Wow. Ok. This was the most painful wallpaper I've made in a while. By that I mean...it took a long time. And not the "long time" that I expect from vectors...because this isn't a vector. It's times like these that make me think that maybe vectoring would've been easier! XD Though I doubt it really. So...I thought it was about time for a Marimite wallpaper. :3 It IS one of my favorite anime ever, and there just aren't enough wallpapers from it. I've always loved this scan to death; I love how the art is in it. Extra beautiful. The problem is...that the scan was of terrible quality! It was scanned from a magazine, and if you look at it, you can see the text and images from the page behind it...that, and all of the scan's icky texture, is what I had to deal with. Here's the original scan:
http://www.animepaper.net/gallery/scans/Maria-sama-ga-Miteru/item9894/

Also, if you look, I only wanted Sei and Yoko (dark hair) in the wallpaper. The extraction was torturous, and I actually duplicated it and made Yoko on a separate layer to put her behind Sei and also make her about the same size as her. Anyhoo, after A LOT of smudging and brushwork, I cleaned up the scan to the best of my abilities...I really hope it looks ok. *prays* I usually just try to cover things up with textures, but I didn't this time. So I'm really hope it looks clear enough.

Oh, and the flowers...I found images of real roses (rosa gigantea and rosa chinensis, like their titles) and combined them and used some filters and color overlays to make them blend a bit better. ^^; The original bouquet in the scan was a massacre because of the page division. That's why I wanted to get my own bouquet made...to cover them up.

As for the bg, I wanted it to be like they're outside, in the Spring...all pretty and bright. The image of them is when they're graduating (notice Sei's graduation diploma) so yeah. ^_^ Also, hence the title. They're leaving high school...but it's not a true "good-bye."

This took maybe 7 hours...yeah, and I just finished it up after sitting here for 2 hours straight. The other 5 hours were spent yesterday. XD Wow. I really hope it's worth it. Oh, and this is dedicated to my dear friend Nana. He's awesome and also loves Marimite. :3 Enjoy!