DiHalt 2011 ZX Spectrum graphics compo review
by riskej/smb/retroworks/samar prod and diver/4d






riskej: Surprisingly, the approach of DiHalt 2011 did not bring to life
spektrumist-artists of some kind of revival, increased correspondence and drawing in
sweating until 5am. On the contrary, until the last moment it seemed that there would be
catastrophically few, although there were still some comments about participation
audible.
I myself finished my work a week and a half before the event, not at all
in a hurry, as was the case in the vast majority of cases of my participation in
parties. And in the last week before the event, in my free time I managed to write ay
and beeper tracks at the party, without particularly thinking about the graphics, artists and the upcoming
compo.
In such silence, unusual for artists, the pre-party time passed, and therefore
The composition of the participants turned out to be a mystery to me, which was even pleasing.

diver: As usual, I wasn’t going to participate, but I’ll keep an eye on it
always competitions. Fortunately, lately they have been pleasing with quality and graphics
compo dihalt 2011 is no exception. Accordingly, write a review on such works
quite interesting. And writing a double review is doubly interesting. This time we
decided to diversify it a little more, given that many of our opinions turned out to be
very critical, we invited the authors themselves to comment on theirwork, with
taking into account our criticism, so that a certain balance of opinions is established and
all the i's are dotted. So the review, in its traditional form + the opinions of the authors themselves
works:



09 Be a man! / jerkk [suggested to comment on icq]



riskej: no comments

diver: Good humor. It's a pity that the place is low, it could have been higher. Latest
the place is unlikely because the people saw through the man’s convertibility, rather because
that the color and textures at this party were rated higher than the jokes.

jerkk: The only thing I wanted to say with this work is that you shouldn’t participate in
party for diplomas and prizes. You need to create for your own pleasure. When people
they begin to moan about some kind of recognition, complain that they are not given diplomas -
I laugh in their faces because they remind me of this guy. See you at
next party! There are still many reasons for satire!



08 LiFeLess spaces / Zelator



riskej: Nice atmosphere, that’s all that can be said about this simple
work. Since 2004, the level of Zelator's work has not changed, unfortunately.
A million gnawed moons may look funny, but the technology needs to be taken seriously
pull up.
Yes, I have a feeling that all these lifeless spaces are made of cheese. Cheddar.

diver:Old school :) Reminded me of the color graphics of Catman from the Twin Worlds demos from
Exodus. Space, planets, an abundance of cold shades. Almost everything is good in this
work, except for black textures, they stand out and spoil the impression a little.



07 Night In forest / ShuranЗЗ



riskej: So, a fairy tale about a night in the forest. Funny, but a fairy tale. It gives me more
What I like most is a fire, a real burning fire, which from afar looks a little like
alien waving his arms.
And this picture became a fairy tale for quite simple reasons. For example, at night
You can't see white clouds in the sky. River bank covered with golden sand and
washed by foamy blue waves, also does not quite fit the designated
event "Night In forest". The author should have worked more seriously with the flowers.
Yes, and the forest is kind of thin. However, this is a fairytale forest.

diver: Feel free. Probably for daring and such a high place.

shuranZZ: Thank you! I'm just trying to draw, so there are a lot of mistakes.



06 ChipTuneRock / ALKO



riskej: no comments.

diver: ALKO. With initiative? Looking at b/w graphics, for some reason the thought always arises -
"It's a shame it's not a Spectrum." 1-bit graphics are so versatile that they can
show off on anyoneplatform. If only there were highrez. And she will look
the same. In short, what am I talking about? B/W is capable of much more. And it's far away
It’s not the kind of picture that makes you want to say, “Damn, this is drawn on
Spectrum!"

ALKO: I sent several (diver: 7 pieces) works to the competition, but there was
One was published and I have no idea why they chose it.



05 Aitsu Spectrumized / riskej



diver: Mmmmmmmm multigiga. Mmmmmm block-style. I congratulate riskej on his amazing
work. I won’t hide that I was misled by the style of work and themes
the fact that ptoing, known for his technically experimental work on
c64, I was also going to draw a picture on the Spectrum in gig. As a result, up to
the very publication of the results (sorry for the pun) I remained in a pleasant
ignorance :) But what difference does it make who drew it? I'm even more happy for riskej,
progress, as they say, is obvious! Very stylish, quite fresh, bright and
original.

riskej: The title of the work literally translates as “This type is spectrumized.”
I’ve been wanting to add a little Japanese to the title of my work for a long time. My first
serious nocopy impressed by Picasso's work and conversations with pROF/4d.
Easter eggs included.



04 Samus/Wizard



riskej:The copy came out frankly unsuccessful. Here is the impression of the unfaithful
depiction of the position, and the strange lighting of the heroine, in which the texture of the costume
almost in no way conveyed, and she herself looks more like a club-footed grizzly bear, well,
the most important thing is her face. Those who saw the original will understand me.
In general, the wizard has improved a little in technique and ease of drawing over the year. Details
still “fluffy”, which I don’t really like, but the style is recognizable, even
very. Advice - work more with color, drawing the form with it, and not
texture mesh.

diver: Who would have thought that the Wizard could ruin the magnificent Samus like that?
Aran? What's wrong with her face? What's wrong with her legs? What about Ridley's shadow? I understand
that there must be a distortion of perspective here, but... Urgently the original for verification in
studio! I'm indignant. It definitely shouldn't have been 4th place, given the wild
imbalances.
P.S. the original is presented (abandoned the link to zx-art) Well, what can I say
after... not the best choice of picture to draw. Shadow Ridley
terrible in the original too. The figure of Samus in the original is distorted by perspective so much that
that you can’t understand whether it’s just Anime, or whether it’s also superdeformed. Oh
in the Wizard's picture we can say that almost everything is drawn well and the technique
on the level. There is only one BUT - the face. In the Spectrum version the eyes are wildly skewed,
all the same, it was necessary to make them the same size and on the samelines, as in the original.
Considering that the most attractive place is almost always the eyes (+ mouth, which
there is almost none here), then the impression spoils very much.

wizard: Very cool review! It would always be like this, otherwise you draw, draw, and the opposite
no connection. Thank you. There was no idea/trick in the picture, just a picture
for some reason I liked it. The fact that it is unsuccessful in itself, and especially terrible
shadow, I realized somewhere in the middle of the process, but it was too late :) P.S.
But for example, I really don’t like 1st place. Although it looked like a party
excellent.



03 Mosquito Moookh! /sand



riskej: I’m not close to the “loose” theme of sand’s works, but I’m pleased with him
execution technique, quantity and increasing quality. Very fruitful work in
2010-2011.
As for this particular work as a whole, nothing definite
you can't tell. The artist painted beautifully, but three pictures, not one.
The first is a mosquito (mosquito) with transparent legs, which I only saw once
fortieth viewing. If you want to make a reflex from the background, then you need to indicate
shadow. It’s there on the belly, on the wings it’s strange, but also. The paws froze and disappeared.
The second job is a bull. After a thorough analysis, I came to the conclusion that this
still a bull. Otherwise, how can we explain this strange “udder” growing from somewhere
breasts? WITHthe color work turned out to be weak, as a result of which the backside is recognizable
after watching. The same problem happened to the bull's tail as to the paws
mosquito - the shadow is not marked as it should be, so it feels like this bubble
the tail was torn.
Well, the third work is a flower. Cute. Its attribute appearance is slightly spoiled
flashing, but that's a minor thing.
So we have a funny picture: an insanely large mosquito aims at a small one
"farm" of a bull, and the flower, trying to protect a friend, releases deadly
bubbles.
Applause for sand! The work turned out to be really fun, but you have to treat
more serious about the composition of the picture and the little things.

diver: Sand grows with every job. The contours are still lame, but the technology
very, very good. In some places this work is even epic - bubbles and color
the outline of a cow is just some kind of balm :). Cons: the cow's pose is not obvious,
the background is surreal. But this is already 4 points out of 5. I would give the work 3rd place, rating
There are only 2 other works on the compo above.

sand: As if the idea is such that... a cow sits in a field (meadow) and dreams of
grass... maybe even about that flower (it wouldn’t be bad to grab it)... but here
a mutated mosquito-aggressor appears and rushes headlong towards the cow with the aim of
bite her on the udder (for ethical reasons we don’t see the udder - otherwise this is already
it would be against the rules of compo - a picture of an erotic or perhaps evenpornographic content)... and so, a mosquito rushes towards a cow, and she wildly
frightened, he begins to yell - “alarm! alarm! Mosquito attaaaak!
mooooo-mooooooo!" apparently slips and takes on an extremely awkward appearance. C
We're taking a risk, I agree - we couldn't connect it all into a single composition... I was drawing
quick screenshot... flower, I think the most successful “piece” of the screenshot (well, except
of course, a wild cow) and saved this screen.



03 Future/Trixs



riskej: Trixs’ desire to draw with his own hands is commendable, but this work doesn’t appeal to me
strongly hooked.
To make working with one bright on/off look impressive,
it is necessary to give the viewer more emotions from what is happening. It would have saved more here
a clearly defined face rather than poorly rendered pseudo-eyes.
The event in the drawing is very voluminous, a real drama, but to convey it to the viewer, to give
Trixs failed to feel his emotions. Simply vital
improve your technique - learn to work more competently with dithering, or
give it up completely.

[english: Good to see some handmade work from Trixs. But this work failed to
attract me. If you don't use different BRIGHT but still want to impress you need
to try to give more emotions by your pic. More exact painted face could save
that picture but not the blurry pseudo-eyes. The idea of ​​the pictureis very
deep, it's a real drama. But Trixs failed to express everything he wants due
lack of emotions on that picture. Trixs is extremely needed to work more
carefully with dithered textures or not use it at all.]



diver: Having met Trixis on the channel, I, of course, expressed my joy that
It's nice to see nokopi work from him on compo. But these are my positive emotions
this picture ends. No, well, of course the depth and relevance of the idea in
available, and the author’s message is clear. But the curve of the contour always killed me and
dirty clashing in Trixis's works, sacrificed to the abundance of flowers. Although
maybe I just don’t like Magenta and don’t understand Trixis’ passion for her :-D.
3/5 and certainly not 3rd place in my opinion.

[english: When meeting Trixs at dihalt2011 online chat, I said that I am glad to
see that his new work is nocopy. But that's all that can I say positive about
his work. Ofcourse there is some deep message, the actuality and the idea
presented at this picture. But as alwyas I'm killed by innacurate conoturs and
some dirty clashing which are sacrificed to the variety of colors used in the
Trix works. But maybe I just don't like magenta and I just understand the
author's passion of that color :-D. I gave 3 of 5 points and i think that work
was a bit overrated at the party.]

trixs: this is translate in google, :-) But I think that everyone hastheir own
style. This is my style and I like it that way. It is difficult to speak what is
good and what is not. The best way to assess the people are not interested in
their work. So they had the chance to vote and if they did not like the way the
order was different.



02 Mr. Tree / pROF



riskej: pROF confidently stepped into the field of multigigascreen 8*2 char graphics.
It's nice that difficulties didn't stop him, and now we can enjoy not
only standard resolution works. The right step.
"Mr. Tree" came out massive, muscular, well drawn. As well as
the house is in the background, as is the foliage above. It was not easy to complete the clearing
due to lack of time, but oh well.
There is not enough juice, as always! Some madness, uneven wood, a little
torn leaves, cracked fence. I miss the shortcomings of our world! All
looks artificial, compressed. Well, that doesn’t happen!
And there are no eyes on the tree that would speak of sadness or anger, so that you can
it was clear whether Mr. Tree would eat this apple or break the house with it
not far away.

diver: At first it seems that pROF is wonderful as usual and there is nothing to complain about. But
For a seasoned spektrumist, the standard one will probably hurt the eye (but still
multigiga!) texture in the sky, lack of transitions on the hill on the right, yellow
coloron a tree trunk. I see something in every picture
unfinished :) But still we must pay tribute to Prof - the outline of the tree is perfect,
the foliage is beautiful, the house and stones are also very kawaii :). Hard 4 and hard
second place in any case, although the work was in the lead in online voting,
despite the fact that it was added in the middle of the voting process.

pROF: That's it. This picture is unfinished, like many of my works. Right here
it can be seen very well, the right side is simply under-drawn. I was thinking of finishing it
directly on Dykhalta, but it didn’t work out. Stupid habit to start doing
something at the very last moment, although I know perfectly well that I’ve been drawing for a long time. In progress
there is no WOW effect, everything looks quite pale and banal. + it’s very difficult for me
nocopy to achieve overall integrity of the composition, everything looks like a collection of separate
objects unattached to each other. I myself rate this picture 3.5, according to
five-point scale.



01 Mountain River / rOm [invited to comment via email]



riskej: Forgive me, rOm, but I didn’t appreciate the work. I didn't like absolutely everything.
Dirty mountains turning into an empty sky, a strange source of light, “whales” nearby
peninsulas with trees, which seem to be waves.
A complex landscape with a lot of interesting details remained more of a rough sketch.Because rOm had “Woody”, “Hobo”, which set the bar for his technique. Below
it is impossible.

diver: I don’t recognize rOm. However, this is not the first time. There was a monkey with a gun too
a mystery to me :) Roma's technique in standard mode has absorbed many
techniques and almost completely dissolved in the technology of many modern
Spectrum artists and now it’s very difficult to distinguish him :) I don’t know bad
this or good. This time I thought it was a picture of Lisa. Also a landscape, approximately
the same level, similar flaws - an eye-catching shore/forest line, an awkward bend
banks up on the right side of the picture, somewhat reminiscent of the shoals with Lizina
pictures "You and I are of the same blood." In general, the lower part of the work is not very successful,
the water is terrible, it looks like Rom was in a hurry to finish quickly :) But the mountains are good.
Of course, the clear outlines of Rion's mountains in ";-(" immediately come to mind, but
there are few of them there. And here - all 256 pixels wide and almost a third of the screen high.
And the sky. The sky with the silhouettes of mountains in the distance is simply magical. Overall 4/5 points, but not
my favorite on compo, I would give 3-4 place.

rOm: Well, what is there to answer? Criticism on zx-gfx is always weird, imho. In view of
extreme metaphoricality, everyone sees their own. And to criticize from a general artistic perspective
From a point of view, speck art is generally incorrect. For example, many (of those who
Oddly enough, I voted for 1st) I didn’t like it the mostmountain silhouettes
and the sky in my m.river, and the diver opposite, rejoiced at them. Therefore position
my personal perception as objective criticism is strange, to say the least.

	


diver: Our review ends on such a strange note. rOm cleverly left
meaningful comment. Of course, every critic, in general, claims
to be true, but still that is not why we invited the authors to speak out. How
Once when writing such reviews of graphics, you feel all the metaphorical nature of spec art
and you realize that something is not right here. This time we tried to solve this
problem by contacting the authors, but apparently not everyone understood us correctly.