bart qee custom by idleware
IDLEWARE: The name is "Baumbart" which is actually the German version of "Treebeard" the king of the ents in J.R.R.Tolkien's "Lord Of The Rings". It's a little pun but it only works in German. A similar fun pun was invented by kidrobot-forums member "redblueyellow" who called my custom "Bark Simpson". Wonderful idea.
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TRE: (LOL @ Bark Simpson = good one!) what is your custom concept about? what was your influence and why did you choose this concept?
IDLE: Working with Bart as a predefined image and character is not easy. The Simpson are all very iconic figures of the modern cartoon animation culture and it is hard to overcome such loaded images. If you're not destroying it, there is only the way of working with it. Regardless of what you're going to paint everybody will still see Bart Simpson in the sculpt.
Personally the Qee reminded me of these little wooden gods/fetish figures you find in a lot of cultures in South America and Africa, so that is why I chose to go along that route. Initially I had planned to cover most of the figures body with bark so that he would resemble a piece of wood with a face of Bart Simpson but in the end I have to say that the actual result is a lot closer to my initial idea and image I had in mind.
As for the wood, I have seen a few customs that fake wood but none that seemed like a piece that could have been around for ages. Besides that I like how nature and entropy gets in the way of the things we humans create with perfection in mind.
TRE: well, it worked for me Idleware! are you a Simpsons-fan as well?
IDLE: I like the Simpson and I had a lot fun watching them back when I stayed in America for a year of high school fun. Nowadays I am just too busy to watch TV except for the few times where my friends and me gather for a few episodes of Futurama and/or Simpsons.
TRE: do you think Bart is a pain-in-da-ass or is he misunderstood?
IDLE: Of course Bart is a PITA and I've read that his name is an anagram of "brat" if that is not enough reason for being annoying I do not know what else...
TRE: LOL - nice one! ... if you were a Simpsons-character, who would you wanna be and why?
IDLE: Krusty The Clown, or Scratchy. I love the weird-twistedness of these characters.
: why do you think the Simpsons-character skin is yellow?
IDLE: Because flesh color is ugly and seldomly works. Hehehe. Seriously, skin color is very hard to pull of correctly and thus it is easier to use something normally not directly associated with it.
: cheers for your time and trouble dude! in closing, please share with us; WHO IS IDLEWARE?
IDLEWARE: I am a student of Visual Communication at the School Of Art And Design in Kassel, Germany. My main focus points are illustration, comic and animation. Besides customs, which I create in the little spare time I have, I also participate in a Electro-DJ-Team called "Frau Mit Muskeln" (German for "Woman With Muscles"). You can see my work at www.idleware.com or my flickr-account.
