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Description
This is my entry for the CGSociety's "Strange Behavior" illustration challenge, 2007. It was a very good experience; I've learned some very important lessons, and made some good friends of talented artists... Here is the story behind it, hope you like it:
-------------------------------------------------------------
HUMAN NATURE

When I got out of the plane at the end of summer vacation in 2001, my roommate picked me up from the airport. Instead of going directly home, he first took me to the richest man's house that I've ever met in my life, for lunch. My friend's mother was an assistant to this individual, she took care of his house. During lunch, between his self-adapted commonly known jokes and arrogant suggestions towards my hometown, we had a short conversation about global warming. It was an issue on my mind since the first time I'd seen the juxtaposed photographs from the arctic. He burst out laughing and said: "Global warming is just a big lie! Plus, if there is any global warming, all they need to do is to add some kind of chemical inside the commercial jets' fuel. Then they'd fly all around like they normally do - while cooling the earth..."

I found his comments strange that day, very strange...

Today, the metropols of the world are invaded by posters: On the street, in the subway, at the airport oil and energy companies are telling us how and why we should start conserving energy. I simply don't believe in their sincerity, I think this is just how the market and the political climate are forcing these corporations to act nowadays. It also turns out that the commercial planes are one of the biggest contributers to the greenhouse gases.

But why now? People with common sense, environmentalists, and scientists have been saying these for years. What turned on the switch, so that we are suddenly surrounded by mind opening commercials, news, documentaries within 1, only 1 year?! In the most shallow sense, I think it's because the rich couldn't find a place to ski last year. In a deeper sense, I think the policy makers and the extremely rich have more access to more crucial information than the general public, and they started freaking out on numbers so bad that the numbers on their bank accounts can't calm them down anymore. These are strange behaviors to me, but hey, that's how the world turns around, and I was only born into it.

We all, are just born into this world of civilizations, thus following its various pre-settled consumption patterns: We like buying, using, and getting rid of things with the least amount of effort and attachment. We like them in all colors, sizes and shapes, we dig variety. We like buying everything, cramming them inside our garage, never using them once, and then selling them in a yard sale for 1% of their original price. We don't like electric cars, because they reach 60mph in 12 seconds, not 6. We don't switch off the unused lights in our houses, unless the bill is annoying. We like all kinds of shows, 24 hours of shows, shows of the shows; we like watching TV so much that at last we filled it with reality shows of which 90% is based on humiliating and disgusting activities; o we love watching people being humiliated on TV... Soon, paparazzies will be chasing more famous paparazzies, because we love making stars out of nothing, and then watching them endlessly.

Am I against corporations, rich people, big media, variety, modernization, magazine, etc.? No! Not at all, I try to see things as they are, with their contributions and their consequences to the human race. I know there is the economy that needs a constant grow to avoid crisis, to invent, to drive technology and arts. I can see that the free-market economy with all its ads, promotions, and vicious capitalism is the best proven economic model so far. I understand the ever increasing consumption and advertisement is the driving force of that model. However, I get stuck at the part where the populations have to keep growing, to keep up with that model in order to complete the loop... Cause air won't grow, water won't grow and Earth simply won't grow, not at our rate. I don't want to live in a world where there are more people than there are trees. And for the Sci-Fi fans: Even if we inhabit another world(s) one day, I think we'd spend much of our time missing Earth and looking at old pictures.

Big corporations and politicians hold the power that can change our production standards, and our environment in general. They just lack the motive to better those aggressively. They should be leading the society, not following from behind like they are doing now. I'm talking about alternative energy sources; cage-free more humane animal farming; 2-way power delivery systems; switching to more organic ingredients and exploring their natural/clean power in chemistry and in biology; concentrating our production, innovation, labor and resources on more practical, crucial and urgent goods, instead of coming up with 50 different gadgets a year - just to come up with another all-in-one the next year; and if we are going to waste so much unused goods, then networks to navigate those goods to the poor before they turn into waste... It looks very strange when half of the world is dying of hunger and the other half is switching cellphones every other month. Individuals hold the other side of the power, because they are the majority, the consumer. We should start conserving water and energy as much as we can, not because we can't afford it, but because it's a strange behavior otherwise: excessive wasting is just pointless. We should demand cleaner, more natural products, we should encourage companies to improve those products to a better efficiency level than their old/artificial versions. We should stop buying things that we don't know why we buy and/or will never use. Lastly, I think we should be a little more aware of the millions of things that we consume everyday: Try to think how they are made, how they got there, how they work; and try to explore their magic, their history. Because we are human beings with a certain level of awareness superior to other animals, otherwise, there wouldn't be much difference between listening from an mp3 player and eating from a field...

- Every specie must consume in order to survive, though, it's the human that needs to consume in an odd way, just to feel alive...

*** About The Painting... ***

In my illustration "Human Nature" I tried to depict a scene that reflects my feelings and thoughts mentioned above:

"It's a beautiful day, birds are flying with joy and every creature is enjoying the cool summer breeze. Suddenly, they see this elegant, sharp looking creature coming spinning in the air, twirling and doing all kinds of amazing tricks, almost like music he is (the reins actually looked like the musical clef sign a little, which was unintentional.) Birds decide to tag along for a fly-by next to this supreme leader, until they start choking, and burning from what he leaves behind. He is going full speed, and he is not thinking about slowing down anytime soon..."

This image represents an automobile ride, that had started with horse rides, carriages, thousands of years ago. The flower he is smelling stands for the natural resources we, animals and our machines need to operate, like oil, food, air, and water. His 'car' is a bird, to show that before the engines, we relied on animals for great power. Environmental degradation is taking place related to his ignorant consumption. His mouth is filled with juice, his eyes are closed with joy, and he is blind to anything else when he is at full speed. He is wearing his tool belt, because he would be all naked without his only excuse: Technology. Poor bee is a key element of our eco-system, in particular of our agriculture; lady bug is believed to bring luck in some cultures, so I wanted to save those two from destruction. Distant fires, and droughts are reaching to our water resources in the picture, which is the last standing barrier between inhabitants and effects of global warming. An 'evil eye bead' or 'nazar bead' is attached to the collar of the car-bird, because it is believed to keep the bad spirits/bad luck away in some cultures; people hang them inside their houses, to their precious belongings, and especially inside their cars as a protector. Finally, fart is symbolizing our excessive waste...

The "Strange Behavior" in my illustration is: How come such an able and intelligent creature can destroy the only environment it has, with such indifference, ignorance, greed and elegance at the same time? Like they say: "Don't fart where you eat"

During painting, I made a lot of weird things myself: I just kept doing strange faces and awkward dances on my chair. Random hysterical screams and spassy behavior mixed with constant detuned whistling to the music. And of course, I farted more than one could imagine... Though, these weren't for the challenge, I do them anyway.

I used PhotoShop to paint Human Nature. It took me roughly 2 months, spending roughly 20 hours a week. It's 27.5x13 inches at 300 dpi. I could not finish this picture, at least not at this level, without the support of everyone who visited and replied my thread, especially the regulars like SteevieWoo, Ferx, Mdavid, AxelAlonso, Demitsuri, Slav, Nwiz25, and a few others I forgot to mention, I really appreciate it guys! Working under the constant partnership of caring, honest and successful artists, cannot be compared painting an image alone with the c&c of only family and friends. Lastly, I'd like to thank CG Society for expanding my vision, helping me at my projects, teaching me for free, and being there with the mission o fart and only art. I'd like to thank greatly to the organizers of this superb challenge, and to you, my friend, who read this too long essay patiently...

I wish the best of luck to everyone in this challenge.

Jeff Treves

Here is the link to the challenge thread, where you can see how the image evolved, and the hi-res close-up details:

[link] age=9&p=15

Description
This is my entry for the CGSociety's "Strange Behavior" illustration challenge, 2007. It was a very good experience; I've learned some very important lessons, and made some good friends of talented artists... Here is the story behind it, hope you like it:
-------------------------------------------------------------
HUMAN NATURE

When I got out of the plane at the end of summer vacation in 2001, my roommate picked me up from the airport. Instead of going directly home, he first took me to the richest man's house that I've ever met in my life, for lunch. My friend's mother was an assistant to this individual, she took care of his house. During lunch, between his self-adapted commonly known jokes and arrogant suggestions towards my hometown, we had a short conversation about global warming. It was an issue on my mind since the first time I'd seen the juxtaposed photographs from the arctic. He burst out laughing and said: "Global warming is just a big lie! Plus, if there is any global warming, all they need to do is to add some kind of chemical inside the commercial jets' fuel. Then they'd fly all around like they normally do - while cooling the earth..."

I found his comments strange that day, very strange...

Today, the metropols of the world are invaded by posters: On the street, in the subway, at the airport oil and energy companies are telling us how and why we should start conserving energy. I simply don't believe in their sincerity, I think this is just how the market and the political climate are forcing these corporations to act nowadays. It also turns out that the commercial planes are one of the biggest contributers to the greenhouse gases.

But why now? People with common sense, environmentalists, and scientists have been saying these for years. What turned on the switch, so that we are suddenly surrounded by mind opening commercials, news, documentaries within 1, only 1 year?! In the most shallow sense, I think it's because the rich couldn't find a place to ski last year. In a deeper sense, I think the policy makers and the extremely rich have more access to more crucial information than the general public, and they started freaking out on numbers so bad that the numbers on their bank accounts can't calm them down anymore. These are strange behaviors to me, but hey, that's how the world turns around, and I was only born into it.

We all, are just born into this world of civilizations, thus following its various pre-settled consumption patterns: We like buying, using, and getting rid of things with the least amount of effort and attachment. We like them in all colors, sizes and shapes, we dig variety. We like buying everything, cramming them inside our garage, never using them once, and then selling them in a yard sale for 1% of their original price. We don't like electric cars, because they reach 60mph in 12 seconds, not 6. We don't switch off the unused lights in our houses, unless the bill is annoying. We like all kinds of shows, 24 hours of shows, shows of the shows; we like watching TV so much that at last we filled it with reality shows of which 90% is based on humiliating and disgusting activities; o we love watching people being humiliated on TV... Soon, paparazzies will be chasing more famous paparazzies, because we love making stars out of nothing, and then watching them endlessly.

Am I against corporations, rich people, big media, variety, modernization, magazine, etc.? No! Not at all, I try to see things as they are, with their contributions and their consequences to the human race. I know there is the economy that needs a constant grow to avoid crisis, to invent, to drive technology and arts. I can see that the free-market economy with all its ads, promotions, and vicious capitalism is the best proven economic model so far. I understand the ever increasing consumption and advertisement is the driving force of that model. However, I get stuck at the part where the populations have to keep growing, to keep up with that model in order to complete the loop... Cause air won't grow, water won't grow and Earth simply won't grow, not at our rate. I don't want to live in a world where there are more people than there are trees. And for the Sci-Fi fans: Even if we inhabit another world(s) one day, I think we'd spend much of our time missing Earth and looking at old pictures.

Big corporations and politicians hold the power that can change our production standards, and our environment in general. They just lack the motive to better those aggressively. They should be leading the society, not following from behind like they are doing now. I'm talking about alternative energy sources; cage-free more humane animal farming; 2-way power delivery systems; switching to more organic ingredients and exploring their natural/clean power in chemistry and in biology; concentrating our production, innovation, labor and resources on more practical, crucial and urgent goods, instead of coming up with 50 different gadgets a year - just to come up with another all-in-one the next year; and if we are going to waste so much unused goods, then networks to navigate those goods to the poor before they turn into waste... It looks very strange when half of the world is dying of hunger and the other half is switching cellphones every other month. Individuals hold the other side of the power, because they are the majority, the consumer. We should start conserving water and energy as much as we can, not because we can't afford it, but because it's a strange behavior otherwise: excessive wasting is just pointless. We should demand cleaner, more natural products, we should encourage companies to improve those products to a better efficiency level than their old/artificial versions. We should stop buying things that we don't know why we buy and/or will never use. Lastly, I think we should be a little more aware of the millions of things that we consume everyday: Try to think how they are made, how they got there, how they work; and try to explore their magic, their history. Because we are human beings with a certain level of awareness superior to other animals, otherwise, there wouldn't be much difference between listening from an mp3 player and eating from a field...

- Every specie must consume in order to survive, though, it's the human that needs to consume in an odd way, just to feel alive...

*** About The Painting... ***

In my illustration "Human Nature" I tried to depict a scene that reflects my feelings and thoughts mentioned above:

"It's a beautiful day, birds are flying with joy and every creature is enjoying the cool summer breeze. Suddenly, they see this elegant, sharp looking creature coming spinning in the air, twirling and doing all kinds of amazing tricks, almost like music he is (the reins actually looked like the musical clef sign a little, which was unintentional.) Birds decide to tag along for a fly-by next to this supreme leader, until they start choking, and burning from what he leaves behind. He is going full speed, and he is not thinking about slowing down anytime soon..."

This image represents an automobile ride, that had started with horse rides, carriages, thousands of years ago. The flower he is smelling stands for the natural resources we, animals and our machines need to operate, like oil, food, air, and water. His 'car' is a bird, to show that before the engines, we relied on animals for great power. Environmental degradation is taking place related to his ignorant consumption. His mouth is filled with juice, his eyes are closed with joy, and he is blind to anything else when he is at full speed. He is wearing his tool belt, because he would be all naked without his only excuse: Technology. Poor bee is a key element of our eco-system, in particular of our agriculture; lady bug is believed to bring luck in some cultures, so I wanted to save those two from destruction. Distant fires, and droughts are reaching to our water resources in the picture, which is the last standing barrier between inhabitants and effects of global warming. An 'evil eye bead' or 'nazar bead' is attached to the collar of the car-bird, because it is believed to keep the bad spirits/bad luck away in some cultures; people hang them inside their houses, to their precious belongings, and especially inside their cars as a protector. Finally, fart is symbolizing our excessive waste...

The "Strange Behavior" in my illustration is: How come such an able and intelligent creature can destroy the only environment it has, with such indifference, ignorance, greed and elegance at the same time? Like they say: "Don't fart where you eat"

During painting, I made a lot of weird things myself: I just kept doing strange faces and awkward dances on my chair. Random hysterical screams and spassy behavior mixed with constant detuned whistling to the music. And of course, I farted more than one could imagine... Though, these weren't for the challenge, I do them anyway.

I used PhotoShop to paint Human Nature. It took me roughly 2 months, spending roughly 20 hours a week. It's 27.5x13 inches at 300 dpi. I could not finish this picture, at least not at this level, without the support of everyone who visited and replied my thread, especially the regulars like SteevieWoo, Ferx, Mdavid, AxelAlonso, Demitsuri, Slav, Nwiz25, and a few others I forgot to mention, I really appreciate it guys! Working under the constant partnership of caring, honest and successful artists, cannot be compared painting an image alone with the c&c of only family and friends. Lastly, I'd like to thank CG Society for expanding my vision, helping me at my projects, teaching me for free, and being there with the mission o fart and only art. I'd like to thank greatly to the organizers of this superb challenge, and to you, my friend, who read this too long essay patiently...

I wish the best of luck to everyone in this challenge.

Jeff Treves

Here is the link to the challenge thread, where you can see how the image evolved, and the hi-res close-up details:

[link] age=9&p=15