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mnemenic — In the Shadow of Great Knowledge
Published: 2013-01-14 22:19:37 +0000 UTC; Views: 445; Favourites: 26; Downloads: 8
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Description
My half of an art trade with ~PhilosophyPony !I experimented a lot while making this. I know a lot of details are off, and I'll probably go back and refine things later, but at the moment I'm pleased with this. I like the shadow effect, though I feel it's missing something. I don't know what, though. I do feel like I'm getting better at pure digital work, though.
Philosopony has an excellent OC, by the way. I can't explain it, but I just adore her design, particularly her mane. Based on her comic about cutie marks, I also like her personality. I chose to exclude her cutie mark from its proper place, but it still exists in this image.
I hope you like it!
Philosopony belongs to
Check out her half here:
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Comments: 9
Wow, this is incredible! Honestly, I'm just floored by how amazing this is. I really, really love how this turned out.
As you know, I adore the way you draw ponies, and it's such an honor to see my OC in your style. I love her pose and her very calm, thoughtful expression. I also love the way you drew her mane, with the blue shadows. The composition of the whole image is beautiful, with the main figure to the side and the ethereal tree and owl filling up most of the other space. It looks like this is a glimpse into the character's meditative state, which is a very creative and thoughtful way of interpreting my character. The notion of using the tree and the owl symbolizing (I assume) knowledge and wisdom is also very creative and you handled it very well. I like how the owl is part of the non-corporeal aspect of the image, that is, that you didn't include the owl in the cutie mark, because it adds to the feel of the cerebral, out-of-body nature of picture.
Gosh, I could keep going, but I'd better stop before I write a whole essay. This image is so impressive, I bet I really could.
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I'm thrilled that you're happy with my interpretation! I knew early on what I wanted the image to look like, with the tree and the overall composition of it. Rendering her thoughts visually was always my intention. You're right about the tree and the owl being knowledge and all that, but I added the shadows because I was thinking of an interesting interpretation of the Garden of Eden story I had read about last year.
Basically, the interpretation was that the Garden of Eden was a biblical telling of the story of evolution, and of humans gaining self-awareness and leaving the animal world behind. When God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden, it wasn't really a punishment, it was just the natural consequence to their actions. To be honest, I wasn't blown away, because I'd already thought of that interpretation before (excluding reinterpreting original sin, which I thought was totally neat), but the book laid it out in a brilliant way. So I included the shadows to sort of represent the great burden of knowledge, being "cast out" of the light innocence of the garden. Though, innocence is such a trite word to use and it seems silly to talk about these things in the comments section of a deviation about ponies but... well, life is strange that way.
I wish I could remember the name of the author. My history teacher read the passage to us in class. I swear I wrote it down in one of my notebooks, but I don't feel like searching it out right now.
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I love how the branches look kinda like a circuit board
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Haha, thanks. It was purely incidental. I just thought simplifying them would look cool.
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