Mea's stuff (Has it really been that long?)

[Glitch Girl]

I just spent several minutes looking for my old art thread and can't find it.  Has it really been so long since I posted some art that the thread got 'et by a crash or got autopruned?  (I'm thinking the former sadly)

Oh well. 

Anyway, I haven't done much Poser artwork lately for twofold reason: 1) other projects been eating up a lot of brainpower, and 2) Poser has been just crawling on my machine for about  a year now and I can't afford an upgrade any time soon (owning a house will do that to ya' )

Last night I finished a piece, and I'll be honest, I really don't like it.  It started out as a good idea, at least I think it was a good idea, but I could never get it to work right, and the more I tried to fix it, the worse it go, so finally you have to step back and say "It's done."  I think the problem was the netting, never could get it to look right, but... I'm going to stop being my own worst critic now.  :)

Voila, "Sea Witch"


And now for something MUCH better (imo) - the calendar image for this year's calendar which I don't think I ever posted (and by now I think everyone who's gonna buy one has)  I'm really happy with how Atomic Saint turned out - the Kirby Dots worked unusually well.  :)



Enjoy.

[Alaric]

Good to see you posting this stuff again.

Being one of those owning a copy of the calendar, I've already seen (and admired) the "Iron Battalion" picture- Doc Justice's pose is classic, the viewing angle is perfect, and the whole image evokes its era brilliantly. Y'know, I've been buying the FR calendars every year, and I have a recurring fantasy that someday the calendar artwork, plus some other stuff by FR artists, will someday be released in a book ttiled 'The art of Freedom Reborn" or something. I know, nobody would buy it, or have any idea what it was... I can dream, can't I?...

The "Sea Witch" picture almost works. Personally, I think the netting's fine. Something about the position of her arms isn't quite right, somehow... They need to evoke the general "wave-like" feel of the rest of the picture more... Also, the purple smudge takes away a bit from the sea-like feel of the picture, for me, at least. Maybe adding a slight greenish tinge to the background... Beyond that, I think it's brilliant.

Funny, I've been dealing with sea-related things for the past week or so... Was at the Mystic Sea Music festival in Mystic, Connecticut a couple of weekends ago, than on Cape Cod for several days (the town of Wellfleet, to be exact... home of the Sea Witch of Billingsgate (Wellfleet's old name), according to legend (I don't know much about that particular legend, unfortunately). I then spent a day or so in Providence, RI, Being an uncle, and another back in New London (near Mystic) for a sort of mini-festival (the Traditions festival) before heading back to New York... Oh, yeah... got to see the wreck of a 19th century schooner on the Cape... it was washed up by a storm a few months ago. Mostly buried by sand now, and it's just the skeleton of the ship, but still...

[captainspud]

I agree with Al, the Witch almost works. I think the problems for me are:

1) The contrast on the figure is too high, and the hard black shadows really don't look very good. Try a backlight.
2) The wave is pixellated and full of artifacts. Try sourcing one at a higher resolution. It also doesn't blend well with the figure, as the wave and figure have different colours and levels of detail, and she's sitting on it kind of awkwardly.
3) Too many stars and sprinkles. Instead of scattering them all about, cluster them into wisps that circle the figure and follow the same wind indicators as her hair.

And yes, the calendar picture is all kinds of yummy. :)

[BlueBard]

I think it was a good idea, and it's pretty by any standard.

Critically-speaking (as a viewer and not as an artist, because I'm not an artist):

The whole net-cape rigging thing threw me off... it took a few double-takes to get that the net is sweeping around her like a cape and not passing through or entangling her. 

Also, her right shoulder and bicep appear deformed, partly due to the shading.  It's difficult to distinguish the lines of the upper right arm.

I'm also having a bit of trouble with wind and wave vectors.  It seems the wave is breaking one way, the nets are spreading in another direction, and her hair is blowing in yet another direction.

[Glitch Girl]

New computer and new version of Poser (my old box couldn't run 6 so it got to gather dust for months and months and months) so this was kind of a chance to get my "sea legs" again. 

May I present,  "Down Time"

I hadn't intended the finished piece to have a "sketchy" quality (I'd already painted the sky, which totally got lost in the final version).  May tweak this one a little more when I get home tonight, there are a few things I'm not happy with now that I've had time to sleep on it (the cropping for one), but I still felt like sharing.  :)

EDIT: Changes made, feeling much better about it.  Old version here

[daglob]

Looks particularly sparky; you don't read Girl Genius, do you?

[captainspud]

I'm not sure the grainy texture really works here... and also, the background looks really odd. That tower looks very flat and oddly-positioned relative to the machine.

That said: the machine and character look great. :)

[Mowgli]

I really like the color scjeme and the steampunk feel. I fell like he built and built up this machine, now he's exhuasted and can't get down. Great stuff! I also like the experimentation with a sketchy feel to the work. I think this idea needs more exploration.  :D

[BlueBard]

I'm wondering what this would look like done as an old-time photograph :)

Putting on my amateur Engineer's hat, I notice that this Steam-Mech doesn't have any real way to move its' arms besides possibly a little shoulder shrug.  I only see one drive belt and it doesn't seem to be attached to anything else.  Maybe the pilot is taking a nap because he can't do much else...

Still looks cool, though. :D  

No idea whether you built this model yourself, so perhaps you don't have a lot of control over what the drive train looks like.  I like it anyhow.

[UnfluffyBunny]

love the steampunk pic ^_^
the first post just reminded me i havent changed my calander since getting home from holiday so that image is still up there, lol

[Deaths Jester]

Neat...reminds me of one of the games back in the day where a guy was riding a clockwork mech type thing.  Neat!