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Tanqexe — Contego
Published: 2004-06-13 23:52:25 +0000 UTC; Views: 5900; Favourites: 128; Downloads: 1082
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Description
The invading army had sacked the city, indiscrimately killing its inhabitants. The survivors retreated into the large church, defending the women, children, and elderly from the repeated onslaught. Yet, manpower was low, and there were entrances that could not be simultaneously defended.The morning assault caught the defenders by surprise, and it was taking considerable manpower allocated from other guard points to hold them back. No one noticed a company of armored men sneak their way around to the rear entrance except for a woman with flaming auburn hair. Leaving her defense point to the others, she made her way to the rear entrance, urged some children to help her block the doors from the inside, and made her way outside, knowing that the blocked doors could not possibly hold. She had arrive just in time, for fifty paces away at the bottom of the steps leading to the doors, the armored men came.
Gripping her sword with both hands (she had lost her shield in the fight she left), the woman watched as they came up the steps, the one in lead charging ahead. The woman saw him bringing up his shield and shifting his sword in a piercing move, and prepared to respond in kind with a diagonal slash to his neck.
She was a shield maiden, and today she would become the ultimate shield to protect her fellow people seeking sanctuary inside the church from the bloodthirsty blades of her enemies.
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Yeah yeah, crappy story, go ahead and toss veggies at me already =/
Done in Photoshop. Lost track of the time, and I have to apologize to the person who commissioned me to do this for taking so long. I lost a lot of architectural work because stupid Windows crashed on me, and I was so ticked off I didn't bother redoing the details on the church =___=
Guess how many layers I used? Go ahead, take a guess!
Oh yeah, before I send the print version off to him...if there is anything that could be changed within a reasonable amount of time, then please do offer pointers. Thankies~
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Comments: 60
So totally absolutely awesome. + fav. I love how you mix careful detail with sketchy roughness. It makes the painting come alive. Love it.
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A masterpiece. The sheer amound of effort that must have gone into this.. all the detail, the placement of characters.. the angle.. wow. I've noticed after looing through your work how masterfully you've achieved dramatic lighting in your pictures..have you got a tutorial anywhere?
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The reflection is the most heartbreaching part of this picture. It's beautiful, I adore it.
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Ack, Lyude of Baten Kaitos has gone to the days of olde! Seriously, this girl looks a whole lot like my favorite character from that game. Its scary... Then again so is how freaking sweet this picture is. Incredible work.
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Jesus man, you even have the reflection of more warriors off the back of the helmets of the ones in the pic. You rule too much >:/
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That's awesome. I love the reflection in the one soldier's helmet. Very realistic!
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wow thats awesome! i love the on the armor, with its hilights and chainmail
and the details on the statues are just amazing! XD
great job
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dum....di....dum....di.....damn mate that's COOL....la.la..la...fav added!!!!
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Frick, that is a lot of detail whoring in places. Just look at those statues.. Maaan. 
Pretty neat and interesting picture overall. Has a kind of grainy feel in places that I'm not liking that much, wonder what it is (your style of some sorts).
Something to be proud of, overall.
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i looove this!!
i especially love how you made the reflection of the rest of the squad in that one soldier's helmet---that was just really clever^^
eh...i wonder should there be commas in that sentence...o_O;
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Impressed m8, thats sum cool lighting effects... Still strugling with stuff like that (swats a pot of paint of his desk in frustration...) Maybe I should give some thought to computer coloring....
coolness,
nick
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::sputters for breath:: So beautiful Richard. The composition of this piece is astounding. I love that way that you put so much detail into the sanctuary and the shield maiden. The lighting and the colors really give this picture a great dramatic effect.
I especially like the way that everything looks so...realistic in a way. You don't have sparkly clean brand new armor or swords. The imperfections make the picture perfect. Lovely work!
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duuuuuuuuuuudeee!!!!! this is fackin amazing!!!!! great job
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Holy fuck!!! This is awsome! The detail is just amazing. I'd be crazy not to favorite this!
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dude the painting and perspective on this is fantastic, and it's a good story 
great work
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Man, it's good to see you submitting artwork again. I'd been wondering what you were up to. Assumed you were probably buried under a ton of schoolwork.
Lovely pic. Have to admit, I wasn't sure if it was a guy or girl either. And the right side of the doorway doesn't seem to slant out at the same angle as the left. But those are very, very minor complaints. This pic is great. And your skills totally blow me away. (As usual.)
Nifty.
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I was playing around with three-point perspective, which sorta explans why the slant is uneven...unless you were referring tom something else?
Sorry for not having replied for so long ^_^;
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I would answer you if I understood what 3-point perspective meant. LOL. Sorry, man, I'm unejookated.
No prob. I've been hermitting a great deal lately, and I've been terrible about responding to messages.
Two weeks isn't too long at all. I'm just glad you're submitting artwork again. Makes me happy, yes it does.
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Ooh, and I love the reflection of the soldiers in that one guy's helmet. Cool!
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Amasing work. I am impressed and inspired by this. I bet you used like two or three layers.
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^_^ lovely especially the armour!! the girlie is just beautiful and the red hair really suits her!!! the lighting is sommit i really cant say enough about ^_^ its stellar!!! annnnd now that i know the secert of the layers... this is SO a fav! ^__^ impressed i am for sure! more than anything i love the architecture.. it reminds me of when i went to europe!
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Yay Anniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiii n_______n *hugs*
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Wow this is incredible, so detailed x_x if you are anything like me and psycho with adding layers, I would guess somewhere around 350 ish, no idea how you draw though xD
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great pic... since you asked something that could be quickly improved... I think the guy's lance over there looks blunt... layers? 40?
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Damn man,
the details,
the lightreflections,
the mood,
the poses.
Damn...
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just amazing... wish i could do that.. 
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Amazing, the amount of detail is astonishing! even down to the reflection in the atter's helmet...simply superb. You'll have to create a tutorial of some sort because you have SO much to teach!
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Tutorial O_O;
Ahh....umm....suppose I could...next time ^_^;
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if it's not too much trouble then it would be fantastic. I'm sure many people would love you to do one ^^
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Simply amazing ! I cant fathom the amount of thought and time that must have been put into this ! The details are just phenominal, and you can just srcoll around the pic with your mouth wide open as you find the next peice of brilliance (see: church carvings, reflection in helmet, chain maill...). It makes for an amazing peice with the story and I like the power the red doors brings to her, nice kind of imagery there. I wont be the least suprised if this gets a deviation of the day ! Its an incredilbe peice from an incredible artist, well worth the wait !
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omg lol...I thought the church WAS detailed. sweet pic + story...id love to see something similiar like a warrior with dual swords surrouned by enemies or something intense like that
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Your an awesome artist Cass, don't let anyone ever tell you other wise....
Anyways, wow... you even did the lil details on the statues around the door.... I am truely speehless here, it's so beautifuly done
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Type I - Class S Tanqexe:
Alright then, let's get started....*assistant brings over basket of tomatos* Huh? Um.....aren't tomatos fruits? Hmmm....technically, to a chef they would be I guess....biology states otherwise....but then what's a pumpkin.....*starts to fade off into deep thinking*
Okay, enough of that (conclusion: who cares?). All I can state is one thing: Talk about work. You really went overboard on the details, didn't you? The stone carvings on the church are insane. Each strand of hair is just plain nice. The glare is wonderful. The reflection off the metal helmets are superb and a stupendous idea. And the chain mail.....I have seen the torments that chain mail demands from the artist, and I salute you for pulling it off.
Sorry for all the praise, but you worked way too hard on this. It would be cruel to critic on something finsihed such as this. Ah, what the heck: the window looks like it's missing a panel of wood. Kinda looks odd how the horizontal ones stop a bit abruptly.
- Natsume
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Haha, it took me about two minutes to figure out what you were referring to. The other vertical panel is blocked from view by the wall; the whole window is set into the wall by a small distance 
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Type I - Class S Tanqexe:
Oh, sorry about that. Yeah, I had a hard time tryint to describe it as well. Alright then, I get what you're referring to the window, and that makes a lot more sense. Heck, now that I think about it, churches tend to have their windows set into the wall....huh. Still though, great work!
- Natsume
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yes it's about bleedin time, mate. but well worth the wait. what catches my eye first and foremost was that you detailed the reflection of the army behind the soldier in his helmet, while important, i wonder how many people would remember such a detail. awesome perspective work on the castle. altogether beautiful.
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resubmit? well repeat what i said last time times 3 
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'Tis beautiful. The only thing is that she looks a bit gender neutral, and her expression maybe should be more extreme. But hey, I'm nitpickin here.
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Wasn't this that piece that you were hoping t'finish within a week, months ago? ...Looks good finished, by the way, heh heh.
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Hehe, yeah, but it school got in the way as usual
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Talk long enough to get it done.
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