Sunday, October 5, 2008

Mercy and Apathy


Mercy



Apathy


Another week is over and with it arrive two more characters from Shanth Enjeti's Character Creation class! This week we did a slightly modified version of our last assignment...we were asked to design two characters based respectively on traits we admire and don't admire in others. So (with the full realization that I went a little off the conceptual deep end with these) here are Mercy and Apathy.
Apathy was a tricky one...I ended up with a very intense version of apathy, which belies my editorial opinion on the state of apathy. I went through a number of completely different designs on this...I covered some ridiculous territory (blind, shriveled knights in baby-harvesting machines etc). But I'm happy with this design overall.
Mercy I pretty much overshot completely, in favor of a character design I was kind of in love with. I'm pleased with the outcome, but I'm not sure it communicates the concept of mercy very accurately to a wide audience. What I was thinking was this (with the definition of mercy essentially being kindess/charity despite the right to justice): the character has set aside his natural perogative to prey upon the birds, in favor of embracing them and setting aside his "right". yeah.
:p
Anyways, it's been a good week! Crits went pretty well on these (they were both assigned as cel-shaded, but I couldn't help going in and rendering Mercy after class on Friday was over). And life is otherwise good, and God is better. I've got more work to do, so I can't sit here and blog much more, but I hope you enjoy these!

-Nick

5 comments:

Timmy said...

sir nicholas of kole:
these are amazing. and i do enjoy the description of your thought as much as the ending visual result.
i can't wait to see what else you churn out from your classes!

furthermore (and this is not to be spread rampant because i don't want to show up to a full house and not get in! :) ) but jenny saville is lecturing at bu on the 28th. free admission

http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/news/releases/display.php?id=1676

i just called to make sure she will indeed be there and the words are true. i don't know if she is still in your aesthetic, but i figured you may have some interest. plus i'd love just to see ya and say hi!
take care,
tim

Anonymous said...

Hey there Nick - Mercy is delightful!
You chose some tough words to describe with art.
And I must admit, I'm not sure I get your apathy. Your apathy is chained...meaning it "can't" do anything about the crying baby.
In my world of experience, Apathy "can do" just about anything but "chooses NOT TO".
And I just want to rise up and shake those who act that way!
In my mind, Apathy is grey on grey. You know those kind of days we get here in Europe...socked in with grey. I've met people like that. Don't think much about anything. Don't care much about anything. Grey on grey.
Just some random thoughts from your wanna-be-artistic mom.
Good effort on a very tough attitude, though. Love you dearly.

Emerson Tung said...

i really really love your character designs man. Really great symbolism behind piece and I especially love the treatment you gave Lust. And it's so true, my friend, when we put our sins out in the light, we have accountability and that makes it easier for us to have victory over it. God bless you man, keep up the great work!

Anonymous said...

Hooray, I found you!
I love these, Nick. They are really wonderful, thanks for posting them!

poetsforpeanuts said...

Hey Nick!

Apathy is pretty creepy, I'll give you that -- very honestly, I'm not too sure about the chains, since that implies that he couldn't do anything even if he/she wanted to, and the point of apathy is that the person doesn't want to do anything, period... but heck, I couldn't design something better, so kudos to you haha! I looove mercy though, to me the part that stood out was the bird-houses, it's very merciful to give shelter to a lesser thing, even though the more powerful technically aren't obligated to.

Great work, great imagination, great colors -- can't wait to see more! :)