Title: Land of the Sun
Used: Gimp 2.6
Time: One week and 3 days and two hours
Anime/manga: Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

Theme: Japan

Why: I was going through some random anime renders sites very late at night and came on a few good renders from Hitman Reborn. Now I have I never really watched or seen the anime or even peaked to much at the manga but I like the style it is done in and plan to after this wallpaper to check out the manga before I start on the anime (lots to watch I fear). I came on this guy in the kimono and did some playing around with the render on a old wallpaper had I started using Kenshin instead but this guy seemed to fill out the space a bit better and I went with it.

I stuck to reds mostly and kept the bamboo in a nice white shade to make it stand out just a bit more to act a bit as a strong background/frame for the guy. I added in the building from some brushes I had down loaded and used the Glowing Filter on Gimp but removed the glow to make it blend in and show the tones of red all the more. The Kanji was done the same way but I played around with different kanji's for a good two days before settling on this, it looked a bit more older in the style. Also, you got to have the Sun and the rays when it comes to Japan for what it is known for, the rays where a bit hard when it came down a bit to make them stand out just the way I wanted.