Here's my entry for this week. Some of the most beautiful national parks are subterranean. They can also be incredibly creepy. I hope you like it!

Enlarge

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Looks like a winner! I may lose, but at least I'll be clothed well.

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Gorgeous work as usual sir! Your a master at with those lighting effects.

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Great use of halftones, really good looking light-work mate.
+1

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i think this will make one helluva shirt.

i may be biased though...i dig this style.

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Holey Moley! Sweet colors and lighting! Great job!

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I hope people are noticing that there's some sort of skull image here.

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Amazing, I love it! +1

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Looks nasty! I especially like how the cavern is a skull. Didn't see that coming when I saw the thumbnail preview.

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Echoing- great use of colors and lighting.

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Great mood, CM. GMV

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This is amazingly beautiful. I especially love the streak of light coming in. You have my vote and purchase when printed.

Thanks for all the nice comments everyone. And the votes! I'm pretty happy with how the colors turned out.

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Reminds me of Orpheus and Eurydice.

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Perfect. Gets my vote, and purchase when it wins.

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WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER!!!!!

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how fine are these halftones?

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I was blown away when I saw the skull... Very cool.

Misskari wrote:I was blown away when I saw the skull... Very cool.

I didn't even notice until you said something. Very cool indeed.

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You never fail to impress. This is quite incredible. I wouldn't wear something like this; but I would definitely like to see pics of the print if you place.

I absolutely love how you create another layer of depth using the shadow and light effects of the cave. Great stuff.

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I think I would like the skull profile to be not so askew, but I would buy for sure!

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Love, love, love!

Jestik wrote:WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER!!!!!

?? That's a new one...

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What a beautiful design! I was instantly drawn to the colors...and the light streaming down is perfect! Great job CM! : )

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Wowee!!!! Excellent work- the lighting is exquisite.

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this is definitely my fav of the week

cmdixon2 wrote:Here's my entry for this week. Some of the most beautiful national parks are subterranean. They can also be incredibly creepy. I hope you like it!

Enlarge

Thanks for posting a larger version so I could see the halftones on the shirt. I really wish you had done it without the half tone. =/

This shirt is beeeeutiful.

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Steeped in awesome. GMV.

too cool.

espetrell wrote:?? That's a new one...

As to the response to "winner winner, chicken dinner" it's a common phrase to those who play the cardgame Blackjack. it's a good thing. =D

I like the lighting effect here, really neat. If the skull is intentional I don't like how it's slanted in a wierd angle.. or something. Just doesn't look right imo.

gmv though, I'd buy it if it placed.

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Beautiful work!

techspecs wrote:I hope people are noticing that there's some sort of skull image here.

Thanks for pointing that out; it was too dark on my screen.

It's a neat graphic—an interesting concept, and well executed. It has its place (perhaps the cover of a D&D module). But i'm not into macabre imagery, so it's not something that i'd wear.

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I'm really not a fan of this one. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that no one really needs another hidden skull shirt. I'm pretty sure more skull shirts exist than any other kind of shirt. And as with other heavily half-toned designs, I just don't think this will print well. All of the distinct dots will look pretty messy inside the design.

If I haven't actually purchased, I'm usually a fan or your stuff since it tends to be fairly fresh compared to the norm but this one is a miss for me.

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I put a vote in for this because it is so beautiful. As a girly girl, the only thing that attracts me from wearing it is the skull, even though I know that's the whole point of the shirt. But it's just so beautiful and deserves to be printed.

mrwednesday wrote:I'm really not a fan of this one. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that no one really needs another hidden skull shirt. I'm pretty sure more skull shirts exist than any other kind of shirt. And as with other heavily half-toned designs, I just don't think this will print well. All of the distinct dots will look pretty messy inside the design.

If I haven't actually purchased, I'm usually a fan or your stuff since it tends to be fairly fresh compared to the norm but this one is a miss for me.

I'd have said this earlier, but I'm with you.

It's going to sound offensive, but when I saw this, I thought it was Seki from the thumbnail. The halftoning. The garish colors. The Shiny Shiny Glowy Shiny. And while I certainly enjoy seeing cmdixon work in the derby, and unlike who I believed it to be, I KNOW you can do better and have seen you do better, it doesn't make me like this more.

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This is absolutely gorgeous - the colors and the detailing, and until I read the comments, I would have bought this even though I wish the right side didn't go up so sharply. However, now that I've read the comments, I can't stop seeing the skull, which I wouldn't want to wear. D'oh.

Nonetheless, excellent job on the design, especially the colors and lighting.. really impressive.

AdderXYU wrote:I'd have said this earlier, but I'm with you.

It's going to sound offensive, but when I saw this, I thought it was Seki from the thumbnail. The halftoning. The garish colors. The Shiny Shiny Glowy Shiny. And while I certainly enjoy seeing cmdixon work in the derby, and unlike who I believed it to be, I KNOW you can do better and have seen you do better, it doesn't make me like this more.

I am not really offended by being compared to Seki as I think she does have an good eye for making pretty visuals. My only real complaint with Seki besides subject matter(which I can't fault her for) is her general lack of concept in her work.

Even I've occasionally been guilty of putting visuals before concept. Most if not all artists have. Sometimes it's for lack of a great idea. Sometimes I start with a general direction and a concept is born from that...and sometimes not. Usually those end up being my least favorite.

Sometimes concepts are born that I never would have thought up just brainstorming or sketching. This one was one of those and I'm actually quite happy with the final product.

I would love to get some more feedback(negative & positive) if you don't mind. Is it just the amount of halftones used or the method with which they are used? Or both?

To me, the colors don't come off as garish. There are 2 fairly low intensity colors (dark pink & purple) and one bright (yellow). Perhaps you can elaborate a little?


Thanks again to all those that DO like this shirt. I appreciate the kind(and the critical) comments.

cmdixon2 wrote:I am not really offended by being compared to Seki as I think she does have an good eye for making pretty visuals. My only real complaint with Seki besides subject matter(which I can't fault her for) is her general lack of concept in her work.

Even I've occasionally been guilty of putting visuals before concept. Most if not all artists have. Sometimes it's for lack of a great idea. Sometimes I start with a general direction and a concept is born from that...and sometimes not. Usually those end up being my least favorite.

Sometimes concepts are born that I never would have thought up just brainstorming or sketching. This one was one of those and I'm actually quite happy with the final product.

I would love to get some more feedback(negative & positive) if you don't mind. Is it just the amount of halftones used or the method with which they are used? Or both?

To me, the colors don't come off as garish. There are 2 fairly low intensity colors (dark pink & purple) and one bright (yellow). Perhaps you can elaborate a little?


Thanks again to all those that DO like this shirt. I appreciate the kind(and the critical) comments.

That is far too generous to Seki, sir, but I shan't press.

Anywho. For me it is the purple/gold combo more than anything. The shades just clash for me, looking more like a kings robes of state or something of that matter than light... the saturation just doesn't gel to my eyes. As for the halftones, when it gets down to the bottom and they're nice and chunky, that just feels off too, because you can see the circles, and that takes the whole effect and turns it upside down, to me.

I'm not going to pretend there's not some bias also. I feel like i've seen this sort of thing every week lately. Ooooh, it's glowing! Oooooh, it's fine halftones. Ooooooh, look at the negative space. I'm not going to say any one of those things is inherently bad (i'd cite something like Rain Dance, which I feel used negative space brilliantly), but everything together, I can't help but look at it and feel it's stale.

As an anecdote: this week I saw a design at Threadless that took a pretty fun and original take on Mario. I wanted to like it more, but being here, where horrible, non-parody videogame shirts are made often enough to warrant a rule against them, and checking teefury, which seems to steal someone's intellectual property at least twice a week without enough parody to justify it, I couldn't like it. Even if I was able to appreciate how it was fresher. And I think that this suffers like that. I feel like this is just light enough on concept to feel like any generic shinyshiny piece we've seen over the last year. I admit that is likely infused with bias, but I really don't think that, after the last year, I can be fully faulted for that.

No clue if that explains any further for you or not, but there you have it.

cmdixon2 wrote:...

Sometimes concepts are born that I never would have thought up just brainstorming or sketching. This one was one of those and I'm actually quite happy with the final product.

I would love to get some more feedback(negative & positive) if you don't mind. ...

CM, I too love the look but would not wear it because of the skull. It seems your concept is out of sync with your original quote about national parks that are subterranean -- I don't really get a feel for dark, damp, drippy, lichenous or anoxic spaces, stalagtites and stalagmites in formation ... The twinkles aren't in themselves objectionable -- lightfall is certainly conceivable -- tho a bit overdone, and the colors are luscious -- but the feel simply isn't underground for me, with the way shadows leap from lights, and the skull isn't organic. You could get a lot creepier and suggestive of writhing souls with the natural formations without resorting to the tired old trope of the skull.
imho
CMW

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I see what you did there.

Get back in the fog!!!

Beautiful! Love the lighting!

AdderXYU wrote:
The Shiny Shiny Glowy Shiny.

Normally I am in silent agreement with you on the whole Seki Glowy Shiny "this-style-is-overplayed" thing, but have you ever been inside a cavern?

I agree the colors are a bit striking, and not "normal" for a cave, but the "shiny glowy" you refer to wasn't what popped in my mind first. I saw that and related it to that waxy and slimy look that columns and stalactites get from the dripping water. I think the "shiny" is appropriate in this one given the subject matter.

I love the shirt, but the intense colors are what throw me off and may me say "thanks but no thanks". Otherwise, CM, I love your stuff!

AdderXYU wrote:
Anywho. For me it is the purple/gold combo more than anything. The shades just clash for me, looking more like a kings robes of state or something of that matter than light...

Packers fan? :D

Damn, I really hope this one makes it back into the fog, I like this design way more than any in the top four atm!!!

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I REALLY like this design. The mystery and awe it depicts are absolutely gorgeous!

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just a single vote more and fibonacci would have been proud.

prism369 wrote:just a single vote more and fibonacci would have been proud.

So close! I wish this had made it.

penguin2b3 wrote:Damn, I really hope this one makes it back into the fog, I like this design way more than any in the top four atm!!!

Agreed. I was really crossing my fingers for this one.

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noooooo!!!!i so wanted this one!!

Angelfuzz wrote:noooooo!!!!i so wanted this one!!

UGHHHH!!! I wanted this so badly! i thought for sure it would have won! im pissed now.

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Oh my, there's a man in the left nostril- it's the G-Man from Half Life! Probably the best half-toning I've seen in a derby entry.