“Discovery of Water on the Moon” at Woot

You know, it’s not usual that we get a stunning, well-crafted piece at Woot.  While I hesitate to say that I would personally buy or wear this, it’s still among the best we’ve seen out of the low-priced one-shirt-a-day site in a while.  In fact, the Derby this entry came from, Events of 2009 Illustrated, ended up with some pretty good winning entries across the board.

xaon’s “Discovery of Water on the Moon” is easily the best of them, though.  The Derby Champ, “Neo-Australia“, is pretty, but the lack of contrast and point of focus make it somewhat boring.  The use of cliche vector curls in “Collision” tarnishes an otherwise well-drawn piece.  xaon uses a subtle background of dark colors and shades to accentuate the brilliant spike of water arcing into space.  The details are amazing: despite the color limit, xaon manages to make the scattering rocks and the water look realistic and well-formed.  The halftones in the clouds in the background are subtle and add color and variety to the piece.  The piece is more technically impressive than anything, but that alone is an accomplishment — color me impressed that Woot is printing something that isn’t cute animals or a cutesy joke.

Buy It: $10 at Shirt.Woot

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• “Ancient Egyptian Plumber” at Shirt.Woot
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