May Art Challenge - Vektor

[Vektor]

Last Thursday I happened to click on the monthly art challenge thread because the title intrigued me, and an appropriate idea instantly popped into my head. I haven't done a monthly art challenge in a while and I desperately needed a short break from my nearly non-stop work on the Polaris, so I decided to go for it.

I started by looking up some reference images and sketching out the concept I had in mind, which I refined down to this within an hour or so:

I was busy and couldn't do any more on it until yesterday afternoon, but once I got rolling it started coming together remarkably fast, by my usual standards anyway:

I worked almost straight through until midnight, adding the first splash of color just before shutting down and crawling into bed.

I had been trying to figure out what to use for a background when an idea suddenly came to me this morning while sitting in church, of all places:

A tunnel leading out of darkness into light? A metaphor for Picard's redemption from what the Borg did to him? Call it what you will, the theme works.

And my last WIP image for the day, expanding on the color and overall mood for the piece:

Obviously I have a ways left to go, particularly on the background, as well as some more tubes and wires and doo-dads for the pile of Borg parts, some texture overlays and a few other things, but I hope to have it finished off within the next day or two.

I'm still feeling out this whole color business, and this level of composition is pretty new to me also, so any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Dac]

Well shit, I wanted to win this month.

 

[Belisarius]

All I can say is...

Edited to add: well that's not entirely true...I will make the suggestion that you lower the light levels on his back a little bit. With the source in front of him, the light would naturally fall more to shadow behind him, not to the extent of a silhouette, but a bit more than what you have in the most recent version.


~Belisarius

 

[LordSarvain]

It's cool, it's awesome, it certainly keeps with the theme, I'm extremely jealous of your ability and I hate you intensely...

 

[MadMan1701A]

Holy Crap, is what I think. Very emotional.

The only suggestion I could think of is to Borgify the walls on the side of the room with the Locutus parts laying there. I think it would make an awesome, poster, too, I think.

 

[RoJoHen]

I'm not sure how I feel about the color scheme in the last image. For one, I always hated how they turned the Borg green. Also, I really like the gray tones of the second-to-last image before you added the colors. I rather liked the idea of the only colors being Picard himself and the red Borg eye.

Otherwise, I frickin love this. I want to turn it into a movie poster.

 

[Dac]

I'm not sure how I feel about the color scheme in the last image. For one, I always hated how they turned the Borg green. Also, I really like the gray tones of the second-to-last image before you added the colors. I rather liked the idea of the only colors being Picard himself and the red Borg eye.

Otherwise, I frickin love this. I want to turn it into a movie poster.

I'd second this. I know the black and white effect in BoBW was all about getting the pale skin tone on the quick and easy, but even though the set was grey it added an eerie out of body experience to the whole thing. I'd make the entire first few feet of the image grey scale and have color develop further back from the camera.

And do what Rojo said and keep the laser red. Then you have a masterpiece i'd pay for

 

[RoJoHen]

It might be cool to have the top and bottom of the image grayscale and have color form at the end of the hallway directly in front of Picard. Maybe a turbolift door is opening and light is pouring out.

 

[Ziz]

Yeah, I gotta go with losing the green also. The hallway is going to be in the beige tones, so keeping the Borg hardware in grey, the red of the laser and Picard's shirt will be the color pop. Having the green in there will just distract the eye.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

Without even being finished, to me this is THE best entry EVER in the history of these competitions.

 

[Vektor]

Well shit, I wanted to win this month.

Your entry is actually what made me take a closer look at this month's contest. My first thought was something similar, the Enterprise or some other familiar starship poised to embark into the final frontier. I love the lighting on your image and the way you set it up, and I don't think this contest is over by a long shot.

I will make the suggestion that you lower the light levels on his back a littel bit. With the source in front of him, the light would naturally fall more to shadow behind him, not to the extent of a silhouette, but a bit more than what you have in the most recent version.

The brightness on his back got pumped up a bit more than I intended by the tone and color overlays, but I don't think it's too far out of line given he is well within the brightly lit corridor and some of those overhead panels are already behind him. I probably will make some adjustments based on some of the ideas you guys have already given me (see below).

It's cool, it's awesome, it certainly keeps with the theme, I'm extremely jealous of your ability and I hate you intensely...

Well, at least you're not indifferent.

The only suggestion I could think of is to Borgify the walls on the side of the room with the Locutus parts laying there. I think it would make an awesome, poster, too, I think.

I really love that idea and I'm bummed I didn't think of it myself. However, I'm concerned that would run counter to the theme, making it look more like the Borg are encroaching on Picard from behind rather than Picard having cast off Locutus and regained his freedom. I even debated over the active laser on the Borg head gear for the same reason, but it seemed too cool not to use.

I'm not sure how I feel about the color scheme in the last image. For one, I always hated how they turned the Borg green. Also, I really like the gray tones of the second-to-last image before you added the colors. I rather liked the idea of the only colors being Picard himself and the red Borg eye.

Otherwise, I frickin love this. I want to turn it into a movie poster.

The main reason I used green was because it's the complimentary color to red. I do get what you're saying about the gray tones and I may see what I can do with that.

I hadn't thought about the similarities to a movie poster but since you mention it, yeah.

I'd second this. I know the black and white effect in BoBW was all about getting the pale skin tone on the quick and easy, but even though the set was grey it added an eerie out of body experience to the whole thing. I'd make the entire first few feet of the image grey scale and have color develop further back from the camera.

It might be cool to have the top and bottom of the image grayscale and have color form at the end of the hallway directly in front of Picard. Maybe a turbolift door is opening and light is pouring out.

These two suggestions give me some good ideas. I specifically want to avoid the "light at the end of the tunnel" effect, but I do like the idea of the color originating there and fading out to gray at the near end of the corridor, except for the laser. I might retain just a hint of green to capitalize on those complementary colors.

Thanks guys!

 

[BillJ]

Just awesome.

 

[Klaus]

wow... very nice.

 

[Cmdr_Blop]

Damn... that is AWESOME!!!

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Well shit, I wanted to win this month.

Don't worry, I'll give you a pity vote.

In my mind.

Before I vote for Vek.

 

[Dac]

Well shit, I wanted to win this month.

Don't worry, I'll give you a pity vote.

In my mind.

Before I vote for Vek.

The sad thing is, I'll probably do the same.

 

[Kaiser]

this so Awesome and very very fitting to the theame

 

[largo]

my vote, as always, is available for purchase.

 

[Bill Morris]

Steaming hot--and cool.

 

[BillJ]

Now to nitpick. Isn't the uniform wrong? Shouldn't it have a '\/' to the right. Currently it just looks like Picard put his uniform on backwards.

Still amazing stuff.