Competition: The Pictures in the Sound - 8

Finished

The Pictures in the Sound - 8

Objective

One of the best examples of music coming before the image would be the original Conan The Barbarian film. That film's score was created prior to filming beginning. As a result, the scenes were altered and filmed to fit the score in a way that hadn't been done prior. This shows that sound—most notably music—instills an image in the listener.

Listen to the provided song and draw a depiction of what you see in your mind's eye. The goal of this competition is to capture the emotions that it evokes within. At a bare minimum, your entry must have a clear focal point beyond simple abstracts. That means entries cannot be a simple application of a few colors and no shapes akin to simple country flags

Steve Syz - Valkyrie

How to Submit

Submissions must be in one of the following formats: .jpg, .png, .gif

How it is Graded

The official Herald Graphics Grading Rubric will be used in this competition with attention being given to how the emotions of the peace compare to those found in the song.

Useful Tools

GIMP - a freeware used for digital graphics work, similar to Photoshop.
Paint.NET - more freeware!
Krita - hardcore artist made freeware!

Competition Information

Organized by: Darth Renatus
Running time: 2019-03-23 until 2019-04-27 (about 1 month)
Target Unit: Entire DJB
Competition Type: Graphics/Multimedia
Difficulty Class: Intermediate
Awards: Second Level Crescents and 3 Clusters of Graphite as per Herald guidelines
Participants: 18 subscribers, of which 7 have participated.

Results

1st place

Jannala Umbra

Member

Jannala Umbra

File submission

20190420_djb_competition_jannala_umbra_sound8.jpg

Textual submission

Tools: Photoshop CC 2019, XP-Pen display tablet
Time: ~15 hrs total (painting took about 7 hrs)

Steve Syz’s “Valkyrie” feels like the telling of an epic story to me. In Norse mythology, a Valkyrie is a female figure who chose which soldiers would die in battle and which ones would live, guiding them to the afterlife afterward. This is similar to the story the song created in my head.

The main character is a female anti-hero who at the very beginning of the song, is pensive. She forms a resolve and the song transforms into “Eye of the Tiger,” but for sword-wielding warriors. In other terms, the main character is stubborn and motivated to achieve their goal. Then, the song makes a shift and implies that something is about to happen; the fight is about to begin. The anti-hero, like the Valkyrie, decides who to send to their grave (aka heads are slain!) But then… the climax. The main character stands face to face with their ultimate opponent, one of their same skill level. This is what their whole journey led up to. They are finally here. It’s now or never. They jump in, their foe puts up an equally great fight to where it becomes a battle of wits.

And then…

Our anti-hero achieves their goal. Their foe is no more.

I chose to depict the climax of the story using painterly brushstrokes to reference the powerful nature of the song.

Placement