This is a tribute to a book I loved and the male half of my current figure study…
click for full res, in theory heh 
Brother of the Third Degree, by Will L. Garver [1894]
http://www.sacred-texts.com/sro/botd/index.htm
This is perhaps a image of the mythical St. Germain 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_of_Saint_Germain
The book is REALLY dated and sexist, “Your mother and I are members of a secret brotherhood…” heh, I kept thinking the response should be: “You mean mom’s a guy?”
The lighting is extremely flat, the modeling and materials are decent, but it needs more contrasty lighting to give more of a ‘mystical’ atmosphere.
but it needs more contrasty lighting to give more of a ‘mystical’ atmosphere.
Its the white lodge.
Some way to tribute I say!
some how, you get the viewers eye on your art…
what the others think about this, meaning, about the art, not the HOW IT`S MADE IN BLENDER nor why you missed or not use this tool, about the tribute, what they BA think about this?
The lighting is flat, but I like the levitating monk. Nice work in that regard. The background could also a little perking up.
I used a Really bright studio lighting setup for this, I wanted it really flat, almost to the point of saturation, the idea is to look inside the “white lodge,” which David Lynch for example never shows us, in that context the mystical aspect is not how shadowy it is but how Bright, nothing is hidden in this place because you have arrived, its not occult anymore, not “in the shadows.”
About the Art fahassani, thanks for your comment 
…again like the past two I have posted the picture is a codex, this is also why I use such a flat angle, the photo realistic aspects are in fact part of the meaning itself in the context of CG in that I am showing the hyper-real, compared to most rendering eng’s I would argue luxrender gives me something that in the relative context of the other CG around not the real world symbolicly represents the ultra-world. Ie, compared to a video game level of CG say, its a still image because of that also, we only get snap shots of the ultra world, so in my symbolic language: Real World = opengl/DX CG, Ultra World = unbiased rendering etc, or whatever comes next, with things like biased rendering counting as middle ground, different worlds and dimensions etc.
For example when some people have near death experiences they claim to have been to a world that is More real then this one, I often think about that, not in true or false terms so much as it interests me as a “artist.”
The goal for me is to speak in the language of the world which is hyper-dimensional, events themselves, objects, sound all add up into one statement that goes far beyond the streams of words because its experience, so even the rendering eng is a statement.
And again, even the most realistic film maker in all of history David Lynch does not try and film the Ultra World, only stills can hint at it.
Granted I am not saying I have the skills, Yet, to capture these goals in a image but I am trying
There is nothing wrong with using flat lighting. The point is that the artist should be aware that he is using it, as you seem to be, and for me that is all that matters. Nice image, it has a soothing effect. I especially like the work you did on the feet.
In Tibetan lore adepts leave there finger and toe nails behind, putting the feet directly in front of the viewer was designed to refer to that, also the hand mudra is also pushing on a acupuncture channel, the same channel the heal of the left foot is pushing on.
I worked for a long time on his facial expression, it should be cynical and compassionate, the compassion rooted in insight so its ruthless in that its not sympathetic but funny, because if we are here in the world we are ignorant, the adept forgives that without feeling sorry about it.
Anyway, I doubt all that is working but I did try