After a nearly four year hiatus from making any "serious" art, I've finally found time to crank out something new. In this case, my biggest and most challenging interlocking picture yet. Made 100% digitally with an HP 2730p tablet laptop, this is my first official all-digital interlocking design. I admit it is neat to have a touch-screen computer where illustrations can be made directly on the screen complete with pressure sensitivity and one-to-one movement ratio. I have tried Wacom USB tablets in the past and I was never satisfied with the results. To me it felt like the plug-in tablet was a middle man and too much of my work was being lost in translation. Drawing right on the display is so much better.

This is actually my third work of this sort involving animals (the first being Interlocking Creatures and the second an untitled work that was never completed, thus never submitted to the public) but I am happy to finally be finished with it. I tend to get carried away when working on these pictures, and is not uncommon for me to spend many months perfecting every last detail to be satisfied with the finished result. The original planned work was to be much, much bigger (it was to even include marine life) but I think I will save that project for the "Seaquel". Haha! c-:

The general idea is the same as with previous works, to illustrate the subjects in a high-density interconnected mass where everything fits together sort of like a puzzle. The main goal was to keep every animal sized to scale with realistic poses and proportions, attempting to keep the look of the entire assembly as natural as possible. Since this was a digital deviation, I wasn't confined by the border of a real-life canvas, so I was able to explore more ideas and fit many more distinct and interesting animals into the mix. Theoretically, I could continue working on this piece forever, but I gotta draw the line somewhere. :-b

Some have questioned the negative space in the center in the shape of a human and whether or not there is some religious or philosophical meaning to this "being". Truth is, I didn't want to spoil the image with a pre-defined interpretation of what the de facto human is supposed to look like, not to mention I did not want to assign an ethnicity or deal with the taboo of a naked fellow in one of my works. I settled on keeping this spot blank rather early on in the project, and I believe it makes for a better result because the viewers eyes are naturally drawn to the void. At the very least it functions well as a starting point to explore the rest of the picture and the remaining creatures that make up the work.

I guess that's about all I can say about this piece, but if all goes well I'd certainly like to make more and continue on with my art career. I miss being able to work on this type of stuff, but I do have lots more ideas other than animals. In fact I have another piece in the works, but unfortunately, I can only work on this stuff when I have free time. Yes, I'm afraid I'm stuck in the daily grind with an occupation unrelated to art, but I'm hoping to one day pursue art as my full time job. That'll be the day! :-1

Enjoy!