Sacrifice by StefanHuerlemann on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Overall

Vision

Originality

Technique

Impact

You stand within what appears to be a cavern deep under the surface of the earth. You struggle to move and then discover that your limbs have been shackled to the earth. There are no voices about you, simply the sound of the earth underneath you and magma boiling beneath the rocky floor. Light is an rare commodity within these rocky walls as well as an escape from your predicament. Just as you begin to look about, the ground around you begins to shake violently; perhaps an earthquake from further below the surface has begun. Suddenly, bright blue flames erupt from the hard earth. Perhaps your eyes are playing tricks on your mind because you see a large demon-like creature emerging from the flames. The ground begins to crack open with the glowing embers of magma rising from within them. Before your eyes, the creature rises from the dark blue flames. The very earth itself cracks open widely under the vast levels of power releasing itself from the mere presence of the strange creatures. Its monstrous form concealed almost completely by the shadowy veil of its cavernous dwelling. The glowing red of the earth below glows that much more brightly as the beast begins to pull itself from its blazing entrance and stares in your direction with its piercing red eyes. You freeze in fear as if the creature can see into your deepest fears and horrors...perhaps into your soul itself. Under its gaze you feel as if a void is growing within your mind and quickly break its gaze before whatever effects its gaze create are permanent. The creatures slowly begins to make its way toward you, hoping to make something of its new offering. For your sake, you begin to hope that this creature's search doesn't result in you being its meal. Sacrifice, created by *ZwordArts, gives us his own personal depiction and imaginative view into a classic scenario of an ancient and powerful creature rising from the earth in order to sow its own personal field of destruction and chaos. However, its with putting his own personal spin on this classic formula that makes this a rather intriguing piece to look into.

As one gazes about the scene before them, they can easily see that *ZwordArts has done a pretty good job here. The landscape does an excellent job of mimicking the texture and appearance of cavernous rock formation and earth. Use of lighting is nice as well as the shadow and shading effects used in the composition. The blue flames do a great job of lighting the cavern as well as showing off the deeper shadows from the more "shielding" rocks. The glow of the magma has a rather effective warming effect on the room as well as giving the area a subtle illumination effect under a tinge of red-orange light. The atmosphere built upon the scene must also be mentioned, as it carries the viewer into the image that much more smoothly, allowing their imagination to take form and take in the scenario before them in their own way.

The steps taken here show that the artist is aware of proper shading and styling, but there are just some parts to this whole composition that could do with some fine tuning. One thing would have to be a more dynamic feeling to the expulsion of smoke from the summoning point. I feel as though it should have more of a rolling appearance from the force its being pushed out, instead it almost looks like a gentle fog covering some of the area. The magma's lighting, while carrying a nice subtle tone to it, feels as though it should be just a bit brighter. Even though it illuminates the two spires above it, the nearby rocks do not even has a slight edge of glow from it. If you ever decide to return to this piece, please see if you could tweak these elements of the composition as they can truly take the piece from good to great with no trouble at all.

Within itself, Sacrifice still carries quite a bit to the table and gives you more than enough to take in. The atmosphere still carries a dark and foreboding tone to it and the design style still looks great, if not requiring a bit of refinement. Great work *ZwordArts! <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/c/c…" width="20" height="20" alt="" title="Clap"/>