Steve-h
12-14-2005, 01:14 AM
http://features.cgsociety.org/gallerycrits/144255/144255_1134526456_medium.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/gallerycrits/144255/144255_1134526456.jpg)
Title: Escape From Fire Mountain
Name: Steve Holt
Country: USA
Software: Painter
Yet another Spectacular entry...
Created in Painter 9.1 using the Artists oils, a couple of charcoal variants and some blenders.
Below is the story I wrote to go with it.
I hope you have as much fun looking at the image as I had painting it and taking part in the challenge.
Thanks!
Steve h
Escape from Fire Mountain
In the ancient times, long ago, when the world was newer and younger than it is today, it is said that there were giants who roamed the earth; fierce battling creatures of monolithic proportions. The sole concern of these giants was to carry out the will of the long since forgotten dark lords of the underworlds, who had magically breathed them into being with their own foul breath.
As legend had it, there were portals between the worlds; between the world of men, and the three underworlds of darkness, fire and magic. The legends said that these portals were concealed somewhere in the maze of ancient lava tubes beneath a place called Fire Mountain - a huge mountain whose top lay scattered with sleeping volcanic calderas.
Only the oldest among the tribe still believed in the legends of Fire Mountain. To the younger members, the legends were little more than fanciful stories of dueling beasts and mighty heroes, fit only as sleep-time stories for their children.
Times change and the young take chances that the old dare not. As slowly, over generations, the tribal encampment moved ever closer to the top of Fire Mountain, drawn there by fresh sources of spring water, which was said to have magical healing properties, as well as by more abundant foraging and the best hunting for many miles around.
Yet just when life seemed to be at its sweetest and most peaceful, the volcanoes of Fire Mountain awoke once more, spewing streams of burning lava down their steep slopes. In a flash, the tribal village was gone, utterly obliterated and swept away in a blazing torrent of fire and smoke. Many didn’t even have the chance to run from the coming disaster, for it struck like a thief in the night, killing all - all that is - but two. For by chance, before the earth began to quake and tear itself asunder, these two, a couple of young lovers, had wandered off into a secluded valley to seek the joy of each other’s company, away from their people.
Realizing to their horror that the earthquakes and eruptions of boiling lava had once again opened up the portals to the underworlds, unleashing the enormous and fearsome creatures of their legends into their world once again, they found themselves in the midst of a terrifying nightmare.
With their encampment destroyed and their people killed by a deluge of molten lava and fiery rain, the two young lovers now found themselves not only separated from each other by plumes of acrid smoke and currents of red hot lava, but also faced with the perilous wrath of the unimaginably massive, fabled beasts of their tribal legends, who, through the dark, magical forces of the underworlds, had come terrifyingly to life.
With everything they had come to know and love now gone, as if wiped from the face of the earth, fate it seems was writing them a new future, a future that was uncertain, one which would only be possible with their Escape from Fire Mountain...
Title: Escape From Fire Mountain
Name: Steve Holt
Country: USA
Software: Painter
Yet another Spectacular entry...
Created in Painter 9.1 using the Artists oils, a couple of charcoal variants and some blenders.
Below is the story I wrote to go with it.
I hope you have as much fun looking at the image as I had painting it and taking part in the challenge.
Thanks!
Steve h
Escape from Fire Mountain
In the ancient times, long ago, when the world was newer and younger than it is today, it is said that there were giants who roamed the earth; fierce battling creatures of monolithic proportions. The sole concern of these giants was to carry out the will of the long since forgotten dark lords of the underworlds, who had magically breathed them into being with their own foul breath.
As legend had it, there were portals between the worlds; between the world of men, and the three underworlds of darkness, fire and magic. The legends said that these portals were concealed somewhere in the maze of ancient lava tubes beneath a place called Fire Mountain - a huge mountain whose top lay scattered with sleeping volcanic calderas.
Only the oldest among the tribe still believed in the legends of Fire Mountain. To the younger members, the legends were little more than fanciful stories of dueling beasts and mighty heroes, fit only as sleep-time stories for their children.
Times change and the young take chances that the old dare not. As slowly, over generations, the tribal encampment moved ever closer to the top of Fire Mountain, drawn there by fresh sources of spring water, which was said to have magical healing properties, as well as by more abundant foraging and the best hunting for many miles around.
Yet just when life seemed to be at its sweetest and most peaceful, the volcanoes of Fire Mountain awoke once more, spewing streams of burning lava down their steep slopes. In a flash, the tribal village was gone, utterly obliterated and swept away in a blazing torrent of fire and smoke. Many didn’t even have the chance to run from the coming disaster, for it struck like a thief in the night, killing all - all that is - but two. For by chance, before the earth began to quake and tear itself asunder, these two, a couple of young lovers, had wandered off into a secluded valley to seek the joy of each other’s company, away from their people.
Realizing to their horror that the earthquakes and eruptions of boiling lava had once again opened up the portals to the underworlds, unleashing the enormous and fearsome creatures of their legends into their world once again, they found themselves in the midst of a terrifying nightmare.
With their encampment destroyed and their people killed by a deluge of molten lava and fiery rain, the two young lovers now found themselves not only separated from each other by plumes of acrid smoke and currents of red hot lava, but also faced with the perilous wrath of the unimaginably massive, fabled beasts of their tribal legends, who, through the dark, magical forces of the underworlds, had come terrifyingly to life.
With everything they had come to know and love now gone, as if wiped from the face of the earth, fate it seems was writing them a new future, a future that was uncertain, one which would only be possible with their Escape from Fire Mountain...