holy crap! digging up that image, i accidentally found this one, from my college thesis. yikes! in my defense, with both of these i was trying to suggest an art style different from modern illustration, but still... they are pretty terrible. that is why some of my newer pieces (like the new blue post below) have all the content, iconography, subject matter etc of the older work, but in a more familiar illustrative style.
it's depressing how bad both my painting and photoshop skills were. yeesh.
let the mockery begin!
4 comments:
Yipes! I could've choked on the suckage! ;)
But in all seriousness you are far to hard on your work Ben. Whether you achieved what you hoped you would or not is not the point and this really a wonderful peice.
But then again, you've probably heard this before so what's one more voice to the choir right?
Anyway keep up the work and please, PLEASE get these ideas printed down!
thanks adam!
i actually typed up a bunch of stuff
this weekend, and (as you can see)
found a lot of stuff. so it will actually
be sooner rather than later!
ben
Looking down a few posts at the new one you're working on, I can't help but feel like it's more of a step sideways from this top image. Don't get me wrong, I love the new direction and the flowy design edges on the new piece gets me all giddy. However, something about the simple iconographic nature of this one is really appealing, which is why it's always been one of my favorites of yours. I feel like the main difference between it and the image you're working on now is that they would appeal to different audiences.
Bah, what do I know. I'm probably just revealing my ignorance and untrained eye. I should have just said, "Keep up the good work."
in some ways, you are totally right. this is a completely different approach to the same pose, iconography etc.i like the "charm" of the first one, but i was trying to suggest the actual art style of this civilization. i don't think the first version works on that level, it's not distinct enough, but feels more like a typical "cartoony" treatment. obviously, i like "cartoony" in general, but here i think it distracts from what the piece is actually about.
i felt that drawing in a style that was less stylistically specific would help emphasize the oddness of the other elements. there are several pieces i'd like to experiment with in this vein, where i use the cultural material from my imaginary world, but present it in a more direct illustrative style.
having said all that, these pics illustrate empress blue, fictional icon of the "new empire" period, whose art actually had a somewhat plastic, almost "cartoony" look, after all. i just think i need to figure out a more interesting way to show that than what you see in the earlier version. i want something that isn't necessarily a caricature in the conventional sense, but is very structured and streamlined. somewhat like art deco, i suppose. or, say, the gothic lady portrait you posted last month. but yes, the earlier version is one of my favorites, too.
we'll see what i can come up with!
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