Chow #205 :: VOTING :: Gaia

[ArtbyWard]

FINALS ONLY

-=ROUND 205=-


-= Gaia =-

-------------
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii293/chowarchive/CHOW-LINES/CHOW-LINES-MEDUSA.jpg
NOT SURE ABOUT THE GUIDELINES? CLICK HERE! (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=117390)
-------------------


ROUND #205 :: Gaia

DESCRIPTION



Gaia



Gaia is the Mother of Nature and the personification of Earth. She appeared from Chaos and is the bringer of all life.

Design Gaia!

- Setting can be anything! You don't have to stick with the Greek myth.
- Go wild in your design: Gaia is the mother of all life so her appearance should show her grandness.
- It might be interesting to think of the human influences on nature and how this would reflect on Gaia's appearance.


Some reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_(mythology)


Good luck!
--------------------

SUBMITTING YOUR ENTRY:
1: You must submit ONE full sized image.
2: Make sure your name and CHOW # are EASILY READABLE on your entry.
3: Use the Standard format (Below);

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i222/ChowPics/frame.jpg
:right: PLACE THE IMAGE IN A FRAME WITH YOUR NAME/TOPIC
:right: SAVE YOUR FILE IN THE FOLLOWING FORMAT:
Chow##_Nickname
example: "CHOW#100_Oregano.jpg"

THE REST IS EASY:
1: No comments before poll is set. They WILL be deleted with utmost malice and petty grumbling. >:{
2: Sit back and enjoy the show. BYOPC (Bring your own popcorn)
3: Good luck to all.
[/LEFT][/SIZE]

Please review these helpful reminders if you have not done so already.

:right:ON GETTING TO POLL (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1891823&postcount=15)
-------------------------
:right:NEW ROUND RULE: WIPS PLEASE! (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1910999&postcount=27)
-------------------------
:right:SUBMISSION FORMAT REMINDER (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1911002&postcount=28)



PLEASE REMEMBER TO WRITE YOUR COPYRIGHT INFORMATION UNDER THE IMAGE IN THE FINAL BURNING THREAD SO I DON'T HAVE TO HUNT YOU DOWN LATER!

---

Quick Check: Have You Submitted Your Chow Properly?

- is it named correctly? (ie, "CHOW#100_Oregano.jpg")
- has it been uploaded using the attachment editor?
- have you also uploaded or linked to your wips?
- have you followed the brief?

Good luck!

[Nonobot]

Oyeee.

[Martheart]

Posting Goog's final since he could not post it himself:

[Howie]

Very interesting round, look forward to seeing the rest of the finals

1020515

1020516

[madhatter106]

Wish I had the opportunity to get color into this, but running out of time. Thanks for the interesting topic, and thanks for posting the burning thread this early...

[PMaz]

1020556
1020554
They paved my face with concrete.
They stripped me of my green dress,
leaving me with black rubber and twisted metal.
My breath is now the stench of death,
for brown water is my only sustenance.
From my bosom only flow the black tar
man is so fond of and my fertility is forever gone.

Nevertheless, I thank man for my stone face.
Since eyeless I will never behold how mankind rapped its own mother.

[fedde]

Gaia as the spirit of the earth, not happy about what people are doing to it and trying to preserve it as it was meant to be.

[LostFayth]

Gaia right after she was being born from Chaos. She is playing with the ingredients that will create the Earth and nature upon the earth.


1020874

1020870

[Grafguy]

Great enteries so far :)
Here's mine, Gaia as a sort of Nature Demon just sparked out of chaos.

[Retalliator]

Here is my old chilled out Gaia.

[buffichar]

Woah I love eveyones work. I was just playing around with mine. I did something different. Was great seeing you guys work though.

[lake7less]

And behind door nr ooooooone… Gaia!
Her hobbies are gardening sculpting and designing life on this side of the Milky Way.
Make no mistake about this easy going lady; she’s as a-moral as lightening when having entire species for breakfast with just a pinch of extinction. A bit of an eco freak she’s estimated to have recycled 99.9% of all species that have ever lived here into brand new evolved versions of themselves.
Tough as a coffin nail she enjoys documentaries on oil spills and nuclear winters with a sardonic grin on her cute little face; when she started out, this piece of rock didn’t even have as much as an atmosphere, so what could be more amusing than watching poor harmless humanity play stupid with itself? She loves parting gifts and she’s got her eyes set on ruins.
You are bound to have a world of fun together with our lovely bachelorette as she’ll be providing you with her very own romantic backyard where she’s got an overdose of life with your name on it. Do enjoy your date you lucky rascal you, ‘cause at the end of the day …life’s a killer:shrug:

[xLouisax]

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u43/louisasasa/CHOW205_xLouisax.jpg
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u43/louisasasa/CHOW205samples.jpg

[leckronium]

1021140


1021141

[Obliviongrin]

Alien bringing life to a barren earth

[staticpen]

Considered what it would be like if Gaia was represented by multiple forms. The earthly natural entity and the anthropomorphized "avatar" that handles all the communication with other beings, but both one and the same god.

[goldilockz]

Yeah... I pretty much just got sick of this one after a while. Threw in some brushes to make my life easier for the time being. I hate this painting, but here it is. My final Gaia.

Fire brushes - Dragonfire3k3
Butterfly brushes - hellobaby
Other random brushes - adonhis and charfade

[Mephistoau]

Good entries kids :)

[Soupandbutter]

1021325

Wips:

102139410213951021396

[Feil Magnus]

"Let's pour some salt on our old blue planet"

[reginanegra]

here it is!

[Sillirien]

Thank you for your remarks and advices friends! For my pity I was far from my computer for long time and it was to little time to me to end my work... So it really looks unfinished. Anyway I thought that I want to show it to you)

[ianthegeek]

Loving the entries.
Here's my humble attempt. Gotta move today so I'm posting early for me. Normally I'm last minute. :)

[no87]

awesome work everyone!!! :D
wanted to do more with mine but haven't had much time. :/

[Chong]

My second Character of the week but the first one I'm happy with lol.

[PxelSlayer]

Gaia. The First Spirit. Mother of all Life. Daughter of Chaos. And ultimately - the victim of mankind.

WIPS (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2803682&postcount=25) placed here for your convenience. :)

And now, back to my vacation. Great round everybody!:steph:

[ArtByManon]

Appearing from Chaos and Bringing forth LIFE!!

Gaia

(WIPS - http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1018059&stc=1&d=1279016791

http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1019960&stc=1&d=1279230865

http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1020411&stc=1&d=1279301993)

[Rhdnor]

Gaia, represented by a tattooed goddess covered with the foliage depicting the earth's bounty and accompanied by two other life-giving sources. The dots on her forehead represent her third eye, I just thought it would make it look more goddessy.

[:.Interloper.:]

... it's my first time. Forcing myself to enter regardless in the hope of improving over the coming months. It was good fun, looking forward to the next Chow!

:teeth:

[Pixeltuner]

Final. Somewhere along the road a lack of focus crept in but: fun round anyway :)

"Here's our mother earth. Bound, scarred and dirty and at last vomiting out humanity because she's sick of them torturing her all the time. Gaia's dying and this is her last resort."



wips: http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2803594&postcount=23

http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2803736&postcount=31

[Phaethon]

Classical representations of Gaia show a woman emerging from the earth or, later, reclining on the ground.

[Afekay]

Hey there, nice entries so far. :star:

[Ithoual]

Nice job all :]

[Allstar87]

Gaia's newest fashion collection for 2011 !

[Ruri]

This round's lookin mighty fine, guys. :yayca:

[Rusty]

Well done everybody!

[Afekay]

This one is from Kzo (can't register on time for submitting).

[Martheart]

THREAD IS CLOSING (few minutes grace period :oneye:)

[mairuku]

i summon you gaia, from the blackest depths of my dreams and nightmares; swirling chaos and formless might, with your tender beauty lost to the vast nothingness that looks to swallow you. Your warm shadow of light is all that brings hope, aching to burst free and create. Go forth and bring life, birth that which dwells in recesses of your subconscious.

wip:
1021785

final:
1021790

phew..did I make it???

[Reymus]

I don't think I made it :(

[ArtbyWard]

I don't think I made it :(

Don't worry, I've added you last minute :)

[Martheart]

We will look into a new poll image system, since some images turn out very small in the poll. Please look at the full size images in the thread before voting 'cause there is some very cool stuff there!

[PHATandy]

Oh well, looks like I missed it but, only just.
Whats the exact deadline btw? Is it the same time every sunday. Really good work everyone btw.

Heres mine anyways, not point not posting it now Ive done it.
Will post my WIPs in a second too.

[Mark Tarrisse]

They were some very nice entries but I voted only for one.
The reason is, I didn't wanted to see a human body, I think it's too cliché to think of a human looking character when we talk about the creator of nature.
So I voted for Rusty, really awesome concept.

[Sillirien]

I vote for PixelTuner and Chong cause I like their attitude - they show how Earth was remained by humans. Also as I said before I like pictures where Goddess didn't look humanlike (I draw her as woman because I was inspired by wiccan tradition and always thought that greek god's are humanoid).
I never thought about this before - our aspiration to draw Nature humanlike maybe it's reflection of our thought than human is Crown of Nature. Overall I'm agree with Mark.
Anyway - many interesting thoughts and beautiful drawings friends! And I always like cartoon-style picts they are really nice and kind :D

[Rhdnor]

Damn, my earth map is inverted, I hope no one noticed. Finished this in a big hurry---two days. Not bad for me.

How embarrassing.

[xabian]

So gutted I missed the deadline, will still work on finishing it though. Great entries people!

[Cameli]

AAAAAAAAAargh nooooooo Phat andy !!!!!Yours was my fav!Nice work everyone!

[Malakuko]

Voted for Rusty and Staticpen, I agree with Mark there but since Staticpen included two forms of Gaia I thought that deserved my vote, really interesting Idea. And rusty's design is just plain awesome!

[insubstantial]

missed the deadline too. nevermind.
i voted for afekay.

[Goog]

So I have several hours free today and I promised Arthemis that I would critique each piece so here I go...I don't have time to spell check so please forgive those errors :). Also, if my critique seems aggressive, it just means that I am tired so please forgive me :).

NonoBot: Great atmosphere in this piece. Rendering is great too. The concept however is lacking a bit. The only thing that makes the character here different from a normal human female is size, cracked titties, and blank eyes. You really need to push the concept more to make the character more unique/memorable.

Howie: Cool picture, but the concept has been done before. If you are going to do a tree person, you need to give it some unique and memorable characteristics. Also, the composition leads the eye to the pelvis, which is a let down because there isn't really anything interesting there. As a result, the image doesn't really have much staying power in the mind. I think if you added some interesting bits to that pelvic area (maybe she is in the process of "giving birth") then the image would benefit significantly.

madhatter106: This piece relies way too much on the context of the competition to convey the new narrative of the character that you have created. If I saw this piece separate from the context of the competition, I would have a hard time determining who or what she is. Creating a unique narrative is all well and good, but don't rely on the topic of the competition to let the viewer know who the character is. If you want to create a new narrative that isn't "normal", then you need to show it and describe it in the image. Therefore, the piece should be much more illustrative in nature than it is. For example, illustrate the woman in the process of creating nature or controlling nature in some evil-nanny way. Basically, don't expect the viewer to "get-it" unless you hand feed them enough clues.

PMaz: Interesting piece you have here. Really like the dark tone you've established. However, the main crit I have is that you seem to focus on the decay/death aspect to the exclusion of the birth/creation aspect. As a result, the character reads more like a black magic-voodoo-shaman-priestess than the personification of earth. Also, there are great inconsistencies in the lighting of the piece that severely flatten the image, despite your best efforts to create a sense of depth with the background.

fedde: funny piece, but you are expecting the viewer to make some assumptions, which you don't want to do. First you are expecting the viewer to assume that this smiling naked lady somehow caused the wreck. Secondly, you build upon the first assumption by expecting the viewer to then make the assumption that this naked lady is Gaia, because she wrecked the car (and because she has green hair and has a bird on her finger). Basically, you want to get rid of these assumptions for the image to be more powerful.

LostFayth: Interesting idea, but there are several problems with the piece. First is the lighting. In the picture there is an extremely dominant/single lightsource, there are almost no surfaces to reflect light, and the character is extremely close to this dominant lightsource. A situation similar to this is when someone holds a flashlight under their face to tell a scary story at night. This means that the shadows need to be extremely dark, and that there are going to be some abrupt changes from lightest light to darkest dark where there are abrupt changes in form. However, the darkest darks (on the character) are pretty light, which makes the lighting on the character inconsistent relative to the light-source. Also, the concept of the character needs work. It is simply a normal girl with a t-shirt on. Like the topic breif said, "Gaia is the mother of all life so her appearance should show her grandness." A simple t-shirt is the polar opposite of grand.

Grafguy: I think the biggest issue is the lighting. It seems you wanted to go for a pretty diffused light the focuses on the face. The upper-chest/neck area should be a whole lot brighter than it is. When using a diffused lightsource you need to think not just about the peaks and valleys in the form, but also where the form lies in relation to that diffusion of the lightsource. Hopefully that makes sense...

Retalliator: The rendering is accomplished, but the concept needs work. It's just an old woman. What makes her different than any other old woman, other than the fact that she is supposedly Gaia?

Buffichar: Oofff, this would have been an extremely challenging piece because you chose to go with a unique and transparent surface for her skin. I honestly don't know how to make that seem more convincing, sorry I can't help you there :(.

Lake7less: Very interesting figure, love the pose. As for crit, I think the biggest issue is color. The piece is very monochromatic, which gives it a very lifeless feel. I think this piece would greatly benefit from more informed color choices. Also, I would try to use a wider range of values on your forms to help convey the lighting and form of the objects. As it stands, the piece hovers in limbo between being flat and having depth. This may be a stylistic choice, but my personal preference says go one way or the other; its better to have most of the elements of the piece working together than fighting against each other.

xLouisax: I like the idea for the lightsource, but the character is just too plain. It seems like it is just an attractive young woman frolicking in the dark with a strap missing from her dress. There isn't really much here that sets her apart from other attractive young women who frolic in the dark with a strap missing from their dresses.

Leckronium: Man, this is a really great piece. Everything works, except for on very important thing: the face. Those pink wing things on her eyes don't add anything, they only mess up the consistent feel of the character and the piece. Gah, this is such wonderful image aside from those wing thingys. Take them out! :mod:.

Obliviongrin: Woah, crazy awesome pose. Also, I think I should not that I really dig that hand reaching backwards. I think my main crit for this piece is the coloring. It feels rushed and not as well thought through as the rest of the piece. Other than that though, this is a great piece.

StaticPen: Aaaah, this is such an amazing concept. One of the best in the bunch I think. The only thing that holds this back is the finish. There are very few dark darks, especially in places where the viewer would expect to see them (for example, in the shade of the trees). Also, under natural conditions light would be bouncing all over the place in a scene like this, which means the color of the ground would be reflected onto the logs and trees and legs, but that isn't happening. But still, this is a wonderful concept.

goldilockz: Really like the idea (and the face) but there just isn't enough contrast in this piece. You need to get a lot more darks on the form of Gaia to really sell the illusion of form. Or, at least contrast here with the background so that the values don't merge. Also, try to find some more natural looking brushes or simply paint those elements yourself. As it stands they feel very digital, especially in comparison to the natural form of Gaia.

mephistoau: great, great image. Big fan of the lighting setup. The main thing I think is missing here is a sense of depth. You need more distinct divisions between foreground, midground, and background. You almost have some great divisions through the use of the trees, but you have merged them with either the midground or the background. For example, you merged that tree in the front with the midground by making Gaia's shadow fall upon the root. I think if you brought out that tree root into the light you could easily create a foreground and thus a division of space.

Soupandbutter: Fantastic. This is really a wonderful image. The only thing that bugs me are the glowing eyes. They're just too....cliche I guess. I think you could make them interesting in a more unique way than to make them glow. I don't know. This just may be a personal pet peeve. But seriously, this is a great image, thanks for making it so I could see it :).:asspat:

Feil Mangus: very unique approach, as well as a unique style. Hard for me to crit. The only thing I can come up with is that I wish the background was slightly darker than it is now to help separate the character from it. Oh, and one other thing: her cleavage should be in shadow not highlighted :).

Reginanegra: Love the etherial feel of this character. Very creepy. Biggest crit here is the lighting; it is very inconsistent. Always try to keep in mind where and how strong your lightsources are when considering value.

Sillirien: Great concept but it needs more contrast! Contrast is so extremely important. Honestly, just take this piece into photoshop and up the value contrast by 50 or so and it is already 5-10% better. But remember that value isn't the only contrast you need to think about. There is also contrast in color, contrast in form, contrast in line, contrast in edges, etc. Contrast! It can make or break your picture.

ianthegeek: This is a very interesting piece. Very unique concept which I like. Also must have been very hard to make convincing. hmm...I think the main issue is the shape and form of the trees and their leaves. That whole canopy area looks too much like a carpet, especially considering how bare the trunks are. I don't know man, I like the concept but I think I would have to spend a lot of time thinking about the execution before I could give a good crit.

no87: Since this piece is all about the concept, I guess I'll critique that :). Personally, I'm not a big fan of clothes in relation to this topic because they are not found in nature, so why would the personification of earth be wearing them? If she was wearing clothes I would imagine them to be very simple or made of natural materials. That might be more of a personal stance, but the specific choice of clothes you made makes me think that some group of mad scientists found a drunk prostitute and made some diabolical biological creation out of her. Still, you definitely have a great rendering ability; you really sell the illusion of space which is wonderful.

Chong: Love the concept, and great portrayal of it. The only crit I can really offer here is to try to be more aware of the lightsource. Some places are pretty bright when they should be in shadow and vice-versa. For example, I would image that the right leg of the character would be in shadow since the lightsource is behind the character. I noticed in your WIP that you didn't establish the lightsource until the very end, which is a big no-no.

PxelSlayer: :asspat:. Only thing I could come up with is: maybe make those milky clouds at the bottom just a stitch darker to push them further back. Honestly though, this is just a nitpick. Job well done.

ArtByManon: A really solid piece here. Love the concept, and the execution is great. Just two crits: 1.) considering how the sphere (earth) is bathed in light, it doesn't seem logical for it to have an edge in shadow. 2.) Gaia looks like she has had implants, shouldn't she be "all natural"? haha :wink:. But yeah, great piece.

rgeorge: Dang, this is wonderful. I must admit that when I first saw it, it didn't really catch my eye. But now that I really look at it, I am falling in love. I wish I could go back in time and cast a vote for it :(. Good work though.

Interloper: Not a bad first shot :). I think the thing to crit here is the weight shift. Since here entire body weight is shifted onto her right leg, then the right side of her hip will be jacked up, while the left side will be "falling" down (even more than you already have). Also, her shoulders are going to shift to help keep balance, which means that her right shoulder will fall down and her left moves up higher. Try it out yourself. Stand on two feet, then transfer all your body weight to one foot to see what happens.

Pixeltuner: Dang that is intense. Solid though :). The only thing that I would crit is the text. It makes the whole thing look like a poster or cd cover. I think it could do without. While this is definitely a personal call, I'm sure you know that add text to an image can drastically change the context of the image so you have to be careful with it.

Phaethon: Really great execution of the concept. Love the clean lines and pose. I wish there was some depth though. Some distant mountain range or something of that sort. The whole top half of the image just feels...empty. Other than that though, this is a great piece, good work.

Afekay: beau-ti-ful. This piece really hits home the concept. Has a great feel to it. Can't find a single thing to crit :). :asskisser:

Ithoual: Amazing composition. Beautiful composition. Did I say this was a great composition? Putting that aside, I think that the saturation could be kicked up a notch or two in places. The chroma over the entire piece is startlingly low. Other than that, this is wonderful. *highfive*.

Allstar87: haha, yeah, she definitely looks like she's on a catwalk. Overall this piece is great, but there are some minor anatomy issues. That left arm is way too skinny. Also, the head is extremely small in proportion to the body. Other than those, very interesting costume design!

Ruri: Cool picture! love the illustrative quailty of the piece. The only thing I would like to see more of is a bit of color. However this piece is heavily stylized so that may be a personal choice. Really like the transparent nature of the character though. good stuff.

Rusty: I'm a sucker for beautiful rendering so you got my vote. That face is gorgeous, reminds me of something from Pan's Labyrinth. I wish I could see the character in an environment though. :yum:.

Kzo: Really really like this. Just wish there wasn't that much pure black. I understand why you chose to use a lot of pure black (conceptually), but still, I think the image would be more attractive if it all wasn't there. I really, really, really want to see what this would look like without it.

Mairuku/Reymus: I clumped you these two pieces together because the crit I have is the same for both. There is very little that distinguishes this woman from all others. It just needs more for the concept to be unique and interesting.

PHATandy: Really enjoy the colors and atmosphere of this piece. My main crit would be the lighting. It seems that the light that comes from above the character is a relatively strong lightsource, but when it reaches the legs of the character, it just disappears and has no effect on the either the legs or the surrounding environment. But I really do like this. Wonderful job.


Well, I guess that is it. That took a long time....

[ArtbyWard]

Lalilulelo was added to the poll as he accidentally missed the deadline.. This is a one time thing though. After this Chow i assume that everyone is aware of the new deadline! (GMT 9:00 +1)

[ArtByManon]

Goog - I knwo what you're saying - i kind fo went for artistic license with the earth, otherwise it might have looked a bit flat, I didn't know how to make it look spherical without there being shadow one side? - and as for the boobs, boobs in no gravity don't hang in the same way as boobs in gravity!! I am massively against boob jobs!! Check out boobs in water... http://alberich.deviantart.com/#/d2rqiqt

[Rhdnor]

rgeorge: Dang, this is wonderful. I must admit that when I first saw it, it didn't really catch my eye. But now that I really look at it, I am falling in love. I wish I could go back in time and cast a vote for it :(. Good work though.

Thanks, it needs more work, but I enjoyed making it.

[Grafguy]

Goog - thanks alot for taking the time to comment on everyone's piece!
I know what you mean with your comment on mine, annd really appreciate the help.
First I've kinda wonderd why I didn't get any votes at all, so I started to analyze it and break it down bit by bit.

(Imma post all my thought here about my own work so if you don't wanne know, skip ahead)

It was the first time I focused on a painting with the intention of finishing it and making it presentable, and I hadn't painted in a while.
I focused more on gettin technical stuff as anatomy and contrast right, instead of making the piece interesting for the public and telling a story.
A big mistake was the contrast, i thought by making things darker, I made them 'unattractive'/boring to the eyes. And by making things lighter, I'd pull the viewer attention. WRONG

A face isn't as light as that in real life, the legs aren't supposed to be that dark!
I learned that by contrast, it meant that the boring stuff has less darker darks and lighter lights then the focus point(s).
You'd create focus by making in that area the darks darker and the lights lighter, but avoid pure black and white, white is reserved fot highlights or planes that directly face the lightsource.

That was my main problem, focusing on values. And rushing the colors at the very end, not thinking about what would make a good composition, or an interesting character.

But it's my first ChoW, hopefully there are many more to come. I've learned alot from it and am curious of what the next one will teach me.
If I was anywhere wrong with my thoughts, please say so and correct me.

peace!

[leckronium]

Goog - Thanks for the comments. I was a little frustrated with this one as it didn't quite turn out as I wanted it to. I put the "butterfly" accents on her to try and not make her look so normal but I agree they could have done more harm than good.

[Ruri]

lake7less: Excellent composition, but I think the design of Gaia herself is a little bit too plain.

Obliviongrin: Wow! Very Frazetta-esque! Love the pose and intensity, but I think the design of the character could have used more green/nature elements.

staticpen: Amazing. 'Nuff said.

ianthegeek: I love the design of your Gaia, but I don't think you quite pulled off the trees thing. I at first thought she was emerging from a cliff face, which would have been pretty cool actually.

PxelSlayer: Very nice, makes me think of Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's Black Orchid comic.

Phaethon: Love it! Beautiful clean lines. Reminds me of Jamie McKelvie's art. Sky could have used some clouds though, maybe.

Ithoual: Totally badass, but just does not look like Mother Earth to me, sorry.

Rusty: Awesome. I especially like the A Bomb, and the face. I got to say though, I like the full figure in the WIPs better than the one in the finished version.

Kzo: Love the volcanic colours and explosive composition.

PHATandy: Oh man, I would have voted for you if you'd made it in time! Awesome creative design, wouldn't look out of place in a Taiyo Matsumoto manga, and great atmosphere too.

[ianthegeek]

I'd like to thank ruri and goog for taking the time to comment on my piece. It's the constructive and honest critcisms that will help this humble amature improve.
Hopefully see ya'll in the next one (or the one after :))

[jrbarker]

I didn't make the deadline, but decided today to go ahead and finish my piece anyway. Here it is. There were so many amazing entries on this round!