'Access Denied'

There's a downside to taking your inspiration directly from the world around you. I do most of my thinking while I'm walking; most of all when I'm walking to and from my parents' house on a Saturday night. So I get inspired to create a lot of dark, shabby surburban streets. This one was worth doing, however. It's about the startling effect of walking past a house with the lights on and the curtains drawn; the clarity of the rooms inside compared to the uncertain darkness all around. The eyes are drawn to even the most mundane of houses. I wrap it up in some vague social message here by making the room rather posh and the wayfarer scruffy. Really, though, it's about light and darkness comparisons. It took an eternity of messing around with spotlights to get right. But an eternity, I think, that was worth it. I also tried a di Vinci-esque trick of drawing a straight line between the sole of the woman's outstretched foot and the top of her head. I don't know why. Why did di Vinci do that sort of thing anyway?

'A Message To The Cosmos'

My comment on conceptual art, I suppose. Or on the reactions evoked by conceptual art; which here is shown as reverence, contempt and humour. I side with the giggling schoolgirls. A lot of modern art is funny, whether intentionally or otherwise, and this is sometimes overlooked. I guess this image was inspired by one trip to the Tate Modern. I was studying Cheri Cherin's Where Is The World Going?, a kind of 'all the ills of modern society' collage. One part of it was a grinning blond getting intimate with a dog. Stood alongside me was a teenage girl. I could tell when she noticed the dog and the blond because she gave a great laugh and ran away giggling. That's how you should treat conceptual art.

The sculpture here was the standard Daz Vicky model. She was given a bronze skin via some freebie I picked up and then had her arm rather brutally hacked off in Hexagon. The whole thing is half-sucessful. Of all the poses, only the intellectual's really comes off. The floor is also too dark (once again). Incidentally another comment is the two masterpieces of art, The Madonna Of The Rocks and The Night Watch, hanging on the wall entirely unnoticed.

'A New Morning'

At the time I thought I'd overdone the redness of the lighting, meant to indicate a sunrise. And it's also a moot point whether I've overdone of the Dickensy sentimentality of waif-finds-new-hope-in-simple-cat. But frankly, I think this one rocks. Her expression and posture has come out just right. As has the light playing on her face; which is just as well as that one was a bitch to perfect. As ever there's no explicit back story. It's up to the viewer to decide why a girl is sitting on a street corner with a rucksack; and for that matter, why a cat has chosen to befriend her. The Carlsberg can has appeared in so many of my images it's almost a motif, so I should thank the curiously named TrekkieGrrrl for the free model.

Hallowed Halls Of Learning

My latest finished one. I had a lot of fun making this, mainly for nostalgic reasons. It's based on my year at Cryfield Hall, the cheapest and most raucous halls of residence at Warwick University. Many happy evenings cramming into someone's far-too-small bedroom, drinking cheap alcohol before going to the pub or after coming back. And a talking a huge, huge amount of bollocks. The main trouble with this image - apart from the usual 'not very good' factor' - is that to focus on the students, I couldn't show much of the room itself. I may do another render to rectify this because our bedrooms had to be seen to be believed; basically a monk's cell with a leaking basin. A commentator on Renderosity said she was sending her son to college soon and images like this scared the hell out of her. I wonder what she'd have said if I'd managed to get a decent model of a spliff.

'3 And You're In'

I know, it might just as well have been called "Jumpers For Goalposts." But every day in school yards across the UK, thousands of games did - and presumably still do - take place. You put down your bags or unneccesary items of clothing to form the posts. You get out a ball. And away you go. 3 And You're In, using only one goal, is usually played by the smaller groups and reverses the social status of keepers. In proper games the goalie is a stigmatised role, handed out to the worst player. 3 And You're In makes the position a reward, however, handed out to the first to score three goals.

Most of my attention for this image was concentrated on getting the positions of the figures right. I wanted to create a sense of action; and also imply that these kids weren't very good players. A reasonable job was done, though what the boy on the left thinks he's doing, nobody knows. Sadly I overlooked colours. The white shirts blend in with the brighter part of the background, while the darker trousers are almost swallowed by the tarmac. The ultra-glossiness of the trouser models should have been picked up and corrected too. Definitely a B- Could Try Harder.

'Transaction Complete'

One of my best, certainly in times of lighting. The main effects have come out well: the hunched, semi-lit man in the foreground, the glow of his cigarette, the brightly lit woman with her huge shadow. Her posture is far from perfect, being a muddled compramise between intended and achievable. And I know the lamp looks rubbish. But great smoke, eh? - added after rendering by my own fair hand, but I can't quite remember how. The Jesus poster is another modification of the ever-useful pirate map on the Daz site. I remember reading somewhere that some prostitutes have religious pictures on their walls. Even if not true, I thought the image formed a neat contrast with the general mood of sordid disgust.

'500 Years After The Siege'

The first image I made with the help of Hexagon. This is another Daz product which, in theory, should allow you to make complex objects from scratch. It's so difficult to use, however, and I'm such a dunce that I haven't got much out of it. I mainly use it for modifying existing models, usually by hacking bits off. Like here, where I kicked off the back of a gatetower so only the facade remained. Sounds easy, though knocking down an actual fort would probably have been quicker. I was inspired by Welsh castles like Cricceth where there is a big fuck-off gate and virtually nothing behind them. And their contrast, Harlech, which has opened its doors to any approaching army and consequently is still largely intact. The two tiny figures are supposed to be tourists parodying attacking & defending troops, though you can't really see them well enough.