[Herr D]

Pick a subject and ask a question; we’ll try to get back quickly.

[Herr D]

Welcome ev1. I just realized I don’t think I ever introduced myself either. Been around since 2012. P.U.P. once but never got a character to the dash. I test out material for a blogger named Hairy and do his digital art, experiment with most other legal, ethical, and harmless media, occasionally consult between artists requiring others’ expertise or the impossible done by myself. Lots of ‘ghost’ contracts for absolute secrecy, suable if broken. . . so if I talk in vagaries about past experience, the reasons are legal issues.

I now hate contracts, since I am still so bound and have never gotten rich from them or even had one single project I own part of start paying me royalties. I also hate swans and peanut butter, because of money issues. I made too many ice sculptures of one right after college for weddings and ate too much of the other during college. I’ll let you all guess which was which.

[Herr D]

Glad to hear it was only close for you. Well wishes for you and yours and your community.

My family had a close call like it once. A freak flood hit our area once when I was 16. Our home became an island, with the first floor carpet about a foot higher than the floodwater’s crest.

 

[Herr D]

Thanx for jumping on this, Christi S. I, as well as some of the others, haven’t been as available to help others recently.

[Herr D]

Characterizing this week’s competition: genre portraiture. K=Keric, C=ChristieS
C’s background was sparse, but enough. K didn’t make one. For backstory, it was actually a lot closer. K made a minimalist blurb, though evocative. C went storybook dustjacket notes. While I DID want to see the clerk photographing Stroganar and hear about the licensing process, I wanted to know more about the tribe, its shaman, and how it stays hidden—do they just get shaggier every winter, or do they have tusk problems? She won the category. 

For Items-story, another tie. Both artists made the items important enough to the picture—one by mystique and drama, and the other by simply a sense of belonging.

The items: Every item was used for one point. Every item was well-placed and belonged for the second point. I’m all about the misuses. I am pleased to see there were no bare twosies this time around. Let’s start with the insignia: As C’s staff head, it actually looked slightly out of place. I had to interpret it as mystical paint and/or energy buildup, and it still looked cool, so it kept a 3. K’s use of an insignia as insignia plus tats – well, ordinarily that wouldn’t have struck me as a misuse. In THIS context, I’m reminded of the military’s practice of putting five glasses pockets on uniforms (one on each limb and one on the torso,) so that if all your limbs are blown off, you can still put your glasses on. It sounds like a joke, but isn’t. What I saw there was a demonstration of the dangers IBH personnel are going to be facing. A military-style protocol of labeling. That item tied.

The top item is where began to get interesting. C used it as a headdress. It’s a good one. Still a garment for a 3. K used it as a top – and then masked it on rather cleverly as legwear and bracer / glove / cuff layers. He used the whole thing once, and then used pieces as other items with a bridging mask. That is actually not the easiest thing to work out. That’s a 4.

Then there’s that braid. The implantation in the top was too good to pass up. C put it in as a ceremonial / magical gem, and K put it in as an Iron Man-style power source. Both of those would’ve gotten a 4. THEN K added another misuse, an ocular implant. Boosted him to a 5.

C edged out K in the Emotional category with a more complicated pose construction. He’s partially braced, be it against the wind or his age or magical pressure or his tribal responsibility. I can easily imagine it wasn’t easy for him.

Bells, the macro stuff—placement was great in both pics, C did some great work on shading and lighting, I’d have given her a 5 if I didn’t think she could do better with outline color on the limbs. K was uneven there, though that might have been the item’s shadow on the face. On top of that, K’s windswept and shredded lower cape looked wrong for an official document picture.

Whistles, the micro stuff—C’s tusk and toenail work was great, for her that didn’t get a 5 for the jar of stars in the snowflakes. That seems picky, now that I’m typing about it, but I had trouble with it. K’s placement of the sword is what drew my attention. It blocks the parallel circle of the legwear. It looks exactly like the kind of thing a bounty hunter would do, not thinking it would make the outfit designer cringe. Realistic touch.

Oh, I gotta say: C? I figured mammoths would go unreferenced here. That’s like the elimination of a few degrees of separation, there. Your extra point was well-earned.
Pick 3, ChristyS, set a deadline. You win the round.

Backstory score:….K3…….C4
Bkgd score:……….…..K0…….C3
Item TOP:…………....…K4…….C3
Item BRAID:. ……..…K5…….C4
Item LOGO: …..…..…K3……..C3
Bells: ……………....….K3…….C4
Whistles: …….…..….K3…….C4
Items-story:………..…K4……..C4
Emotional:………..…..K2…….C3
Bonus:………….....……K0……..C1
Total:………....……….K28……C33

[Herr D]

Yikes. Nix on Photobucket, CS! They put it in the new instructions for the blog contest entries. Have a look. Photobucket betrayed us all. I’m beginning to shift to Dev-art, but I’m a slow learner and am way behind.

[Herr D]

“Silent Sal” is depicted in the first panel of the picture as using her purse-bomb disposal unit. The other two panels depict her target and her use of a high heel-dart gun and compact-magnifying mirror-gunsight.

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[Herr D]

Thanx, ASP!

********

Designer species 114 would have been a fair commercial success. When they wear oversized pipe fittings head and tail, the 3-dimensional truss possibilities are endless. When they wear Quick-Douse brand fire blankets, they can seal hull breaches. Activation requires one standard protein pill. Automatic self-hibernation when not fed. Sturdy and trainable by video eyewear. Responds to voice commands in three languages. Unfortunately, self-proclaimed ruler of Galaxy YP1 stole the prototypes and cloning equipment. No one will buy them now, even after his summary execution.

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[Herr D]

T’s’ok! I’m kicking off another one with attached three. Submission deadline 3pm EST on 9/5. To be judged by 9/6 3pm EST.

One extra point if you include or reference woolly mammoths!

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[Herr D]

Scaena? You judging?

[Herr D]

Yah. Reaper could double as the “Pestilence” horseman with a bit more graying in the background. Good stuff.

[Herr D]

It’s time to start putting them in backgrounds and posing them. “A-P-O” in a starscape, maybe. RobM posted an improved one in Custom Backgrounds that sees a lot of use.

[Herr D]

Of your recent work, I like “Purple Folly” the best–not just the top and color, but the face.

. . . I haven’t heard “Who’s Johnny” since I watched “Short Circuit.” Do you use an XM station or do you randomly sample iTunes?

[Herr D]

“Where’s the BUG SPRAY!?”

*3p

By the way, Hairy’s been unavailable. Does anyone know how to find a deviantart tutorial?

*The headgear item became carapaces, the insignia became insect legs and nail art and a tat, and the shoulder item became a tent flap handle and part of the shadows on the hand.

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[Herr D]

The litigants successfully presented the case of fraud before the court, and the defense agreed to a settlement during a recess. The supermodel in question publicly denounced the idea that she had ever had reconstructive surgery, hair replacement, skin grafts, or even orthodontia.

Her fingerprints on the pauan shell necklace were never explained.

*The glove became a unibrow, textured by the ‘plane’ body, which was also copied about sixty times to make her hair. The companion was the nose, the nostril, and eyes-only became the pauan shell layered with eyebrows for the string and the Zyp-circle background for nacreosity. Nacreousness? Whatever.

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