This image started off as a parade example for a 3d Sketch. After being asked to provide a new image for a VFXworld publication of an article with some of my quotes I thought of an image to quickly produce. The idea formed in my head over a cigarette and I went directly at it, starting with a simple geometry in Lightwave, export it to Zbrush, this time I even used Zbrush's own UVmapping, because I didn't plan on animating it. Then bring the exported level 1 low-poly cage into Messiah:Studio together with the displacementmap. But even more this time I used Zbrush, too, to make a relief type background, which I thought was a very quick solution to provide a fitting backdrop, to put it into the proper scenery. The backdrop itself was completely generated in Zbrush and then also exported with its displacement map into Messiah:Studio. The lighting is this time not even as simple as it may seem. I've tried to give it a type of minature set lighting, highlighting the relief with a light that would also influence the main subject. The first iteration that went also into the article took 3.5 hours and was truely just a sketch. But afterwards I really felt something more special about it and continued to add some more details to it and adjusted the anatomy a little bit more. It still should be considered a sketch, but to me it is a sort of labor of love, I guess. The speed and the intuitive nature behind it reflect to me a part of my original style in both its strength and weakness. It's one of the rare times that I don't fully suffer under the weaknesses behind it. They are almost the whole expression behind it all.