Thursday, May 01, 2008

A God and His Orca

Behold! The almighty Neptune, King of the Ocean. It would appear that he's late for his manicure . Turns out that his newly acquired, more fuel efficient orca is stalling in the middle of the sea. Serves His Majesty right for trading in his six-dolphin chariot for it.

This should be viewed bigger, so if you have the patience, click on the image to get a more appropriate view. If anyone has any suggestions as to how to post things bigger on blogger, I'm all ears.

This piece was fun to do, and certain aspects of it turned out nicely. It is an attempt at Mr. Madison's character design challenge this week (or "CHADES" as he likes to call it), in which the theme is "Hairy Gods." Perhaps I could've upped the hairiness. Oh well.

This was one of my more extensive uses of Photoshop (just to color), and seeing how much fun I had making it, I look forward to doing more color work. The challenge for many of us is to keep the organic quality of a real brush stroke and to "downplay the digital." Whether I succeeded in this or not is up to you, but in any case the colors pretty much turned out the way I had hoped.

17 comments:

  1. NICE! I think he's hairy enough...

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  2. By the beard of Jupiter, this Neptune is sweet! My favorite aspect is definitely the face--the black/blueness gives a real sense of power and burden. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, you're very Sam Keith, and in a very good way!

    As for the hairiness, I never felt Chades was about illustrating the words so much as being inspired by them. So Plutos!...er, Kudos!

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  3. Very nice. I think he passes as hairy. Nice use of PhotoChop too. I like the painterly background. The expressions are awesome as always is the case with your work.

    I was a little afraid of the picture for "It's Coming." With that look, I thought the orca might have been in dire need of some Preperation H.

    Welcome back to the "Challenge."

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  4. Vi, goodness, this is awesome! I love your stories, they're so unique and wonderful! And man, I cannot believe this year is pretty much over, its crazy......r u gonna come to the show????

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  5. Vi do you know what this means?! war.


    Also, cool drawings! I don't think I've seen you blog before! Kind of sad the first time I see it I just come to trash the lakers. Who I am slightly scared of. :) Jen and I might try to go to a game!

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  6. Neat design idea as with all of your work-doesn't look too digital.

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  7. Moro - Cool! As long as he's hairy enough for someone...

    Austin - "Plutos." Haha.

    Josh - "PhotoChop." Haha.

    Zar - Thanks, Zar! I won't be making it to the show this year. =( But good luck with everything.

    Heidi - Trash away. It's fun! Thanks for losing for us yesterday. XD

    Matt - Thanks! I try...

    Thanks for all the feedback everybody!

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  8. I really love this idea and you executed it wonderfully. Thanks for sharing!

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  9. Hey Vi! How's it going? It's beautiful here now in Paris and everyone's pique-niquing. Beautiful drawing comme d'habitude

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  10. This is a really cool piece! I hope you dont mind me putting a link to you on my blog...

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  11. I can't believe you didn't come to the show. It was so much fun. We missed you. It wasn't awkward enough without you there.

    love, brigette

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  12. Can't handle the decibels huh?

    We went to game 2! We got to see Kobe get his MVP! And then watched the Jazz lose amidst a sea of Lakers fans. It will not happen again.

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  13. I also wish you'd have been at the show. What's up with that?

    I still don't know when I'm coming to Portland.

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  14. tania - thanks so much!

    melvina - sounds lovely. impressive french!

    steve - thanks for linking me up.

    brigette - I wish I was there. you should persuade

    diana - where the heck did you go?

    heidi - woooooo!

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  15. Whoa, Lorelay! You snuck in a couple minutes before I posted my replies. Thanks for the post.

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