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More from Theodor
230mm x 317mm
Acrylic, Gouache, dip pen and toothpaste on Brown mountboard
I really threw everything at this one, and it's taken nearly a week to complete!
It also appears that FA ate the colours when it resized it, it's much more vibrant than this in real life.
[EDIT] Fixed, thanks helpful commenters.
This is why I don't work in colour...
This is my entry for the EF16 conbook cover competition, a storytelling scene with a cave painting illustrating a traditional Zulu story. I know they're dressed in Masai costume, I cocked that up a bit.
Why The Cheetah's Cheeks Are Stained
Long ago a wicked and lazy hunter was sitting under a tree. He was thinking that it was too hot to be bothered with the arduous task of stalking prey through the bushes. Below him in the clearing on the grassy veld there were fat springbok grazing. But this hunter couldn't be bothered, so lazy was he! He gazed at the herd, wishing that he could have the meat without the work, when suddenly he noticed a movement off to the left of the buck. It was a female cheetah seeking food. Keeping downwind of the herd, she moved closer and closer to them. She singled out a springbok who had foolishly wandered away from the rest. Suddenly she gathered her long legs under her and sprang forward. With great speed she came upon the springbok and brought it down. Startled, the rest of the herd raced away as the cheetah quickly killed her prey.
The hunter watched as the cheetah dragged her prize to some shade on the edge of the clearing. There three beautiful cheetah cubs were waiting there for her. The lazy hunter was filled with envy for the cubs and wished that he could have such a good hunter provide for him. Imagine dining on delicious meat every day without having to do the actual hunting! Then he had a wicked idea. He decided that he would steal one of the cheetah cubs and train it to hunt for him. He decided to wait until the mother cheetah went to the waterhole late in the afternoon to make his move. He smiled to himself.
When the sun began to set, the cheetah left her cubs concealed in a bush and set off to the waterhole. Quickly the hunter grabbed his spear and trotted down to the bushes where the cubs were hidden. There he found the three cubs, still to young to be frightened of him or to run away. He first chose one, then decided upon another, and then changed his mind again. Finally he stole them all, thinking to himself that three cheetahs would undoubtedly be better than one.
When their mother returned half-an-hour later and found her babies gone, she was broken-hearted. The poor mother cheetah cried and cried until her tears made dark stains down her cheeks. She wept all night and into the next day. She cried so loudly that she was heard by an old man who came to see what the noise was all about.
Now this old man was wise and knew the ways of the animals. When he discovered what the wicked hunter had done, he became very angry. The lazy hunter was not only a thief, he had broken the traditions of the tribe. Everyone knew that a hunter must use only his own strength and skill. Any other way of hunting was surely a dishonour.
The old man returned to the village and told the elders what has happened. The villagers became angry. They found the lazy hunter and drove him away from the village. The old man took the three cheetah cubs back to their grateful mother. But the long weeping of the mother cheetah stained her face forever. Today the cheetah wears the tearstains on its face as a reminder to the hunters that it is not honourable to hunt in any other way than that which is traditional.
Acrylic, Gouache, dip pen and toothpaste on Brown mountboard
I really threw everything at this one, and it's taken nearly a week to complete!
It also appears that FA ate the colours when it resized it, it's much more vibrant than this in real life.
[EDIT] Fixed, thanks helpful commenters.
This is why I don't work in colour...
This is my entry for the EF16 conbook cover competition, a storytelling scene with a cave painting illustrating a traditional Zulu story. I know they're dressed in Masai costume, I cocked that up a bit.
Why The Cheetah's Cheeks Are Stained
Long ago a wicked and lazy hunter was sitting under a tree. He was thinking that it was too hot to be bothered with the arduous task of stalking prey through the bushes. Below him in the clearing on the grassy veld there were fat springbok grazing. But this hunter couldn't be bothered, so lazy was he! He gazed at the herd, wishing that he could have the meat without the work, when suddenly he noticed a movement off to the left of the buck. It was a female cheetah seeking food. Keeping downwind of the herd, she moved closer and closer to them. She singled out a springbok who had foolishly wandered away from the rest. Suddenly she gathered her long legs under her and sprang forward. With great speed she came upon the springbok and brought it down. Startled, the rest of the herd raced away as the cheetah quickly killed her prey.
The hunter watched as the cheetah dragged her prize to some shade on the edge of the clearing. There three beautiful cheetah cubs were waiting there for her. The lazy hunter was filled with envy for the cubs and wished that he could have such a good hunter provide for him. Imagine dining on delicious meat every day without having to do the actual hunting! Then he had a wicked idea. He decided that he would steal one of the cheetah cubs and train it to hunt for him. He decided to wait until the mother cheetah went to the waterhole late in the afternoon to make his move. He smiled to himself.
When the sun began to set, the cheetah left her cubs concealed in a bush and set off to the waterhole. Quickly the hunter grabbed his spear and trotted down to the bushes where the cubs were hidden. There he found the three cubs, still to young to be frightened of him or to run away. He first chose one, then decided upon another, and then changed his mind again. Finally he stole them all, thinking to himself that three cheetahs would undoubtedly be better than one.
When their mother returned half-an-hour later and found her babies gone, she was broken-hearted. The poor mother cheetah cried and cried until her tears made dark stains down her cheeks. She wept all night and into the next day. She cried so loudly that she was heard by an old man who came to see what the noise was all about.
Now this old man was wise and knew the ways of the animals. When he discovered what the wicked hunter had done, he became very angry. The lazy hunter was not only a thief, he had broken the traditions of the tribe. Everyone knew that a hunter must use only his own strength and skill. Any other way of hunting was surely a dishonour.
The old man returned to the village and told the elders what has happened. The villagers became angry. They found the lazy hunter and drove him away from the village. The old man took the three cheetah cubs back to their grateful mother. But the long weeping of the mother cheetah stained her face forever. Today the cheetah wears the tearstains on its face as a reminder to the hunters that it is not honourable to hunt in any other way than that which is traditional.
Category All / All
Species Dog (Other)
Size 929 x 1280px
File Size 1.89 MB
This is clearly why you should work in colour!
This is absolutely amazing Theo, the soft lighting, the colours, the cave paintings and the story are all beautiful.
I really hope this sells well at the art show and hope it makes it as the front cover, really well done on this.
This is absolutely amazing Theo, the soft lighting, the colours, the cave paintings and the story are all beautiful.
I really hope this sells well at the art show and hope it makes it as the front cover, really well done on this.
Thanks!
I have no reason to doubt it being a real story, I found it here if you're interested:
http://storiesafrica.blogspot.com/2.....ined-zulu.html
I have no reason to doubt it being a real story, I found it here if you're interested:
http://storiesafrica.blogspot.com/2.....ined-zulu.html
If you resize it yourself in an image processing program you won't lose the color. You lost the color because FA, by default, drops the JPEG quality level down, which drops the color depth down below 8 bits, to probably 5 or 6. Remember that maxium size on either dimension is 1280 pixels.
It's very well done. I shall have to look you up again when I begin writing children's books and find I can't illustrate to save my life (which is currently the case.)
It's very well done. I shall have to look you up again when I begin writing children's books and find I can't illustrate to save my life (which is currently the case.)
Yup, PNG would hold the colors better; but it has other issues. If you have Photoshop, the best thing you can do is choose "Save for Web" and set the maximum resolution to 1280 pixels under the "size" tab, and make sure your compression setting is at 12 or 100; I forget which scale they use there.
If you are interested in children's books, get in touch with me in a couple of months. My life should be settled down a bit by then. I'd love to collaborate, or even point you in the right direction for writing and illustrating your own.
If you are interested in children's books, get in touch with me in a couple of months. My life should be settled down a bit by then. I'd love to collaborate, or even point you in the right direction for writing and illustrating your own.
[quote=awesome dog]It also appears that FA ate the colours when it resized it, it's much more vibrant than this in real life. [/url]
FA's largest limit is like, 12K pixels high/wide or something... If resizing doesn't help (or ruins the colour quality since it's smooshed), you could try re-uploading it again (not as a new submission, but click edit, then resubmit it on the uploady button). That *should* trick the site into keeping it whatever size. If all else fails, I guess you'd have to host it off of box.net or imageshack.com and link to it in the info area.
This image is just... FREAKING BEAUTIFUL. The style, the textures, the way it was colored... The story that goes along with it is wonderful too ^^ You did such an awesome job on this =3
FA's largest limit is like, 12K pixels high/wide or something... If resizing doesn't help (or ruins the colour quality since it's smooshed), you could try re-uploading it again (not as a new submission, but click edit, then resubmit it on the uploady button). That *should* trick the site into keeping it whatever size. If all else fails, I guess you'd have to host it off of box.net or imageshack.com and link to it in the info area.
This image is just... FREAKING BEAUTIFUL. The style, the textures, the way it was colored... The story that goes along with it is wonderful too ^^ You did such an awesome job on this =3
I love this picture so much.
And even if it didn't make it to the cover, I am so happy you got apprciated for it nonetheless.
It's astounding that you managed to tell the entire story on the wall painting, too. You don't need words, you don't need to know the story before hand and you still understand what happens.
A truly astounding picture, Theo!
And even if it didn't make it to the cover, I am so happy you got apprciated for it nonetheless.
It's astounding that you managed to tell the entire story on the wall painting, too. You don't need words, you don't need to know the story before hand and you still understand what happens.
A truly astounding picture, Theo!
An inspiriing piece. Please do more. I always loved wise man tales such as those of abariginal and african people. Your picture is both simple in design and powerful in touching its audiance.
well done.
cheetahka
well done.
cheetahka 
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