Renderholics has sent me his choice of topics, and I think it will make an amazing Challenge:

I think I would like the next topic to be 'Elemental' open to whatever Elemental means to you. It could be air, earth, wind, fire  - it could be elements from the periodic table, it could be elements in a toaster, iron - whatever their perception of the word is :)

This challenge is for everyone, regardless of their creative tools.  Everyone can enter, whether they are using 2D, 3D, fractal, animation or any other software;  whether they are photographers, writers or even musicians.  The challenge arena is open to all.  Come and join in, test your creative tools against all the others!

The Challenge begins immediately and will close to entries at the end of January. I will give you a few days notice.  All entries will be to this thread or with a link to a larger image. Voting will begin then in the same thread. 

You may enter an existing work if you like, but we would prefer to see a new work created for this challenge... it IS a challenge after all, lol!  You may enter more than one work, but remember that in the voting, each entry will be judged separately. If you choose to enter more than once, please NAME EACH OF YOUR ENTRIES!

Let your inspiration free!

~Viv

I have a question, do we know what Febz challenge is gonna be? I just learned of this and well...uh...ack! the pressure! I'll try though...

The person who wins the January Challenge will decide the topic for February.  It's our only 'prize' :biggrin:

~Viv

The Elements of Life

We stand on the Earth.
This Mother, who feeds all life.
Gives to each a home

Comes the breeze. Air wind.
Sigh, breathe, pant, gasp, recover.
The scents astound, with difference

Stand by the fire, here.
Be forged into what we're meant
to be. Warmth as one.

Drops of rain, torrents
Water takes and gives to us.
Needed for balance

But where in these four
is the element of love
without which we cease

These entries are all terrific!  The month is drawing to an end, so everyone needs to get their submissions in soon.  I am hoping to close this by Sunday night, but if anyone needs a bit longer, let me know.

~Viv

ps. How you guys attach the image nicely here to this post, like in above???

Got it, but what's the file size limit?

Quick someone give him directions! I want to see those robots!

A rendering depicting the 4 elementals, Earth, Water, Air and Fire in  primordial water giving their energies to support the planet earth.

The visible light spectrum is 7 colours, like a scale, I started with red (fire) and went around clockwise. funny coinky.dink green exists between yellow (air) and blue (water).

since this challenge is closing before I can get the real work done, a couple things might not be apparent.
Orange is air and fire, and to me that meant orange sandy desert.
Indigo is where earth and water meet and is missing the underwater mountain ranges blending into a coral reef.
One thing is definitely missing from the original concept, I wanted the infinity symbol broken into 4 puzzle pieces that each hand would hold, implying only thru unity can infinity be attained, reiterating the cyclic nature as well. But in smudging in the infinity symbol, it took the shape of an owl, so I pushed that in a little bit, as that works well if not better.

The astrological symbols apropos to each element were also imagined much cooler looking.
It's really hard for me to do godrays with paint shop pro, and the whole thing was supposed to be superimposed over a nightsky starscape...

The file size limit is 200k.  If that seems too small, you can always post both a small image and then link to the image in your gallery.

~Viv

Life

Ah! Coffee
cafienates the blood
makes it flow

Ah! Chocolate
soothes the soul. Comfort
in a square

Ah! Ice cream
The universal
heartache cure

Perfect simplicity, as the elements are :)

It looks like winter is a slow time.  Still, we have some great entries from a variety of backgrounds.  It's now time to close the entries and let the voting begin!  The voting will be in this thread, after this entry.  You get to choose your 3 favorite entries, giving each of them 3, 2 or 1 points.  Remember, you are choosing an entry, not an artist.  If someone has posted more than one entry, you need to indicate which is your choice. 

Your vote should look something like this:

Ele - "Mental" - 3 points
Earth - "Air" - 2 points
Fire - "Water" - 1 point

Feel free to nominate Honorable Mentions or make comments.

~Viv

My votes:

mamabobbijo, "The Elements of Life" - 3 points
blinkings - 2 points
mamabobbijo, "Life" - 1 point

Great entries all!!

Riquelme8  1pt
Gossamyr   2 pts
weezerhopw 3pts

All are great entries.

mamabobbijo 'the elements of life' 3 pts
weezerhopw 2 pts
thunderstone 'the four elements' 1pt

it might not be apparent but a resolution I made was to be more a part of the community, and less a lurker. thus far, definitely the right step, winning or no, being a part of something

hope i have more time for feb, but I gotta mention www.fawm.org, it's nanowrimo for musicians and well, needs to be mentioned :-)

**Riquelme8 - Robots - 3 pts
****mamabobbijo - The Elements of Life - 2 pts
****Gossamyr - Sketch - 1 pts

Great work everyone! Love the different points of view :) ****

**

Thunderstone The Four Elementals 3
Riquelme8  No Title                               2
weezerhopw No Title                              1

Bravo to all who entered! Thanks to all who voted, no matter for who.

Thunderstone 3 points
Riquelme8 2 points
Gossamyr 1 point

I really like all the entries and would give you all 3 if I knew it wouldn't cause a ruckus hehe.

ThunderStone -    "The 4 Elementals"    - 3 points
 mamabobbijo -  "The Elements of Life" - 2 points
        blinkings -           "element"            - 1 point

Oh, jeeze. Missed another one. Oh well. January was a bit hectic trying to get my website going. I'm lucky I remembered which way was up.

Nice entries, all. Here are my votes.

3pts to blinkings for Element. My God, what a haunting image and scary thought. Packs quite an emotional wallop.

2pts to mamabobbijo for her poem, The Elements of Life, which reminds us all there is one element that binds the rest into any meaning. Nice.

1pt to Riquelme8 for Dancing Galaxy V (not sure if that's the title). Great detail work on those robots. Nice lighting and scene composition too.
~jon

I will be closing the voting and tallying up the votes Thursday night at 23:59 Renderosity Time (American Central Time).  Please have your votes in by then! 

Good luck to all!

~Viv

January 2009

Well, despite the small turnout, we had lots of terrific entries!  I was fascinated by the many ways that 'ELEMENTAL' could be represented.  There was a lot of creativity going on.  Thanks to everyone who participated.

Here is the count:

In sixth place, with 1 point:  mamabobbijo's 'Life'

In fifth place, with 4 points:  Gossamyr's 'what elements mean to me'

Tied for fourth place, with 6 points each:  blinkings's 'being a father' and weezerhopw's 'Perfect Simplicity'

In third place, with 9 points:  Riquelme8's 'steel and mechanics'

In second place, with 10 points:  ThunderStone's 'The 4 Elementals'

In first place, with 12 points:  mamabobbijo's 'The Elements of Life'

Congratulations to everyone!  I can't wait to see what you will all come up with for the coming challenge!  mamabobbijo, please let me know what you want to challenge for February.

I am looking forward to seeing the new challenge!

~Viv

Oh wow!, thanks! I made 2nd place!!! Wow That is something else! Thanks!!!
Maybe next time I can get to first place... :lol:

WOW!!! again!

WOW! I'm stunned! Thanks to everyone! I think since February is always connected with hearts and flowers, we should switch it up, but still tie in. Love is an incredibly intense emotion. How about we have a challenge about intensity. The possibilities are endless!
Intense colour, feeling, amount of hours in a piece, whatever the word brings up in your mind. Hope the entries are as varied as possible. Can this challenge be posted out front with a great big invite for all the forums? It would be great to get as many people involved as possible. Before anyone suggests I should go ahead and do it, I have no idea how.

Great wide open topic. Cool. And congrats on the win.
~jon