C.O.W. - #111: "111" - The Creature That Changed Mankind's History - Voting!

[Fozzybar]

ROUND #111 VOTING

Topic: "111" - The Creature That Changed Mankind's History

Deadline for the voting: Monday, 24th March 2008

Posting thread (closed):
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=120299


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OK - before voting/posting read this!!!

1. Please give c&c or a reason why you voted for the image!

2. Feel free to comment on any or all entries, the artists will appreciate it!

3. No voting for your own entry!!! If a participants votes for his own entry, every member has the right to call him a stupid lame moron in this thread! And i will delete his/her vote anyway...

4. The poll is public. Your vote will be seen.

[latimer]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v146/ltlatimer/111.jpg

Artist: latimer

Concept: Astrum Surculus A.K.A '111'

The Astrum Surculus (star shooter) was discovered in the year 2050 & gave birth to Fusion Power.
Each creature lives for approximately 300 years. Through its being, it eats wasteful materials (dead leaves, soiled paper, etc) & burns them within its stomach through a chemical reaction created by its stomach acid & a gland which produces excess amounts of hydrogen. As 111 becomes older, pressure builds, and waste burning is moved into a secondary pressure-tight sack within its throat. Eventually, too much pressure is built, & the creature shoots out the waste with such incredible force, the earth can change its angle tilt, & orbit trajectory. Sadly, this also kills the creature, being the size of your average green-tree frog.
It was later discovered a few years later that the waste produced by this creature was reminiscent of the sun's own fusion reaction. By artificially creating the pressure-tight sack found within the creature, scientists were able to create a safe environment to perform & sustain fusion reaction.
It was also discovered that the outlet of waste from this creature produced over 70% of global warming through the period of 1900 to 2070. The present year is 2150 - 100 years after the creature was discovered. To this day, it has changed the earths tilt by 15 degrees, & the Earths orbit now takes 512 days to revolve around the sun. Temperatures have soared due to the thinner atmosphere, creating an even better environment for the creature to breed.
Scientists nick named this creature 111 because it was the one hundred & eleventh cause of global warming, which is a lot easier & quicker to say than Astrum Surculus or Star Shooter. it was named Astrum Surculus because of the likeness of its waste to the sun, & how it shoots the waste into space at the end of its life cycle.

[Nightblue]

Oh Snap... Another frog idea *cries*
Well, here's my attempt to use traditional media again...

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd214/lxc2000/COW-frog_pv.jpg


Artist: Nightblue

Concept: "Ambusher 111"


During the World War II, the U.S. developed a powerful secret weapon capable of causing massive destruction. In an effort to end the war, two bombers, loaded with the weapon, flew over Japan and dropped down two crates of these little critters. Ambusher 111, named after their 3-toed front legs, are a special breed of frogs produced by U.S. secret labs. Originally meant for use as close-combat, the frogs proved to be incapable to distinguish between friends and foes. It was quickly determined that Ambusher 111's will only be used far away from friendly forces. Once released from the airdrop crate, the Ambusher 111's (all of which males) seek the scent of females, resembled closely by gunpowder. When threatened by approaching humans, Ambusher 111's many explosive glands will burst apart violently with the force of half a ton of TNT, and in many cases cause chain explosions. The morning after the air drop, the white flags were raised. The U.S. was able to stop the war while keeping their target to military facilities and underground weapon factories.

[Mike Corriero]

http://pratt.edu/~mcorrier/Art/111-web.jpg

Artist: MikeCorriero

Concept: .1.1.1 - Hydro-Deflux: Mission
This organism was brought back during deep space exploration, a failed attempt at bringing back and colonizing an extraterrestrial species on earth. In their attempt at introducing a new species the Government and NASA ultimately brought upon the evolutionary decomposition of Earth's life and Atmosphere as we know it.
The organism that was known as .1.1.1 reproduced at a massive rate and began to evolve and adapt much quicker than could have ever been anticipated. It's reproductive cycle was killing off all vegetation and plant forms, including trees. It first appears as a (.1 harmless plant-like organism) but due to the vast differences in our atmosphere it began to rapidly change and take upon a (.1 biped mobile formation). These then turned into large and dangerous extraterrestrial creatures that were reproducing asexually and flinging their (.1 mutative eggs) all throughout earth's forests.
The fungal-like larva form (plant organism) infected earth's own vegetation life and began killing off a large majority of earth's oxygen resources. Once the larvae went through its mutative metamorphosis it poisoned the ground and plants around it, then releasing a toxic gas once hatched. This gas produced and generated a form of fungus that turned the trees into a living edible food source for the Hydro Defulx creatures, but ultimately killed the actual tree and leaves that once produced our oxygen. It continued to spread like wild fire, a virus from tree to tree leaving mankind with the possibility of extinction and the race to terraform the closest known planet in hopes to create a new home for our "now" quickly dying race.

[Ramitxon]

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n17/Ramitxon/111-09.jpg

Artist: Ramitxon

Concept: 111. Book eater, the creature that changed mankind's history.

On great libraries across the world and along the centuries, enormous quantities of all kinds of books have been stored. The written record of the history of mankind along time. It begun when the first man put the first words on a stone slab. History only exists since writing exists.

Since the moment sheets of parchment or papyrus were utilized to make books in great numbers, one small creature evolved to feed on them. This bat-like flying nemesis found a new habitat hiding on great libraries, among the bookshelves, feasting on the books and stealing capital episodes of our history simply because there were recorded only on a few pages, easily devoured, changing the course of events just because there was no way else of knowing better. These creatures ate through whole volumes about Atlantis, erasing its real location, its art and customs. About the tomb of Alexander the Great, the templars, the Holy Grail and the Catarus. The coming of extraterrestrial ships to ancient Egypt and the Mayan empire... All episodes forever lost to us.

Perfectly adapted to their unique environment, these book eaters developed a kind of camouflage, black markings on their bodies resembling letters on paper, merging their silouettes against open volumes. Using their wings to fly from one library to another, the world was completely oblivious to their existence.

At the time one of these creatures was discovered, he was happily munching through page 111 of a lone book of memoires of Cristopher Columbus, who was telling future readers about who was the real discoverer of the new world, who told him America was there. Nobody will learn the truth now. The creature was later known only as 111, because there was no other copy of that page.

That small mammal had in fact the power of changing history. Depending entirely on the existence of someone to tell about it, if you destroy the words of the past, you change the future.

[retter]

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/6176/tuyremz5.jpg

Artist: retter

Concept: 1+1+1; the tuyre
The tuyre is a species which was found on earth over one million years ago. The unfortunate structure of the tuyre lead them to be unable to stand for over an average eight seconds, however, the unique body formation above the head of of the tuyre was - in combination with it's constant falling down - its sole reason for survival; the tuyre stood over six feet tall and weighed an astonishing 900lbs, because of this, if the tuyre happened to fall upon an unsuspecting creature it was more than likely to kill it. The tuyre, being carnivourous would then feed upon the corpse of its unfortunate victims.

The curse of the tuyre would eventually lead to one of the greatest moments in the history of humankind, the "invention" of fire. During the time the tuyre were most prevailent, humankind was in a slump of evolution, it had weapons and tribal behaviourism but they had been unchanged for just under one million years. On the night of an incredible storm, a lightning bolt struck a tree which then ingnited near a cave in which a tribe of humanity's ancestors were situated, extremely cold and unable to see due to the darkness. A poor tuyre was caught in the middle of this storm and was obviously unable to do much about it. Flailing around as per usual, the tuyre fell right into the flaming tree and knocked it over. The tree fell right in front of the cave. Feeling the heat of the flames and seeing how they were able to bring light to the front of the cave, a curious ancestor of modern day human walked slowly to the fallen tree and snapped of a branch then hurried back to the congregation and placed it in the centre. The cave lit up and those once cold were now warmed than they should have been. Over the coming years this tribe was able to harness the power of the flame and as time went on the ability to control fire was spread amongst the entire continent.

Although the tuyre are a forgotten species in modern day, they were part of the formula which changed the history of humankind:
One tree + One bolt of lightning + One tuyre = The "invention" of fire.

[jhagen22]

Artist: jhagen22

Concept: Lightbulb Firefly

The Light Bulb Firefly was given its name for its shape and for its remarkable ability to imbue inspiration.
They are attracted to human thought waves; specifically creativity! Whenever there has been a time when someone has been stuggling over something in their minds, they give off energy that attracts these creatures like moths to a flame. Eventually, when they have drawn forth enough creative energy their bulb-shaped rear switches on. A strange side effect occurs when this happens - the person gets a feedback of creative energy from the creature creating a breakthrough. Like a lightbulb over their head - an 'AH HAH!' moment.
These creatures are rare and are usually attracted to sources of larger creative energy. It has been theorized that they have been responsible for giant inventive leaps in mankind's arts and sciences.
The 'Lightbulb Firefly' was not known about until ability to see into the UV spectrum was gained as they are not able to be seen within the visible spectrum (but one day the scientist had an 'AH HAH!' moment). They were spotted momentarily at 111 nm within the ultraviolet spectrum though it was never confirmed.

[mcmatz]

http://www.ebsqart.com/Art/562/495032.jpg

Artist: mcmatz

Concept: The Plague Bug


When the black death struck Europe in the 14th century, the descriptions of the disease described dark oozing pustules forming.
Or so they thought...
A recent scientific investigation has discovered they were the victims of an ancient creature - part beetle, part scorpion, part reptile. These large iridescent black parasites have variously been theorized to have come from the retinue of a traveling oriental mystic, crawled out from the depths of the Black Sea, or possibly arising spontaneously from the ether. The newly discovered entity has been referred to "111" because the victims would die exactly in exactly 193 hours - 1 week, 1 day and 1 hour.
The Plague Bug would find their potential host, rip through clothing and attach themselves to the flesh with the spines in its tail and claws on their legs. In addition, the circular serrated mouth of the Bug would latch on and start feeding on the essence of the human while releasing a powerful narcotic intravenously to the host that would act to deceive the victim into believing that they had a pustule instead of the frightening truth.
Non-host humans would also affected by this narcotic by a spray originating around the mouth that dispersed the venom into the air.

Next time you get a pimple, you have pause to ponder...

--Madeline

[electric goat]

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s116/egoat/111paintlow2.jpg

Artist: electric goat

Concept: 111
the first people of greece were very mundane and without any creative outlets. this timid beast would reveal it its three eye bearing tentacles (which happens to look like 111 from far away) and strike fear into the early greeks. in one particular village there was a curious boy who approached the beast, offering it a bowl of grain. the hungry beast finally took it and as the beast processed this food, it produced melodic tones through the release of gas. this is also how the beasts communicate with each other over great distances. soon there were many beasts visiting this child and the combination of all these beast created a symphony of sound that the early people of greece had not experienced. their song had awakened something creative in these people. they started building there own instruments and developed a highly creative community.

during these "concerts", the ancient greeks would bob their head with one arm raised, hand holding up three fingers in reverence to the beasts. blue eyes were tattooed on the finger tips(A). this curious child had become king of these people as he grew older. unfortunately, he has lost his middle and index fingers during a hunting expedition(B). because of this, he would hold up his thumb, pointer and pinky to show respect during the gassy concert. upon his death, the people decided that they would honor him by holding up the same fingers(C) during the "concerts" that followed. as time past and the people of this land integrated into other cultures and opened many minds, they had influenced countless cultures to revere musicians in the same way. head bobbing and "devil horns" in the air. rock on!!!!

*the modern hand position has been reduced to two fingers to optimize hand comfort while rocking(D).

[Michael Jaecks]

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a379/neorepto/petroscatversion2abcdefg.jpg

Artist: Michael Jaecks

Concept: Petroscat

In March of 2008, oil prices inched towards $111.00 per barrel. Under the weight of that economic pressure, the United States, as the worlds greatest consumer of petroleum products, searched high and low for solutions to this ever worsening energy crisis. The answer came in the most unlikely of places. On a remote and forgotten island off its coast between southern Florida and Cuba, American scientists discovered a new reptillian species with a most unusual dietary habit. The creature, now formally named polymerphagus petroscatus, had taken to eating plastic bottles and refuse that washed up on the shores of its native island from nearby Florida. Even more interesting and eventually useful to American consumers, the creature, informally dubbed the Petroscat, defecates a black, slick, liquid substance almost indistinguishable chemically from regular fossil crude oil... the same crude oil that had reached record prices that same year. The gasoline refined from the Petroscat feces, referred to among industry insiders as Formula 111, actually burns cleaner than regular gasoline providing an immediate boost in the performance of all types of combustable engine driven vehicles. The Petroscat as an animal proved to be particularly hardy for transplant from Florida and easy to breed. As of June 2009, vast farms of oil producing lizards now stand in America's heartland where once corn fields had made their own attempt at solving the world's fuel shortages with the rather unprofitable ethanol industry. Petroscat farmers have to be very careful to feed the animals an exclusive diet of plastic. Mixing even a small amount of vegetation into the creatures diet can have flammable results. Plastic waste is now diverted from landfills and sent by truck to these farms to keep the lizards fed. Although the discovery of the creature and the birth of this new biofuel industry did little to solve the world's climate change problem, at least soccer moms can still drive around the American midwest in their SUVs.

[Fozzybar]

Failed quality check (sloppy/rushed/unfinished artwork and/or insufficient artistic quality)

Kmadden2004, Tyrus



other not accepted entries:

none



close to rejection:

none



special notes:

all
Didn't read the concepts, lack of time...

[Fozzybar]

new round is on:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=121061

[Michael Jaecks]

Ack! It was hard to choose between electric goat and MikeC but I ended up voting for Mike. Seriously though it was like a .00000001 difference between the two. If ever there was a round to get two votes, this was it. >sigh<

[jhagen22]

I voted for Ramitxon. I really liked the idea that his creature literally changes mankind's history by eating it. Cool idea!

[Tyrus]

Ramitxon, that was a crazy concept with a picture to match. Vote goes to you.

[Artifex33]

Ended up voting for Michael Jaecks for the clearest form and nice backstory. Well done to Corriero and Ramitxon, also.

[scorge]

Boy, this is the lowest turnout in a while. Just can't seem to get my creative juices flowing these days.
Great job to everyone who finished. Really creative ideas.
Electric Goat, you got it buddy.
It looks like you really put a lot of thought and effort to come up with one truly original idea and great overall design to boot. Love it.
Mike C.: Awesome. I agree with MJ about the two votes thing, but I believe the single vote really makes us look at the finer details, and better appreciate who deserves it more. In this case , was the story that made the difference.
Speaking of Michael Jaecks: Great story. Design seems a little generic, but the idea and description are fun to read Only crit here is the anatomy of the tail and are those eyes peeking out from under that hood? Otherwise, sweet work as usual. Oh, and on a personal note, I can't stand soccer moms.
Ramitxon: I just realized that was nose popping out of his face. Most everything else, especially the book he's eating, his eyes, and wings are top notch. Wonderful and imaginative story as well.

[Taibox]

:overhere: I vote for latimer, i like the creature and the history behind it.
The composition is really great.

[retter]

electric goat gets my vote; apart from the creature design (which is fantastic) i find the story behind it so great. not only is it a great idea but i love the fact that such a magnificent and massive creature's only impact was that it allowed people to express their love of rock. something really humbling and humerous about that.

[latimer]

I'm stupid & lame & a moron because i voted for my self before reading fozzybears post lol.

If I didn't do that, i would have voted for ramitxon's piece, the creature is just awesome, & I have a thing for wings. great background, & great concept all together.

[Ramitxon]

Ok, my vote is for Michael Jaecks, I like his creature's expression and his concept. Mike's and Electric goat's are great too.

[Nighthall]

I went for ramitxon. His entry is both fantastically rendered, and fits the subject of the challenge perfectly.

[Atastrophea]

Ramixton - love the idea and its execution, Image can stand alone to convey the narrative, seems to explain the 111 in the most uncontrived way to me too.

close one between Electric Goat - really nice concept and rendering, I feel maybe your concept could have been comunicated more clearly/visually if the folowers of the beast were seen appreciating the music and showing the hand gesture described? loved the border style and cloud forms :)

[Richtoon]

I ran out of time... and it looks like I won't be able to do any of these until May.... Work is really picking up... But I have to say that Ramixton's is my Fav in terms of rendering and idea. I had an initial idea to make a creature that would generate graphics off of its scaly back as a way of marking territory... and that would have been the inspiration of generating the printed word.. But I felt it was too close to this one... And the whole stonehedge thing was my plan b.... Oh well... best of luck Ramixton!
Great work all of you as always.

[zyphryus]

Very good entries...
I LOVE electric goat's story! :D hahaha
(and work for that matter!)
but its the story in combo with the work that put it at the top for me.

[sophinee]

Voted ramitxon because, as has been reiterated many times, it's a very original take on the concept, appreciated moreso since I'm an amateur historian ;)

[Fozzybar]

latimer
fixed your misvote ;)

[purplerose]

I voted for Ramitxon. Very good concept and rendering.

[electric goat]

had to go with our little book eating friend. good job ramitxon. only crit would be that your treatment of the creatures forms may be a little soft. hard to tell if it's skin is bare or fuzzy. either way i like it, i vote for fuzzy though. oh, and you sir shall rock on!

mike c's piece is very professional, as usual, but i had some issues with the legs(something off about how it's standing, or maybe im just off) and concept. sorry, had to find something to pick on. other than that, i probably prefer your creature on visual basis. that head freaked me out when i first saw it. that's a good thing, i don't freak easily.

ill try to give out overall crits. ill gladly recieve crits as well. oh, and thanks for the votes!

[latimer]

latimer
fixed your misvote ;)

Cheers mate :geekg:

[ValerieShade]

On this vote, I went in and took a look at everything, but the detail on Mike Corriero's really exceeded all. Maybe it was the contrast of colors, but it really seemed crisp and clear. A beautiful creature.
Interesting others were the plague bug - eww. Interesting, but eww. Mike J showed ok detail, but was kind of yucky too.

[Ramitxon]

Thank you very much for your comments and votes guys, specially to Mike C, electric goat and Michael Jaecks, great work, and of course to you too Fozzy. see you on COW 113

[fughi from yuggoth]

retter got even more influence thsn ramixton on history, without fire, there wouldn't be any history to eat away...

[Michael Jaecks]

First of all, congrats Ramitxon on a cool concept and a job well done. You'll wear the bunny ears well. :)

Thanks to all who voted for or commented on my little concept. I was really surprised to get so many votes this round as I sort of rushed a bit to the finish. In a semi-related note to self: this round and Spongeback were probably the two rounds where I fared the best in votes... and curiously both creatures' concepts center around an unusual way to go to the bathroom. Hmmm. I see a disturbing pattern forming. :D hehehehe