Wham bam thank you ma'am

Ok this will be quick for you guys and gals, but it was long and sweet for Lefteye and I. It started right after the first round of MM'2006 and it ended today. Yes it took just that long for 5 images each lol, yeah we are slackers.

So sorry for the secrets but without further adieu . . . here is our baby. We hope you enjoy. (c:

I served, we kept the same size, one element must be present but not obvious, and have fun. Those were the rules.

pea3698http://www.reticentcomplicity.com/im..._v_l/serve.jpg
lefteyewillyhttp://www.reticentcomplicity.com/im...l/volley_1.jpg
pea3698http://www.reticentcomplicity.com/im...l/volley_2.jpg
lefteyewillyhttp://www.reticentcomplicity.com/im...l/volley_3.jpg

Yes there are more: (c:

pea3698http://www.reticentcomplicity.com/im...l/volley_4.jpg
lefteyewillyhttp://www.reticentcomplicity.com/im...l/volley_5.jpg
pea3698http://www.reticentcomplicity.com/im...l/volley_6.jpg

lefteyewillyhttp://www.reticentcomplicity.com/im...l/volley_7.jpg
pea3698http://www.reticentcomplicity.com/im...l/volley_8.jpg

The final one Lefteye will post ;)

aight...
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/9...rlcopy16jv.jpg


This was a lot of fun Pea. Took about 8 months longer than expected, but with you having a kid and me being lazy, i'm still happy with the results. :P

We were going to launch this with an entire web interface that kind of pulled all the images together, but never had the time to pull it off. Plus, having this posted directly at FK rather than on an outside server is a dedication to the arena. I can't speak directly for pea, but this place is great, and we have some amazing artists here. We just wanted to contribute in a different way.

I hope that with all the unique battles going on (march madness, roll canvas, pixel town...etc) this might add to some others to do something different as well and possibly build on what we've done here with this somewhat 'private' battle. We swapped images back and forth via AIM to get critiques before either one of us were satisfied with them...of course keeping my ego in check ;)

Hope you guys enjoy viewing this.

Well said Lefteye.

Pea, your serve is fantastic! Very creative using the butterflies to create the background texture.

It's nice to see all the images at once, but it must be a bit anticlimactic for you two, having been in the works for eight months...

i really like seeing all images at once, i think it should be done in more battles personally

Honestly O the tension is even higher when it comes to hearing what you guys have to say. At least it is for me. We put alot into these images, more than normal I would venture to say. So imagine posting one image you worked excessively hard on and multiply that by 5. I am honestly very happy that this is posted. I have been itching to show it off for a while now.

Also with life events going on and the time warp of life, it doesn't feel like it's been 8 months.

Thank you for your comment on the butterflies. I love that texture myself, it is cool but makes your skin crawl a bit as well.

The bunny in the forest one took a very long time to complete. I think it has the most layers and saved versions of any image I have ever created.

btw The name Reticent Complicity was geared for the battle as well. That was going to be the name of the web page that Lefteye spoke about.(I bought the domain and everything lol)
Reticent - disposed to be silent or not to speak freely; reserved.
Complicity - the state of being an accomplice; partnership or involvement in wrongdoing.
Pretty much a secret battle off the boards(that just felt well, like a wrongdoing) lol

Hope you guys enjoy it as much as lefteye willy and I did.

NO! I refuse to enjoy anything of that caliber!
MAKE ME!








So this was that thing that you meantioned a while back.
Its a little hard to see whos is whos... Guess that just show's how tight the competition was.
Stunning work you two.
That last one is kidna Ragen from the exorsist though.

the images are in order starting with Pea and they alternate.

Three people commented with the number of views this has gotten. Come on guys and gals we need feedback. I gots to open for roll canvas and MM is on the way. lol

About midway through, you guys hit your stride... Reticent Complicity to Temporary Forsit to the overlaid girl... those three in a sequence is pretty damn perfect in my eyes.

The rest... they're good but I see too many overlays and odd mixtures of vector and particles that don't quite cohere to a full picture. The Magic picture (second in the list) is a good picture but using a real magician would have added much needed focus to that image. As it stands, my eyes are all over the image, but not where it should be, right smack dab in the middle.

In the next picture, I'm looking at the mushrooms thinking - besides "Are those poisonous?" - that the saturation outweighs the image. In fact, it looks too overlaid, bright, and lacks coherent shadows/light sources. Shadows on the mushrooms are far left, hinting to a right side spotlight. The shadows on the bunny rabbit are from a different source. And the ones on the trees... the overlay is throwing me a bit off.

the next picture... the butterfly girl... I would like to have seen the bits of the image actually intermingle... the layers are placed/overlaid too much (dammit, I'm using overlaid too much as a word) and not worked in. Mask out the retro ad lady, and place that big butterfly behind her... also, the lines/grid, it should have not stopped abruptly... it just looks added on as an afterthought, not fully worked in... not like the flourishes behind the girl... those were done with a ton more care, imho.

the next image with the Norman D. Rockwell feel to it could have done without the technicolor white/cyan hard light/vivid color layer surroundings... my eyes stayed on the outside and not in the inside in terms of direction and focus. The image lost a lot with that as the first thing seen. It detracts from the effect and sentiment, drains away any tension and hinders the layout... it's too thick.

the next image... if only the neck was also a skeleton... seriously. That's all I can say negative. well, that and the slight grey aura around the guy is a bit of a distraction, but the transition from doctor to dead artist and the message... quite nice.

the next three... seriously. don't ****ing change a thing. all three are ****ing awesome... and yes, that language was necessary. Impressive trio.

final image... a bit of pixel fringe under her arms and on the hips... the grid wasn't necessary either. It's a decent overlay, but without it I'm sure that background would have looked more like ink/paint and that would have been a good ending to two artists finishing up a damn good battle.

thanks for sharing guys. per usual, take my comments as just my opinion...

See now that's what i'm talkin' about. Thanks Gerbick. Honestly I stared at these images and stared at them but I am seeing more and more in them now that they are posted. Great pointers. Glad to have you. (c:

well said gerbick. I agree with all your points and critiques. :thumbsup:

thanks for taking the time

I love volley 8. The simple focus but complex detail, and a lot of color. I don't know jack about theory, but it just seems to flow really well, and, again, I love the color.

Sorry, not a crit, and I hate ego stroking, but it sticks out as one of the better images I've seen cooked up here, and that's saying alot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by >flashl!ght<

I love volley 8. The simple focus but complex detail, and a lot of color. I don't know jack about theory, but it just seems to flow really well, and, again, I love the color.

Sorry, not a crit, and I hate ego stroking, but it sticks out as one of the better images I've seen cooked up here, and that's saying alot.

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are you sure you don't mean volley 9? ;)....9 is my favorite. That's why my volley afterwards was kinda thrown together...his was just too damned good for me to do anything with.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lefteyewilly

are you sure you don't mean volley 9? ;)....9 is my favorite. That's why my volley afterwards was kinda thrown together...his was just too damned good for me to do anything with.

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Woops, yeah, 9 :) The image is called "volley_8.jpg" though ;)

I actually like your following image quite a bit, probably second fav of this match. I agree with Gerbs, that the girl could have been blended a bit better, and some of the overlay is a little distracting. Overall, I like it.

lol sorry about the naming the first one is named serve. Thank you very much for the complement. Believe me there is no ego stroking going on. I'm just glad the people approve (c: