newborn - the origamist son -final!

**rickardwestman** · July 21st, 2009, 04:32 PM

Hey!
thought i'd edit this first post so you don't have to scroll all the way down...

so, this is the Final image. named: the virgin birth of a paper boy.
thanks everyone and good luck. i'm off to france!

**Vaejoun** · July 22nd, 2009, 04:20 AM

Nice flow and concept. I have an idea where this is going to and if you keep the work up it can become awesome. ^^

**rickardwestman** · July 22nd, 2009, 06:14 AM

Vaejoun - thanks! yeah, this is my take on one of the most famous and strange births of "history". i feel pretty good about my idea and it will be so much fun finishing this one.

so, time for an update. just refined some stuff and added some. when i have all the elements i need in this image i will try to explaine what i am aiming for.

**Huey Yeng** · July 22nd, 2009, 07:53 AM

Great composition flow. Nothing much to crit at this stage so keep it up.

**snasitra** · July 22nd, 2009, 09:21 AM

I agree about the composition being nice. I love how the figures are woven together.

**Bhrandon** · July 22nd, 2009, 12:18 PM

very nice feel, highly stylized, cant wait to see the end results

good luck

**rickardwestman** · July 22nd, 2009, 01:08 PM

hueyyeng - thanks! glad that you like the composition so far. and when you are ready to crit just swing away

snasitra - thanks! yes, the composition came out kind of nice, still some tweaks i need to do composition wise, but that is mostly small stuff i guess.

Bhrandon - thanks! good thing you like it

and i will see to that you'll get to see the final result.

so, some updates. made the image a little bigger, put some more canvas space on top and at the sides. and added three characters. the top left will be rasputin, the middle one is the russian monk iliodor and the bottom character is russian bishop germogen. each with their own view of their religion. these three characters were somewhat connected in early 1900, though they represent three other characters in my image.

**davidherd** · July 22nd, 2009, 01:26 PM

Hey there. Loved your stuff on Gameartisans for DWIV. Looking forward to seeing this progress . . . really interesting so far. I dig the fluidity of your style. Good luck, I'll be watching this one closely.

**rickardwestman** · July 22nd, 2009, 02:19 PM

davidherd - hey! thanks! your demon princess was cool too, had a nice eerie feeling to it. but i felt i just put too much stuff into my DWIV entry, kind of lost the control on that one. learnd a lot from that one and have found a new favorite brush since then so i hope i can execute this one i a better way. thanks and good luck to you too!

**rickardwestman** · July 23rd, 2009, 09:13 AM

so, a small update. have added all the key characters in this drama. though i am not really sure about the positions just yet i think...

so now, i will try to explain my idea behind my newborn.

i started to think about famous births and really got stuck on the birth of jesus. i am not religous and i do not mean to offend anyone, this is just my take on this virgin birth and some of my thoughts around it, if anyone has different though you are free to speak.

just the fact that a virgin would give birth seemed strange enough so i kind of twisted that concept a little. instead my jesus was born from the pages of the bible, so this was how the origami son came to mind. seemed like a fair enough alternative to a virgin birth i thought and dug deeper trying to find more symbolisms around this newborn.
i started to think of the three wise men and Joseph, the husband to the virgin Mary, who must have had some serious though of being cheated by her. i guess he though a virgin birth sounds just as crazy as i. and then the four horsmen of the apocalypse came to mind and i sew them into the patchwork as well.
i though that the three wise men and God could be the same characters as the four horsemen. here i chose the russian starets Rasputin to be one of the wise men and the horseman with the white horse, the white horse is sometimes said to be a false prophet witch suited him quite well. then i chose Iliodor a russian monk who went somewhat crazy and had some anti semitic views to be the red horseman, witch is the horseman of war. the third wise man is set to be Germogen a fairly normal russian bishop, he is the black horseman, this horseman has a scale in his hand and as Germogen probably was a quite normal man that could be a nice way to see him as knowing right from wrong.
i myself don't think that religion is wrong, and it can probably be a good guide in many ways but there is still a lot of things that needs to be questioned. here i think about the evolution. God created the earth in the bible, and if you believe that the entire world before man is wiped away, i also wanted to take this into my picture so in the lower left corner the pages from the bible is flying out in the air wiping away the dinosaurs. on the lower right corner the pages of the bible will turn into war characters, probably a knight from the holy crusades and a tank from more modern warfare. the origami boy will also have a sand galss in each hand, the one on the left will refer to the dinosaurs and the sand will run upwards to show that the time is going backwards showing the past, and the right hand sand glass will be a regular one to show time going on from the birth of the paperboy jesus and forward to our present time.

oh, i don't know if i made any sense. and my english might have been a little poor at some times. but i hope you got the idea, if you cared to read this far

so, i numbered the image to make out some characters.
1. the origami son jesus, our NEWBORN, folded from the bible by his virgin mother.
2. the virgin mary, professional origamist.
3. the envious joseph seen with a hammer and a piece of wood. this wasn't really the way he thought he would become a "father".
4. god, giving life to the origami boy through mary with one hand around her face and the other on her belly.
5.the fourth horseman of the apocalypse, death, wich is the same as god in my case. holding the star to guide the three wise men. seen with his skullfaced horse.
6. rasputin the first wise man with his gift.
7. the first of the four horsmen of the apocalypse, the false prophet, the same character as rasputin.
8. iliodor the second wise man with gift.
9. the second horseman, the red horseman of war, same character as iliodor.
10. germogen, the third wise man on his stead, also with a gift in his hand.
11. the black horseman, same as charcter germogen.
12. the dinosaurs that were wiped away by the creation theory in the bible.
13. hloly crusaders born from the pages of the bible.

too much text i know... i'm exhausted
so much more fun to draw than type...

**DefiledVisions** · July 23rd, 2009, 01:54 PM

cool, en svensk! Enjoy the concept! nice idea.. looking forward to see you flesh it out more

**Belinda Morris** · July 23rd, 2009, 02:59 PM

Some really nice work, and a really different take on the subject! Though I'm a bit concerned you would think Rasputin to be a wise man- though he was a man of the east- as the wise men came from the east. Did you know that it doesn't actually say in the Bible that there were 3 wise men- only that there were 3 gifts- and the wise men could have been 2 or 200! And you're right about Joseph, he was actually going to break off his engagement to Mary when an Angel came and told him who the Father really was and what his son was going to do. When Jesus started teaching a lot of the people who grew up with him couldn't accept him, and many still doubted his legitimacy. He also had brothers and sisters- and this is the thing that bugs me the most- many still call Jesus' mum the Virgin Mary- though she had many more kids after him- so she wasn't a virgin for long! By the way I'm a Christian feel free to ask me any questions- hopefully I can help.

**rickardwestman** · July 23rd, 2009, 06:49 PM

DefiledVisions - man tackar! yeah, pretty much have everything in place now so the fleshing out has started.

Belinda Morris - thanks! and thanks for the great feedback, i admit i don't really know much about the bible, just the basic stuff i guess. just see my piece as my alternative version of the birth of jesus, set in russia at the early 1900.
and i don't really mean rasputin to be a wise man, though i guess he was somewhat smart fooling a lot of people into believing him. but his lifestyle wasn't that good, horny bastard. but he fit the connection with the false prophet in my apocalypse theory. as for the monk iliodor, i can't say he was that wise either, probably less wise than rasputin. but still, they are just b-role actors in my picture. and about that virgin mary, i actually did not know jesus had any brothers or sisters, actually i don't know much about jesus childhood at all. but still se is famous for her virgin birth so i guess people recognize her for that. and i have to says i have been thinking about reading the bible, not for any religious purposes, but for the stories though. my favorite book, The Master and Margarita, touches an alternative scenario of the crucifiction of jesus. i could really recommend it, if you like somewhat surreal stories. great book. thanks for your help and views! i'll defenetly ask some questions if they pops to mind

so, to sum it up. my newborn tells the alternative story of the birth of jesus that eventually brings the apocalypse, all set in russia, early 1900. with a glims of both the past and the future... note: and i will probably put kreml in the open space to the right in the picture.

**st.s** · July 23rd, 2009, 07:12 PM

Too… Much… Information…

Can’t… Handle… it… My brain is melting…

Just kidding. I really like your style. Despite all of those elements your composition is handling pretty well. But still, maybe it’s a little too much… And maybe it’s just me…

**rickardwestman** · July 23rd, 2009, 07:29 PM

st.s - hehe, i see your point. and you are right, one of my weak spots is putting too much stuff into the picture. you should have seen my dominance war IV entry, that one was really messy. i think you can find it somewhere here:
http://rickardwestman.blogspot.com/
but i'll try to really put some focus on the middle and not putting to much details to the surroundings. thanks for the feedback!

**st.s** · July 23rd, 2009, 08:04 PM

Originally Posted by rickardwestman

i think you can find it somewhere here:
http://rickardwestman.blogspot.com/
but i'll try to really put some focus on the middle and not putting to much details to the surroundings. thanks for the feedback!

Impressive portfolio…
Lot of Russian influence, it seems…
Keep up the good work, man.

**Randis** · July 23rd, 2009, 09:27 PM

Love the composition! Great image dude.

Tho i like the much earlier version best, before you added many elements in the BG.
That kinds made the image too busy imo.

cheers and good luck!

**Bhrandon** · July 23rd, 2009, 09:55 PM

im going with Randis on this one, some elements in the background need to lose focus, IE the head on the left, the one that looks like Ringo

**rickardwestman** · July 24th, 2009, 04:28 AM

st.s - thanks! yeah, there are so much cool stuff and inspiration to get from russian history. i'll try to keep it up.

R a n d i s - thanks! good feedback. and yeah, i'll see what i can do. maybe try to hide the bg elements a little or just cut them out.

Bhrandon - hehe, ringo, what would the beatles be without ringo..? and what will my image be without him..? i guess we might see about that soon.

thanks for the feedback everyone!

**pauscorpi** · July 24th, 2009, 05:47 AM

This is a very well thought up idea and an equally well execution so far.

I'm really curious to see how it gets finalised. I have to say that I like the busy background though - i think it creates the narrative which is important to to this piece
*clap*clap*

**rickardwestman** · July 24th, 2009, 07:02 AM

pauscorpi - thanks! glad to hear you like both the idea and the render so far! and for my own satisfaction and to follow through with my initial idea i will most likely keep all the elements and rather tone them down than cut them out, so they don't interfere that much with the composition.

so, i made a fast test making some of the background elements more subtile. the old one is on the right and the new one is on the left. though i tweaked the colours a little on the new one, and while watching them for a while i think i like the colours on the left one more, so i will probably stick with them.
but is the bg elements vague enough?
i think it works, with some minor tweaks off course... i will probably lighten up the right side too so that so you get more of the silhouette of the characters in the middle. still there is a lot of refining to do on this, still having fun

**rickardwestman** · July 26th, 2009, 08:09 PM

so, update! still some stuff to fix, but i'm getting there. and as always there might be too much stuff going on in my images, but oh well... might even put wally in there and see if anyone can find him

cheers everyone!

**Huey Yeng** · July 26th, 2009, 09:21 PM

Looking great, Maybe I find some of the elements can a bit loose like the guy on the left middle of the composition. His silhouette didn't touch other elements which makes it loose to me.

**rickardwestman** · July 27th, 2009, 05:00 AM

hueyyeng - thanks! good point, i'll see what i can do about those loose things.

**mohdmubasshir** · July 27th, 2009, 06:08 AM

love the style ......... great work

**rickardwestman** · July 27th, 2009, 06:20 AM

mohdmubasshir - thanks! glad you like it!

**WOMD** · July 27th, 2009, 11:43 AM

I FOUND WALLY !

**rickardwestman** · July 28th, 2009, 04:58 PM

WOMD - great haha! i actually thought about putting him somewhere but i didn't... maybe in my next image

so, this is the FINAL! i'm leaving for france in a couple of hours so i had to let this go and start packing my bags. changed some colours and stuff, i thought it was for the better, hope you like it.
named it, The Virgin Birth Of A Paper Boy. i hope people get the religious theme.

it has been fun and i want to give a big thanks for all the great feedback and kind words! good luck to everone! keep it up!