HOME | DD
SirGrunt β Exclamation Point
Published: 2009-03-12 04:51:01 +0000 UTC; Views: 734; Favourites: 6; Downloads: 17
Redirect to original
Description
The title is supposed to just be the symbol: !But the sight won't accept just the symbol, so well, I guess the words spelled out get the same basic idea across ...
Well, uh, I've wanted to do more work in this style. This was an attempt to get way cheesier than previous work. Way, way cheesier. A bit of an Americana thing, taken to ridiculous extremes.
I had a hard time with palette and lighting, but I think I got it right in the end. I think. Please feel free to critique thoroughly.
Related content
Comments: 19
Ha, ha, ha, this is so good that i'm not going to complain about the wrong use of the word "american" this time.
π: 0 β©: 1
Thanks very much, sir; glad you got a laugh out of it. I think you misunderstand: "Americana" is a different word than "American" and refers to sort of kitschy and folksy things that are distinctly American. It also is kind of a music style.
π: 0 β©: 1
When i mean the wrong use of the word american i mean people who call the inhabitants of the U.S.A. "americans" like there America was the name of a single country and not this huge continent that we live in. For example, people in previous comments or you right above, but i said that i wouldn't complain and i'm already doing! i'm a liar, i can't trust my own word!
π: 0 β©: 1
Ah, I see your point. U.S.A'ans just wouldn't sound right though.
π: 0 β©: 1
Yes, it's not always wrong, just when people use it as opposed to other american countries, for example "i'm not american, i'm canadian" is a contradiction since Canada is in america too, or calling "mexican-american" to those whose parents came from both sides of the border between mexico and the U.S.A. is as stupid as saying "italian-european" or "egyptian-african".
But i promised i wouldn't do what i'm actually doing right now, so this is the end of it.
Great work, perhaps you can use your skills to do some serious work in the future but in the meantime we can still enjoy these naΓ―ve parodies.
π: 0 β©: 0
It's a beautiful painting. I'm not sure if I understand your intentions on this one - an affectionate, light-hearted parody maybe? Regardless, it's beautiful.
π: 0 β©: 1
Thank you. That's kind of the intention, I suppose. A celebration of rugged independence, and a celebration of all that is cheese.
π: 0 β©: 0
Yeah, the word "American" screams to me from this painting, i was going to say that and then i read your comment. It's very nicely painted, your eye for detail is amazing. I wonder where did the wild cat come from, sort of gives it a heroic/fantasy flavor. I don't think i have ever seen anything like it before.
Another feeling i get from it is freedom and peace with the nature, you are mixing things up here, the concept is interesting. Like things that are in conflict naturally don't matter. That maybe we could make this world work in a good way if we only cared to.
Like Bill Hicks said "I think we can go to the moon", talking about Neanderthals discovering psychedelic mushrooms.
π: 0 β©: 1
I always like to hear the way you perceive things. You always seem to point out things that I don't see in my own work. (One reason why I love deviantart comments)
I can't claim my concept was that deep. To sort of salute individually, independence and trail-blazing, but also to kind of push the cheesiness of what people often think of as independence. That's actually the most I think I've articulated the theme.
The idea was also to show the kitsch inherit in what many people think of as "awesome." Hence the mountain lion and eagle which the "awesome" biker couple have "tamed," or at least befriended.
But also what you say about conflict is interesting. I think a lot of times people do create their own conflicts, or at least fuel them, maybe consciously or unconsciously. But I do think people could find less destructive and ugly ways to solve things if they were willing to think outside the box a little more and risk a little uncertainty.
π: 0 β©: 1
Definitely one of my favorite things in art is to be able to do things that don't occur, but since you know they don't, you can use that knowledge to make them happen in your head and come up with an interesting concept. The kind of "what if" approach, i guess it might have something to do with the way dreams work, where anything is possible and you don't know why. A lion can jump out of a fish jumping out of a sand dune. Sometimes it can make some kind of sense in a symbolic way or become ridiculous and cheesy, but that's an option too if you want to do it.
I think conflicts occur because they have always been around and people just take it for granted that they should fight "others". Greed. Fear. Propaganda. Human nature perhaps and evolution? Little everyday conflicts about objects and big ugly conflicts about resource. It works that way and people don't seem to be willing to try and make it work better. It's a disease, really.
Another great thing about art. Where you take it is only half-way it really goes, the other end being what viewers read into it. You create something but there is another layer you add without being conscious of it. Few people notice things you put in your work on purpose, but others might like something you just did, whether visually or conceptually.
π: 0 β©: 1
You make very good points, about people and art. And yeah, when you finish, it ceases to be just yours any more. The image and the ideas belong in part to the viewers too.
I wish people would try harder to find ways around conflict. Just because you don't physically fight someone, it doesn't mean you've given up or let the other person win.
π: 0 β©: 1
Sometimes letting someone win is winning, because, really, what's the point of trying to prove something to someone who just wants to fight for the sake of fighting. I think people who need to fight all the time have very bitter and sad lives and conflict is the closest they come to actually feeling something. But that's only my personal opinion, it goes way too deep to really pinpoint reasons behind their motifs. I just try to let it go whenever i can, because being aggressive about something meaningless is giving in to the most primitive instinct. And i think aggression is an enemy of creativity, i don't want to be filled and fueled by it. There are reasonable people out there too.
When i finish my art, i'm actually glad that it doesn't really belong to me anymore, it means someone found it interesting or it wasn't worth it at all. And you just move on. I feel what i say simplifies the whole issue, but it would take way too much room to think about it from multiple angles
π: 0 β©: 1
You're right; it's stupid to fight about anything trivial, not unless it's really, really worth fighting for. I think sometimes anger can fuel creativity, but it burns out, it can only take you so far. Then you're left with no inspiration.
That's really cool that you can let go of your work so easily. I definitely want other people to see my work and find their own meaning in it, but I always feel a little possessive of it, guess that's something I need to work on.
π: 0 β©: 0
The light is magical and the colors are well harmonized.
π: 0 β©: 1
Thank you, those were the things that I had to work the most on.
Thanks for the fav too.
π: 0 β©: 0
Good paints.
Kind of a strange statement. It is cheesy as you set out to achieve, but it looks horribly authentic too. I don't know what you really want to do with this but I've been stareing at it for a while now, so it can't be a bad thing, eh?
π: 0 β©: 1
Thanks I think. It's kind of I guess poking fun at the type of people depicted but saluting them at the same time. It's not meant to take itself too seriously.
π: 0 β©: 0
Freakin' nice! That stealth bomber in the background is just the right amount of over-the-top, the cherry on this delicious cheese sundae. It looks like a video cover to a movie I want to watch. Also, it's a damn fine traditional painting on top of all that.
π: 0 β©: 1
Thanks man, I'm really glad you can appreciate this. I'd be interested to see what kind of movie that would be -- maybe a bit of Quinton Tarentino, Robert Rodrigas and Andy Sedaris combined? Bruce Campbell in there somewhere maybe?
Thanks also for faving it.
π: 0 β©: 0