DIVER isn't an artist, but a converter, and submitting converted works to a GFX compo is just plain wrong

Hi, Max! It’s PARACELS^EI. After such a long hiatus, I decided to finally send you a message. You can call me the nastiest names you can think of—I’ve pretty much earned it: only the most irresponsible person and a total slacker would take this long to draw the promised artwork :) Well, I’ll try to explain myself... Starting September 1, I’ve been studying at Vladimir State University and living in a dorm. This means I’m home for about 2.5 days—that is, Friday evenings and Saturday and Sunday. When I come home, first of all, I eat (devour) food; second, I visit (together with D-MAN) all the EI folks and the b-team. However, regarding Demiurge Ash’s statement, I’ll answer categorically: “LIE!” I don’t know what Lyokha was trying to achieve with his letter; I don’t think anything good. I still have plenty of time for the ZX and graphics; in fact, I’ve finally gotten around to working on your project, which will be ready soon (right now it’s about 70% complete). Max, I really do have less time to spend on SPECCY, but that doesn’t mean I’ve abandoned it or stopped drawing. I have a list of 91(!) pictures hanging on my wall that I plan to draw, and I will do it! Plus, you have to take into account that I used to write all sorts of TRICKS, shootouts, intros, formaters, and other nonsense. Now, though, I have just enough time for graphics. Or rather, not “only,” but “just enough.” That’s how it is. One thing I can say for sure—I haven’t given up on SPECCY, and certainly not on graphics—for me, this isn’t just a position or a job in the group; graphics is, above all, creativity, which I love and will continue to pursue at least until I take 1st place at all the major parties for 3 years in a row :))) In short, the competitors’ schemes didn’t succeed—I say surprise. Now I’ll give my take on everything: dI:hALT = dI:KAL = S0xxx & MUST DIE!!! PARADOX'99 = RULEZ FOREVER (where’s the diploma ;)!!! CAFe'99 = HMMM... EH... NAPALM = BEST DEMO FOREVER ;8))) (modest?!) “FANAT” magazine — lame & LAME. vEL = COOL GUY (joke!) And one last thing. I ♥ SPECCY & I ♥^2 ETERNITY! Once again, SORRY for the delay with the graphics! Give my regards to ALK, SAGE, AF, and everyone else. With respect and best wishes, Paracels^eI BONUS MESSAGE / DIVER^4TH Max, I think you asked something about the images in NAPALM... Well, here’s my answer... There are a total of 5 sprites in NAPALM: 1 of them is the logo. So, two of these images are converted and colored. These are: the very first image, called “I HATE MYSELF” (cute, the set is visible ;), and the very last one—titled “EI STUFF.” Why did I go for this unpopular (at least for me) approach of converting graphics? For one simple reason—SENAT’s whim, who actually converted these two images and then basically forced me to color them :( I couldn’t resist for long—main coder, so I HAD TO. It’s worth adding that during the coloring process, I added ~40-50% of my own artwork to each image (you’ll easily see this if you find the originals on PC). Now about the image “AS A LIGHTNING”—a girl against a background of roses. It (the image) is 100% HAND-DRAWN. The idea behind it did NOT come from AMIGA or PC! It’s all my own, all natural!!! As for it being “unfinished”—I don’t quite get that :8) " That’s how it is! SEE THE NEXT PAGE... DIVER^4TH DIMENSION IS HE A REAL ARTIST OR A FAKE ONE? I will now try to answer this question, for my indignation is great... So, just a short while ago, an unprecedented event occurred on the scene—completely out of the blue, a previously unknown artist named DIVER/4D burst onto the graphic art scene. His entrance onto the scene was both too late and too fast. No one had seen his previous works, yet that didn’t stop him from taking 2nd place at the major CC’999 party on his very first try. The piece LOVEKIND impressed many, including me. But here’s what happened next. For a while, I walked around completely dejected: with DIVER on the scene and the simply incomprehensible quality of his work, why should I even bother drawing at all??? However, the apathy didn’t last long, and here’s why. One fateful thought was triggered by the inscription “COLOR CONVERSION ... DIVER/4D” in the INVITATION DENTRO for CC'999 by DR. The MYSTERY image there was simply amazing, BUT it was a conversion! At that moment, doubts about the originality of the LOVEKIND image crept into my mind—and not just mine; the story continued... To make sure my suspicions weren’t unfounded, I started looking for DIVER’s earlier works. As it turned out, the only place where he published his images before CC’999 was the #z80 newspaper. I had to dig through old issues, but the search was worth it, because it turned up exactly what I was looking for—one (or rather, two) of DIVER’s works from before the CC era. And imagine my surprise when I saw not a graphic, but something incomprehensible, crooked, banal, and, to top it off, poorly colored. My suspicion grew. DOXYCON'99 came and went, and DIVER won with the image “PRIDE.” At the time, everyone in ETERNITY was convinced that DIVER couldn’t draw, but simply converted and colored graphics well. But I needed proof. And I found it. When ANDREW FER, who was visiting, brought graphics from DOXY’99, I finally saw PRIDE. After seeing it, along with SENAT and SAEROOS, we rushed over to PYRODEX’s place (with ASH—no, that didn’t work out) and went through all the graphics until we found what we were looking for—the original PRIDE, which DIVER had converted exactly as-is. ANDREW FER was present during this revelation! He was just as surprised that DIVER had the nerve to submit a converted image to the GFX compo, and promised to have a chat with him on IRC #z80. Now we had every reason to believe that DIVER was NOT an artist. This belief was further reinforced by an image from “JAM” featuring two... signatures: JAM and DR. Anyone in the know would recognize this image; we recognized it too. It was in the Amiga demo TBL and, once again, a 1:1 conversion! However, the question regarding the LOVEKIND image remained unresolved. Not for long, though... One fine day, we came across texts from the I-NET with the results of various bourgeois parties, specifically ASSEMBLY. Among them were the results from ASM'97. Scrolling through them without much interest, I, as always, lingered for a moment on HANDRAWN GFX and... saw something: 3rd place was taken by an image titled LOVEKIND, created by KIDLOVE from the group HAUJOBB. “Do such coincidences really happen in life?” — I thought, and decided — “No!” Now my goal was to find that image. I looked everywhere, asked everyone I could, but to no avail. I even asked EXPLODER, but he didn’t help me either… until a certain moment ;) And then, just a week ago, the final phase of the revelation took place. After classes at the university, I stopped by to visit VAV, where a pleasant surprise was waiting for me ;) VAV played some ancient Finnish demo and said, “There’s a picture in there that looks very familiar to me.” He gave a sly smile as he said it. At that moment, I think I already understood everything and was just waiting to see it with my own eyes. I didn’t have to wait long. After a bit of a loading delay, it appeared on the screen—OH MY GOD!!! — that very same LOVEKIND I’d been looking for. It was exactly like DIVER’s, even the author’s signature was on the child’s shoulder, just like DIVER’s, and that signature was also drawn: DIVER’s: DIVER KIDLOVE’s: KIDLOVE So go figure who stole from whom. Though, I should clarify that this demo is from around 1995–1996. That’s how it is. And while I can still understand the use of converted images in a DEMO (I’m guilty of this myself in NAPALM), I can’t justify submitting them to a GFX COMPO at all! In my opinion, that’s just despicable! One thing gnaws at me—does DIVER really have no conscience?! And then there’s, I suppose, people’s blindness... I’m sure that at dI:hALT’99, DIVER submitted a converted image again and took 2nd place. Way to go!!! I’m speechless! Now I bitterly recall his email to me: “PARACELS, you have a great style. Be sure to enter CC'999—let's compete...” Sorry, but we couldn’t compete; I don’t know how to draw like YOU, dear DIVER, or convert images! Please forgive me... And yet I praised him! It turns out, I shouldn’t have. — CUT — September 26, 1999