One day she’ll accept the trade-off, losing a piece of her humanity. She’ll look back and see the wisdom in it. But not today. Today she just wants back what she’s lost. (Oh this better, updated last sentence: Today she screams.)
Timelapse: https://bsky.app/profile/ballshapedman.bsky.social/post/3mq5v2fdv4k2n
As much as I like cybernetics and media with it, I don’t want it. I have a few irrational fears, this is one. The other is finding a toilet in a dream and using it.
Every other entry in this series has been at peace with or loved the trade-off. But I wouldn’t and when I saw the reference image I knew exactly what I was going to paint with it. Someone tortured with the choice.
I also love Fredrik Backman, Bear Town is one of my all time favorites. The way he gets me to feel emotions with his words is something else. So the blurb above is my attempt in his style.
Thoughts? Also is the rain convincing?
!That’s cool—her look reminded me of Senua’s. (Hellblade)
Thank you! And that was an amazing game. Didn’t care for the second one sadly.
Yeah I don’t know either about cyber-implants, you would literally carve away your flesh to replace it with machinery. (In Shadowrum you would actually lose essence of your self until you become a cyberzombie, or in Cyberpunk you would eventually become a Cyberpyscho just the same) My fear would be that you would simply lose sensory input in that given area.
The Despair is clearly on display in this artpiece, love how the rain gives this misty aura around her head, but I am not convinced about the droplets on her skin, wouldn’t they form teardrops?
Yeah they would, I was trying to make it convincing without painting each individual droplet. This is my first attempt at it and not really sure it lands. Maybe at a macro level but it falls apart close up.
And that’s exactly how I feel about it. And I like the way both fictional worlds handle it. My first exposure was Rifts which to my knowledge has no impact on the character. But it always freaked me out.
Johnny Mnemonic and Ghost in the Shell for example were both great and creepy for that reason. Totally cool and bothers me at the same time.
Johnny Mnemonic… I really should get that Movie in whatever capacity as physical media. Not just because I love Keanu Reeves, but it was such a classic Cyberpunk Scenario (Hello William Gibson) and that fricking Dolphin!
Maybe at a macro level but it falls apart close up.
you will get there, I am sure of it! Its poignant as it is already!
Oh so good! And yes the dolphin was mind blowing the first time watching it.
And it just means I need to focus on rain at some point and do a series on it. Just like I struggled with hair, hands, skin, and everything else. Just gotta practice it out of me 😁
I like how your mind works, and love how it plays!
Thank you!
Always a pleasure.
You did fine. Johnny Mnemonic completely tempered a naïveté in my view of cybernetics.
How so?
Well, I only used to think of positive applications and ramifications; I thought surely no human would allow conditions that create rampant misuse, or abuse, and guidelines would naturally arise to curb or mitigate any harmful potentials, despite already having seen how humans in uh… suboptimal environments behave. I was yet unaware that humans in optimal environments could behave as abhorrently, or worse. And we, the masses, don’t really get to see the goings-on behind oak doors with leaded glass, do we?
Great points, and no we don’t. I’m closer to that room now than ever, and I still don’t know.
Not even all the inhabitants do, often times.
My best to you and your lovely family.
And to you too!
Holy jumping Jesus H. CHRIST! Pair up with a writer and make graphic novels.
I’d buy them.
Thank you!
Maybe when I retire many many moons from now. I’d need to work on repeating the look of specific characters and relying a lot less on references before I’d be ready for that. Maybe I’ll work on that at some point.
I’ve wondered if the Ultras in the Revelation Space novel series were ever regretful of their modifications. They generally modified themselves to extremes to be better than any normal human, something of note in a universe where most humans have biological repairs to extend their lives hundreds of years as it is. I can’t remember if they tended to be all-white or if I’m just picturing their usual ships, the lighthuggers (near-lightspeed ships). I do remember they often have dreadlocks and grow a new lock for each reefer sleep (interstellar cryostasis), so that fuels my mental image that half of them look like The Twins of the Matrix
It’s a cool series. It sets you up with a ton of universe expo. It does not exactly pull it all together.
That sounds like a fun series. I’ll add it to my book list.
The twins were always creepy to me, which is a good thing in a book series!
Re: rain
- It should fall very rectilinear, there’s a certain curvature on it instead.
- on the body, it should drop always towards the ground and puddle when not in a near vertical surface. If you want to show the path it took, the arms could start in the orientation you drew (longitudinal) but veer off to the side (towards the ground) to highlight the arm movement from the side of the body to the face.
- It clings more to skin than painted surfaces, so thinner runs, smaller but higher puddles / droplets on artificial surfaces. Conversely, meandering, wider runs, and wider but shallower droplets and puddles on skin.
- water droplets have less color and are basically just texture and reflections. They should have the same pallette as the surface they’re on.
I really like this piece. A lot of raw emotion, fantastic color pallette.
Good observations, thank you for pointing all of that out. I wouldn’t have considered that skin and other material hold onto water differently. I’ll need to practice both in the same piece.
Thank you!
