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NEONnyc — Armand: Into the Copse
Published: 2007-02-01 17:03:20 +0000 UTC; Views: 3088; Favourites: 32; Downloads: 0
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“You will find nothing; you will find only the wild blowing grass and the trees. Put the Ikon in the branches of a tree. Place it for the will of God, so that when it is found by the Tatars they will know his Devine power. Place it there for the pagans. And come home.”The Vampire Armand – Copyright © 1998 by Anne O’Brien Rice
Before Armand, before Amadeo, there was Andrei the innocent child of the Pechersk outside of 15th century Kiev Rus. Son of Ivan the Hunter, devoted novice at the Monastery of the Caves, blessed painter of Ikons. But, if you look closely you will see that as the boy clutches his burlap wrapped treasure and makes his way into the copse of trees, that childhood is about to be brutally and forever stripped from him.
NOTE: If our boy looks much younger here it is because he is. Remember, this event takes place some three years before Amadeo is made immortal. For those interested, this is the same young model I used for him as in Amadeo’s Revelation – my Amadeo, Jr. if you will
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Comments: 59
Wow!! I love this one, he really looks as a Russian little boy, the way you dressed him is absolutely nice. Actually Andrei is my fave name for him, even it´s not his vampire name, I don´t care ^^
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Yes, Armand was very young when he was abducted by the tatars to be sold as a slave. He was about 12 yo. Then he spent his life with Marius untill he was 17 and then he was made into a vampire...
Nice background and his hat is ubercute.
You could work to make the lighting less like a studio and more like nature.
Congratulations on this image!
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True! Armand should look this young coz he was only 16 when he was made. Do u have one of him with Marius?
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I think you captured the exact mood of that scene perfectly. In particular I marvel at the attention to detail you paid to everything composing the scene: from the clothes, to the look on his face and the atmosphere of the landscape surrounding him. It makes me wonder just how much time you would have had to pay to a work like this...
Very beautiful!
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Thank you
It's hard to say how much time it took to complete this (as is the case with most of my works). It evolved over a period of 3 months or so from start to finish and on this one I spent an awful lot of hours researching and trying out appropriate costuming for Armand that would be accurate for the era and appropriate for the scene. I guess the time logged doing the actual "art" on this was about 3 weeks. I generally work on several different pieces at the same time so I can maintain the spark that ignited my interest in each of them and also retain some degree of a fresh eye (I work on the image that drives me the most at the moment - more fun that way).
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I really like what you do..
I'm wondering HOW you do it?!
I mean.. do you need really advanced difficult and expensive programs??
anyway, they're gorgeous
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Hi and thanks for your comments
There are several different programs that can be used to aid in creating these type of images ... and some are free. DAZ Studio is one such 3D program. You can check it out at daz3d.com.
The basic technique: a scene with or without figures is created in a 3D program (DAZ, Poser) and then manipulated in a paint program such as PhotoShop or GIMP (a free program). Other software is also sometimes used. Decent results can be achieved using such software alone ... but in my own case, I come from a traditional art background with formal training, and find that I must use many of my traditional art skills and knowledge (particularly painting, sculpture and compositional design) to pull what I want out of the software. Hence it is no quicker or easier than painting these from scratch, but it is fun and very challenging
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This is great! lot of time off internet and found a new artwork of my lovely Amadeo, he got the cuttest face ever without losing that sad and mysterious aura ,love your Amadeo , Im glad you choose this stage of his life as Andrei.
*Thank you for sharing*
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Thanks
I haven't been around much either ... system crash and been busy restoring stuff.
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Your welcome ,I know how that can be , is a pain in the a&%.
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Your Andrei is beyond words. He's perfectly rosy, and you can see how that innocent creature really becomes Armand.
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Love the details in this. Especially the snow on his boots. It's these little things that win me over.
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Great work - wonderfully naturalistic scenery too. Poor thing
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Thanks! I wouldn't feel too sorry for him ... he does get to live forever
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This is true. I retract my statement 
Heh, dunno what came over me - ingrained maternal instincts probably. Yuk.
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"not made by human hands"
he looks so young and innocent, and somewhat worried. another excellent scene. I would only suggest adding some foot prints to mark his path and make the snow more real. but it's a great image.
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bah! there goes my computer doing strange things with my comments again... sorry.
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"not made by human hands"
he looks so young and innocent, and somewhat worried. another excellent scene. I would only suggest adding some foot prints to mark his path and make the snow more real. but it's a great image.
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Thanks!
I tried a couple different versions with footprints, but even the most subtle seemed to somehow suggest that a struggle of some sort had taken place and I really wanted to retain the feeling of stillness and quiet here ... the calm before the storm.
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This is fantastic work!! I love the mystery that something is about to happen.
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OH MY! OH MY!! I'm readin The Withching Hour now, but i've read ALL the books one week ago... i just get fresh scenes and this one is SUPERB!!! As always you're a pro with your habilities.!! I imagened exactly this scene!! and your interpretation of the Andre's situation is simply PERFECT!!!!
I have no words for you my friend!!!! 
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The textures are absolutely stunning~ <3
Only thing I would fix is the pose, looks a little stiff, and the background. There are no tree/bushes behind him (That are visible) so it makes it look like there's just a line between the ground and the sky.
Good job.
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Thanks!
Your observations are accurate ... unfortunately. I tried some bushes in the middle ground but it seemed to clutter things too much ... and I also wanted to leave a clear path from the horseman to Andrei to give this scene more of a feeling of immediate danger.
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Wow!
Loved the cloudy sky, the dark woods in the background. Little Andrei looks so lost and fragile (for some reason it brought The Little Red Hood to my mind... 
Great job!
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Thanks!
Yes ... I definitely saw the Little Red Riding Hood thing, too ... I almost put a little cape on him
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Welcome
I wonder who would be the Bad Wolf... Marius?
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"He opened his mouth and for a moment I saw the flash of something very wrong and dangerous, teeth such as a wolf might have."
- The Vampire Armand
In other words, "Marius what big teeth you have!"
Can almost hear him replying, "All the better to eat you with, little boy."
Maybe Anne Rice was on this track, too!
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Omg, that's so great!
I had completely forgotten that scene with Marius in the bath... yeah, he sure IS the Bad Wolf!
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Yes ... but have to keep going back into the books of the Vampire Chronicles to make sure I have details right and to pick up a bit of inspiration. Up until a few months ago I was averaging at least a book a week - long bus and subway commute with lots of dead time. Was doing that for about ten years. And of course much of what I read influences visual inspiration, so I have quite a few of those on the backburner too. The idea for doing something with the VC has been rolling around in my head for decades - with my discovery of digital art the concept is just more practical now.
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Omg! 
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*blink*
Wow. As always, this is perfect! Rock On!
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