#thomas blackshear ii
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#art#paintings#museum#art pieces#tumblr art#Thomas Blackshear II#Dance of the Wind and the Storm#1996 [2048x1510]
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Mammoth, Thomas Blackshear II
It had appeared as if clots of ice had become effervescent, leaping into the air without a breeze to carry them. After a second of fleeting, flapping white swirling before him, it dawned on the mammoth what these startling things were. He growled after the birds like a teased grandfather, angry to have been spooked. But by the time he vocalized, the birds were yards away, having already forgotten that the mammoth was there.
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Thomas Blackshear II, Paintings.
Masterpieces from revered artist Thomas Blackshear II who lives and works in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
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Be sure to follow Supersonic Art on Instagram!
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Thomas Blackshear II “Legend” (1985)
Source
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“Cowboys and Indians” by Thomas Blackshear II | oil on canvas
#thomas blackshear ii#thomas blackshear#contemporary western art#western art#cowboy art#native american#indigenous#black cowboys#cowboy#western
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Thomas Blackshear II (1955-) - Night and Day
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Beauty and The Beast - Thomas Blackshear II
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#art#paintings#museum#art pieces#tumblr art#Night and Day#Thomas Blackshear II (1955-)#[1078 x 2000]
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Gallery Collection 001
Published: 2-21-2024 | Updated: N/A
SUMMARY
This is the first in a series of upcoming investment objects for Sims 2 – things your sims can use to generate income over time. From 1975-2000, Anheuser-Busch, Inc. commissioned 30 paintings of African kings and queens for an extended outreach and marketing campaign. This set of paintings features artwork from this amazing series. Celebrate Black History Month 2024! #co2bhm #bhm2024 #sims2bhm.
*No copyright infringement intended – I own no rights to these images.
DETAILS
Requires Sims 2. Requires Apartment Life for shiftability.
§1K-15K | Buy > Deco > Wall Hangings
Paintings are centered on 1-tile but cover more tiles than that. They come in various gallery sizes and images have been edited to fit the mesh. After purchase, their value increases by approximately 2% daily – watch out for burglars!
Files with “MESH” in their name are REQUIRED. Frame recolors include EA/Maxis and yeti textures. Frame and painting recolors are merged into two files so you’ll have to take them or leave them.
ITEMS
Great Kings & Queens of Africa: Paintings 001-006 (92-764 poly)
DOWNLOAD (choose one)
from SFS | from MEGA
IMAGES
Akhenaton Pharaoh of Egypt (1375-1358 BC) by Barbara Higgins Bond
Alfonso I King of the Kongo (circa 1486-1543) by Carl Owens (1929-2002)
Askia Muhammaed Toure King of Songhay (1493-1529) by Leo Dillon
Benhanzin Hossu Bowelle—The King Shark (1841-1906) by Thomas Blackshear II
Cleopatra VII Queen of Egypt (69-30 BC) by Ann Marshall
Hannibal Ruler of Carthage (247-183 BC) by Charles Lilly
Hatshepsut The Ablest Queen of Far Antiquity (1503-1482 BC) by Dean Mitchell
Idris Alooma Sultan of Bornu (1580-1617) by Charles Lilly (1949-)
Ja Ja King of the Opobo (1821-1891) by Jonathan Knight
Khama III The Good King of Bechuanaland (1819-1923) by Carl Owens
Makeda Queen of Sheba (960 BC) by Debra Edgerton
Mansa Kankan Musa King of Mali (1306-1337) by Barbara Higgins Bond
Menelek II King of Kings of Abyssinia (1844-1913) by Dow Miller
Moshoeshoe King of Batsutoland (circa 1786-1870) by Jerry Pinkney
Mwana Ngana Ndumba Tembo—Ruler of the Angolan Tchokwe (1840-1880 circa) by Kenneth Calvert
Nandi Queen of Zululand (1778-1826 AD) by HM Rahsaan Fort II
Nefertari Nubian Queen of Egypt (192-1225 BC) by Steve Clay
Nehanda of Zimbabwe (1862-1898) by Lydia Thompson
Nzingha—Amazon Queen of Matambo (1582-1663) by Dorothy Carter
Osei Tutu King of Asante (circa 1650-1717) by Alfred Smith
Queen Amina of Zaria (1588-1589) by Floyd Cooper
Samory Toure The Black Napoleon of the Sudan (1830-1900) by Ezra Tucker
Shaka-King of the Zulus (1787-1828) by Paul Collins
Shamba Bolongongo African King of Peace (1600-1620) by Roy LaGrone
Sunni Ali Beer King of Songhay (circa 1442-1492) by Leo Dillon
Taharqa King of Nubia (710-664 BC) by John Thomas Biggers
Tenkamenin King of Ghana (1037-1075 AD) by Alexander Bostic
Thutmose III Pharaoh of Egypt (753-712 BC) by Antonio Wade
Tiye The Nubian Queen of Egypt (circa 1415-1340 BC) by Leonard Jenkins
Yaa Asantewa Queen of Ghana (1863-1923) by Barbara Higgins Bond
CREDITS
No copyright infringement intended – I own no rights to these images. Artwork and trademarks are the property of their respective creators and/or owners. If this exceeds fair use, please contact me via private message.
Thanks: Simming and Sketchfab Communities. Sources: Any Color You Like (CuriousB, 2010), Beyno (Korn via BBFonts), Console Certificates (d_dgjdhh, 2019; 2011), EA/Maxis, Gyeongbokgung Sajeongjeon Painting (National Heritage Administration, 2024 via CCA; Sketchfab), Great Kings and Queens of Africa Series (Anheuser-Busch, Inc., 1975-2000; Kentake, 2016), Offuturistic Infographic (Freepik), Painting by Zdzislaw Beksinski (Sosnowski, 2018 via CCA), Yeti Metals (Shastakiss, 2017).
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“Dance of the Wind and Storm” Thomas Blackshear II 1996
Painting used as the cover artwork for Imploding Mirage album by The Killers.
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"NATIVE AMERICAN NOUVEAU" by Thomas Blackshear II
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Karate History & Box Art Redemption
About a year and a half ago, I mentioned Jordan Mechner's seminal 1984 game Karateka in a post about Sifu, a newly-released beat ‘em up with a similar martial arts theme and tough-as-nails difficulty level. Sifu's a good game that garnered a certain amount of scrutiny from people who pointed out that it was an interactive experience steeped in Chinese culture but developed by a predominantly white team. This is not inherently a bad thing (Sifu’s devs did a respectful job), but considering Western media’s track record of misrepresenting Asia as an exotic place full of Fu Manchu-mustachioed bad guys and subservient women, it’s always worthwhile to be cautious. At any rate, Sifu reminded me a lot of Karateka, another game by a non-Asian creator that owed its lifeblood to Asian culture...and even featured the main protagonist and his love interest as white on the box art, despite the fact that the game clearly takes place in medieval Japan.
The Making of Karateka, a just-released interactive documentary by Digital Eclipse, explains the logic behind this decision via extensive notes that detail every step of the game's creation. From what I can discern, the box art design doesn’t appear to have been Jordan Mechner’s call. (Though the playable Karateka beta included in this package reveals that Mechner had some wacky non-Japanese names in mind for the game’s villain and damsel in distress... Akuma and Mariko were once dubbed “Kratang” and “Tiger Lily.” Yikes!) Rather, publisher Brøderbund’s marketing team seems to have been the division that assigned artist Thomas Blackshear II to paint the cover, instructing him that the titular Karateka was supposed to look like "a young Chuck Norris" or "Luke Skywalker" while Mariko should resemble an "American blonde." Meanwhile, only Akuma was specified as "Japanese."
Brøderbund’s promotional strategy followed the typical American metality of the era: it's okay to portray a bad guy as a foreign race, but leading men and ladies should be white and ideally blonde. It didn't have to be this way, since Bruce Lee had dominated cinemas with Enter the Dragon only a decade earlier and proved that audiences could accept an Asian hero. But Brøderbund decided to go the safe route, despite the fact that Thomas Blackshear is a person of color renowned for his Black and American Indian paintings. (He also portrayed a decidedly unblonde and possibly Asian main character in his early cover sketches.)
My intention here is not to hate on Karateka or any of the individuals involved. The original Karateka game for the Apple II did, after all, feature white hair for its leading man's sprite that could easily be interpreted as blonde (though that was likely due to hardware color limitations more than anything else), and Brøderbund justified their decision by claiming they were inspired by the multicolored hair of Japanese manga characters. (Eh, sure.) Also, if we're being honest about it, Blackshear's final art is a beautiful composition even with the questionable racial depictions.
Rather, I'm fascinated with Karateka's box as an example of mildly problematic '80s promotion, and I love how we gain insight into its development thanks to Digital Eclipse' painstaking efforts with what they call the first in their "Gold Master Series" of playable documentaries. Aside from these marketing details, The Making of Karateka delves into Jordan Mechner's early life in precise timeline fashion, letting us explore planning documents, early rotoscoping footage and prototypes of not only Karateka, but the games that preceded it, including Mechner's take on Asteroids and a shooter he was trying to develop called Deathbounce. There's even glimpses at the bones of a platforming puzzle game that started out as Karateka II and would later evolve into Prince of Persia.
Just about every review of The Making of Karateka stresses how this package sets a new standard for preservation in the video game industry, a business that is terrible at chronicling its own past. I won't repeat these arguments too much other than to say that I fullheartedly agree. Behind the scenes featurettes used to be a thing when it came to games — as a kid, I remember being utterly absorbed with the "Making of King's Quest VI" footage that came included on the CD-ROM — but these days you're unlikely to see too many of them, especially for titles that were released decades ago. In a world where Nintendo has yet to localize Mother 3 and customers need to rely on emulation and all types of hacks to revisit old games, Digital Eclipse's commitment to curating digital museums dedicated to works like Karateka is an incredible worthy goal — possibly one of the most important goals that a video game company has ever embarked upon. I can't wait to see more volumes in the Gold Master Series, and can think of many potential entries off the top of my head. Pitfall! Ultima! Doom! Maybe even one day...Sifu? (Likely a stretch, but stranger things have happened.)
But going back to the discusson of art for a moment, one of the most monumental things that The Making of Karateka does is offer a "remastered" version of its title game, complete with impressive graphical flairs, a more managable difficulty level, and even...revised box art. While Thomas Blackshear's original Karateka painting is still displayed prominently throughout the package, when you go to select Karateka Remastered under the list of playable games, you'll see a new mockup box. No longer is Akuma a dehumanized Japanese baddie, no longer is Mariko an all-American girl, no longer is the titular Karateka Luke Skywalker. All three characters are Asian...and get this, the central Karateka is not only Asian, but blonde too.
In one swift stroke, The Making of Karateka not only captures history and chronicles its mistakes, but also revises them for a bright future. Take that, 1984 marketing.
Update: An earlier version of this article stated that the new mockup cover art was illustrated by Digital Eclipse in-house artist Mae Livingston. Mike Mika, the president of Digital Eclipse, reached out to me on Twitter to explain that while Mae was responsible for Karateka Remastered's in-game artwork, the actual box image was made via Midjourney, and the characters were tweaked multiple times to look more culturally appropriate. He added that this methodology was an experiment that Digital Eclipse does not intend to rely on in the future.
I have very mixed opinions on AI art, and I do wish this box had been created by a human. I don't know if I would've written this piece if I'd known that the artwork was made by Midjourney, frankly. Nevertheless, I appreciate Mike actually reaching out to me, and the ultimate message of this article still stands. I hope Digital Eclipse considers the power that an image like this holds — especially for multiracial people like myself — and chooses human artists in the future.
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I noticed that your art style is really similar to the character cards (tarot cards) of Dragon Age Inquisition… were you a creative director of those illustrations? Or are you heavily inspired by them?
Lovely Anon, I'm extremely flattered you might think so, but no, I have not worked on any Dragon Age game (but I sure get that a lot haha).
I was commissioned by Bioware to do a portrait of Carver Hawke for a community thing they did on the last Dragon Age Day, alongside other fantastic community artists, but that's it. I'm just a fan 😊
My art style has been heavily influenced by the Dragon Age Inquisition cards (like many other artists! I adore them all!), but more than that, my art style has also been heavily influenced by artists that influenced the style of the DA tarot cards - like Alphonse Mucha, and even more so, Gustav Klimt. I also really enjoy the work of other contemporary artists who are influenced by Klimt too, like Thomas Blackshear II and Svetlin Vassilev! My art style is influenced by other things too though.
I think the DA cards helped unlock some possibilities in terms of style and stylization in my mind, which was tremendously helpful and made me grow as an artist, but I haven't tried to mimic their style in years (love looking at the cards still though 😍).
And to be honest, I don't think my art style looks that similar to DA stuff anymore. Maybe some elements, and some more than others, but that's it. DA cards have a much looser style than I do, and they're WAY more expressive! The artists who created them are MILES ahead of me!
tl/dr: man I wish 😂
#ask#anon#reply#eleonor says stuff#step one: live in edmonton canada#failed step one#😂#if I had an euro every time someone asks me that...I could buy Bioware from EA probably
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