Category Archives: Character of the Week

Character of the Week is back weekly again. And what better way to kick it off than with a creation so brilliantly bonkers it makes DeliriousAl's comments look normal 😉

Where exactly do I start. Well, it's a sandwich with a cape. What's not to love. I could try and be all sensible and professional about this, talk about the colour contrast between the character and the background and how it makes the character stand out even more and look more striking, but honestly…. It's a sandwich with a cape. How exactly am I meant to be sensible about this? Though I must say, those eyes are easily my favourite part about this picture. I would really love to know what Subway you're getting this sort of food from VM. I need to go there sometime.

Earlier this week, Delirious Al posted three pieces that I think might just be the best stuff this incredibly talented creator has ever done. I could have featured any of them in this blog, and in fact I changed my mind on which one to cover several times, but I eventually settled on this one because it just seems to have wonder spilling out of it (literally).

I'm struggling to know where to start. The glowing effect on the symbols/ tattoos across what of the characters body you can see is just stunning, the simplicity of having the white glow behind the yellow font in order to enhance the font and make it stand out in such a way that it seems realistic is brilliant. Then we have the characters expression and his pose, which are just the right mixture of malevolence, mystery and charisma to make him an enticing centrepiece to a piece with so many different eye catches.

But really, the reason this piece won out over the other two is the background. And to discuss that we must start with the costume, because the two are basically inseparable. For once I find myself unable to recognise what item was used to create the effect of the stars spilling out of the coat, but the effect is magnificent. It does look like a condensed gas escaping from a container. The fact that the rest of the costume is also black adds to the effect, because it is hard to tell where the character ends and the background begins. And then there's the sunrise, which just adds another layer of warmth and I might just have run out of superlatives for which I apologise, but I think you get the idea.

Now, up until this morning I had a completely different picture in mind for this weeks COTW, however, when I saw this piece by prswirve when I did my rounds this morning, I felt compelled to change.

Now the first thing that caught my eye here was the patterns that cover her body. I love how they are light on one side and dark on the other, very unusual and effective, especially when the alpha setting on both colours is lowered to allow the shading from the items behind to show through.

The next thing I looked at was the face. She has a great look of focus, with the pursed lips and staring eyes, which is accentuated by the 'ready' pose. The shading here is great too, it brings out the facial features wonderfully and doesn't overpower the pattern that carries over onto the face from the body.

Which brings me nicely onto my second favourite thing about this character, the costume.  I love the custom made top, which teams Far Eastern historic with modern style very nicely, shows of the skin pattern on the shoulder and manages to make pink, purple and brown work together. Of course not everything works brilliantly, the right shoe is a bit off and the cape by the leg could have worked better if a different cape had been used, but those are the only gripes.

However, the best bit of this picture for me is the energy effect prs has created. The warmth of the pinks, oranges and golds used is incredible, it looks like a sunrise and contrasts brilliantly against the dusty dull brown of the background at that point. Brilliantly done.