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Re: wow.
Posted By: AnaphielDate: 3/10/04 5:09 p.m.

In Response To: Re: wow. (Steve Levinson)

Thanks Steve, your comments and analysis mean a lot, and I really appreciate you taking the time to write that. I don't think I'm likely to ever develop a swelled head about my painting (about pretty much anything else, sure, but not that) so don't worry too much. I know enough to know how much I have left to learn.

Your read on Mullins' work is right on: Craig has an amazing talent for leading your eye through an image, setting clear focal points, and using detail and the lack of detail to clarify and emphasize rather than just to embellish. I'm still learning where I need to have detail, and where it just becomes clutter. In Photoshop it's really easy to render at a very high level of polish, but what I keep finding out is if an entire piece is that fully rendered it tends to lose it's focus. The individual parts all look great, but the whole lacks something. I'm starting to break out of that trap a bit, and get a little more loose in spots... it can only help.

It's interesting that you picked up on the recurring theme of fatigue... for some reason when I think back on Marathon, I never really picture the Marine as the supersoldier/action hero/swashbuckling type. By the time I was done with that game I felt like I as the character had taken a pretty savage beating, and had only just endured. I always picture Max at the end of, well, all of the Mad Max movies. He's won, but only just, and he's not necessarily the better for it. That's how I always paint the Marine: exhausted, beaten, bloodied, but still standing, still going. Endurance is the key theme.

PS. My name isn't Adam ;)

: Don't sell yourself short - if you keep making images like these, you'll get
: the high-profile work. You're right - your work is very different from
: Mullins work. Although your are both stiicklers for detail, his work tends
: to focus more on broad panoramas with lots of different scenes within a
: scene. Take his famous compiler scene, in which the viewer is drawn
: first to the compiler in the foreground, then to the surrounding
: machinery, then to the two bobs in the background, then to the dead bob,
: then to the compiler in the background in the act of an attack and finally
: perhaps to the lava pit in the foreground. This picture tells an unique
: story in a way that only Chris could.

: Now let's take a look at the picts you posted here. First the marine standing
: in front of the comm terminal. Notice how the walls are rough and gritty
: as they almost certainly would be. The text above the terminal is worn and
: fading. The terminal itself is displaying a message that the marine is in
: the act of reading - not just a logon pict. And the marine himself is
: standing with a slight body tilt, signs of fatigue clearly showing. An
: ammo belt with ammo is visible, but his shoulder armour is missing on one
: side - perhaps a result of an earlier battle. This image is a close-up,
: but it tells no less a story.

: Next the trooper. Notice how he is holding onto the doorway - he too is
: showing signs of fatigue. His glowing 3 eyes are visible through a
: translucent helmet that appears utterly unlike anything we would use, but
: that is probably perfectly transparent to the creatures compound eyes. One
: of his legs is forward as he appears to be staggering throug the doorway.
: Behind him on the floor are two fallen bobs and the walls are
: blood-streaked - evidence of his handiwork. Behind him just peering around
: the corner is a fighter. These are not just abstractions - you have made
: the Pfhor look real in a way the Chris never could. And look at the fan in
: the background and the subtle imperfections in the paint in the
: foreground. Adam, this scene looks real . Chris tells a story with his
: broad brushstrokes and use of sub-scenes. You also tell a story but,
: although it's more limited in scope, it's much greater in depth - you
: manage to capture the mood - the raw emotions - of a snapshot in time.

: Let me put it this way - had you been drawing like this 10 years ago, it
: might well have been your art that graced the chapter screens of M2/oo
: rather than Mullins'. You're talented - very talented - but don't let it
: go to your head!

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Pre-2004 Posts

Replies:

Old and... Improved? (pic. big pic)Anaphiel 3/8/04 5:27 p.m.
     Very nice. *NM*HolyMcGibblets 3/8/04 5:44 p.m.
     Re: Old and... Improved? (pic. big pic)Mark Levin 3/8/04 6:22 p.m.
           like so? *NM*Anaphiel 3/9/04 2:42 a.m.
                 How about a widscreen v. - say >/= 1152 X 768? *NM*Steve Levinson 3/9/04 4:48 a.m.
                       ta daaa!Anaphiel 3/9/04 10:03 a.m.
                       and, at no extra charge...Anaphiel 3/9/04 10:05 a.m.
                             Keen! *NM*Yossarian 3/9/04 11:16 a.m.
                             OK, that is defiantly going up as my next desktop *NM*deathmonger 3/9/04 12:35 p.m.
                             You've made my day *NM*Steve Levinson 3/9/04 1:28 p.m.
                             Sweet.HolyMcGibblets 3/9/04 3:19 p.m.
                                   Wallpaper Page is upAnaphiel 3/10/04 2:05 a.m.
                                         Re: Wallpaper Page is upKirk 3/10/04 4:15 a.m.
                                               hey! get out of my files!Anaphiel 3/10/04 6:47 a.m.
                                         Re: Wallpaper Page is upthe Battle Cat 3/10/04 4:51 a.m.
                                               wow.Anaphiel 3/10/04 6:43 a.m.
                                                     Re: wow.Steve Levinson 3/10/04 2:59 p.m.
                                                           Re: wow.Anaphiel 3/10/04 5:09 p.m.
                                                                 Re: wow.Steve Levinson 3/10/04 6:50 p.m.
                                                                 Re: wow.Yossarian 3/10/04 7:46 p.m.
                                                                       Re: wow.the Battle Cat 3/11/04 5:01 a.m.
                                                                             Cool!Anaphiel 3/11/04 6:40 a.m.
                                                                                   Re: Cool!Yossarian 3/11/04 7:21 p.m.
                                                                                         Re: Cool!Anaphiel 3/12/04 4:56 a.m.
                                                                                   Re: Cool!the Battle Cat 3/12/04 6:00 a.m.
                                                                       Re: wow.Hamish Sinclair 3/11/04 11:04 a.m.
     Tres chic, man *NM*Yossarian 3/8/04 8:01 p.m.
     Re: Old and... Improved?rampancy 3/10/04 11:49 a.m.
           yeah, they were...Anaphiel 3/10/04 12:01 p.m.
                 Re: yeah, they were...Steve Levinson 3/10/04 1:00 p.m.
                       Re: yeah, they were...Adam Ashwell 3/10/04 2:00 p.m.
     Whoa 133+ness *NM*Me!! /_43 3/11/04 8:16 p.m.
     Re: Old and... Improved? (pic. big pic)Grasshopper 3/12/04 5:55 a.m.

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