52
nkeo
The Lost Identity
Okay this is a hard one to explain. I tried to take the theme on a different approach in this piece. I've tried so many things by doing photomanipulations, retouching and so on to figure out this concept, but all failled. Maybe because the photo's where so hard to work with. So I had to improve a lot and had to forget about the usual stuff I do. I've remixed 3 concepts I had in mind actually while starting this piece and tried to blend them together in one piece. The fact is that no one is really sure about theirself. But changing yourself wont solve your problem, you would actually lose your identity whenever you do that! Because you're not the real "you/me" anymore whenever you had a extreme make over or plastic surgery. That's why I removed essential parts of the body in this piece since you're not the person you used to be anymore. This person, who is planning to build up a new identity for herself actually wants to give itsself more confidence by changing. The fact is that no one is perfect, but no one is satisfied with theirself as well, could we solve that problem by having surgery or doing makeovers? Shouldnt we just accept the way we are? Instead to the useless name changes, makeovers and surgery who are actually ruining our own identities? Be glad about who and what you are. Hope you guys digging this and hope the concept is clear! Good luck with the contest everyone! Rik Oostenbroek

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Comments:

By ishbu on Monday, 10 November 2008 6:58 AM
Love this one man, seriously!
By we_design on Monday, 10 November 2008 7:24 AM
awesome, man!
By maga on Monday, 10 November 2008 7:25 AM
yes yes yes! Very subtil, I like
By Nufabric on Monday, 10 November 2008 7:29 AM
hello ma winner friend :D
Thanks
By nkeo on Monday, 10 November 2008 8:53 AM
Thanks for the positive reactions:)!!!
By xxel on Monday, 10 November 2008 10:11 AM
awesome concept!
Great
By GalaxyTurbo on Monday, 10 November 2008 10:58 AM
Excellent work Rik, you know I'm a fan, I was gonna enter, now I can't be bothered. Well done buddy =)

- Husam
By Nander on Monday, 10 November 2008 11:57 AM
"Be glad about who and what you are." well spoken, my friend! Good luck with the contest!
By waletta on Monday, 10 November 2008 12:32 PM
wheuw.. nicely done mate... crazy concept
By jk3y on Monday, 10 November 2008 12:53 PM
I love this image, and the concept, and together they are truly a bomb made of sexy shapes and yeah...love?

great job.
By aicatch on Monday, 10 November 2008 12:57 PM
nice man

love it, think you have a great chance of winning:)
By Rieko on Monday, 10 November 2008 1:15 PM
i'm digging this new sort of painting style, definatly a winner==
cool piece
By shunan on Monday, 10 November 2008 2:44 PM
cool make over dude!
By nkeo on Monday, 10 November 2008 5:16 PM
argh I hate the fact that there are no spaces in the description:(
Thanks for all the support and sweet words everyone!
How proud a father can be!
By Luuk on Monday, 10 November 2008 5:54 PM
Well done Rik! Great art, good concept and a good story about what's going on in your mind! Luuk
By grimace74 on Monday, 10 November 2008 6:24 PM
Hey Rik nice work man, really!!
By espador on Monday, 10 November 2008 6:44 PM
Hey Rik, this is totaly awesome mate!
Good luck with it
By LeftNut on Monday, 10 November 2008 9:37 PM
Nice composition, but it doesn't really address the theme of extreme make-over. Just throw a few masks over the image of the girl and toss in some colorful ornaments and you end up with something like your image.
By hansjnh on Monday, 10 November 2008 9:42 PM
Must say that I seriously considered not participating in this competition when I saw this entry. Beautiful work.
By blackmamba69 on Monday, 10 November 2008 9:55 PM
Good luck dude, you're a great artist.
By miliegraf on Tuesday, 11 November 2008 1:36 AM
Very beautiful work!
Dang!
By DecemberBorn on Tuesday, 11 November 2008 5:18 AM
OMG, I Love this! It's completely unique and wonderful. If this doesn't win first place I'll be surprised.
Helo
By aagaard2 on Tuesday, 11 November 2008 12:58 PM
Hey Nkeo - Im pretty sure you will win that macbook :D

This piece is the best i have seen from you for a long time, its very great! Aagaardds.deviantart.com here ;)

Good luck, and you got my vote!
By LuXo on Tuesday, 11 November 2008 3:44 PM
Nice work mate! ;) Cool colors.
Best Viewed at & thanks to EVERYONE
By nkeo on Tuesday, 11 November 2008 5:08 PM
http://secretshowcase.com/The_Lost_Identity_by_NKeo.jpg

AHHH thanks for the love and damn sweet words people, so appreciated:)
By creativeoverflow on Tuesday, 11 November 2008 6:32 PM
great photoshop skills man!
this piece looks really good.. the whole design look of it! i'm very impressed.

but let me be honest and don't take it the wrong way. when i look at this piece, i dont see the "extreme make over" theme. all i see is (because of the hand) someone in the picture painted out a body without a head.

one thing i've learned recently by just viewing a lot of these entries and by seeing why the winners in the past entries won is because their piece didn't need to be explained to make sense of it.

again, i mean no harshness, just constructive criticism!
but really, out of all the pieces here tho, the photoshop work on this is one of the best.... by far!!

keep up the good work!!



to creativeoverflow
By nkeo on Tuesday, 11 November 2008 9:59 PM
Ah thanks a lot for the words man, I appreciate everyone's opinion!
It's actually one of the first pieces where the concepts/text takes the same part in the piece as the piece itself.

I didnt really want to come up with another cyborg or animal/human or a human travastite manipulation since I thought everyone would make something like that ( I started one in the start tho;) ).
The judges said to surprise and I did it on my own way.
This piece wasnt just to produce eye candy this time , but it has a message and not only for myself:)

I feel your point, like it's clear to me what the meaning is, since this piece has a personal taste for me as well. Some of the people might understand it right away, some might need a description to understand.

I like that people have to think about the meaning tho, to give it some more mysterious swing and everyone could have another interpetation after that. The extreme make over is in proces right here in my piece, It's something where people are dealing with emotionally, in their mind. In fact I know lots of people who are not satisfied with theirselfs and are dying for a makeover to do to get more selfconfidence ( the yes/no boxxes). But they don't realize the dark sides of it ( the cutted off head and legs ).
The darkside is the message I want to give to you, myself and everyone else who checks this piece.


Thanks for the other sweet words as well man, and no worries;)
I hope you read it and it might be a good idea for next years contest if it's able to reply people and they get a mail, because I guess creativeoverflow wont read this anymore anyway;)
By starfantazy on Wednesday, 12 November 2008 1:09 AM
i think by far you have to be one of the best artists i have known to date...

and trust me, i have no reason to suck up to you... but, i really respect all the art you do.

;) this is so fun!
Well done
By Rizza on Wednesday, 12 November 2008 2:16 AM
Good work hope u do well.
Sweet!
By pturula on Wednesday, 12 November 2008 2:48 PM
Great concept, great job! Got my vote & GL!!!
Nice!!
By ICDO on Wednesday, 12 November 2008 2:50 PM
Cool work man!!
where is the extreme makeover???
By Queenk on Wednesday, 12 November 2008 8:37 PM
nice image but I do not undertand the concept it does not have to do with extreme makeover
By nkeo on Wednesday, 12 November 2008 10:29 PM
Read, observe, imagine and take time to think about it:)

I even made some robo arm and let some octopus came out of her legs, eyes in her arms, scars on her body and so on. So I've manipulated it like everyone else did as well. But I payed more attention on the emotional feelings behind a makeover, the result after a makeover and motivation to do it.


Appreciated tho!

Rik
ggg
By rodier on Wednesday, 12 November 2008 11:05 PM
go rik go!
Eye candy
By NRead on Thursday, 13 November 2008 5:03 PM
It is cool to look at it. I like the colors and the fine details. Good luck.
By one.tm on Thursday, 13 November 2008 8:33 PM
Hola a todos que buen diseƱo, tiene todo mi apoyo
Nice
By MarcusAurelius on Friday, 14 November 2008 12:34 AM
Not usually a fan of "artist's hand in the work", but this composition is beautiful. Got my vote. Well done, and good luck.
By destin8x on Friday, 14 November 2008 7:06 AM
We got a winner! (i did not say that out loud)
compelling stuff and well-on-way
":thumbsup:"
By creativeoverflow on Friday, 14 November 2008 4:26 PM
the reason why i can't feel the message of your piece is because i can't see why there's a darkside in an extreme make over. YES you are totally changing the way you originally looked, but those who do do it, majority of the time feel MORE alive than they did before. they feel as if they are someone now, that they can now have a true identity.

some get a makeover for the soul purpose of changing something they dont like... others.. with the same reason but do it cuz they wanna look normal (medical reasons, ie, tumor, born with a defect etc). so if your piece was to depict that they felt LOST and not COMPLETE (no head, no legs) BEFORE the extreme makeover... i'd get it. but because you stated that it was AFTER... it doesn't fit right.

again, just constructive criticism man!

^___^



By nkeo on Friday, 14 November 2008 4:55 PM
It's about the satisfaction in your self, imo whenever you change yourself you just can't call yourself "you or me" anymore. You might feel better after but where's your head gone? Where is the way you've been originaly made. It's not about how the people feel in this thought I tried to show.
Impressed
By wimvd (from p) on Friday, 14 November 2008 5:00 PM
Great work Rik!

Nothing compares to this.

Life is a deal, therefore complete makeovers will never fit.
Resend ^^
By nkeo on Friday, 14 November 2008 5:12 PM
It's NOT about the satisfaction in your self, imo whenever you change yourself you just can't call yourself "you or me" anymore. You might feel better after but where's your head gone? Where is the way you've been originaly made ( that's why I called it Lost identity ). I spoke about people need to have more satisfaction in the way they look like, not about having tumors or w/e but ofcourse I feel that people change theirselfs whenever they got REAL problems.

I'm talking about the people like us ( tho I dont know how you look like and if you're satisfied with yourself ;) ) who are just thinking "Oh my nose looks a bit silly this way" - "Oh damn I'm so fat but I don't feel the need to eat less so let's have some surgery" - "Argh my lips are to thin, people wont kiss me right now".

No worries btw! I like discussions but I'm not that good in English that I could explain everything exactly the way I actually should say like in my own language. I could explain things wrong sometimes as well.
Sorry for that :)

Rik
By nkeo on Friday, 14 November 2008 5:14 PM
"It's NOT about the satisfaction in your self"
About the parts that arent there anymore in my piece!
Dude
By Jurgt on Sunday, 16 November 2008 7:35 PM
Nice work dude. Keep it up. I hope you win! You got my vote!
viremaster
By vire on Sunday, 16 November 2008 8:19 PM
got my vote man
It's a Makeover Resulting from Makeovers
By DecemberBorn on Monday, 17 November 2008 4:19 AM
As far as I know, we were just given a title and 8 photos to work with. The theme title is "Extreme Makeover". I don't remember reading anything that said we had to depict a makeover in an expected way. This artist worked within the theme and with the elements, albeit from a slightly different perspective: This is what happens when you have extreme makeovers - you begin to lose yourself in the process - a little bit here, a little bit there - and what you are becomes unraveled (which, by the way, is a makeover in itself). The subject HAS had an extreme makeover (or several) and this is the result, illustrated. p.s. I love it!
By GarfieldPP on Monday, 17 November 2008 1:39 PM
wow, nice concept!
Love the colours and the details, you got my vote ;)
crap I'm late for voting!
By rarz on Thursday, 20 November 2008 12:18 AM
good stuff bro, ignore these jealous haters and chill away computer until results :)

good luck!

J
By rarz on Thursday, 20 November 2008 12:22 AM
oh wait you haven't haters, am I drunk again or what?
By pnzoo on Thursday, 20 November 2008 12:57 PM
mistrz!!!
Congratulations
By we_design on Thursday, 20 November 2008 3:57 PM
you just got a new mac book pro ;-)
CONGRATULATIONS!
By Bontea on Thursday, 20 November 2008 4:00 PM
You deserve it, you did an excellent job. Enjoy your laptop!
Congratulations
By jrunin on Thursday, 20 November 2008 4:08 PM
Well deserved. Outstanding work of art.
By cerenay on Thursday, 20 November 2008 5:04 PM
It's a very good work! :) Congratulations! :)
By starfantazy on Thursday, 20 November 2008 10:12 PM
grats hunni, now, do you wanna trade that laptop for my sony vaio limited edition?

0:)

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