Dated 19/09/2008

Strength manifested, ten-thousand feet tall,
A sky filled with muscle preparing to fall.
Power with eyes, selecting his mark,
A sea of souls engulfed in the dark.
And just for a second, their eyes would meet,
The victor relishing his victims' defeat.
His heavy shadow poised for the kill,
The helpless doomed to their master's will.
He chooses his moment, and taking a breath...
...his muscles unleash the crash of death.
The planet lies shaking 'neath the laughing beast,
The air a salvo of his power released.
His weight bears down, the flesh compacts,
The earth surrenders, the tarmac cracks...

---

It's official. I've gone mad.




I really don't know what to say. I really don't. Not to blow my own trumpet, but I can't quite believe I've done this.  blueanthroraptor asked me a while back if he could use my old "Rexar Says Welcome To LD5" pic on the site's new homepage following its relaunch earlier this year, but I told him that I wanted to make something new to reflect my current standards. After a while though, I just got that feeling that I've had with many pieces of mine up to now - that sense that "...y'know what? This is looking pretty good... I might see if I can make it the best bit of work I've ever done" which then drives you on to put absolutely everything you've got into the piece to make it so. That's exactly what I did with this one, and even I can't quite believe the results.





Just to explain a few things about it;

Firstly, the textures. This is the first time I've actually tried to make Rexar look like the sexy scaly beast that he is. At the same time though, I prefer to think of Rexar's palms and soles as having a smoother texture, so I tried to create two distinctly different surfaces and blend them together as naturally as possible.

Secondly, the buildings - I've tried realistic buildings before in "King of Rampage", but for this one, I wanted to go a step further. The looks-a-bit-like-Sears-Tower one on the bottom-right was by far the biggest bitch of the bunch to get right, but I really like how it came out. I'm still not convinced the angles are right on all of them in relation to the perspective, but once I look at the towering behemoth beyond them, I suddenly don't care anymore. Lol!

Finally, Rexar's size - as you can probably tell from the positioning, this is the biggest I've drawn him (with the exception of the one with the world between his toes). The more eagled-eyed among you may also notice some of the falling debris raining down from Rexar's foot is a little more than just debris - there's several furry characters (not crushed up, mind), a half-mashed truck, the plane crunched into his pads, a coach, a car, a few trees... y'know, just the usual things which you might find sprinkling down from the soles of a giant beast in the midst of a rampage.


Oh, and as for the words - I don't know, really. They just kinda came to me the evening I first started sketching this out, so I formulated them into a sonnet of sorts and noted it down. Maybe it adds a little something to it, I dunno.


I'm absolutely thrilled with this one, and to all of you, I hope you like it as much as I do.




RRRex