oh yeah, and ideas on lighting should be primarily what I'm looking for. Right now it's lighted by the sun because I didn't want any light reflection :(

The lone king looks rather defenseless, but I wonder why it's in the Gulf and not on Iraq. It confuses the message for me. I presume that the lone king represents Iraq's defenselessness to a US invasion force. As for lighting, I'd just soften that shadow. Adding some refracted light that passes through the king might be a nice touch as well. A totally personal opinion is that I prefer white and black chess to red and black, but that's just my personal opinion. Very simple, very powerful. I like it.

Looks good, should keep the angle. Might want to shift the map texture so the king is on top of Iraq. Being on time is always good except for executions.

And here I am expecting a modeled chess set featuring political figureheads and military hardware (something like Saddam and Bush being the opposing kings with a scud launcher as the Knight on one side, and a CVN as the Knight on the other, etc.) I do like the chessboard theme.

gentlemen, the king is supposed to represent the United States. Notice the cross on top. E~

Ah, a crusade reference, then? Well, it's a little ambiguous then. ;)

don't know what to thing about it... so I prefer not to say anything

Interesting that you associate a cross with the US....most people here certainly don't. :) Cool image though, ever consider having the lines be recessed into the board ever so slightly?

I've been thinking about this a while. The difference in interpretation, I think, is because I view the cross as an identifying feature of the king and not a symbol of Christ. I ignore the Christ reference because it's the whole chess piece that I consider, and not its details as none of the details are particularly remarkable. What I mean by that is that it's a fine chess piece, but it's not an unusal chess piece so I don't really focus on its details. It may be because I'm a chess player, I'm not sure. You could modify the king, I suppose, to eliminate the cross, place that on Iraq, and show it surrounded by other pieces and perhaps have a bishop putting the king in check. That would satisfy your want to show a religious crusade, but after some thought, that may just be more confusing as the Pope is against the proposed war. You could put US colors on the pieces, but I'm afraid that might cheapen the piece into a silly political cartoon. I think that either suggestion would take from the simplicity in composition and just cause clutter and send more messages than you want to. I like the pieces simplicity. It's very strong in its simplicity. I don't know what to say. I guess I'll just go back to what they taught me in art school and be satisfied with whatever I, the viewer, take from it. The weird thing about art is that you never know how people will interpret your work. If it were my piece, I'd move the map so the king sits on Iraq. I hope that helps. I really just wanted to post the first paragraph explaining why I think the King stronger in symbolism than the Cross that's on it, but I got a little carried away.