Garem
2012-07-14, 02:35 PM
OP: http://terran-republic.com/forum/threads/begging-for-beta-with-jake-lucy-and-mav.201/
Matt Higby has a fine looking golden retriever named Qiu. After showing my three goldens Higby's dog, decked out in NC apparel, they wanted to send a picture and message back of their own. Each of my goldens has a lot of personality, and based on that they picked which PS2 Empire they wanted to support. Going left to right...
Maverick ("Mav") is young and obnoxious, the son of middle dog. He's tough against cold, heat, water, and has great endurance. He's not even one years old yet. Despite being the tallest and quickly becoming the heaviest, he's a big baby on the inside. He often ignores authority figures- although bribery usually works. Maverick personifies the New Conglomerate.
Jake is the dark reddish one. He's eleven years old and extremely clever- definitely the most cunning of the three. He's also very, very competitive. He's the alpha male, and stoic and stubborn as they come. He's not a large dog, but they don't get any tougher than Jake. He had some serious injuries several years ago and has mostly recovered from them all. Loyal old Jake is definitely a Terran Republic kind of dog.
Lucy is one crazy bitch. She's EXTREMELY fast. She hates to be pinned down, confined, or controlled- she just wants to GO. She's a bird dog... but she's the most crazy for squirrels, real or imaginary. She's temperamental and unpredictable. Lucy is clearly Vanu Sovereignty material.
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/7299/dogssharp.jpg
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/2476/1coediter.jpg
http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/1015/makingoftrchalk.jpg
Behind-The-Scenes:
I used regular chalkboard chalk, not sidewalk chalk which doesn't make as fine of granules. This wasn't an artistic choice, it's just all that I had lying around, but it definitely worked out for the best! Note: Garem is a writer, not an artist. Of course, this is about as obvious as saying Higby needs a haircut, Clegg needs flight lessons (FYI: http://bit.ly/M8lM0D), or wondering if T-Ray is good with the ladies. It was so hot that my sweat kept pouring off of my face and into the chalk, making it rather tedious to work on. Fortunately, it dried up quickly. I didn't mind the heat too much, I had some ZZ Top - Pandora Radio blaring on the laptop. All in all, it only took me and hour or so to get the emblems and text down.
I didn't have any black chalk, so I had to get creative with the black/grey in the TR emblem. At first, I tried water to darken the concrete, but it dried up in seconds with this crazy heat. Literally, seconds. I couldn't finish brushing the emblem before it was gone. So I tried ice water as you see in the picture above... still, it dried too quickly. I wondered, what won't dry too fast? I came to an odd conclusion: shampoo. It's clear and liquid, it won't dry quickly because it's gooey. It worked like a charm!
Finally I got the dogs out with the help of some family, including my father who trains them almost every day for retrieving. After a five minute tussle, we got them to sit near(ish) their choice Empire's emblem to snap the pictures.
The sun had moved just enough to put shade over the artwork and dogs, which made the photography lighting harder. Fortunately, with my first attempt ever, I was able to fool around with editing tools to make everything nice and visible. I hope you all enjoy the results- and also that Qiu convinces Higby to pass a few Beta keys towards me and my homedogs at Terran-Republic.com!
Cheers,
Garem
Chief of the Office of War Information
Terran-Republic.com
PS, Higby, consider Locks of Love with a mane like that!
PSS, Funny enough, my avatar is my other golden retriever, Parker, who is now living with my sister and brother-in-law as a crime repellent- so he's DEFINITELY a Terran Republic dog!
PSSS, it worked! Thanks SOE and Danicia!
Matt Higby has a fine looking golden retriever named Qiu. After showing my three goldens Higby's dog, decked out in NC apparel, they wanted to send a picture and message back of their own. Each of my goldens has a lot of personality, and based on that they picked which PS2 Empire they wanted to support. Going left to right...
Maverick ("Mav") is young and obnoxious, the son of middle dog. He's tough against cold, heat, water, and has great endurance. He's not even one years old yet. Despite being the tallest and quickly becoming the heaviest, he's a big baby on the inside. He often ignores authority figures- although bribery usually works. Maverick personifies the New Conglomerate.
Jake is the dark reddish one. He's eleven years old and extremely clever- definitely the most cunning of the three. He's also very, very competitive. He's the alpha male, and stoic and stubborn as they come. He's not a large dog, but they don't get any tougher than Jake. He had some serious injuries several years ago and has mostly recovered from them all. Loyal old Jake is definitely a Terran Republic kind of dog.
Lucy is one crazy bitch. She's EXTREMELY fast. She hates to be pinned down, confined, or controlled- she just wants to GO. She's a bird dog... but she's the most crazy for squirrels, real or imaginary. She's temperamental and unpredictable. Lucy is clearly Vanu Sovereignty material.
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/7299/dogssharp.jpg
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/2476/1coediter.jpg
http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/1015/makingoftrchalk.jpg
Behind-The-Scenes:
I used regular chalkboard chalk, not sidewalk chalk which doesn't make as fine of granules. This wasn't an artistic choice, it's just all that I had lying around, but it definitely worked out for the best! Note: Garem is a writer, not an artist. Of course, this is about as obvious as saying Higby needs a haircut, Clegg needs flight lessons (FYI: http://bit.ly/M8lM0D), or wondering if T-Ray is good with the ladies. It was so hot that my sweat kept pouring off of my face and into the chalk, making it rather tedious to work on. Fortunately, it dried up quickly. I didn't mind the heat too much, I had some ZZ Top - Pandora Radio blaring on the laptop. All in all, it only took me and hour or so to get the emblems and text down.
I didn't have any black chalk, so I had to get creative with the black/grey in the TR emblem. At first, I tried water to darken the concrete, but it dried up in seconds with this crazy heat. Literally, seconds. I couldn't finish brushing the emblem before it was gone. So I tried ice water as you see in the picture above... still, it dried too quickly. I wondered, what won't dry too fast? I came to an odd conclusion: shampoo. It's clear and liquid, it won't dry quickly because it's gooey. It worked like a charm!
Finally I got the dogs out with the help of some family, including my father who trains them almost every day for retrieving. After a five minute tussle, we got them to sit near(ish) their choice Empire's emblem to snap the pictures.
The sun had moved just enough to put shade over the artwork and dogs, which made the photography lighting harder. Fortunately, with my first attempt ever, I was able to fool around with editing tools to make everything nice and visible. I hope you all enjoy the results- and also that Qiu convinces Higby to pass a few Beta keys towards me and my homedogs at Terran-Republic.com!
Cheers,
Garem
Chief of the Office of War Information
Terran-Republic.com
PS, Higby, consider Locks of Love with a mane like that!
PSS, Funny enough, my avatar is my other golden retriever, Parker, who is now living with my sister and brother-in-law as a crime repellent- so he's DEFINITELY a Terran Republic dog!
PSSS, it worked! Thanks SOE and Danicia!