[::: ALIEN vs HALO .redux :::]

Hrm. You know, i said i'd never do this. Cos well, i hate it when people latch on to a popular thing and then do NOTHING BUT that until theyre insanely popular. But well, in deviantart's current climate of a screwed up front page, where absolute crap gets faved and becomes more popular than stuff that is actually good, then well, that morale issue is right out the window.

So ... i figured, its been 27 months. Yes ... 27 months, over 2 years, since i last did an my AVH pic. Ive had a rought time of it in the last 2 years ... i dont feel im quite progressing as steeply as i once did ... and i worry im not heading in the right direction. I wanted to (now that im back at uni, in a great place, with my mates, with a crap load of time on my hands) try and establish where i am with my art. And the best way i saw of doing that for me was to try and retackle a picture i had done in the past, and try and see if i was any more able of trying to capture the original vision.

Is it a better picture than the original? pft, i dunno. In some ways i prefer it, in some ways im more proud of it. In other ways i look at it and think, that considering its been 2 years since i did it, it really isnt that much better. The main differences for me are:

Took half the time. 3 hours as opposed to 6.
The detail makes a LOT more sense
The alien looks a lot more like how i originally wanted it to.
Its in colour omg
Its perhaps a little more adventurous.

But then on the downside, i think the original's composition is better. I sat down last night and tried to work out why i still prefer elements of the original. I think it boils down to this:

Craig Mullins does THE most awesome Halo2 pictures. But, the pictures he has done wouldnt make good covers for the game. Theyre specific to a particular moment, and covers of games shouldnt defy specific elements. They should be all round representations of a concept, a main theme. I think the original pic i did is more like a representation of the concept, and the newer one lacks that. Also, the older pic looks much better on CRT monitors with the right contrast, whereas the new ones isnt quite so dependant on that!

But anyway, its not really up to me to decide. The point of the picture was not to replace the original, but rather, for my own purpose, see where i'm at and where im going with my art.

All comments welcome and appreciated. The original is here:

[link]

[::: ALIEN vs HALO .redux © Martin Houlden 2006. Master Chief, Halo © Bungie 2001 - 2006, Alien © 20th Century Fox 1979 :::]