[Merekat]

Sorry for the delay in poking my head here in Sijun, but I had to make sure everything was finalized on this work as it is a commission piece. ;}



This one's pretty big, about 4285 x 7200 pixels. That's around 14"x24" at 300 for you print people. I was given a simple sketch of the subject matter and from that line drawing, I "fleshed" it out much like I did the Pirogoeth poster.

If you want highlights, go here. Though this is a finished work, I'm happy to hear any comments that might make future works better. ;} Thanks and enjoy!

[ February 11, 2002: Message edited by: Merekat ]

[melted petal]

Good lord Mere! i think this is probably your best work to date. only a couple of crits. in the details, it looks like a couple of the scratches on the wall don't flow with the structure of the wall. Second, the shadows on the steps seem a bit harsh. I think its because the texure doesn't quite seem to go with it there. Like the shadows are a bit cutout looking.

I'm sure they look fine at the size your printing at though. Nice to see some good high res detailed work. I am truly humbled. Thanks for posting this. Been wanting to see this for a while.

[el scoono]

this looks ok, but it could use a lot more detail... ha! just kidding! this is incredible! how long did you work on it? what was your final file size? 500 mb?

[ February 11, 2002: Message edited by: el scoono ]

[jasonN]

Wow, really love the details! Great pic overall. That is a massive resolution, what kind of computer setup do you have to handle filesizes like that?

[SeanW]

What can I say, its breath taking. I love how you pushed the color. The Blue/greens in the face is a great touch. The textures you achieved are insane. The grainyness of the surfaces added a lot. I'm curious if you used a speckle type of brush to achieve all that great texture work? Thanks for the insperation.

[Awetopsy]

My WORD!! good job Merekat!

[Ripelly]

the stone and cloth textures are win, but the desaturated look on the higlights of the robe bother me a bit...

other than that, this is pretty much the best piece i've seen posted here in a long, long time.

[snarf]

My god, I can't even believe this is real. I feel like I'm in some kinda of elitist digital art wonderland with streams overflowing with raw talent, and fields abundantly speckled with inspiration.

Okay, that was a little much.

Seriously though, this is astounding. I truly am in awe. How did you go about making that stone wall? Is that pixel by pixel or did you use some texture overlays? Whatever the case, it looks wonderful.

I have *zero* crits, I couldn't find something wrong with this if I sat here staring at it for days.

Wow, you're inspiring.

[BlackPool]

I agree with everyone else that this is really nice work. Is this for an RPG?

My only crit would be the robe the skeleton wears. It just seems to me that if this blighted and wretched place is his dwelling, then his robe would be a little dirtier and worn.

[Bob the Newt]

holy shit thats good

[Akolyte]

Wow! That's awesome! The spiderwebs are convincing, and the smirk on his face is cool. Nice pic.

[Merekat]

Thank you! Thank you very much! Such a warm response for my cold-hearted lich. ;}

To answer a few questions:

metal petal: you may be correct on that. I suppose it should be more rounded, but I was trying to convey that the throne was a little on the slate side and wouldn't crumble like the rest, but would shard. My knowledge of rock anatomy may have been contributing to any oversights, but all in all, I still like the texture. thank you for the crit, tho! I didn't see that at first...

el scoono and jasonN: it was a monster. 900megs open and about 360-80 megs saved. but I just got a nice new system that has 1.5 gigs of ram. this puppy saved out in about two to three minutes! whoohoo! ;}

SeanW: actually, yes, I did use some of the speckle brushes, but more of as a scratching tool rather than a texturizer. I set a *small* brush on fade opacity ...maybe 150-300 steps... and then make the scratches you see up there. The rest was just scratching with different tones, and a couple tricks: one, I finally figured out how the hell to use the dissolve function of the brushes! ;} just take a really big fuzzy brush and set to dissolve at maybe 33% and take a bunch of different tones and have at it. Can't get to crazy with it tho, as unfortunately it doesn't let the speckles be anything but straight shading. no multiply. no burn. nada. quite annoying, actually. ;}

awetopsy: thank you, thank you. ;}

ripelly: yes, I got into trouble with my slightly blue overhead lighting scheme. if you put blue on that red it looks fake. if you try to color the red blue it looks fake. if you try to burn the red blue it looks fake. if you try to do anything but what I did it looks fake. not that I'm saying it's 100% realistic what I did do, but it was the best alternative. personally, I preferred the dulling of the red. I thought it wore it down a bit, as I didn't want to make the clothing that ragged. He can be a slightly well-dressed lich of the town, can't he? ;}

snarf: thank you! ;} my, what kind comments. and I mentioned above a bit of how I did the wall. it took about 6 hours of time.

blackpool: I had considered that. but in the end, the time it would take to wear it down wasn't worth the extra effort concerning the contract. this was a commission for a guy who had a D&D character he wanted colored for his personal enjoyment. overall this piece took me 29 hours and stayed within acceptable contract estimates. ;} I'm quite happy with that.

bob: thank you. :}

akolyte: thanks! those were my first cobwebs, actually. ;} I was quite fond of them. ;}

everyone: thank you for the warm reception. I so very much appreciate your kind responses and feedback. thank you! ;}

btw... I have just completed a tutorial on how to created perspective in Illustrator 9.0. would anyone be interested in my posting of it?