..Cobblestone..

yes, the cobblestone textures worked out marvelously! now i imagine walking down a cobblestone alley when my path begins to come alive under my feet and turn into a figure... i actually feel that way about certain places, i think of them as human characters, and i suppose that this is very much what some of them would look like if that's what they were...
i'm enamored with the entire stone figure series, but this one caught my eye first as a thumbnail- maybe just because it's so different from the green stone that most of the others are (though it still clearly fits into the series), or perhaps because the high-contrast pattern calls attention to itself.
i find it interesting that while the cobblestone pattern is probably rather close to the 3D grid of the model, it does not at all reduce the painterly/sculputurly aspect of the image (as opposed to the typical CG look). the only exception to this which bothers me a little bit is the grid on the face- it's a little too obvious. i'd prefer if it was composed of the same larger-sized cobblestones, misshapen as that would require them to be.
well, i won't even get into the symbolism and surrealism of the smoking ball that the figure is bouncing (or levitating?), not to mention the masterful abstraction of the background, which so effectively suggests a distinct landscape with its minimalist rendering.
a gorgeously mesmerizing work of the finest art! <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/h/h…" width="15" height="13" alt="" title="Heart - "/>