Thoughts of an Eaten Sun

Another doodle I did in my Greek Mythology class. This one has no inspiration other than what was in my head. The translation from paper to digital piece was pretty easy.  The figure is themed to be a band mascot. More specifically, a mascot for Fourth Mechanism (band of Zack Miller and I).  The name Brute Force Force is a play on an acronym.

As always, you can click on the image to view the details of  the full-size piece. And please leave me any constructive feedback you may have.

Heavy armed patron of the Brute Force Force.

The most challenging aspect was how to not leave him suspended in air. The base of his body is a bit like the bottom of a chess pawn, but I did not want a flat surface under him. The legs sticking out from the nodes are a decent compromise. Also, the thing coming from his back base is a wilting flower. I tried to make that clear with the shape and colors, but have gotten the impression that what it is is a bit unclear.

I find backgrounds to be hard in particular. There is no real scene, but it needs to be more than blank white. I may revisit that some time.  Another thing to revisit is the coloring. I’m still getting used to the brush choices. I also need to work on how to layer solid colors and create a vivid effect with them.

Kyle Tolle Artwork, Personal Brute Force Force, Fourth Mechanism

I recently re-watched The Dark Knight with a few friends. I have to say that Heath Ledger’s Joker is my favorite movie character. Ever. In light of this realization, I decided to take a picture of myself and “Jokerfy” it. The inspiration comes from the “I Believe in Harvey Dent” viral campaign which preceded the movie’s release.

This source image served as the main inspiration.

Here ais the image I decided to use. Just snapped it myself using my HTC Touch Pro’s 3.2Mp camera. That lighting was a pain to get right!

Just the base image of myself that I decided to Jokerfy.

My first attempt at Jokerfying myself was straight and simple. Took the original photo and overlaid my modifications. No changes to the base photo whatsoever.

First step in my Jokerfication.

Next, I decided to play with the base photo some. The stock photo gave a nice lighting contrast between the sides of my face, but I wanted to see if I could make it look like I was wearing some white makeup, as the Joker usually does. I played with the hue/saturation until I had removed a considerable about of the color… but not all of it. The tint keeps it from being black-and-white and adds a little more to it that way.

Second step in my Jokerfication was to make my face look painted.

I am pretty happy with that result, but wanted to try for something a little more odd or even darker. I decided to play with the Curves tool, since I haven’t done it a lot. I zapped a range of colors from the base picture. The effect is that it looks almost cartoonish. The effect makes it feel a bit more like Joker, in some respects.  I love the way it highlights only one side of my face, and the red mouth extends into the black. The eye also reminds me of the Eye of Sauron (from The Lord of the Rings, for you who are unfamiliar).  The left side of the image being essentially black also a gives the image an interesting offset. It has more character that way. I am very pleased with this last result.

This last Jokerfied image reminds me more than a bit of Sauron.

I usually refrain from interpreting or in-depth descriptions of photos, and even though a lot of these photos was happenstance, I had a goal in mind!  I hope you enjoy these and please let me know your thoughts.  Have you ever Jokerfied yourself? I’d love to see your results.

Kyle Tolle Artwork, Personal Joker, The Dark Knight

I like to doodle, and boring classes are no exception. Today, as I was in my Greek Myth class, I decided to do an adaptation of a creature from an image we looked at. The topic was Near Eastern Mythology (in order to compare to Greek myth) and I drew the creature Tiamat, which Marduk faces in the Enuma Elish. The name of this piece is silly, but I only care that I got something down.

Adaptation of a creature from a depiction of the Babylonian creation myth, Enuma Elish.

I’m interested in what you have to say! What’s your feedback?

Edit:

I found the image I used for reference. I have several links but the quality is a bit iffy on some. Not all are quite te same either.

Marduk  slays Tiamat

Small version of copy I used as reference.

Rough depiction

Cleaner depiction

Larger image, but slightly changed

Kyle Tolle Artwork, Personal Mythology