Art Critique # 1

The title of this work of art is called “Tyrant P-3”, which stands for “Tyrant Progenitor Version 3”. The artist who rendered the image is Eiko Rikuchiba, a volunteer staff member of the Resident Evil video game series development team. The medium of the work was first done in pencil, then ink, and then rendered into virtual 3-D format via CGI. The subject matter consists of a humanoid monster with a mutated appearance. It has greenish-gray skin, and it is riddled with a layer of quivering, blistering pink sores. It has a claw like hands used for killing prey.
It is gruesome and menacing, and instills the need to pull the covers over one’s head. My initial reaction to the piece was that I’d always liked the Resident Evil zombie thriller video game series. I liked the image because it is an original piece of the first game I hadn’t played until recently. I suppose the “emotion” I felt was morbid excitement for an old favorite.
The creature’s skin color is grayish with a noticeably greenish hue, which is complemented nicely by its color opposite, a pale plethora of pinkish, pus-filled sores. The color of the green skin denotes a sense that it is a zombie, that it is dead. The shadows of any large room would almost completely conceal it presence. The place the eye is drawn to first is the atrophying lump of muscle on it chest, and then its clawed right hand, shaping the picture’s focal point. There is a 180 degree plane across which the creature appears to walk on two solid legs, going neither up nor down. The proportion of the figure is anatomically correct; however, its limbs are purposely disproportionate, as its right arms and hand is slightly bigger than the left, making the creature sag to the right just a little. The Tyrant P-3 is shaded well, where most of the shadowing comes through in the lower legs and chest area, giving it eh allusion that it is more alive. The tone of the shading consists of dull greens and reds. This vapid color combination makes it appear more frightening and zombie-like. The emphasis is placed in 3 specific areas: the porous left shoulder, to its chest area, then down diagonally to its freakish right hand. There is also a general sense of movement, as the image is slightly hunched forward, with a drooling mouth, arms slightly poised forward for a quick lift, and one foot is behind the other. This makes the Tyrant P-3 appear to stalking a prey, lurching slowly towards its target unceasingly. This monstrous being does actually have quite a narrative in it. The inception of the creatures of the Resident Evil series stemmed from mere humans. In this case, we see a tragic man who was probably kidnapped by scientists from the organization, taken to some research facility, and endured excruciating biochemical testing until his nerves broke down, his consciousness shattered and dulled to nothing, and his mind eaten away by the most basic of instincts: to hunt, to kill, to feed and then repeat the process into infinity.