Steampunk- The Headless Horseman

1-21-09

Hey Folks,

I've recently finished and turned this in for the "Steampunk Myths and Legends" competition over at the internet place called cgsociety.org. I was looking at some older illustrators, and was blown away by a few pieces that had these dark characters silhouetted against a light background. It inspired me to do a piece where most of the information was in the darks and the lights were dominated by shape. This one has definitely been a painting to learn from. I'm still trying to find a way to incorporate interesting character design into my paintings without just painting "a dude standing there".

..anyway, on to the next one! Hope you dig it.


The Headless Horseman

thanks for sayin hey
-Tamte

14 comments:

Dustin d'Arnault said...

Tamte, this painting... its ... sexy.
Good job man your growth is very evident, I am very impressed and inspired. Do it!

TREY BRYAN said...

sick man, I like the strokes,

-trey b.

Robb said...

Freaking love this but smoke is too graphic-y and is distracting me too much from the insane rendering of everything cooler elsewhere.

Sarah Watts said...

This is HOT! One of my favorite paintings you've done..You rock Tampte.

JesArt said...

You probadly dont know me, Ive talk to you on Conceptart.org on your sketchbook thread, but WOWOWOW, I love every bit of it, even the smoke, I think if the smoke was just normal smoke, it wouldnt draw my eyes to the headless horseman, many props, congrats, amazing. Question, are you still in Austin ?

Pop-Monkey said...

Volker, I gotta be honest and lay some forthright critiquing on ya (I'd expect the same from you)...

I think the piece is fantastic, except for the actual horseman himself. The dozer, the alley, the background, all solid and excellently rendered and lit. Love the harsh light/shadow cutoff on the dozer. But, the horseman himself, along with the smoke, as other folks have mentioned, is the weakest part of the piece, and I don't think it holds together as solidly as it needs to as a result.

I can't really read enough detail on the horseman -- I know he's supposed to be mainly cloaked in shadow, but his head is difficult to decipher and seems a bit nebulous in shape, almost marshmallowy. I think the head needs to be punched up a lot. Others have already commented on the weakness of the smoke, and I agree, so I'll leave it at that. I think if you had a couple more days to fine-tune it, you'd nail it.

Nice attempt, though, and I hope I wasn't too harsh.

EL Gato Negro said...

yo yo Adam this is hot fire man. love the shapes and those blue accents you have going on. now the horseman is a bit lost maybe if that light started to hit his armor some then he would be more introduced to the image but i'm sure there are aspects that you wanna emphasize more. good stuff man !!

Andrew R. Wright said...

That dozer is sick! I think everyone has made good points about the horseman and what not, so I will not repeat.

That cityscape in the background is on the same sick-ness level as the dozer (if not, higher). The simplicity of it is beautiful.

Unknown said...

i love your work here, thanks for the comments, i'm going to update soon :)

I'm going to link you on my blog, feel free to link back :)

Bags said...

This came out really really good man! Cheers, amp'd to see more work along these lines!!

RAWLS said...

Very, VERY cool my friend!!!

Kyle McCullough said...

This is a great painting man. I would make smoke less graphic. It would give the piece a more real feel, It is just a little distracting. But killer piece.

-kyle

Anonymous said...

sexy lighting man, really dig the oddness of this!

Keyla Valerio said...

this is so tight, holy shit