Beneath the earth rocky surface, you begin your quest below as you search for the next Colossus. With each and every wary step you take through this earthen labyrinth, a subtle tenseness and fear begin to cover your body like an intangible veil. You have been told many stories and legends regarding this beast, many of which were survivors. Some would say the creatures was mind-bogglingly vast in size and power that all who witnessed its might before them, all that would be left were waves upon waves of molten ground and statues of smoldering corpses. No matter what the explanation or description of the beast was given; all that mattered to you is that you must be the one who slays that malevolent creature. With each and every step you take, the ground seems to resonate heat from below as if you're that much closer to the center of the earth itself. Suddenly, as you reach the next ridge, you stop dead in your tracks. No more than a few meters ahead you see the target...and it is bigger than you imagine. Its molten body flares with the same brightness and burning intensity as the magma that it envelops it. Razor sharp fangs protrude from its flaming maw as it scuttles across the grown beneath sharpened, hooked claws. Its glowing eyes sharply survey the area about it to seek out potential food to satiate its unquenchable hunger. In an almost hypnotic trance of both interest and fear, you watch as the creature moves through its magmatic corridors searching for any foolish travelers who were seeking it out to kill it. As you step forward, the colossus sharply turns toward your position; a bloodthirsty gaze upon its many eyes. You know that there is no escape once its spots you and that running would just prolong the inevitable. You can simply stand firm, pull and arm and arrow for your bow and hope that your aim is straight as the beast motions toward you with mouth agape. Fire Colossus, created by *Grypwolf, presents us a depiction of a battle between an ancient evil against a wary warrior that does quite a job of engrossing viewers in the action, yet feels as though there isn't quite enough polish on this gem to take it as far as it should go.

From an immediate glance, one can see that the artist took their time to properly articulate the appearance of both the landscape and the Colossus. Each and every scale, horn and fang upon the beast looks great and really captures the artist's personality within its depiction. Landscape design really brings out quite a bit of the overall depth and atmosphere within as the viewer's eye surveys the dark cavernous depths that the Fire Colossus resides within. The glowing embers blurred by the beast add a great feeling movement and measure of the action that is taking place before the scene. Shading and shadow effects used really bring out quite a bit of the natural lighting that magma would emanate and give us quite a bit to actually take in when viewing. All of these compositional elements bring out more than enough of the tense action and atmospheric mood to make this piece worth looking at and watch the action unfold before you.

While I can see that there's a lot working for this piece that make it look good, there are still some things that are holding it back from being as good as it could be. One of the biggest red lights that I see on this piece would have to be the detailing in the magma cracks and flows in the background and foreground. When compared to the detail placed in the colossus, the solitary hunter and the rocky landscape details, it really looks like an afterthought as if the artist was under a time-constraint. I would suggest touching up the lava a bit more and blend the colors more thoroughly, thereby giving a more natural appearance and flow rather than simply appearing too solid in color and flat in depth. Another thing I noticed is that while the action taking place in this depiction is solid, the landscape really isn't reflecting it enough. Try and add stalactites from the ceiling falling down in the foreground and background, create smaller gushes of magma about the beast and landscape, depict the background a bit more clearly as to add a completely different level of depth to this piece, if possible of course. Feel free to brainstorm more ideas and smaller conceptual changes for this piece and their later implementation would do wonders for the composition as a whole.

With each and every single mythical battle and epic tale told, their artistic depictions feel they must carry on and capture the exact same quality and finesse their origins stories established. While there are still a few blemishes that could be touched up on this glowing fire ruby, Fire Colossus's overall design style and quality, in addition to a few minor touch ups should allow this beautiful gem to glow just as brightly, if not more so than it did before. Good work *Grypwolf!