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Lord-FSan — Real Virtuality
Published: 2010-05-19 08:02:18 +0000 UTC; Views: 2579; Favourites: 23; Downloads: 0
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Description
Hello there!I thought I'd pass by and throw in my latest quickie for you guys to see!
It's not much really, but at the same time it is kind of special.
Here is "Real Virtuality", some kind of reflection of our current world and its virtual dimensions.
I'll let you guys think about it and see what you want to see. I'm sure there are a lot of ways to interpret this image and some parts of it. Just make sure to comment to give me your point of view on the image itself, or the themes it represents.
It was quite fun to paint actually. It kind of shows 2 of the things that really changed my views on things, and particularly art. Namely the original manga "Ghost In The Shell" by Masamune Shirow, and "The Matrix" by the Waichowski brothers.
I can hear some people screaming at the name of the Matrix. "Booooh Matrix sucks, boooh this booooh that!"
Well you know what, yes they didn't invent anything with that movie story wise, or for the philosophical themes, but you gotta admit, when the first movie was released, it was cool man! Don't deny it, you liked it the first time you saw it!
Then you thought about it and either your brain got fried and you went "naaaah" or it was too simple and just a way to have cool digital effects (they did make up the Bullet Time thing for that movie, which wasn't used before if I'm not mistaken) and you went "naaaah"
So yeah, two of some of my influences and inspirations.
Masamune Shirow is the guy who made me want to draw. I started reading his mangas with Appleseed, then Ghost In The Shell, which totally blew my mind and to this date remains one of my favorite mangas of all time.
I guess some of you will think of Kusanagi while looking at my painting here. Which was both wanted and not.. lol.
The background was a pain to make.. it really was! It doesn't look like much, but I was staring at my screen for hours trying to figure out how I would paint what I had in mind.
Eventually, small by small, I managed to somewhat get kinda close to what I had in mind.
And I think that's pretty much all I have to say about that image
Now onto the boring details:
Adobe Photoshop CS3, Wacom Intuos2 9x12 tablet, about 10 hours of actual work.
Girl made with reference from a picture by *mjranum-stock
Used a couple brushes by ~concept-on-mac and some binary code that I got somewhere a long time ago...
As always, comments/favs/watches are highly appreciated
[edit] see some details at this [link] [/edit]
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Comments: 23
This is really really awesome FSan! I love the "matrix" styling in the upper 90o reminds me of Ghost in the Shell & Assassin's Creed, as well as Neo ;D (Lol I just read your artist comments, and how you were inspired by them. Which obviously you pulled off on point)
Anyways, I'm loving the background! Like, really lovin the color scheme and the window lights near her knee. The only thing I would change would be the size of the buildings in the back. To me the buildings should be bigger the closer they are to the subject, and smaller the further away it gets.
In regards to the subject, awesome pose! Nice detail on the Sniper Rifle, armor, and folds on the clothing. (You never seem to disappoint me in that department.) The only thing I'm going to nit pick at, is the lighting, and her skin color. I would love to see more "pink" or a bit of "red" on her face and hands. Right now to me see seems a bit yellow. As for the lighting, your shading is fine, but I think you should have taken advantage of the moon light and the orange city lighting. To break this down even further, I would have removed the light source form behind for 2 reasons (or at least made it subtle)
1.) You'll never see a sniper, until it's too late.
2.) Good Snipers won't have a flood light (or headlights) shining on them when they are "hunting."
Although, I realize, this is done to show the subject for artistic reasons, I still would have made that particular light source less predominate.
All and all, I like this piece and the direction you are going with your art.
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First of all, thanks for the critique, it is much appreciated and it means a lot to me that you took the time to give it to me and look at my work in details
To be honest, I totally expected some of the comments you made. Like I knew they were coming as I was painting! lol!
The main ones being of course the bullets you pointed out. A sniper wouldn't be in the light like this and they wouldn't show themselves like that in the open.
This said, I have a good excuse for these very voluntary "mistakes". And to be honest I'm surprised you didn't totally grasp the "concept" behind this image besides its artistic value (if there is any.. lol)
The concept is explained by the title itself. "Real Virtuality", or where is the difference between "real" and "virtual". I could have titled it "Virtual Reality", but to me it would have meant something different (beside the name being already over-used already.. lol) virtual reality to me means a fake world, a world imagined, programmed, made up to make you think it's real, to make you believe.
Real Virtuality (note that virtuality is apparently not a real word, which makes it even cooler ;D) to me means when what is fake actually becomes real, becomes the norm. When you come out of the virtual reality, you go back to the real world. You come out of the matrix (the virtual world) and unplug from it to get back to the real world (Zion, to keep the reference). But if the virtual is actually real. What happens if you unplug? Can you even unplug? Does the real world become virtual?
To get back to why she is in the light, and which also explains why the colors from the city don't seem to reflect on her skin and clothes (though it would have looked better, I give you that... lol). As you can see, the background actually breaks/falls apart in the corner, revealing the binary code behind it, transition that looks quite unnatural on the image, but it's wanted. So it could make you question whether the background is real or not. (Matrix much, I know... lol). This is also supported by the fragments of code hovering in the foreground.
So maybe she is actually not standing there. Maybe she is somewhere totally different, in a room where the lighting has nothing to do with the city we see. Maybe as this real/virtual world is dissipating, the real light is now shining on her. Maybe she was just in some kind of training program or something. We'll never know, we can only make assumptions.
The buildings themselves seem to have no real structure, just a mess of very square windows, lights flashing, uneven, reminiscing from the super computers from the 80s (at least to me.. lol), the only thing close to be "real" (as seen in some sci-fi movies and other mediums) being the bottom part, where we see and actual mix of colors blending together, whereas the further you look, the flatter it gets although it should have some depth in it.
I'm not sure all this make any sense to you, but it does to me, in my head lol!
I won't deny that some of the choices I made in this image are purely artistic, as I always do in my paintings, especially the full blown ones. I often say that it doesn't always have to look real in order to look good. To bring more confusion and go further in that particular case, I think it doesn't have to look real in order to be real.. ;D
But maybe I'm just making excuses now, who knows
Anyways, thanks a lot for the critique Sweetheart, again I appreciate it a lot, especially coming from you!
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Lol I love how you saw my comments coming. I swear we were made from the same cloth or something.
But now that you explained it, thanks for over loading my brain. It makes sense to me, and I understand your point... but while I was reading your explanation, (lol) I was actually thinking about all the possibilities in regards to the "reality" and "fantasy" and those mixed in between. It's like I was playing chess and thinking 10 moves ahead!
So, I understand what you were explaining... lol but btw you didn't hint at this thing being that "cryptic" or I would have taken it into consideration. Or perhaps Halo 3 Multiplayer has really deteriorated my mind. Or maybe what I'm thinking isn't really thinking... and this keyboard really isn't real... and the words I'm typing really don't exist... 
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Lol!
That's one of the problem when you start thinking about the concept of reality and virtuality and how they mix together. It quickly gets out of hand lol..
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>:C nm, I take it back... you did hint about "Themes" in the artist comments. I now get labeled as a "douchebag" for the day.
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This is a nice artwork; very meaningful
I love how much you improved on your coloring, especially on the details of your characters' wardrobe (love how you drew the shoes here XD)
Something's just wrong with the buildings; it's just too occupied, like there are no existing roads below (you get what I mean?) But overall it's another good work, and i love it.
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Thanks my dear <3
I see what you mean for the buildings, but there's a reason, a concept behind this. Which would take too long to explain
Miss you!!!!
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This picture came out nice. Great job on it
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I loved the floor details, it just looks so real! I liked how the city glowed around her, and her anatomy. I loved how there was actually scuff and dirt on her shoes, the muscles underneath the tight suit, and the way her hair actually...flowed. All the details that most people would ignore, you did a great job on. My critique would be the background. They lacked a dimension and a touch up that made it seem like a solid, murky, backdrop. The color of her fingers, the way the fingers were curled doesn't appear as real to me as the rest of her. The nose really bothered me too as the extra line coming out of her nostril was a bit distracting. But over all, it was pretty neat. I love the Matrix.
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Thanks for the detailed comment, I really appreciate it
I understand what you mean about the background. I'll be honest with you, I hate making backgrounds. Unfortunately, that's something that has to be done for a complete image like this one.
This said, I actually didn't want to make it too detailed, or too "real". You're totally right saying it would have looked better with more depth to it, with more structure. This said, the background is one of the two parts of the theme represented here.
In this image I tried to represent the duality between the "real" world and the "virtual" one. The subject (the girl) is the real part of this world, whereas the background is the "virtual" part, hence why it breaks apart in the corner. The buildings are simple, yet a giant mess of very square lights, kinda like a super computer from the 80s (lol)
I guess I have to agree with you on the fingers, as it is true I haven't worked on them as much as I should have. As for the extra line coming out of her nostril, your comment made me laugh. I actually didn't notice it until you pointed it out to me
Again, thanks for the comment, it's great to have such insight
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I understand what you're saying, but when I first saw the picture, it was a blob because of the way the background was done. It seemed to cover, and not enhance the girl and the background itself. When I think duality, I think contrast, but again, I may be missing something. Artists see one thing, even when their brush tries to say another
No problem. Like I said, I really loved the way you drew the girl. Just keep going at it. I can't wait to see what else you make
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Thanks man, I appreciate it
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in my opinion...you should put ALOT...of your works in colour me
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lol! I guess I could put some more, and some of my sketches from my already posted paintings... But most of those sketches are really messy.. They're good for me since I don't use them as lineart, but I'm not sure for others...
Maybe if I went back to them and cleaned up the lines to make them more useable.. lol
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Thanks man, I appreciate it
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