[Socar MYLES]

I have been much influenced lately by Chinese art, specifically brush-and-ink painting. I went for a simple painting style in the background, defining the patterns with quick, large strokes.

...yeah, and it's got rats in it.



...a detail of the background:



[ October 07, 2001: Message edited by: Socar MYLES ]

[jeffery]

beautiful beautiful beautiful! really original painting, nice color variation on the rats, really interesting layout, great background. the only thing i don't like is the larger 'biting rat' text. the 'r' is obscured by the shadow, and i think its unnecessary, when the small text looks so good. without the larger text, you could crop a bit of the bottom off, and make the whole composition a bit tighter.

i love how you wrote the small 'biting rat' on the background, tho. makes the painting very iconic (or something).

[ October 07, 2001: Message edited by: jeffery ]

[Morgoth]

Wow, beautiful!
The background made me groan in envy!
But there are some things that bother mi a little...
First, I think it would be nice if you made slight changes on the two mirror ink rats, they are so very much alike. But I don't deny the possibility that you've done that intentionally, so I just write what I think, as a suggestion
What bothers me in the rats in the middle is that they're (oh, i hope i manage to say what i want to in my pathetic english!).. they look the same all over. I mean, you have the same strokes of hair everywhere, i think that they may look better if you just show the global shapes in some parts, and work more on other parts in detail, to show.. attitude
And I don't really like the letters at all, especially those at the bottom... Typography is soo very difficult, and in the eastern culture it is so important... But can't even try to give a suggestion there, except for looking at original inscriptions and excercising a lot...

[Socar MYLES]

Yeh, no kidding..my typography skills are lacking, to say the least. My handwriting has always been deplorable.

I have made another detail, though, to show the brushwork on the central rats a bit better. It doesn't show at the small size, but they don't have the same strokes all over:



They're a bit sloppy, and all, but this one's just for school, and with all the drawing I've got for work, there's no time for this sort of rubbish. *Sigh*

[Jezebel]

I think this turned out really beautiful Socar... like I said on EK, I'm in love with the bg. :>

How many pictures are going into this series?

[Socar MYLES]

I think there are going to be eight. That's probably about all I'll have time for. (Here's hoping I even have time for that many.) Each one's going to be in a bit of a different style, to reflect the kind of 'badness' it's about.

[Keto]

i really am digging it, i like it more than some of your other pieces just because i think there is so much more contrast and ofcourse the subject matter is boosting it in my book

i thought it was a vampire rat until i read the sides of the bg.

[Brain]

Faboo yet again Socar @:-)

Is it just me, or has anyone else's respect for rats raised since Socar hit the boards? Can't get enough of the little varments. *grinz*

[Conor O Kane]

That's great.

Do you ever draw mice, or hamsters? Or Gerbils?

[LeChuck]

"Once bitten twice shy."

[Akolyte]

This is cool Socar. I like the background a lot. You should do a rat versus a hamster in a bloody showdown of rodentile supremacy...err...yeah

[Socar MYLES]

Well, this doesn't really deserve a thread of its own, but here's a little Froud-inspired thing I did for Mr. Gary Allen of www.lathroug.com. She's actually human, this girl, but I got into one of those fairy books, and I had to give her a big goblin nose.



Now, back to bad rats and grayscales....

[Gothic Gerbil]

That last one there kind of reminds me of Kinuko Craft's illustration style. I like it. Now speaking about them rats ... should I be afraid?