The Rise of Salamander

[Twincruiser]

This is a continuation of our Metamorphosis concept. Rather than going for a totally abstract scene we tried to merge abstract and figurative. We also had the idea to remain within a mythological framework by blending Aztec, Mayan and a bit Asian features with mechanical aspects. The salamander is commonly used to symbolize flames and so is a symbol of fire and burning desire.

-Michel and René Koiter (aka Twincruiser)

http://www.hallsofcreation.com/Salamander.jpg

[SEVANS]

I'm actually getting lost on some of the things in the foreground. What is going on in this area? I can't tell. I can see a tail and lots of other stuff.

The overall colour is great and the man on top of the beasts head like good.

[Moe]

Simply amazing work.

[nikia]

Absolutely beautiful! I love the colors in it, and the detail is great, but like Sevens, I'm left wondering if the foreground is part of the creature or something else?

[Twincruiser]

Like said above, we really wanted to build upon that Metamorphosis concept but make it less abstract than the the previous attempts so we went for a 50/50 approach. The piece actually conveys the rise/birth/creation of the creature...it begins with its symbolic element of fire...in between we see the inner constructions and several pieces (like the the skin and wings) coming together to form the organic final output. So from bottom to top we have an elemental/mechanical/organic transition (abstract to figurative).

In the end this was again an experiment (like the other Metamorphosis piece) but this time to see if we could pull it off in color. It might be hard to 'read' the design but that's actually the whole point :)

[bOne]

The shapes are rendered with only the highlights on them. So there is a very strong contrast between black areas and enlighted areas.

Maybe you could play more with global light, to bring more range.