red 4

This started off as just a head I had modified and for the first time successfully used Shag:Hair for a hairstyle. I asked my girlfriend what kind of character I should make out of that head with her only given character attribute being the color red, and this is what came out. She did a sketch of the costume and gave me ideas for the pose, background, and overall attitude (something that's lacking in much of my work).

The model, fire hydrant, and sidewalk/curb are all 3D; everything else was painted in photoshop. Did some minor post-render touchups.. mostly just blurring harsh shadows and fixing crappy looking antialiasing. I ended up using that "Smudge Stick" filter on the background to get rid of some of the sharpness I had in there, as well as separate it and make it less distracting from the character. I'm not sure if the use of such a filter is taboo or not, but I almost don't even care :b