Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/The Story of the Mikado - Frontispiece

The Story of the Mikado - Frontispiece

Original - Alice B. Woodward's frontispiece to The Story of the Mikado (1921), W. S. Gilbert's last literary work: a posthumously-published retelling of the plot of The Mikado for children.

Not for voting - For the record, this is why a slight blurring is much to be desired for Wikipedia use. The one with the slight blur applied does not develop the patterns seen here when thumbnailed.

Reason: Alice B. Woodward is a major children's artist, The Story of the Mikado is W. S. Gilbert's last literary work, and it's based on Gilbert and Sullivan's most successful opera, The Mikado. Combined, this makes for a lot of encyclopedic value.

This image is taken from a scan of the first edition, and, yes, there is half-toning. However, this is, as I said, from the first edition. As she is in copyright in her home country, it is unlikely that any better copy will become available in at least the next twelve years.

This image has had some cleanup applied, and a slight Gaussian blur (2.4px radius), to improve thumbnailing and appearance (see example of what happens if this not done, right). As the unblurred version is also available, this does not limit options for use in any way. The colours have been carefully adjusted against the original.

A JPEG version, File:The Story of the Mikado - Frontispiece.jpg, is also available. If someone wants to apply a swift kick to bugzilla's rear, it's possible that the thumbnails of these might actually look the same eventually, but when I contacted them, the idiots said they culd do it, but declined to, mocked the idea of restoration, and generally showed a remarkable lack of clue. Shoemaker's Holiday ^{Over 188 FCs served} 17:14, 12 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Articles this image appears in: Alice B. Woodward, W. S. Gilbert, The Mikado
Creator: Alice B. Woodward

Support as nominator --Shoemaker's Holiday ^{Over 188 FCs served} 16:53, 12 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
~~Oppose~~. Half-toning. Not having a proper version is not an argument for featuring this one, sorry. --Dschwen 19:25, 12 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
- And what idiots showing remarkable lack of clue are you referring to? Those ramblings do not sound too polite. --Dschwen 19:27, 12 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  - First of all, we've promoted several FPs with half-toning without controversy already: File:Can't_please_everyone2.jpg and File:N. M. Price - Sir Walter Scott - Guy Mannering - At the Kaim of Derncleugh.jpg. Secondly, It's over on Bugzilla. Nasty message about how they refused to do anything with PNG because clearly restoration wasn't important. Thirdly, at the minimum size requirement for FPC 1000px in the long dimension, no half-toning is at all visible. Shoemaker's Holiday ^{Over 189 FCs served} 19:30, 12 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    - You pointing out two older mistakes is hardly going to change my assessment. Did you see me vote support on those nominations? --Dschwen 19:40, 12 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
- Despite Ottawa Rima's dickish remark I'm willing to reconsider my vote. An insightful voice on commons helped me understand why the half toning should not be a K.O. in a case like this. That being said I cannot be swayed to a support, there surely must be a better quality image to represent this artist (weighing technical quality and it being the last work, I'd rather have a nicer image). --Dschwen 14:37, 15 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  - I'm planning on working through the rest of the illustrations in this book; If I put that back into priority mode (I was feeling a bit discouraged by how this nomination went), then I'm sure we can swap out the image from Alice B. Woodward for one that shows her off better, while demoting this to a gallery with the others. Not all of the images from The Story of the Mikado have good EV in The Mikado - e.g. there's a couple detailing a backstory at best hinted at in the opera itself, and, of course, it is a rewriting. (these will have EV in a planned article on The Story of the Mikado, currently a redirect). This illustrates a key scene in the opera we lack (and which I am not aware of any) other illustrations for, so I think it still has sufficient EV to stand on its own, but we need not leave it as the Alice B. Woodward lead. Shoemaker's Holiday ^{Over 192 FCs served} 14:53, 15 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    - Also, I should note a minor misunderstanding: This is Gilbert's last work, published posthumously. Woodward continued illustrating some time after this, though I don't think she did anything much of note after the 1930s (that said, she was in her 70s by then, so.. perhaps not a huge surprise). Shoemaker's Holiday ^{Over 192 FCs served} 15:27, 15 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Support The previous oppose is a bit off.. This is great work. Thanks, GerardM (talk) 19:44, 12 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
- Comment Fixed vote. Makeemlighter (talk) 01:09, 13 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  - Err, maybe I should elaborate. It had {}'s around support. Now it's just "support" and not "template: support". Makeemlighter (talk) 01:11, 13 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Support - The oppose above seems really pointy and disruptive. Ottava Rima (talk) 20:00, 12 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
- Oh, so opposing an image with a given reason is pointy and disruptive? How dare you! Your support without any reason, just containing a PA is pointy. --Dschwen 20:09, 12 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  - A personal attack is a comment in regards to an individual's person. I was referring to your statements. Your understanding of our policies is as flawed as your view of the image. Ottava Rima (talk) 20:32, 12 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  - And another thing - the image checks out fine. The colors and clean and crisp. The encyclopedic value is high. It meets all of the requirements. Ottava Rima (talk) 20:33, 12 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    - Nice to see that you are so sure of yourself. The pointy and disruptive remark still was out of line. --Dschwen 21:56, 12 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Support Could you try one just slightly darker? This seems slightly faded all over. Staxringold _talk^contribs 21:44, 12 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
- I've uploaded a tweak over it, but this is a watercolour, so I believe it was intended to be a little pale. Shoemaker's Holiday ^{Over 189 FCs served} 03:44, 13 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose She was a great illustrator but this looks washed-out at any size and IMO has an odd composition, too tight at the top with lot of unnecessary space at the bottom. While halftoning isn't always an automatic basis to oppose on, in this case it's really obvious and contributes to an overall tonal flatness, weakening the colour repro and seriously degrading the image. EV may still be good for the opera but really doesn't show the artist in a good light at all. --mikaul^talk 22:42, 12 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'll replace it with a different one in her article, however, this is an important scene in the opera (lead-in to "Here's a how-de-doo!", for those following along at home). Shoemaker's Holiday ^{Over 192 FCs served} 20:28, 16 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Support per above. NW (Talk) 15:14, 17 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Support per nom. –Juliancolton | ^Talk 02:15, 19 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Promoted File:The Story of the Mikado - Frontispiece.png --wadester 16 16:27, 19 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]