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Description
Ok, Alyn enters a deviantart contest. Something I haven't done in terms of creating a piece for a contest... not tried that before. Needless to say I found it fairly difficult, but I thought long and hard, and I'm more than happy with the outcome. So let me explain this image.

----- For the benefit of the judges/anyone interested. ---------

: Submission for Digital Art :

What inspired me to create this image?.

Inspiration is a difficult thing to come by. The article in which this contest is announced goes into the familiar "originality" debate, something I've had many a rant about already. Now, the way in which I approached this topic was to apply the originality idea to the inspiration itself. Creating a piece of art because you've been inspired by a book, a movie, some music, another artist... all well and good, but in the end you're still sliding away from originality. How's that? because you're being inspired by something that's already done, whatever you create beyond there will no doubt pick-up some of the elements from that. In order to push the limits of creativity, your inspiration should be closer to something you as an individual hold special, something less material. So I avoided those aforesaid.

As the name suggests, I chose family. Two things drawn from this. First of all was my own family, a source of constant inspiration and motivation. Whether I like it or not, they're there for me in the end, couldn't get very far without them. In that vein, I thought larger, of the earth as a family, minute in size in contrast to even our near neighbourhood in space. We're all unified by that in the end. If you sit down and take time to think about it, that's pretty awe-commanding.

How does the image echo this?

Everything in the image was thought about, that's no different from any recent piece of my art that I've devoted any large degree of effort to, but this time I've gone for that symbolic appeal.

- The terrain represents home, the fireworks display a sign that no matter where I've gone, I will always be greeted back with open arms, a celebration (think prodigal son, except not necessarily prodigal). It's in almost island style, plenty of open waters to the right to enhance that "special" and "untouchable" feeling.
- The planets represents people from the family. No matter how far away they stray, no matter how small they are, they're always visible.
- The ethereal blue light is a symbol of unification. Everything around is affected by light, something to hold in common, just as the idea of inhabiting the earth is something in common. The tiny asteroid belt symbolises the minute perils we may face, but that are nearly naught in such a strong light.
- The pillar of light and mist towards the centre demonstrates that there's always contact, no matter how feint.

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However well I perform in this contest, I know one thing. I've created what I hold to be my most favourite piece in my gallery. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Wish me luck

Description
Ok, Alyn enters a deviantart contest. Something I haven't done in terms of creating a piece for a contest... not tried that before. Needless to say I found it fairly difficult, but I thought long and hard, and I'm more than happy with the outcome. So let me explain this image.

----- For the benefit of the judges/anyone interested. ---------

: Submission for Digital Art :

What inspired me to create this image?.

Inspiration is a difficult thing to come by. The article in which this contest is announced goes into the familiar "originality" debate, something I've had many a rant about already. Now, the way in which I approached this topic was to apply the originality idea to the inspiration itself. Creating a piece of art because you've been inspired by a book, a movie, some music, another artist... all well and good, but in the end you're still sliding away from originality. How's that? because you're being inspired by something that's already done, whatever you create beyond there will no doubt pick-up some of the elements from that. In order to push the limits of creativity, your inspiration should be closer to something you as an individual hold special, something less material. So I avoided those aforesaid.

As the name suggests, I chose family. Two things drawn from this. First of all was my own family, a source of constant inspiration and motivation. Whether I like it or not, they're there for me in the end, couldn't get very far without them. In that vein, I thought larger, of the earth as a family, minute in size in contrast to even our near neighbourhood in space. We're all unified by that in the end. If you sit down and take time to think about it, that's pretty awe-commanding.

How does the image echo this?

Everything in the image was thought about, that's no different from any recent piece of my art that I've devoted any large degree of effort to, but this time I've gone for that symbolic appeal.

- The terrain represents home, the fireworks display a sign that no matter where I've gone, I will always be greeted back with open arms, a celebration (think prodigal son, except not necessarily prodigal). It's in almost island style, plenty of open waters to the right to enhance that "special" and "untouchable" feeling.
- The planets represents people from the family. No matter how far away they stray, no matter how small they are, they're always visible.
- The ethereal blue light is a symbol of unification. Everything around is affected by light, something to hold in common, just as the idea of inhabiting the earth is something in common. The tiny asteroid belt symbolises the minute perils we may face, but that are nearly naught in such a strong light.
- The pillar of light and mist towards the centre demonstrates that there's always contact, no matter how feint.

-----------------------

However well I perform in this contest, I know one thing. I've created what I hold to be my most favourite piece in my gallery. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Wish me luck