Aaron's Mech

I forgot to post this to Aaron ages ago.  The hood actually does come down to protect the pilot.

Nocember Challenge; Armor Class!

Hey duderz. My challenge is Altered Armor. This can be fantasy or sci-fi. The goal is to take a suit of armor and modify it in any way you see fit, be it to improve or damage the armor. Examples might be a suit of classical armor modified to fit into a steam punk setting, or perhaps a military body armor altered to protect against toxic zombies. The armor could be altered due to a creature or spirit that inhabits the armor itself. The key is to have a pre-existing thing that has been changed. For this reason I recommend some kind of armor based in reality to work from. If the armor does not exist then give examples for the viewer to go from. After all, how can we know if it is altered if we don't know what the original looks like? I don't really have any deadline, because I know we all inhabit the real world, and it is the season of holiday crap. Let's just say Dec 31 2011, just for kicks. I will post an visual example of what I mean soon. Feel free to work in what ever medium you are most comfortable in.

Manticore

My wife, she's a gypsy.  She tells you different, but yes, she's a gypsy.  True as day.  We go by my family name so to avoid the questions from the officers that come to question our village.  She's just fair enough so the genteel families up north aren't suspicious.  This is important because you see, if I didn't tell you about my wife, you wouldn't believe.

This thing.  It's real.  Manticore.  It hunts the deserts down south.  Beyond Andalusia.  My wife, her uncle Razek saw them.  He saw one take a horse right out of a caravan.  Just took it and ran.  The brothers, my wife's uncle and his two brothers (God rest them) shot at it, and it laughed.  It laughed at them!  I said "Hyenas?" They said no, no they call it Manticore.

See, Manticore, he's this Persian man.  Persian man long long ago, before Moses, who has been cursed, so him, his whole family, they are all like this!  Teeth go forever down their gullet, scales, hair of old women, scorpion tail, all of it, just like in Revelations, only no judgement day, right?

"Ha!" I said.  I didn't believe my wife's uncle Razek.  Who would, right?  Gypsies, they tell stories!  But no, he says, and he pulls a box out of a drawer in his wagon.  he shows me this box.  Decorated clarinet box. I say "Ok, what is it."  He says they find the horse, what's left of the horse, hooves and guts by a river.  They find the bones a little farther and they pull the teeth out of the bones.  One of his brothers; Vladim, I think gets sick from touching the teeth.  His hands itch.  No, they sting, like jellyfish sting.  Worse than bees, with boils.   So they use tongs.  That brother Vladim gets a fever and dies seven days later (God rest his soul!)  The two other brothers take Vladim and the teeth they put in a in a sack.  No, first they put fat?  Something like fat.  Sheep wool?  Something like wax to stop the poison on the teeth. They take his brother home.  From touching the teeth, his brother rots alive.  Vladim cannot be saved by medicine, not by prayer.  The curse, this venom is so strong.  They never see Manticore again.

I say this cannot be!  Razek, he opens the case and what do I see?  They look like tusks.  Tusks made of white metal.  They are as long as my fingers.  He says don't touch them.  He says the poison on them.  The venom, it's still good to this day.  He uses it to etch his tin work.  Just a drop in a glass of milk and he can etch his tin all day.  Turns the milk sour and red as wine, he says.

Stay out of the southern deserts!  Grace of God go with you if you don't!

Challenge 1

NMAfterlife Challenge 1

EPIC MONSTOBER

Ric's Challenge:

The theme of this particular challenge will be "monsters".  Format can be either vertical or horizontal, pixel resolution will be up to you.

Your monster does not have to be humanoid-ish.  Thus, the epicness of it!

This challenge is meant to 1) have fun with, 2) be good practice, 3) give you a reality check on your art skills.

How far you want to push this is also up to you and will only benefit yourself.  However, I am going to throw my head out and say- cgsociety level quality.

Goals of the piece: must be able to initially depict a mood or emotion.  Bonus points if you do a background or story brief.

Definition of monster: An imaginary creature that is typically large, ugly, and frightening.

As artists, you can even deviate from this definition if you want.

Some types of monster:  beast or animal, legendary creature, alien, human, machine, and other combinations thereof.

NOTE: DUE TO THE LACK OF PEOPLE BEING ABLE TO POST IMAGES, THE CHALLENGE HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO NOVEMBER THIRD!

NOTE:  Seeing as how we haven't gotten everyone signed on as an author as of yet, let us extend the deadline a bit.  Say two weeks?
Anyone?