P.O.W.! Special Challenge: DEEP--Final Poll

[Ilaekae]

http://www.conceptart.org/davi/deepactivities.jpg

http://photos.imageevent.com/aljmary/conceptarts/CA-POWexLOGO.jpg

Final Poll: P.O.W.! Special Competition: DEEP

My apologies for the late Poll upload--there was a misunderstanding on my part with Davi over who was doing what when. As usual, it's my fault...really!

We have 11 entries, a few of which may not have been finished as such, but I included them just to make sure I didn't miss anyone. I had an entry, but it never came anywhere near finished because ...ummm...my bathroom blew up and showed me the true power of the Deep. For real...I have pictures and everything...

Many thanks to all of you for your efforts on this one..

Artists are posted in alphabetical order...

Note on P.O.W.!--A new competition will be posted Sunday evening (July 6) along with some notes on some changes we'll be making to the competition--scheduling, deadlines, etc.

[Ilaekae]

Arttorney...

[Ilaekae]

flashrabbit...


A day in "deep blue".

Follow us as we take a peek under the surface.
Far down in the depths in an untouched place, well it's been undisturbed for a century now.
We humans have for a long time always intefered with the sealife and dumped all kinds of stuff down there.
But in a way we have changed lifes, or evolved might be a better word because we sure killed our fair amount of lives.
This is a story about life as we remember it, our origins. A new society commences.

"Lights" Macintosh always starts the day making his way to the park.
It's in the middle of the town, quite a big park with lots of creatures living there.
The citizens are quite proud of it.

Because while there are other parks in this city, this one was here before.
Before they built everything, shops, parks, schools all kinda of buildings imitating the humans world.
Pictures found in magazines and postcards that were found at the surface, most likely thrown overboard from some passing ships.

Maybe this is going to fast, you proberly have som questions? Why and how perhaps being you first.
Well I said that we discard a lot of things down our biggest toilet, the ocean.
That includes toxic waste, and lots of it.
There was a time i history when a big company cast away alot it at one place out in the oceon.
Where they thought they would get away with it, because they had their reputation to think about.

When they were stopped the damage was already done, it drastically changed the sealife deep down.
Unsuspecting creatures had their lives changes forever.
It didn't get time to affect every creature down there as it was swallowed by the darkness, but enough to change a world.

"Camera" While Macintosh is walking towards the park we have time to get an insight of other places in this surreal place.
A little girl with a colorful personality is playing hopscotch, tossing a small seashell in the square she wants to "hop" to.
Lily got into a small argument earlier so she has to play alone at the moment.
She's in preschool, it's a nice school and it looks like an octopus ;O

She usually gets along really well with the other children, but today she was in one of her famous moods.
Why is it famous, well she changes color and becomes all orange/yellow when "mad".
And she is often reminded and teased about it.
As we leave her we can see the schoolyard, the regular school and something that looks like an elephant?

"Tranquility" Back to the old man, after a long refreshing walk he's at his goal.
He sits down and gets his reward, a quiet place where he can sit and philosophy.
And feed the seaduck of course, cant forget them. It's very relaxing.

"Action"
"A quest"
"Happy hour"
"Awaken"
"Mischief"
"Bringer of Dystopia"

[Ilaekae]

GriNGo...

Well, I decied to do some pieces (CHOW & POW), on an underwater society I'm calling Abstract Ghosts. Basically, they were once humans, but who shipwrecked in deep seas. By contact with ABSTRACT ( a substance/mineral that essentially alters their physical and mental states to an ethereal almost inmortal, degree), they survived although not as normal human beings. Rarely seen by normal humans, the have become the masters of a once considered iun controllable entity. They don't procreate as normal surface humans do, their existance is basically based on the quantity of people who die for whatever reason at sea. Each person who dies at sea becomes on of them, due to unknown ETHEREAL properties of Abstract.

[Ilaekae]

LateNiteHype...

These few pages show the oracles presenting the return of the INFINITY BEAST (see ChOW for some character background)...

[Ilaekae]

MeTal-Mike...

[Ilaekae]

mickeymao...


Ok, here's a beginning of my Gulliver idea, to show where it's going. It would be about 12 pages long, which I may not have time to lay out

This is how I do most of my book layouts now, drawing directly in InDesign. It isn't the most facile drawing program, but it gives maximum flexibility for making changes.

>> EDIT: New, slightly darker direction for Gulliver. I like how Swift reverses the social order in the Houynyhyms story, and I want to do something similar here. The Atlanteans, though their society is perfect and lovely for them, are not at all sympathetic toward other creatures. They 'fish' for humans and other land-dwelling creatures, and imprison them in a giant air-filled terrarium for their own amusement and edification.

Social commentary will occur in the fish-men’s responses to Gulliver’s objections, pointing out that he has no moral high ground to stand on because humans keep intelligent animals in captivity all the time (plus lie, cheat, steal, kill each other, ruin the environment and so on -- none of which the Atlanteans do).

Adventure (which was missing from my other idea) come in the form of Gulliver trying to escape a seemingly impossible prison.

[Ilaekae]

Naomi Ningishzidda

[Ilaekae]

Newbs...


This is a begining sequence my story centers around some sea witches in conflict with humans. the sea witches live in thermal vents that the humans are mining. i never got to that point with the POW, but there you have my idea.

[Ilaekae]

Oregano...


I don't really have sequentials, as this didn't pan out that way. But there is a coherent theme through the entry. I guess I could argue that the story here is more about the planet and the people than a given individual or caste of characters.

[Ilaekae]

prepsage...


Excerpted from Conversations with My Great-Grandmother, the Last Witness :

There once was a time when our people lived next to water -- not in it or above it, not dominated by its whims. Water, in those days, was contained. Imagine walking away from all this water, walking so far away that you cannot even see it anymore! You have known nothing except this world -- you cannot imagine that.

Back then the world was far more complex. For there wasn't simply the plants and creatures of the deep to discover, but the inhabitants of land as well. And it happened one day that the scientists of our ancestors decided to ask the gods questions -- fatal, foolish questions about the mysteries surrounding them.

They pushed, child, they pushed and prodded. Their curiousity crossed lines. The gods were not pleased at their attempts to learn things they were not privileged to know, and lives were taken to show this. But the scientists continued to test the patience of the gods as far as it would go, which isn't very far for all their infiniteness. It is good for you to remember that. Because eventually, with a shock of light, the gods finally answered -- and the scientists were taken for their nosiness.

But their assistants and laborers on the Minerva -- and we, the children of their assistants and laborers -- were plunged into darkness before finding ourselves very close to this world that we now call Meridia. So close were we, child, that the blue was all I could see out of the pod window.

You are familiar with the strength of this planet: the gales, the angry-dark clouds of the approaching tempest, the waves bigger than life itself. Well, dear, her embrace is just as strong, just as immense: she pulled us in, as we say, and it is doubtful she will ever let go.

Excerpt written by:
Tess-Tricks

[Ilaekae]

Saturns Gate...

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

flashrabbit I think you deserve it, i love the little duck fish and the colors and the starfish coffee! Great work on your other categories too!

[mickeymao]

Ilaekae, you seem to have combined a bit of Oregano's stuff with prepsage. Also, I'd like to clarify that my Gulliver piece ends with the outline page (page 7). The subsequent two pages are a different story idea: a near-future, hard sci-fi, attempted utopia, told through photo/video journals.

I most liked the entries of flashrabbit, prepsage, and arttorney, as those are the ones where I'm getting a real sense of the story arc and POV. Saturn's Gate did a great-looking sequence too, but it's really a prelude to the main story IMO. Only Oregano addressed the concept of utopia in a way that I found satisfactory, but he didn't tell enough of a story for my taste.

Out of these, flashrabbit's is the story I most want to see the rest of, and it has the most distinctive aesthetic. However, I find myself wanting to vote for arttorney's unpolished piece -- not because he works his butt off in POW every week, but because he dragged so many different social issues and sci-fi cliches into his piece and made me chuckle repeatedly. Incidentally, I think he could do great things with a clip art approach (ala Get Your War On).

Naomi and LateNight, I recommend thinking a bit more about your 'camera', as right now every panel is drawn from eye-level at more or less the same distance. Use long-shots, high and low angles, over-the-shoulder, establishing shots, etc. Try different ideas at the rough sketch stage before committing to ink or 'paint'.

[Ilaekae]

Thanks for the head's up, MM. I didn't make a mistake THIS time--this server has been treating me like shit all day. It took three tries just for it to accept the poll set-up, and I still had to move three other pieces that ended up in random posts, which should be impossible because I feed them from different folders. It's corrected.

I recognized yours as two items, but posted both together because I thought it was obvious to anyone looking that that was the case. I can sep them into two posts if you'd rather.

[MeTaL-Mike]

fuck yeah there's some really cool stuff in here. i didn't get to finish mine so if you want you can remove mine. these few sketches were just the beginning of my story and so.

[LateNiteHype]

I voted for flashrabbit. I think his concept is very unique and even though emphasis for the contest was not on how refined the final submission looked, I could not help taking the slickness of his panels into account. I like the colors and the cartoony approach.

Arttorney's story pulled me in though- he had a good sci-fi plot, creatures, gadget how-tos, some character development going and my favorite line in panel 4-4 ("AAAh! AAAh! etc." - :) )

[donalfall]

Prepsage got my vote. Really interesting material going on there. I am jealous of all the entries though, some great ideas and variety being pushed in them all, and some real skill being shown in most.

I'm still without a computer (effectively) so I'll stick the bits and pieces I did for DEEP in my sketchbook when I have a new machine. However, I don't think there's any way I would have won - some real competition being shown here. :) Well done all.

[Naomi Ningishzidda]

I also thought late nite hype had some cool stuff going on with his little tribes people, although I must say I have no idea what is going on totally...lol..

I do like the concept of being dipped in a pool of insanity and visions though....mmm