HOME | DD

Description
the "Finish Avatar" project week nine. Leave me a suggestion for a picture

Featured in:

When I started this picture, I didn't know quite what I was getting into. I tried to describe that below. I don't intend on doing anything with physical pain in it very often, there was just so much emotion surrounding this moment, that I wanted to capture it for that reason. There is a link to the "unrestricted" version at the end... but please read this description first.

....

I'm going to be honest. This is not what a fresh burn looks like. What this is, is an old scar dressed up to look like a fresh burn. It's acceptable... but it's substandard, and it's not an accident that it is this way, either. I made it to be substandard.

As an artist, I can't stand putting up substandard work. It goes against everything I know, everything I've learned. I never put something up if I feel it's not the best I can do. Today I did. I'm not fully proud of this as an artist, but I can manage.

But, I'm not just an artist, I'm also a human. And, as a human... I can't stand to see suffering. It's hard for me to watch the news, I cry when I watch movies like "William Shakespeare's Romeo+Juliet," "A Walk to Remember" and "The Passion of Christ." And, when I look at the character of Zuko, it hurts inside to see his pain.

So, while it's hard for me to put this up as an artist.... It's even harder for me to put up the honest version of this and call myself a human.

In truth, It's never been the physical pain or the gore that makes these sorts of things hard for me. In the same way, it's not the death that makes watching the news hard, or the blood in "The Passion of Christ"... it's the emotional scarring left over, the death of dreams and ambitions... the loss of peace in existing (the true essence of life).

So when I see the real injury, as I painted it in the "honest" version... what I'm really seeing is his undying love for his family and nation, the inescapable fear of failure, the blind desire to feel his father's acceptance, the months and years that followed where that desire turned into an unfortunate NEED and he lost all love and peace in his life. What I'm really seeing is all of his hopes and dreams sizzling and burnt to a crisp... and it hurts me. Right in the heart, like a fist clinching at my insides.

He never hated his father... The selfish megalomaniac that caused his pain... not once, not ever. Instead he turned it into sightless motivation. Motivation to prove himself worthy of the throne and title he worshiped. The suffering that taught him wasn't just this burn to the face, it was the manipulation of his heart forcing him to take a wearied path of injustice. The real suffering was in defining his honor as some "granted" unreachable goal... and telling him that he didn't have it.

Even when he learned the falsehoods of his life, even when he learned that he could "earn" his own honor by following his heart... Zuko couldn't hate his father. He let him go during the eclipse... and, at the end, he only wished his father's death to bring an end to the suffering of the people of the world (as apparent in the Freudian slip, when he said "Father Lord" in the last episodes). It's hard to wrap my head around this beautiful quality of his... seeing his pain here, I can't envision a future a love and kindness, yet Zuko manages it.

So when I see Zuko's face, charred from a third degree burn that I painted onto him and clenching his teeth in pain at an injury that I put there... it makes me feel as much responsible for his suffering as his father was. The suffering of a such beautiful person, a pure soul. I know it's not the same... but that's how it feels.

.....

If, after reading this, you still want to see how I painted his true pain. I have it here in my scraps: [link] , but I warn you, it's not pretty. If you're not up to that sort of gore, you can get an idea as to the extent of his injury by looking at my pencils here: [link] .

Avatar belongs to Nick, and the geniuses: Mike and Bryan. Art belongs to me.

See More of my Avatar Fanart here: [link]

Thanks for looking
-Matt

Ryuki's there, but he's not hiding. Perhaps he'll get back to the hiding some day (see where he's been here: [link] )

Description
the "Finish Avatar" project week nine. Leave me a suggestion for a picture

Featured in:

When I started this picture, I didn't know quite what I was getting into. I tried to describe that below. I don't intend on doing anything with physical pain in it very often, there was just so much emotion surrounding this moment, that I wanted to capture it for that reason. There is a link to the "unrestricted" version at the end... but please read this description first.

....

I'm going to be honest. This is not what a fresh burn looks like. What this is, is an old scar dressed up to look like a fresh burn. It's acceptable... but it's substandard, and it's not an accident that it is this way, either. I made it to be substandard.

As an artist, I can't stand putting up substandard work. It goes against everything I know, everything I've learned. I never put something up if I feel it's not the best I can do. Today I did. I'm not fully proud of this as an artist, but I can manage.

But, I'm not just an artist, I'm also a human. And, as a human... I can't stand to see suffering. It's hard for me to watch the news, I cry when I watch movies like "William Shakespeare's Romeo+Juliet," "A Walk to Remember" and "The Passion of Christ." And, when I look at the character of Zuko, it hurts inside to see his pain.

So, while it's hard for me to put this up as an artist.... It's even harder for me to put up the honest version of this and call myself a human.

In truth, It's never been the physical pain or the gore that makes these sorts of things hard for me. In the same way, it's not the death that makes watching the news hard, or the blood in "The Passion of Christ"... it's the emotional scarring left over, the death of dreams and ambitions... the loss of peace in existing (the true essence of life).

So when I see the real injury, as I painted it in the "honest" version... what I'm really seeing is his undying love for his family and nation, the inescapable fear of failure, the blind desire to feel his father's acceptance, the months and years that followed where that desire turned into an unfortunate NEED and he lost all love and peace in his life. What I'm really seeing is all of his hopes and dreams sizzling and burnt to a crisp... and it hurts me. Right in the heart, like a fist clinching at my insides.

He never hated his father... The selfish megalomaniac that caused his pain... not once, not ever. Instead he turned it into sightless motivation. Motivation to prove himself worthy of the throne and title he worshiped. The suffering that taught him wasn't just this burn to the face, it was the manipulation of his heart forcing him to take a wearied path of injustice. The real suffering was in defining his honor as some "granted" unreachable goal... and telling him that he didn't have it.

Even when he learned the falsehoods of his life, even when he learned that he could "earn" his own honor by following his heart... Zuko couldn't hate his father. He let him go during the eclipse... and, at the end, he only wished his father's death to bring an end to the suffering of the people of the world (as apparent in the Freudian slip, when he said "Father Lord" in the last episodes). It's hard to wrap my head around this beautiful quality of his... seeing his pain here, I can't envision a future a love and kindness, yet Zuko manages it.

So when I see Zuko's face, charred from a third degree burn that I painted onto him and clenching his teeth in pain at an injury that I put there... it makes me feel as much responsible for his suffering as his father was. The suffering of a such beautiful person, a pure soul. I know it's not the same... but that's how it feels.

.....

If, after reading this, you still want to see how I painted his true pain. I have it here in my scraps: [link] , but I warn you, it's not pretty. If you're not up to that sort of gore, you can get an idea as to the extent of his injury by looking at my pencils here: [link] .

Avatar belongs to Nick, and the geniuses: Mike and Bryan. Art belongs to me.

See More of my Avatar Fanart here: [link]

Thanks for looking
-Matt

Ryuki's there, but he's not hiding. Perhaps he'll get back to the hiding some day (see where he's been here: [link] )