This is a personal piece, designed to help me practice with character design. The concept was inspired by the hyena men of Africa. I took a different approach on it, however, and tried to conceptualize how a post-apocalyptic America would look and how it may breed such a character.

I was tired of seeing constantly desolate and barren post-apocalyptic scenarios, so I went with the idea that after civilization crumbles it may be lush and overgrown. After all, while I understand the concept of nuclear winter, I personally believe that if the modern world is going to die, it will die with a whimper; not a bang. Consequently, most other life will probably flourish in the absence of industry, and this is what it might look like. Humans will still be around, of course, but I think they would be reduced to small groups living a more tribal lifestyle. Like this fellow. :)

I also figured that Native Americans would be one of the groups of people most adapted to this kind of lifestyle, as they have lived on the plains of America for thousands of years, and have had the least 'conditioning' to the comforts of the modern world.

Who knows, though. This piece is based more upon what would look cool than what scientifically makes sense, but I do believe this to be one possible path in the future of humanity.

In any case, enjoy the pretty picture. :)

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I worked on this piece wanting to put my absolute best effort into it, and I didn't stop until I was completely satisfied that I had done the best I could possibly do. The original idea was to create something which could be used as a kind of 'benchmark' for my abilities at this point, and which I can look back on to gauge improvement. I think the plan turned out well, and I now know a lot more about my capabilities.

If you saw my recent journal, you know this means I will be striving for a higher standard in my art, and will be taking more time on each piece to perfect it. Of course, I won't toil for hours as I did on this, but hopefully I can bump myself up to a higher caliber.

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Technical notes:

Painted in Photoshop CS4, using only the circle/oval brush (no textures or effect brushes). Intuous3. Likely 40+ hours, but I don't know exactly. References were used for the major elements. The pose can be found on this handy website.