Hexratt's galleria

[chrisco97]

WOW! Thw words are a bit blurry, but I think the background goes great! Follows the movie well.

[barbieq25]

I think you did a very fine job on the war machine. As noted by Chrisco, the text is a little too blurred. The fire is really hard to do but perhaps you could stretch it a bit downwards for a bit more realism?

In any case - very well done! Bravo!

[hexratt]

Thank you all for your critique. The text is too blurred because I was trying to blur the fire behind war machine but had the text layer activated, and was too lazy to redo by the time I had merged all layers down. Yea, the dark blue clouds background, I actually got the idea from the Iron Man 2 movie poster with war machine standing in front of it. But anyways, I still have a lot to learned about making text and background.

[chrisco97]

Hey - what about cutting off your head on you War Machine and make it your avatar?

[hexratt]

Sounds like an excellent idea, will give it a try.

[chrisco97]

Nice avatar, and love the TOTW entry you entered!

[hexratt]

@ welshblue- ahh, you noticed. I used one set of tires for all my cars; was too lazy to make new rims at the time. Thank you for your compliment, much appreciate it coming from such an esteem artist.

@chrisco97- thank you for the avatar idea. Hopefully, I'll be a contender for your totw comp.

[barbieq25]

Love the avvie but not too keen on the sig. Possibly stretched too much?

[hexratt]

I still need to come up with a cool sig. But for now my flame swords will do.

New image added, extension of the giant invasion theme, I call it rampage. I think there was a game like that

back in the 80's with giant apes punching and knocking down buildings.

[sokagirl]

Your Rampage would have made a great entry for the WOTW , that Gorilla looks like a killer .. Good job !

[barbieq25]

Like Sokagirl said!

[chrisco97]

^ Same for me ^

[hexratt]

At the time, I only had a few pdn tutorials under my belt. But next competition watch out. Well, anything besides abstract.

[csm725]

Be warned Hexratt. Have you seen my TV?

[hexratt]

Be warned Hexratt. Have you seen my TV?

I love that piece, falling short. You're right. Voting is mainly fan base. People usually don't vote for the art but for the artist to show their support. I always vote

barbieq25.

[barbieq25]

Hexratt, while I am pleased that you like my work so much & thank you for your support, I vote like Welshblue does - on merit.

[csm725]

Some of us put a lot of work into our images ... without the need to trace, and you're just putting 2 fingers up to all that.

Welshy, that kinda hurts. I for one traced the TV, because frankly I lack in skill to make it without tracing. That just bashed my three hours of work on Falling Short. For such complex shapes as a television, a Get Smart phone booth (my WIP), and an Iron Man War Machine, a guideline is needed. No offense and no harm meant, but I can't see how any artist could make the Iron Man war machine in PdN without guidelines or a tutorial.

You've gone down in my estimation with that remark hexratt.

Yeah, mine too.

People usually don't vote for the art but for the artist to show their support. I always vote barbieq25.

That insulted bbq's works. You basically said "I always vote bbq25 because she needs people to show her support" in other words "...because her art isn't good enough that people will vote for it because of how nice it is"

That is definitely not the case and I hope that isn't how I won SOTW or how bbq and soka won other various competitions.

[pyrochild]

People usually don't vote for the art but for the artist to show their support.

"Usually?" What the hell are you smoking? No one I know does this, and if they did, I'd be quick to set them straight.

You should be voting for the best art, not the best artist. Often, they will be the same. It's your opinion, after all, but the nametag on the piece should not be the deciding factor. Ever.

[chrisco97]

I definately vote for the best entry...not for support.

[hexratt]

Hold on...don't missed understand me. I'm speaking in general when I said people don't vote for the art but for the artist. And not referring to this forum. Such as when people vote for a prime minister or president, they vote based on popularity factor, who they like most and can relate to, especially in beauty contest. Every person has a personal bias toward something and art like love, imo, is in the eyes of the beholder. Something may be ugly to some but beautiful to some one else. I vote for barbieq25, not because her art work isn't nice, but instead it's one of the best and I'm quite fond of her style of work as well as welshy's and ash. Now, I'm not saying that others work isn't as good but that is my bias I tend to favor barbieq25's and welshy's work over my own and others.

When I'm doing a complex piece on pdn, I will put down a guide trail, call it a trace or whatever. That's just the way I was taught. Most of my work is free hand and I don't have a steady hand at that, a guide trail makes it easier to erase unwanted excess. If I'm not doing 100% pdn, no way would I need a guide, especially if I used pdn in conjunction with 3d max studio. But my goal here is to learn how to use pdn.

Also, I would never put a finger or two up at any art. Every art work has its own value in its own way. Pyro, I'm sorry, but I still have my personal biases toward some more than others. I'm sure everyone else does, too. Fair enough?

Welshy, I hope you stick around more because you and barbieq25 put out one of the best work. I'd searched through your gallery and barbieq25 looking for inspiration every day.

[csm725]

This is why I've only won one competition. There were some comps that I truly thought I didn't deserve to win, but others where an entry that was like 10% PdN and not that nice gets 3 votes, when mines gets none.

This scenario is why I've always wanted to employ 'blind submission' and 'blind voting' - each contestant PM's the host his entry and the host puts up the images as a vote.

[hexratt]

This is why I've only won one competition. There were some comps that I truly thought I didn't deserve to win, but others where an entry that was like 10% PdN and not that nice gets 3 votes, when mines gets none.

This scenario is why I've always wanted to employ 'blind submission' and 'blind voting' - each contestant PM's the host his entry and the host puts up the images as a vote.

That is an excellent idea. I believe that will promote fairness. It will help people like me to vote more fairly.

[barbieq25]

Oh dear, hasn't this all put a cat amongst the pigeons?

Rarely do I tell anyone who I voted for. Interestingly, I think I have won only one comp & got a couple of seconds or thirds. Well, there was another one but there was like 3 entries.

Let's not get our knickers in a twist, please? Hexratt, my apologies for hijacking your gallery but this needs to be dealt with here & now.

Competitions are great for creating art to a set theme. Sometimes, I just cannot produce an idea to fit the theme or I cannot create it with PDN. This assumes that I have the time to make an entry.

Competitions should be used as a way of stretching ourselves as artists. This is NOT a forum for popularity (I have had some PMs that concern me that this is what is happening beneath the surface).

barbieq is about creating art, getting help from others & helping others to achieve what they could not do alone. If I tell you I like your work I mean it. Don't PM me & ask me if I like or dislike another user.

Blind submission & voting - great idea! Lots of work for the comps hosts.

Now there are a few comps here that need more submissions & polls running - everyone, put your dummies back in & get cracking! Sheeesh! Still trying to think of something for the layers comp...

[csm725]

Sorry for spamming up your gallery, hexratt, but one more thing:

I PM'ed Possum, chrisco, and pyro with the blind submission and blind voting idea. Awaiting a response.

[hexratt]

Well said barbieq25. Competitions should be about expanding our artistic skills, trying to improve ourselves as an artist, trying to out do our own work and not the work of others. That's why I prefer not to use stocks or renders, but rather try to improve upon the techniques that I've learned to create realistic images. I know that I may not win, not against some great photo editors anyways, but I'm happy that I can truly put my signature on my work because it is my work 100%.

Shame on you, bbq25, for being a hijacker but you're welcome to hijack my gallery anytime. In fact, I prefer it be you, lol.