good luck to all the teams! (:

New Song Album Artwork!

i freaking love this song haha, i had to make album artwork for it. if you haven't listened yet, i respect you for having the willpower hahah. i had to do it.. it was calling my name.
anyway, this is my first album artwork and i had a hard time finding a good pic, so it's not that good, sorry.. lol.

Two Is Better Than One: A David Archuleta Dual Challenge

Two Is Better Than One:
A David Archuleta Dual Challenge

Hello again! This is super exciting, I can't wait to see how this works out!


Here are the teams competing:

Team Pyromania (Jake & Mikey)
Team Barrier Blenders (Batya & Lynsey)
Team Chartreuse Zebras (Stephanie & Firefly17)
Team Futuristic Friends (Melissa & Brittney)

Let's hear it for our 4 awesome teams!



Partner A, it is your job to create the base of the blend. You need to work out with your partner (you must go lift weights jk) what pictures you will be using in your blend via PM. There is no limit to the amount of pictures, but you must use at least two images of David Archuleta from the years 2008-2010 (no cutesy baby photos, sorry!) in your blend. It is your job, Partner A, to place the pictures in the blend where you would like. You are also in charge of selective coloring (if you have it), fill layers, levels, color balances, hue/saturation, channel mixers, desaturation and all that jazz. You MUST write down the coloring you use (ie. I used selective coloring, the channel mixer and hue/saturation.). You do NOT need to note the stats of what you use, but you do need to use at least 3 of the options (not limited to the ones I listed). Also, stock images are also your responsibility. It is your job to add any trees, pieces of notebook paper, birds.. whatever. This does NOT mean you add textures. That will be Partner B's job. When doing this, please remember that your job is not to create a finished blend – it should look unfinished.

Once you have completed the base of your blend with pictures, coloring and stocks, save your image as a file that does NOT merge all the layers or flatten the image. For Photoshop, I believe it is a .PSD file. In GIMP, I think it's an .XCF file. Upload the image to a photo-hosting site, and please PM your unfinished blend to both myself and your team's Partner B. Also, please PM the list of stocks you used and the list of image adjustments you wrote down to me. Do NOT post the blend anywhere else on the site.





Partner B, you will then have to add textures. This can range from any kind of texture – clouds, smoke, scratches, polka-dots, whatever. It's your choice. There is no limit to what textures you use, but you need to use at least ONE texture. Your job is also to add text. It is required that you use AT LEAST 3 lines of text from one of David's songs. You're allowed to add David's name and whatever else, just be sure to add the required lyrics. Please keep in mind that the font or fonts you choose should be legible, so beware of really intense fonts, font sizes and/or font colors. You may add whatever blending options to your text that you want – drop shadows, gradient overlays, outer glow, bevel & embossing, whatever your heart desires! You are also allowed to add fill layers, but nothing else from the image adjustments. When you've done all of that, make sure that your blend is exactly the way you want to enter it. You then need to save TWO copies of your blend - one tagged with your TEAM NAME and one that is NOT tagged at all. Save each as a .PNG file, upload it, and PM it straight to me – do not PM it to your team's Partner A. Why? Because I'm cruel & I want your partner to have to wait to see it .

Once I have all of the blends in my hands (or in my inbox, rather lol), I will either judge them myself or I will put them up as a poll on both IDF and AF or something of the sort. I haven't decided yet how that's going to work. Whichever team has the highest amount of votes or gets first place or whatever will win first prize! Each first place winner (both Partner A and Partner B of the winning team) will win a prize from me! Because I'm not at the age where I can say to my parents, "Hey, I have to mail a few random kids that I met on the internet an iPod, okay?" lol, I will be PMing both winners a special prize! It's pretty good… not lame, I promise.

Also, just so you're aware - not only is there a first place prize, but there is something I'm going to call a speed prize. Whichever team's blend I get first will win a different special prize from me! This one's even better than the first place prize!


Listed below are the rules of the competition. If any of these rules are broken, your team may be disqualified.
-You and your partner are NOT to discuss your blend anywhere besides via PM. Questions that you may have about your blend are to be PMed to me, but questions about the competition in general may go in this thread.
-It is against the rules to share your blend with ANYONE until the competition has ended and I have posted the results.
-You must follow ALL of the guidlines I posted in this topic. That includes the tagging of blends, PMing me the stocks and textures you used.etc.
-I must have your completed blend in my inbox by Saturday, March 6th. If there are any conflicts with this end date and you will not be able to have your blend sent in by then, please PM me and we will work something out.

That's basically it! I look forward to seeing what you all come up with. Any questions or clarifications, please ask me! Ready, get set, blend!

Blend Challenge..

Hi! (: So if you haven't already noticed, I'm trying to start things here that would intrigue new members (and even old members) so we can build up this site again. This is going to be a different kind of challenge.

At this point, it's not official. I'm just looking to see if there would be enough people interested in doing this.

If this challenge does take place..

You will be creating a blend of David Archuleta (since, after all, this is a David Archuleta fansite :P) using pictures from 2008-present. You can use pictures from whatever year or years you want, there's no rules about that. More info on this will come later if there is a significant interest in this. Here comes the twist..

..you need a partner! This will be a dual-role challenge - I'm not going to tell you how this is going to work yet. If you are interested in participating, please find a partner. Ask around! You do not have to have a blend shop to participate! Anyone is welcome. Once you have found a partner, work out on your own who will be Partner A and who will be Partner B. Each will have a specific and vital role in the creation of your blend. When you've done all that stuff and would like to enter this challenge, please fill out the form below. EACH partner needs to fill one out.



So that's all for now. I hope this doesn't sound lame lol. I suppose I'm just desperate (no pun intended :P) to get this site active again.

Icon Tutorial!

Tutorial name: Why, Your Smile Lights Up The Room
Made in: Photoshop 7
Made for: Photoshop 7 and above, not translatable
Images used: x. x.

Hola, mis amigos! (: I've been wanting to make another tutorial for a long time, and I needed something to get my creative juices flowing.. so I guess this is where we begin! Lol, today we'll be using this image! Credits to "sarahmonline" and david-daily.com for this image. We'll be cropping out the girl on the right and using the left half (the David half, lol).

Note: This probably is NOT translatable. Be my guest and try it, if you'd like! But I have a slight feeling it won't work out the same way.

Alright, so here we go!

1. Open up your program and create a new 100x100 canvas. Paste in the first image, the one of David. Scale it down to your liking, but make sure that David is the only person you can see by dragging the image over to the right so that there is black space on the left. Sharpen as you please, do what you need to do. Flatten the image.

2. Go to Layer >> New Adjustment Layer >> Selective Color. Copy the settings I have below:
Reds: -32, +10, +10, +20
Yellows: 0, 0, -40, 0
Blues: -100, +100, 0, 0
Whites: -100, -20, 0, 0
Neutrals: +30, 0, 0, 0

3. Go to Layer >> New Adjustment Layer >> Levels. Copy the settings I have below:
RGB: Input: 4, 1.10, 252 Output: Leave the output the way it is (0, 255)

4. Go to Layer >> New Adjustment Layer >> Channel Mixer. Copy the settings I have below:
Red: +98, -8, +4

5. Go to Layer >> New Adjustment Layer >> Color Balance. Copy the settings I have below:
Midtones: -4, +3, -2
Shadows: +15, -2, +5
Highlights: 0, 0, 0 (leave it the same)

6. Go to Layer >> New Fill Layer >> Solid Color. Fill the layer with #1a0102 and set it to Exclusion. It depends on your preferences, but I set the layer to 70% opacity. Play around with it and see what you like.

7. Select your selective color layer from before in your layers dialog, go to Layer >> Duplicate Layer and click OK. Set it to Overlay at 30%.

8. Flatten your image, and take the second image and paste it onto the icon. Scale it down, move it around, do whatever you want with it. Set it to Lighten at 100% opacity.

9. Add text, other textures, whatever the heck your little heart desires.. I could care less what you do with it lol. It's your icon! Make it your own (: Once you're done adding stuff or whatevs, flatten the image and save as a .PNG file for the best quality!

10. Thaaaaaaaaanks for checking out my tutorial! Post your results, please! I'd looove to see what you come up with! If you liked using this image of David, try another and see the different results! This tutorial works best with images that have purples, browns and blacks in them. Try it out! (:
That's all! I hope that wasn't too confusing or weird or whatever.. lol.

Here's my result: