"D.I.V.A."
[ Photoshop Over Pen ]

Mani's Remarks: "Mani goes sci-fi! The world's gone mad!

I was actually surprised when I started on this one, and was even more so when I started taking mental stock of a lot of my artwork. By far, most of everything that I do has a fantasy influence to it. Of course you can consider sci-fi to just be fantasy reflecting the future, instead of the past. It felt pretty good to try something a little different, as I haven't have to work with this much metal and wires in ANYTHING I've done before!

So, what does D.I.V.A. mean? Well, when I started drawing her, I really didn't have anything in mind for the acronym. One of my coworkers actually came up with something pretty decent for her, but I seem to have misplaced the sheet that I wrote it down on! Sorry, Snow System! Don't kill me in a fanfic!"

Random Sidenote: "This is one of those rare occasions where I can tell you EXACTLY where the inspiration for a picture came from. The main influence for D.I.V.A. here came from a little bit of music. A few weeks back, Dave introduced me to the music of a young lady by the name of Janelle Monáe, produced by Big Boi from Outkast. Her music is a rather eclectic blend of elements, sort of an amalgam of pop and soul, with a little bit of a sci-fi influence. I think a coworker summed it up best when she said that her music sounded like something you'd hear in Space Channel Five. Anywho, the CD was called Metropolis, Suite I - The Chase, and there was a definite narrative to the whole thing, invoking visions of a far-future where everything isn't as nice as it seems. The sketch work began shortly thereafter, and in the midst of it all, D.I.V.A. was born.

The original sketch was just slightly different from this, but I guess once the moniker D.I.V.A. was given to her, she sort of developed the blue pseudo-dreadlocks in the next picture. What can I say, I'm a fan of The Fifth Element, and the scene with the opera diva was one of my favorite parts of the movie =) "

Copyright © 2007 Damani Zayas. All rights reserved. All Images are the property of Damani Zayas unless stated otherwise and may not be used without the written consent of Damani Zayas. All copyrighted characters are drawn as fan art and are properties of their respective companies, all rights reserved.