When a cat on the chessboard
Gets up and tells you where to go...
And you’ve just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is movin’ oh...
-- With apologies to Jefferson Airplane, “White Rabbit”
I study nuclear science, I love my classes
I have a crazy teacher, he wears dark glasses
Have a job waiting for my graduation
Fifty thou a year will buy a lot of beer
I’m studying hard and getting good grades
The future’s so bright, I’ve gotta wear shades.
-- Timbuk 3, “Future’s so Bright You Gotta Wear Shades”
This picture took a loooong time to finally finish. The pose, outfit and chess pieces came very quickly. However, the rest of the elements refused to resolve themselves. Eventually though, the usual set of happy coincidences occurred and the picture started to come together.
The extreme perspective and the shine of the chessboard squares reminded me of all those sample pictures used in teaching 3D modeling, where a checkerboard surface helps convey the sense of depth and clouds are sometimes included so their reflections show off the reflectiveness of the surfaces.
Then I saw the movie SuckerPunch which, while hard to watch had a great heightened-reality style. This outfit put me in mind of the over-the-top costumes the young women from the asylum wore in the dream sequences and at last, everything fell into place.
The picture has some obvious flaws: I should have spent more time on the highlights, especially on the king. I should have added a couple of white pieces in the distant background. The space between the figure and the king is a tad wide, over-emphasizing the pawn in the background. However, this is my most ambitious composition to-date and on the whole I like how strong it is. I also think the composition and the rendering style play off each other well. The retro-kitsch, nuclear sunrise, post-card-from-the-1950’s feel really made me happy.