goldenthorn
quality posts: 34
Private Messages
Volunteer Moderator
lyonscc wrote:Ah - I may misunderstand the rule. I just understood it from Travis' explanation to be "if it's on a keyboard, it's text - which includes math symbols".
I don't know Chinese, but if the design you linked to uses simplified Chinese characters to spell out Firefly, then that would be the reason for rejection.
Pictographs, aren't really text, though. They don't have letters, and they aren't really words, either.
If it's rejected though, so be it. I wonder, then, if they ought to consider ANY symbol to be text, then - which would rule out a lot of designs that make it through the "no text" filters...
A pictogram like this IS Chinese text--it's part of the written language, just modified written characters. It's like saying that ornate Arabic calligraphy isn't text because the letters/words are nearly unrecognizable in their transformation into (usually) religious art symbols. A peace sign doesn't derive from any written language. It's an art symbol. I mean, sure, it might have some basis in some ancient Nordic runic alphabet, for all I know, but it isn't text. Comparing a peace symbol to modified modern Chinese text is like comparing the famous smiley face to graffiti signature tags. For example, in English, is this text? Yes, yes it is (for woot art purposes anyway). It's not any one letter, but it's definitely a bunch of letters put together to make a pictogram. And that pictogram is text (at woot).
Or at least that's what I think.
I rose in rainy autumn and walked abroad in a shower of all my days.
goldenthorn
quality posts: 34
Private Messages
Volunteer Moderator
no1 wrote:i like everything about this except, possibly, the smooth, featureless expanse of his bikini area. it contrasts with a lot of the surrounding drawing, making it, uh, "stick out" a bit.
Yeah! C'mon Drakxxx, I know you can make a tasteful bulge (and I mean that in the most flattering, admiring way possible)! Seriously, making it totally flat and un-textured draws just as much attenton to the area as if you made some horrible comicbook-stereotype monster bulge.
I rose in rainy autumn and walked abroad in a shower of all my days.
goldenthorn
quality posts: 34
Private Messages
Volunteer Moderator
lyonscc wrote:I used 5 or six reference images, created a "scratch" drawing (with different levels of shading), and then used hatching and lines to build the actual image (throwing away the "scratch" in the end).
Niiiice!
I rose in rainy autumn and walked abroad in a shower of all my days.
goldenthorn
quality posts: 34
Private Messages
Volunteer Moderator
lyonscc wrote:Goldenthorn - Here's the Wikipedia article on Pictograms. They are ideographs (whose shape is supposed to convey a cultural meaning) not alphabetical (abstract shapes that represent phonemes - spoken sounds). You bring up the famous "Smiley face" - this would be an example of an English pictograph, whose meaning has to do with happiness. You wouldn't call a smiley face "text" the same way you wouldn't call a pictograph "text".
Chinese pictographs are not utilized to make other words, they stand on their own to have meaning.
Yes, I am completely familiar with what pictograms are and are not. I've got a few languages/alphabets under my belt and have dealt with that sort of thing.
Where I am confused--and am thus questioning the validity of your entry--is the origins of your particular pictogram. You mention the forest, but either I am incredibly blind or there is no mention of this pictogram anywhere. I don't know Chinese (Mandarin in this case, right?), but parts of the language symbols are extremely close/similar to this particular pictogram. I did a very quick search and I see no mention of it anywhere in relations to this forest.
So are you saying that you completely made up this pictogram and that you just drew it to look somewhat like Chinese characters? Or that this is an existing pictogram that represents this particular forest? If the latter is the case, then how do you know that it isn't based on an amalgamation of Chinese text--making it text according to woot (when they feel like enforcing that rule)--since you aren't familiar with the Chinese language or text?
Is there a link to where the meaning/background of this particular pictogram is described?
I rose in rainy autumn and walked abroad in a shower of all my days.
goldenthorn
quality posts: 34
Private Messages
Volunteer Moderator
Drakxxx wrote:Back again after a few edits. Thanks guys
*snip images*
Ehehehehehe... is that a tentactle monster I see growing down out of his crotch now? Wow, Drakxxx, when you quipped you had Monster Bulge on DVD somewhere, I didn't think you were actually gonna incorporate that hentai into your art. All's I got to say is "awwwwww, yeah!"
But really: good fix. GMV... OBVIOUSLY.
I rose in rainy autumn and walked abroad in a shower of all my days.