ACiD #76 - score: 8 out of 10

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ACiD 76 I have to say, this was one of ACiD's better packs of late, with not only a some traditional scene-ish stuff, but some interesting new things as well.

The pack starts out with two of madASScow's 3d abstract things. The first one was alright, but the second one really shines because of the atmosphere he gave it. It reminds me of the new museum in Bilboa actually.

After madASS's piece, there is a picture by aXb. I can't say I really like this one to much, because the photo doesn't blend smoothly with the drawing, it just looks like two separate layers, which don't really work together.

Blup has one of his better pics in this pack, good proportions on the face, and the hair was well drawn. The rose on the cheek was a nice touch too. I did notice that her lips were a little lopsided, but nothing major.

Catbones follows with an add for acidgear, with a girl wearing a noggin sock. Its well drawn, really nice skills, but the background looks a little too filtery, and a little too gray. His next piece was a bit of a disappointment, as it was really flat and didn't have to much dimension. He managed to give the dragon a very slimy/shiny texture, which in a way reminded me of Grim's older works. Cat's next piece, of a cowboy, was very nice, it looked like the wild west on, well... acid :). His fourth (or was that fifth, I can't count :P) wasn't as good, the face on the right had been filtered.

I believe goat girl makes her debut in ACiD with her peice of the caveman. I've known her from #photoshop, so... HI NANCE! :P Her pic was really photorealistic, awesome technically. The little ACiD on the fingers was a nice touch, too. Mad skills, though the hair was a little wirey, but he's a caveman so maybe that was intentional.

Next is a pic by Grim, which isn't as good as his latest series with the small figures. He did tell me that this was just playing around with a Wacom which he just got, and the textures were really nice, especially on the face on the bottom. Shading was right on, too.

The next pic was by icto, who I think is a new face in ACiD, or a long idle one. I really liked this picture. The shading was really cool, and the shapes, all though a bit phallic, were intriguing. The filth on the wall was nice, as well.

Jason's pic was different from his usual stuff, though the background was really nice. However, the girl wasn't well shaded at all, and she was missing a nose :)

lk's first pic was interesting, the charcoal like lines were cool (painter?). The face wasn't as good, but the lk font at the bottom was really nice. His next pic was well colored, and for some reason I like this one. The use of watercolor like textures was good.

lion-gv follows with an ACiD graffiti thing and a water color like pic. I must say however, I prefer his designs over these.

optiKnerve's pictures remind me of Catbones' pic with massive gaussian blur. Nice shading though, but the bevel on the font wasn't needed, and it would've been better without the text.

The next picture is a really nice, bright design by lk and bd, i think. I say i think because the text was near impossible to make heads or tails of. I think its for a design division of CiA, but im not sure. I liked it however, alot.

The next picture, by Tabaqui wasn't that great. WAY to dark, and very empty.

Tomppa1 follows with a bunch of his crosshatch pencil pictures, which were shaded in mute colors. I REALLY like these, all of them were fantastic. My favorite was the first one, however.

The pack ends with a CD insert by v3ngance, which is great. It would've been nice without the long border, and just a strip, but I do realize that ACiD requires artists to release in perfect proportions, (640x480, 800x600, etc) which is a stupid rule. I know there's logic behind it, with certain viewers not being able to view irregularly sized images, but I have doubts to many people using viewers like that.

score: 8

Root88:
More abstract 3D stuff from Madass Cow. The work is a little better this month than last, but it didn’t interest me very much. It looks as if he just applied some modifiers to some simple shapes. In my opinion, it’s the same as just placing a bunch of filters on an image in Photoshop.

Blup's pic was technically fantastic. The idea was a little less than original but it was very well done. The eyes are hypnotic, and I thought the rose was a nice touch.

CatBones' dragon pic was another Grade A pic in Acid’s release this month. The attention to detail was amazing. Catbones told me he spent an entire 16 hours on this one. It amazes me that he thought that was a lot. I guess I work really slowly, but all my pics usually take that much time. I suppose that after releasing over 250 pics to our scene, he’s got his technique perfectly optimized. Very often people discredit Cat’s work as nothing but airbrushed skulls. If those people actually looked at all his pics, they would notice a wide variety of themes, all done in the Catbones style. There are very few artists in the scene today that actually create artwork with their own style. Most are just cheap imitations of others. I find Catbones style interesting and consistent.

The other Catbones pic that caught my eye was cat-the_unspoken_word.jpg. Wonderful shading, as you would expect from him. He’s captured a strange combination of emotions in this one.

Goat Girl’s pic looks great. Zoom into 200% and you won’t find a single pixel out of place. The only way I could have thought to improve this pic would be to color it, but it stands on it’s own just fine in black and white.

Acid's new member Icto impersonation of Salvador Dalí was well executed. I am curious to find out what tools he made to use this pic. Parts of the image appear to be done in colored pencil and I’m not sure how other parts were done.

Tommpa1 is another scenester with a unique and interesting style. His perfect control of fine lines makes me think he could counterfeit a dollar bill with an ink pen if he wanted to. I only wish he would put more effort into his work, making larger pics complete with background.

Vengence is back with another interesting CD cover. His use of shape and color are attractive as usual.

score: 8