CHOW :: DEEP: Undersea Utopia

[sho-nuff]

ASHAB no offence but your exoskeleton looks all too familiar. Its good to gain inspiration from other works - we all need it. But that design is almost a total bite off another piece.

Keep it fresh bro, im sure you can come up with something dope of your own.

[Ashab]

sho-nuff: fair enough to you thanks for the comments and agree with your points of view, to be honest the inspiration came from a toy in a pound shop near by. enjoyed your book by the way.

[Sellis]

Vorace: Some very cool sketches in there man, lovin' em.

Colepoopface: Awesome colour work and lovely sketches. I'm not sure that the 'puffer fish' guy really needs arms, seems to make him look kinda cumbersome which seems quite fitting! Your call though :P

Cheers,

Stu.

[Searious]

Searious, your character makes me remember a Naga from Warcraft games!
http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/lists/BTNSeaWitch.gif

Never actually played any of the warcraft games in my life! can see the resemblence though.

[vibhas_virwani]

damn u colepoopface (hmph..) ... there go my chances of winning :P lol .... awesome stuff man ... inspirational .... :)

[Rares Halmagean]

Good work colepoopface. You're stuff looks like it could go in COW though. Perhaps add some clothing or items as mentioned before? Also I think were updating one image post with all our latest work. :)

[jread]

Right...after much brain storming I’ve decided to go for a futuristic ‘brainwashed’ utopia, that will be governed by a super computer named ‘Gaia’. The citizens will be brought up to know nothing other than their utopia and the promise of transcending to a higher place (when in fact they are just being killed as a means of population control by Gaia). Think ‘1984’ meets ‘Logans Run’ meets ‘The Island’ meets ‘THX1138’. So to the (child-minded) citizens this beautiful prison is a utopia, but to people looking in, it is anything but. That’s not to say the people of this place have a bad life...they actually have quite a good one...just a bit shorter than ‘more controlled’ normal  This is all hundreds of years after the mighty floods of (drumroll please) GLOBAL WARMING that covered everywhere with water...so there will be some recognisable landmarks like ‘Big Ben’ or ‘The Empire State Building’ under the water in the distance... hmmm that may instil fear into the citizens should they get a clue and try to escape...maybe they will want to escape through curiosity caused by the ‘ancient civilisation’ remains...a loop hole already! Argh! lol

Suppose Id better get on with some more art then! :P

[Yngling]

Yay! Exams done, so now I've all the time in the world to get working! Yesterday evening I did this piece. It's not exactly the way I imagined it, especially the pose came out a bit awkward, but I'm still very satisfied. Why? because it's watercoulours! I have always had a certain dislike of them, but that was only, it seems, because I couldn't handle them. Now I finally did something with 'em I actually like. Besides, using watercolours to design watercreatures seems very appropriate to me:)

Anyway, ranting aside, the design needs some tinkering. Right now there isn't much about this that screams 'civilized intelligent being', except for the black ribbon and the (poorly designed) weapons/knives. I need to figure out a way to make the head less animalic and scary. The patterns though are something to stay. I figured that under water, speech wouldn't be of much use, because sound doesn't travel too well underwater, so I thought that they might communicate visually, by means of shifting patterns upon the head, like a kind of writing. And now, back to the drawing board!

[Senira]

Here are a few more concepts for my Utopian folks. I'm having the damndest time thinking of how an undersea person would function; I need to study more about fish, methinks.
379391
379389
379390


Also-- when folks are working on character designs, do they tend to do dozens of little silhouette thumbnails, or do they do a few pages of rough designs? It seems like the pros use the former method, but whenever I try and force myself to draw that small, I inevitably end up getting frustrated with it and drawing a bigger version on the side. I see the logical reasons for doing thumbnails-- it's faster, you can work out shape varieties more easily-- but my arm really likes drawing big, sweeping lines.

[Saturns Gate]

Also-- when folks are working on character designs, do they tend to do dozens of little silhouette thumbnails, or do they do a few pages of rough designs? It seems like the pros use the former method, but whenever I try and force myself to draw that small, I inevitably end up getting frustrated with it and drawing a bigger version on the side. I see the logical reasons for doing thumbnails-- it's faster, you can work out shape varieties more easily-- but my arm really likes drawing big, sweeping lines.

try and make your hand shake more, dont think about much to begin with, just make some shapes. Its easier to do it with a splodgy tool, like paint or thick ink pens. Pencil is so thin your inherently drawing by line and that slows me down at least.

[Izi]

Yeah get some good vine charcoal and work that way, charcoal is muchmessier and m ore fun to make shapes with...pencil is great when you know what you want, but for silhouettes I'm going with charcoal, it has a greater value range than pencil does, in fact, so it's naturally more adaptable to lifelike occurences of emergence (intelligent looking design or happy accidents)

[Rares Halmagean]

Whatever media you use, find the shapes by drawing bold and dark without spending too much time on each piece. The fine details are not important at this point. Draw on! :scribble:

[Rares Halmagean]

Added some new concepts. Check out my CHOW link below. :yayca:

[Jamesy]

This is the first of a few different species. Btw, Cole, those are fricken awesome!!

[Rares Halmagean]

I can't quite read your entire story Jamesy. It might be easier for everyone if you retype it and just post the art by itself.

[Saturns Gate]

This is the first of a few different species. Btw, Cole, those are fricken awesome!!

What the feck! Your species head looks more or less just like one of mine! :D ill finish it soon and show. Heres one I did earlier...

[Jamesy]

Saturns Gate-That's funny, when I started this I never really had the intention of making it for this particular assignment. I thought it was too ugly for a utopian setting. I just rolled with it anyway.

Rares-Yeah, I thought the same thing too. I might re-scan it later. Just a quick question, is it better to scan at a larger resolution (150-300dpi), then scale down, or just to scan at 72dpi? I've been scanning everything at that and nothing seems to turn out very sharp. It just happens to fit nicely without having to resize.

[Rares Halmagean]

I typically scan large to retain some of the finer details in my work. The artifacts in your image is due to compression. If you're using photoshop, do save for web file>save for web>click the arrow(just right of the preset selection box)>optimize to file size and find a size that does not create obvious artifacts. Check the quality percentage in the save for web property page. If it goes below 50-60 percent then artifacts will become apparent.

[rushwolf]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/rushwolf/man1.jpg

Been a long time since I've done these things. Im pretty rusty but he's my first rough thumbnailish thing.

[Saturns Gate]

Looks good for a thumbnail rush. :) Jamesey this is the dude I was talking about :

[flashrabbit]

This thread is moving fast :O

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p97/DkJunior/DEEP_flashrabbit_1.jpg
http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p97/DkJunior/DEEP_flashrabbit_2.jpg
http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p97/DkJunior/DEEP_flashrabbit_charactersketch_12.jpg
http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p97/DkJunior/DEEP_flashrabbit_charactersketch_34.jpg
http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p97/DkJunior/DEEP_flashrabbit_charactersketch_56.jpg

1 = Lily, a delightful little girl with a strong personality and surprising temper.

2 = Blue, a funloving guy that never turns down a free meal.. or any meal from the looks of it.
unfortunately the downside to this strong appetite is that he's often sleepy and gets exhausted easily.
He is also clumsy and has a low attention spa....

3 = Lee, He has sticky fingers ;P With his compulsive behavior and impulsiveness he cant help not to steal.
Overactive and nervous is also words for describing this luckless fellow.
Lucky for him that he's very charming so they often let him of the "hook".

4 = Macintosh is a kinda "catfish" and is usually very calm and likes to think alot (some would say he's a philosopher).
He likes to go to the park everyday to patiently wait to feed the ducks.
It's hard to get a feel from his expressions so he can often look intimidating.
But he's very kind and laughs quietly alot.

5 = Mike, well Mike is a very curious and alert little boy always ready for fun and games.
But he can get overexcited which gets him into all kinds of trouble.
He's mostly happy but sometimes a little insecure.

6 = Bernard, a depressed accountant with a split personality.
Bored out of his mind he sits in a cubicle all day working for one of the seas big companies.
He almosts goes unnoticed with his "mediocrity" if it wasn't for his other personality.
That's why he wears a hawaii shirt under his working clothes, to remind him what he wants to be.

Perhaps one of the reasons they notice him is because of hawaiian friday at work.
That's when his "real" personality creeps up. Or you can find that "person" at happy hour with his friend
Blue after work.

7 = Last but not least best friend of Mike and lives just down the corals from him.
Ness the seadragon an imaginative boy with a lot of humour.
He likes to go on big adventures with Mike.

[Rist]

I think what many people are missing is the orthographic views of their characters. People are still treating their concepts like illustrations rather than actual game/movie designs.

[Saturns Gate]

Totally agree with you Rist. Right now im trying to find a good design, then ill go ahead and do a final orthographic.

[Studio Colrouphobia]

I agree fully. I intend on doing Orthographics of my concepts.

Saturns Gate, totally dig yours...

Btw, havent shown anything yet, and I dont intend to, but whilst getting stuck today, I did a quick, one hour image and it turned out somewhat "deep"-ish.

Mayhap people will feel inspired :p

I do not intend on using this for Deep.

[Vorace]

Saturns gate : I love your last one!!Original!

updated mine page 5

[DeKal]

i thought id sit this one out but some of the entries inspired me to do a little somthin. i NEVER do orthographic designs so i figured id give it a shot for this. still pretty early in its stages, havnt put any real detailing in. i figured id try to get some of you guyses input.

[Saturns Gate]

Thanks guys, hey Deko, I like your second one, good stuff for a first orthographic, remember to use the ruler tool to make sure everything lines up nicely. Though it is good practice to be spot on, I hear you dont actually have to be dead on really, the modeler should be able to see it through with or without imperfections. :)

[DeKal]

thanks Saturo

[razorbjc]

Hey guys. this is my first CHOW entry. Can somebody give me some feedback about my color choices? I don't know the first thing about color. (The white is a flowy cape/cloth material (cropped)).

(WIP)
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk27/razorbjc/utopiacolors.jpg

[Izi]

choose colors from nature, like, you have chestnuts, gold nuggets, blueberry and bone right there, look them up use them as your palette.

:D

I like his head. Using glazes helps.

[EugeneM]

Hey, good stuff everyone so far.

The background story, was inspired by numerous legends, myths and art of an ancient world
especially civilizations of precolumbian america and mezopotamia. The subject is big and my english doesn't allow me to write a poem here :P, but i'll try to discribe things properly. I've been always interested in stuff like unexplain fenomenons, ufo, history, ezoteric literature etc., some time ago
i discovered Zecharia Sitchin's and Erich von Däniken's theory of "ancient astronaut of human origins". Since that time i was searching the web for different information on that subject.
I'll try to describe this theory in a few words for those who didnt heard about it, Its about an 12 planet of solar system, Nibiru, the home of technologically advanced dudes called Anunnaki.
The roots of that theory leads to few stone tablets (Enuma Elish itd) made by the Sumer civilization, witch according to the history books was the first civilization on earth but scientists dont know from where they come from and why they gone... So according to Sumer writings
there were a huge collision between two planets Nibiru and Tiamat, Tiamat split in a half and thats how earth was born, so its actually half of a planet. 450.000 years ago Anunnaki first came to earth searching for minerals, they needed workers to gather gold in mines so they geneticly speed up evolution process of mankind to get a human who can serve. that can explain missing link in human evolution.



i'll mention here some interesting facts that realy speaks to me.
- Archaeological research says that 100.000 bc there were huge mines in south africa
-Incredible astronomy knowledge of ancient civilizations see Maya, Sumer, Chavin etc
- Traces of ancient nuclear explosions founded in India, Africa, and Dead sea .
- Map of turkish admiral Piri Reis (16th sentury) map shows Antarctica without ice ( antarctica was discovered in 1812)
- Numerous artefacts and architecture of ancient civilizations: crystal skulls, wall in Sacsayhuaman, sun Gate in Tiahuanaco etc
- Ancient hindu writings contains discriptions of flying machines, nuclear and laser weapon..

its all i remember atm, i'll edit if i recall some more of it. check out that shit in web for complete information.

So when i saw " underwater utopia" "free interpretation" i thought it would be cool to make a underwater mining city. Place where human community will serve Anunnaki gathering minerals, and shaping their racial identity. They are precursors of all human civilizations to come. Some of them will manege to escape from those mines and flood the earth creating their own empires. But now they dont know what to do, on the one hand they are proud to serv their creators and on the other hand they feel exploited by someone completly stranger.
so here is some scetches i hope you 'll like them.

some random miners

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/6418/3workersfinalql7.jpg



http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/8918/s2323ys4.jpg


http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/1883/s2324gz9.jpg


spaceship pilot

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/9739/anupilotun2.jpg

[Izi]

Sitchin has been criticized enormously by the archaeological community at large. Actually there are several well established theories on why the Sumerians died out, that are very logical. I was just discussing them recently with a Sumerian archaeology student yesterday, I spent 6 hours on the background information for my own story which is also Sumerian in nature.

Sitchin was an outright fraud, either deliberate or just misplaced his brain somewhere. His translations are incorrect and enormously damaging to the archaeological community.

If you like, join us over at Enenuru we're just discussing some of the finer points of Sumerian history, I don't know a lot really but the people there do, and I'm sure they'd love to help you fill in the blanks. :) Link's in my sig.

Nice paintings...a little dark though, hard to see...I know it's a mining community but maybe some technological light sources would be of use....


there were a huge collision between two planets Nibiru and Tiamat, Tiamat split in a half and thats how earth was born, so its actually half of a planet. 450.000 years ago Anunnaki first came to earth searching for minerals, they needed workers to gather gold in mines so they geneticly speed up evolution process of mankind to get a human who can serve. that can explain missing link in human evolution.Tiamat is a Babylonian goddess, in the Enuma Elish she was split apart by Marduk, the top god of the Babylonian pantheon, in order to establish him as a superior authority in the political scheme of the time. Tiamat was a sea dragon. We were debating yesterday and today on Enenuru whether or not she was a later version of the Sumerian Namma, but chances are she is not, as Namma is spring waters and Tiamat is ocean water...Namma is not the ocean. it's all very interesting and beats UFO's as far as I'm concerned.

Sitchin goes out of his way to plagiarize the works of the ancient peoples to formulate his own fantasy world of extremism and replaces words with his own inventions - he translates a word for building into "spaceship" for instance.

Although....I have seen enough UFO's I'm probably extremely bored of them...

Your style reminds me of Ursula Vernon, one of my favorite artists. :)

[Candras]

Great work in this thread guys!

Heres a sketch I have going so far

383091

[EugeneM]

Thanks for feedback Naomi. and yea you right about the light. when i look at it for a long time it seems to be ok, but when i check it with the fresh eye its dark as hell

[Nightblue]

wow, some absolutely amazing work here. I've just started on my CHOW. I'm going to try to sketch more of this character and develop it more.

thumbnails:

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd214/lxc2000/sketches/deep_cha_thumbs1_pv.jpghttp://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd214/lxc2000/sketches/sketch-underocean01.jpg

wip:

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd214/lxc2000/deep_cha_01_pv2.jpg

[Quinn Simoes]

Really nice work everyone, very inspiring!

Some character/costume concepts I've been working on.

Quinn

[jread]

some quick comments for this page...

Saturns Gates loving that concept. great palette to boot. wanna see more!

flash rabbit its nice to see something completely different. Im enjoying the lightheartedness of your work :)

deKal the second design is definitely the strongest out of the 2, the big fish has a lot of personality (for a big fish!) and a great fantasy-feal to it. also your a Jeff, Im a Jeff so extra marks! :P

EugeneM I agree with Naomi, great work but needs some stronger light sources.

Nightblue its nice to see your design process there. the character looks a little warrior-ish, which isnt a problem so long as thats what your aiming for :)

Quinn Simoes brilliant designs! Im really liking the direction youve gone. maybe a little sinister looking for a utopia but thats just the way im thinking of a utopia i guess! good stuff. :)

[comixnut]

Soooooo... i tried to update this yesterday and the net lost it all after a couple of hours writing my concept story here straight from my head i guess i should not have expected anything else.

Unfortunately i let it get to me and the last ditch effort to post something kinda went down the grain. I mean drain!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just finally posting the only stuff i managed to do!

Considering the stuff i actually saw posted here a congrats to whomever wins will be surely deserved! :)

Good luck!

[Arteater]

great work in here, this is going to be some tough judging

[corspufo]

Saturn's Gate: Wow dude, amazing creature, and well rendered.

I'm jumping into this a little late, but WHO CARE"S? At least I've entered. WOOT! Here are some sketches I've got with my people. I'm not exactly going too far out of the box with these, with the fact that my characters are human. But my idea is that the Utopia is one where the Water is Oxygenated, and humans can "breathe" the water. Anyways, they're still a work in progress, ENJOY!!!

Something else, that I'll be showing in just a bit, the human's have not gone without some kind of side effects of living deep underwater. All the sinus cavities in their faces have been crushed or broken by the immense pressure, as well as the capillaries in their eyes. Their eyes are red and the appear to have bruises that look more like war paint on their faces. With their bodies gotten used to such extreme conditions, it is highly unlikely they'd ever be able to return to the surface.

[Nightblue]

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd214/lxc2000/deep_cha_01_pv3.jpg

updated wip.

My story: The quest of longevity led the citizens of Atlantis to a combination of flesh and steel. While they do not have to worry about security and have no war, some of them choose to lead a more adventurous lifestyle and become deep sea hunters.

[Candras]

PEOPLE just don't post your images, help and comments on others as well!



Saturns Gate I like it and how you did the rendering

flashrabbit very cute, but in the second piece the background blue kind of blends in with the character a bit much, maybe make it more greenish blue?

Studio Colrouphobia Not bad, but he looks so sad :(

DeKal I like it, I could see him swimming around in the ocean and surviving. The second one is well done, the fish-horse ones.

razorbjc I really wouldn't worry about the color choices at the moment. Try doing a rendered sketch first to get a real good understanding of your characters anatomy etc.

EugeneM These are rendered well and everything but I don't think it really fits with Undersea Utopia. I read your story and everything but I guess youre thinking outside of the box which is a good thing.

Nightblue I like your more- rendered sketches better than the piece you chose to paint on. I can't really tell what is what on him.

Quinn Simoes They look really nice but wouldn't all that armor weigh them down under the sea?

corspufo Nice ideas, keep em coming :)



Here is my sketch finished

384523

[jason01]

first off - Nightblue - that's a pretty sweetlookin' thing you got there - some sort of underwater robot. it looks like it could work - it is fairly familiar - we've all seen things that look similar - but then you've added your own twist on it - so it works.

I realize the pressure and cold-osity of the uberdeep would make it impossible for humans to survive in normal scuba gear - but in cartoons all things are possible.

my story - alien brians have taken over the bodies of abducted humans - they use them as arms to build and maintain their deepsea utopia

[jread]

some quick sketches...

this guy is very flexible and is born in a cacoon that is attached to the sea bed...sorry for crappy camera quality...
http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/9058/deeplifesketch1im6.jpg
some more quickies...
http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/8422/deepseainhabsketches1ji0.jpg

im loving the characterful designs some people are doing :)

[corspufo]

Candras: before moving onto painting, I think your sketch still needs more work. The proportions don't feel right for a Humanoid type creature. The hips are too low and the legs and feet don't have a lot of definition. It's an interesting idea with the sucker-fish face, but I still think you can push it a lot further.

Jason01: very lovely characters, each unique and very cute. They've got a Ratatuoille meets Enemy Fortress feel. I want to see these finished.

jread: I like the sketching you've done on your second image. It's well done and would lead to some sweet characters. Your top one is cool and is an interesting creature. I just would like to see a little more variation in it with what makes it more of a character and not just a species. I want to see a community of them and how they differ from one another.

[Lone Wolf]

Here is some really early ideas. Great ideas so far guys.

http://img355.imageshack.us/img355/4542/seacreatureswebtm5.jpg

[jread]

jread: I like the sketching you've done on your second image. It's well done and would lead to some sweet characters. Your top one is cool and is an interesting creature. I just would like to see a little more variation in it with what makes it more of a character and not just a species. I want to see a community of them and how they differ from one another.

cool thankyou :)

yea i will advance on the characteristics soon as i got the species right...still unsure which direction im going with this, they were just ideas that popped up in my head.

[Saturns Gate]

Lone Wolf: I think the bottom two look the more original outta the 4. The webbed feet I think will be done soo much in this activity, and its so hard not to add them on your characters (I have).

jread: some nice designs, I like your Guard character. Be careful with the fins also, try and think more outside the box. Oh and ha! Zoidberg has made a slight appearance in my latest sketch too. :D Theres no getting away from him.

Nightblue: really like the way you incorporated the fins to the feet, quite cool! :) keep it up, your doing great!

EugeneM: Inspiring stuff! I would agree about the contrast being a bit too foggy, but it does seem to add a kind of mystery to the paintings, which I think is what your going for. No real crits, your doing awesome.

razorbjc: This might help you color, I see your blocking i different colors straight off the bat. Try to keep things simple to begin with color wise, or at least I would. Color the whole thing in a muted tone and gradually add and change colors as you go, my video may be able to help you understand a bit more. :)

flashrabbit: No crits, so fun! :D Want to see more!

rushwolf: Nice first thumbnail bud! Keep them coming, I would like to see them more developed.

And heres something for you guys, a progress video of my latest. Hope it helps someone. Cheers.

TLoe1Z7bEdM

[Candras]

Thanks corspufo

I fixed the problems--- I think :P

385146

385306

painting the face so far

[DeKal]

quinn - siiiiick

[razorbjc]

Thanks to the replies. I went ahead and rendered it with the colors i chose (although i'm probably gonna try saturn's process next time). I still have to add some texturing, detail, and a nice background. This rendering probably took me way longer than it should have, but i'll find ways of moving faster...

The concept is that these are descendants of isopods that evolved to have simple hand like extensions stemming from their bellies. Those extensions eventually underwent the entirety of human evolution and gave these isopods humanoid forms. Their original Isopod bodies have remained unchanged, but now house enormous brains which they have used to build a teeming underwater civilization. :yayca:

(WIP)
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk27/razorbjc/utopiatest.jpg

[jread]

nice movie Saturn but where is the finished piece!? :P

are you colour picking from some other work or photo or just random colours? if random...then kudos to you! v nice palette again :)

[Saturns Gate]

no color picking :), I used ref of a crab for the claws, lighting and the rest is made up on the fly. Finished is in my sketchbook, cheers. :) Razor, I like the head, pretty cool!

[corspufo]

Candras: You're on the right track and I think you've pushed your girl in the right direction. I like your face so far, nicely rendered and keep it going.

Saturns Gate: Another great one. I love that video, it's ALWAYS ALWAYS awesome to watch someone work, there is always something to learn. So thank you again. BTW, were you working on just one layer? It seems to go both ways, some people will stick to just one layer the entire time or will have stacks and stacks of layers. Either way, killer. What other DEEP categories are you in? I know COW, and I think EOW?

Razorbjc: A very stylized piece, and just from where the WIP is, it's very cute. Which i know isn't the reaction you want. But the palette and scheme feel old school Voltron. Which isn't a crit, but just an observation. The biggest crit I would give is I would push more definition into the body. Pushing the angles at the joints and more attention to his hands. Also, somethign i just noticed, his cape is billowing in the wind/water, but his hip flaps aren't. Good progress, keep'em coming!

[Kerberos]

Saturn that was a sick video. I have the same question as corspufo, and just wondered if you used overlay layers to apply some of the light and murky effects.

[jread]

I had to colour him in...he asked me to :P
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/5359/deepalienescapesmalloz1.jpg
i think this is 50/50 CoW/Chow... could be intelligent...might not be i havnt decided yet! lol

[Dan!]

so much great stuff- had to bump in late - I'll be going very psuedo myth with my own take on mermaids/men, cecaelia etc //

beauty shot inc
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/DECYPL/cecilia.jpg

[Studio Colrouphobia]

Saturn (or anyone else) I was just wondering- there is a point where you get these windows of different coloured variants of the image up- whiere do I find that one? Is it a standard filter-esque thing in Photoshop? (I got me Cs3) or is it something I need to download elsewhere?


Also, Kickass work on that image in the vid.

Decypl- Love the pose... The colours work, but I think you should make the transitions better...just my opinion though...

jread- Keep that one here in Chow. It's too humanoid to work in cow. I love the way it looks...

razorbjc- it's an interesting character, but it seems a bit...flat. Work a bit on the values of the outer edges of it and it should work though...(especially on the body and the chest-plate)

[CecelyV]

Geez...so much I need to catch up on after being out of town...Anyway, I updated with a couple more rough character sketches on post #179.

Crits and comments welcome. Once I catch up I'll make some myself.

Happy drawing everyone. :yayca:

[Saturns Gate]

Studio: Its called Variations, and is found in the image> adjustments area at the top. Cheers.

Decypl: really nice colors on this one, you definently got that exotic look acros well. :)

jread: mmm, lovely gooey texture. Yum! :)

corspufo: I will try and enter as many as I can before the deadline in three weeks. Definently want to get in EOW, and well, I wanna do them all. I worked on one layer on that last one, it tends to work out faster for me that way, though sometime ill use layers depending on if im doing it for myself or a client etc.

The murky part was (I think) just airbrushed normally over the top, while the really bright light at the end was done by duplicating the layer and messing about with the layer style, ie hard light etc, and then levels etc. Then erase the parts on that new layer until that you dont want quite so bright.

[Izi]

Xst, I've done five Chow preliminaries.

I should perhaps think about doing the weekly, regular activity.

[Robo Jing]

Everyones is turning out really well!! I'll get some crits to you guys soon and then I'll get to sketching my own stuff!

[Pavel Sokov]

I had to colour him in...he asked me to :P
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/5359/deepalienescapesmalloz1.jpg
i think this is 50/50 CoW/Chow... could be intelligent...might not be i havnt decided yet! lol

like i said in the other thread, i dont think things can look gooey/slimy/wet underwater, they only do that once they are brought to the surface. watch out for that

[Izi]

Interesting observation...

glinty scales are nice...

[Pavel Sokov]

Lone Wolf: I think the bottom two look the more original outta the 4. The webbed feet I think will be done soo much in this activity, and its so hard not to add them on your characters (I have).

jread: some nice designs, I like your Guard character. Be careful with the fins also, try and think more outside the box. Oh and ha! Zoidberg has made a slight appearance in my latest sketch too. :D Theres no getting away from him.

Nightblue: really like the way you incorporated the fins to the feet, quite cool! :) keep it up, your doing great!

EugeneM: Inspiring stuff! I would agree about the contrast being a bit too foggy, but it does seem to add a kind of mystery to the paintings, which I think is what your going for. No real crits, your doing awesome.

razorbjc: This might help you color, I see your blocking i different colors straight off the bat. Try to keep things simple to begin with color wise, or at least I would. Color the whole thing in a muted tone and gradually add and change colors as you go, my video may be able to help you understand a bit more. :)

flashrabbit: No crits, so fun! :D Want to see more!

rushwolf: Nice first thumbnail bud! Keep them coming, I would like to see them more developed.

And heres something for you guys, a progress video of my latest. Hope it helps someone. Cheers.

TLoe1Z7bEdM

Fucking Brilliant! great lighting, love the green/yellow shades of light, its beatifull!

at around 6:50 you started adding Green underwater light, it was too fast for me to see how u did it. I am wondering which brush, setting, and layer type did you use? or did you do this all on one layer ? either way that green lighting turned out really effective, i am curious to know how you made it.
thanks in advance

[Izi]

You also actually have to play that kind of music when you're drawing.

[ye_oldskool]

like i said in the other thread, i dont think things can look gooey/slimy/wet underwater, they only do that once they are brought to the surface. watch out for that

Sorry Pavel, but I couldn't disagree more.

I think that you shouldn't be limited by things you know of in the 'real' world. The whole point of these CA challenges is to be creative and push boundaries after all.

Even when it comes to things of the real world, how many times have you watched a documentary and seen something you thought just wasn't possible? It has happened to me many times - Patterns in bioluminescence? Deepsea underwater volcanoes? Wow.

Who knows? Maybe jread's character has a waxy skin with a bioluminescent underglow?

I say go nuts! Imagination is key.

[Izi]

hmm, metallic, maybe...glowing, no...it would have to have a bit more "fuzz" to convince me of that...maybe some light trails...Pavel does make a good point either way for life painters...

[jread]

like i said in the other thread, i dont think things can look gooey/slimy/wet underwater, they only do that once they are brought to the surface. watch out for that

thanks for the comment, but I believe sometimes you have to go in a direction that is best for the image that isnt necessarily true-to-life, alot of people know this as using 'artistic licience'. It does not have to be used for cosmetic reasons alone, but informative reasons too, as you can tell that my swimming character has moist skin, not unlike a frog, but if i painted it realistically without such strong light reflections, I would have had to explain his skin texture in writting...also the painting would not have looked as nice in my eyes :)

also, things can actually look shiny underwater given the right light source, even human flesh...

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m128/modamuse/a_rolandi.jpg (http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m128/modamuse/a_rolandi.jpg)

I personally have snorkled quite deep underwater to see fish and objects glisten as they move...i think its something quite hard to catch on camera as the glistening is intermittent and very quick... :)

[Saturns Gate]

Pavel Sokov: Thanks man, I used the same layer for that, changed the brush to cheaty color dodge set low and a round brush with nice blending and slightly faded edges. :) Yeah and Naomi! So true! Its so weird how when you listen to the right music you can really let loose with your painting.

Interesting conversation. I for one agree somewhat to go crazy with your paintings, different people will have different opinions on this obviously so if you want to make it slimy underwater, and it looks pretty damn cool, go ahead! :)

I think it was the Lord of the rings making of DvD, where Frodo was captured in the third movie, and the cell was meant to have no windows. They lit the scene anyway and when one of the actors brought up the whole thing about it being unrealistic for a room with no windows the lighting dude said : ''Where does the music come from?''.

[jread]

I think it was the Lord of the rings making of DvD, where Frodo was captured in the third movie, and the cell was meant to have no windows. They lit the scene anyway and when one of the actors brought up the whole thing about it being unrealistic for a room with no windows the lighting dude said : ''Where does the music come from?''.

thanks man :) that really made me laugh out loud! Quote of the month! :D

not sure if I like this or not but here is the WIP so far...
http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/8236/tungeladvisor1pm1.jpg
he is a fish-gone-land kinda dude that has breathing apparatus over his gills and drugs pumped into his mouth...

[Pavel Sokov]

Pavel Sokov: Thanks man, I used the same layer for that, changed the brush to cheaty color dodge set low and a round brush with nice blending and slightly faded edges. :) Yeah and Naomi! So true! Its so weird how when you listen to the right music you can really let loose with your painting.

Interesting conversation. I for one agree somewhat to go crazy with your paintings, different people will have different opinions on this obviously so if you want to make it slimy underwater, and it looks pretty damn cool, go ahead! :)

I think it was the Lord of the rings making of DvD, where Frodo was captured in the third movie, and the cell was meant to have no windows. They lit the scene anyway and when one of the actors brought up the whole thing about it being unrealistic for a room with no windows the lighting dude said : ''Where does the music come from?''.

but no one thinks we should push ourselves to make things that are thought out and actualy possible? while u cant realistically make the guy's skin slimy, you can do other things to make up for it.
and about the character's skin being slimy, you dont need to draw it to express it, anything that comes out of the water will have a layer of water on it once its on the surface and will look gooey anyway. so that means any of our creatures can be gooey, it is just a matter of if they are underwater or not.

i dunno, i personally thought it is always cool to try to push logic into art. for example when you are designing a robot, it is really hard to actualy spend time thinking about what all the parts do, when you can just sketch and get a similar result anyway. so we are lazy and we dont do those things. but lets try our best to put more thought into our concepts.

anyone agree haha?

[No.Verdikt]

Oh man, This is gona be ridiculously awsome and I just got time to start this. The preliminary work on most of these already looks good enough for some previous finals cant wait to see the end of this.

Also about the slimy thing that everyone is talking about, that depends on the viscosity of the slime, if its thick enough it will be clearly visible underwater, if it has the same density chances are it will blend in. Any one ever see the Blue Planet episode where they found a salt water lake on the ocean floor that was so thick it created another seperate body of water seperate from the sea? If you havent watch it, its a must see.

[Saturns Gate]

but no one thinks we should push ourselves to make things that are thought out and actualy possible? while u cant realistically make the guy's skin slimy, you can do other things to make up for it.
and about the character's skin being slimy, you dont need to draw it to express it, anything that comes out of the water will have a layer of water on it once its on the surface and will look gooey anyway. so that means any of our creatures can be gooey, it is just a matter of if they are underwater or not.

i dunno, i personally thought it is always cool to try to push logic into art. for example when you are designing a robot, it is really hard to actualy spend time thinking about what all the parts do, when you can just sketch and get a similar result anyway. so we are lazy and we dont do those things. but lets try our best to put more thought into our concepts.

anyone agree haha?

Yeah I see your point, for something mechanical it would probably help a lot more to have it look functional, although I think thats a little different to a goo texture underwater. If it was anatomy then yes, it is a lot more important then aesthetic quality, I dont think you would get any leeway with that sort of thing. If the guidelines of the activity asked for us to make it as realistic as possible then yes, illd probably add less gooey shines and what not, but as it stands I like the goo! :D PS: I am very tired and about to go sleep, so if this post dont make much sense, sorry. :)

[EricT]

My ship's captain and a former soldier who defends it

[Mnemotonomonic]

Errrmm... Hi folks...
My 1st post here.... can anyone please gimme a start... totally unsure what to start as...
It sure is quiet noobish asking such questions in such Proo forums... but there is somewhere i need to start, and where else than a place with all these prooo's already in :)
Btw, I have n idea on merpeople.... please comment :)

[jread]

finished this quick character fella...he has a feather from the 'breathless space above' to show he can afford such rare treasures :)
http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/2007/tungeladvisor1mi3.jpg
was pretty lazy with him :S

@ Mnemotonomonic Hi and welcome :)

where to start? whatever you find easiest/most-fun...maybe characters or enviro's? But research always comes first...have a scan through these thread pages to get an idea of what people are doing already. then start some thumbs/sketches on some ideas...tbh there is no real guide and everyone is different so do what you feel is right!

that prob wasnt that helpful but i tried! :P

[Mnemotonomonic]

Thx fr the suggestion... i do have ideas, but the thing is that I have never actually done digital painting after scanning images... please guide me on this point, wud love to make a good one if you help me out this time :)

[Saise]

Just a quick sketch of humanoid sapient spiecies, that cellular stucture and fisionomy is based on coral reefs. Now I suffer from exam session, but I color it for sure and make some more of that stuff.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/Saise/Nyrl-1.jpg

[feifeicreate]

Probably my first post here :) Still trying to figure everything out. Hope the image is not too big...I love this topic, will definitely create more stuff.

I just bought painter, this is probably my second or third painting with painter. I totally love this program... I'm still learning about all the tools and effects, would really appreciate advise, suggestions or anything. I want to get that beautiful underwater glowing thing, but don't know how...

Well, anyway, here it is. My Utopia character...I'll think of a name and story for her tomorrow.......Now I'm looking at it....the arm is too short..... gee!!! What's wrong with me?! I'll change it tomorrow.

[ManaBurn]

Uh, yeah things can look gooey/slimy underwater. Try putting a table spoon of oil into a cup of water. Does it look oily? Go to a fish store and find a fish with finrot, it's going to look very gooey. Ever see algae from underwater, it look slimey, and is. Your going to have to take artistic liberty with rendering things underwater anyway, after 300 meters you wouldn't have any light other then blue and it would be so little you wouldn't be able to see anything anyway.

[corspufo]

El Coro has an Underwater PSD for people to look at and see his layer structure and work flow. It has been probably one of the single-most helpful pieces that has pushed me into new areas of creating environments/anything that I've seen. You can download it and check it out for yourselves. Jason Manley originally posted it, but here's the link: http://www.conceptart.org/psd/coro5/ (http://www.conceptart.org/psd/coro5/)

Saise: cool character, I bet it will be sweet when it's painted.

jread: Love it. Froggy and fishy, while coming off as a shady character.

FeiFeiCreate: Welcome! Like your character, check out the link to El Coro's painting, it can teach you a lot about underwater painting. Hope you have Photoshop. BTW, was your name inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean? Just curious.

[feifeicreate]

OMG....that painting looks absolutely amazing and the layering is really sophisticated!!! Just by looking at each layer I learned a lot! Thank you!!!

I have photoshop, just don't know how to combine photoshop and painter yet. That painting makes me want to will try creating a character with photoshop. I'll do it tonight!!! got me all excited...LOL...I'm more familiar with traditional medium, oil, acrylic and stuff. I need more practice with creating realistic art works with painter and photoshop... :D Any help would be appreciated.

as for my name, Feifei is my real name. I'm from China, and kept my Chinese name.

[Grumbleputty]

This is one of the inhabitants of my DEEP utopia- a monk who has learned to perceive the "song" that vibrates through all life in my world. He is wearing/is host to a creature that supplements his strength and aids him in swimming underwater, while it gains the ability to move out of the water supported by his frame, and feeds of the dead cells that slough off him naturally.

I've got sketches underway of the principal characters of the story I've got in my head- I'll see if I can get at least the pencils up tonite.

here is one of my DEEP environments (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1785936&postcount=127)

Here's a critter I posted in COW (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1775087&postcount=131)

this explains some of my backstory (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1791985&postcount=149)

[cheo36]

good job man. i really like the idea of the whole jelly fish thing...keep it at it :)

[corspufo]

FeiFeicreate: Oh ok, cool thanks! I was just curious, nothing more. I'm glad you checked it out. El Coro has a bunch more PSDs that you can download, they are located in the CA Exclusive Content area of the Forums. Check'em out, worth their weight it goooooold my friend.

Grumbleputty: cool idea, seems like getting ready in the morning would be a pain in the ass. LOL. the only crit I have at the moment is when you proceed, either clean up or remove your pencils.

Here is a detail of the denizens of the Deep's faces. I mentioned earlier, they are humans that have found a way to Oxygenate sea water to make it breathable. But the side effect from living so deep underwater is that Sinuses and Capillaries in soft tissue have been broken down by the intense pressure. Crits please!!!

[feifeicreate]

Hi Grumble, I like your character and the backstory. I think you did a good job with the smooth gooey feel of the jelly fish. And I like the texture. Just a thought, so the monk is a humanoid creature, how does he breath underwater? Is the fish provide him with Oxygen? Also, I've always picture monks with some religious mark that makes them "stands out", like some accessary, or tatoo or something...IMHO, these little things might make the character more interesting, and tells more about what kind of person he is.

But, I can see that with all those fish on him, he's already very busy, so don't know if it'll be too much if add more tattoos and other stuff.

[toogoodwu]

Thought I'd give this a try. Any crits are appreciated.

"Although the manufacture of glass is incredibly difficult (requiring the construction of waterless tanks and mammalian thralls), the importance of the glow shrimp to Deepian diet and economy makes such efforts absolutely necessary. If one can somehow make membrane containers that are fine enough to contain these small creatures, the use of this imported technology will no longer be necessary."

[Grumbleputty]

corspufo: Thanks! Your point is well taken about the pencils- I'm starting to rush a bit to get all the stuff I want to show out of my head and onto the page/screen. I suspect this theme is something I'll keep playing with for a while after the contest ends.

feifeicreate Good point- your question got me to think a little harder about that. The way I envision it, the jellyfishy tentacle creature and he are permanently fused together, and share some sort of connected bloodstreams. Thus, it breathes for him underwater, and he breathes for it on land.

[feifeicreate]

Here's the improved version of my character...don't have a name for her yet...I created this one in photoshop, I think I like a lot more than the one before (created in Painter). Probably because I'm not used to that program.

The composition is a bit off though. I didn't find out until I'm nearly done...I tried to add the right arm holding something to balance it out, but....can't get it to work. So I guess lesson of the day is "Plan your composition ahead of time!" ... I should've known better.

And the figure looks so dead....I'd love to see more movement, she looks like she's posing for a photo shot. It would be better if I could add some movement to the tail part, make it curve a bit more...oh well...will try harder next time.

Anyway, here you have it. Any comment is appreciated!!!

[L!nK]

:mod:
Hello everybody! I'm a big fan of the CoW, CHoW, IDW, PoW and EoW. I'm almost 2 years just staring at the work done here, and just now I got one Intuos 3 for me. And sorry for the english, I'm Brazilian.

I don't have an illustration done yet, but I have a few ideas in my mind.

My ideas are for a video-game or rpg, and I considered that when planning characters and environments. In my opinion, if you need to create something for the industry, you need to think about that when creating everything.
So, here's my idea so far:

The game starts in a city deep underwater, with advanced technology, called "Utopia". The humans who live there had been educated that a great cataclysm (maybe a meteor, nuclear war, a mortal virus...) in the surface of Earth have made the life there very hostile, and people should be grateful for their life in the city. The strict laws and controlling government created a city with no crimes.
The player character is a male man, born in Utopia, with a little more than 20 years. He is trained as one of the guards of the city since he's was born, as everyone else in the city have designed duties by the government.
In the first missions, the player need to investigate one accident in the mines near the city. There, he see he a strange phenomenon, one "invisible" thing, making things move and taking miners to underwater ruins of an unknow civilization. Everyone of his team disappear and he comeback to the city.
After that, he is hunted by the guards of Utopia, and discovers something about "Project Deep".

During the game, the player discover the true. There's life in the surface, also humans, and Utopia is ruled by scientists and politicians who needed to disappear from the surface world because of it's horrible experiments. Now this scientists are trying to make contact with a different life form in the deep ocean, and created Utopia as a base of operations for their experiments using their technology to make mutants to fight back the surface world that tried to kill then, the "Project Deep". They need to maintain their "society" to make experiments with then.

With that in mind, the character have the mission to stop the rulers of Utopia, making theirs inhabitants free, going to the surface world, and discover where does the unknown ruins and life forms come from. (maybe space?)

The game would happen in the underwater sea, caves, ruins, in the city of utopia and it's facilities, full of guards, robots, mutants, and sea life. Using weapons as arpoons and high technology weapons. It could be a shooter or RPG or both.

Any suggestions? This is what I have so far, I'm still thinking in some details, but I'm affraid I'm not going to do too many concepts for this, because I'm a little busy with college and work.

In the next post I'll analyze the others work carefully, because there's so many great work here that I need a time to contemplate! rs...:yayca:

[L!nK]

FeiFei: Great concept! I like the technology on it... making it appear as an experiment of some sort. Sorry if that's not what you were trying to do. The ideas of my concepts are still in my mind...
I have Painter and Photoshop, and I have problems with Painter too, rs...

toogoodwu: Nice textures and the lighting effect. Are you going to finish it? I'd like to know more about your concept.

corspufo: Seems a little "manga", and I love it. I like to see diversity here, and not just the "realistic" painting. Everything depends on what you're aiming for...

Grumpleputty: Very interesting! I'd love to see some other views and the role of your character.

[Matt_B]

Hello, CHOWers! Hope you don't mind another contribution, I'm not used to doing these yet.

Crits more than welcome.

Story behind this character, as per instruction, is that she is a member of the Sin'Namur. Originally a nomadic race, they would often hunt and eat other members of the Utopian society. When the outside world grew too dangerous, the Sin'Namur found themselves to be the hunted. A few sought the aid of the Utopian society, and were allowed to join on one condition: they renounce any and all ties to their original heritage.
Having to give up their names and culture, the Sin'Namur that joined eventually survived while those who clung to the old ways are believed to have perished.
There are very few of them left. While technically an ally of the Utopia, they are generally mistrusted or hated. Rumors often circulate of a Sin'Namur who has eaten a member of another race; but so far, nothing has been proven.

[Izi]

Well...i would try not to let the story get in the way of the art. I came to a point where I had to say "fuckit, let's just draw Naomi"

[toogoodwu]

Hey L!nk - thanks for the comment. I was going to leave the image as is, and submit it to the final burning.

My concept is a race of humanoids that evolved from fish instead of mammals. Their civilization would hinge on the use of mercury as a liquid electrode. Mercury would be ingested in the form of glow shrimp (their mouths have baleen like whales), and processed in the creatures' bodies. It would then be harvested from excretions on their bodies.

Industry for these guys would be based on membranes, created organically as well from their bodies as a by product of growth and consumption of sea vegetation. Membranes would be layered, allowing for stronger structures. In other words, their waste powers their advancement as a race.

However, as their bodies need to expunge mercury, the membranes they create are not as effective containing glow shrimp. Therefore, in order to shift from hunter/gatherers to farmers, they started moving to shallower depths. There, they found discarded garbage from human beings, with which they crafted tools to essentially farm glow shrimp. They also captured certain shipwrecked sailors, breeding them to create workers that craft human materials in air domes.

These are my ideas so far.

[feifeicreate]

Hi Matt,

I like your character and the back ground story is very interesting. Once a hunter race became the hunted. As for your painting, here's my suggestions:

1, the anatomy is a bit off, especially the head and shoulder part.

2, I persume the "muddy" skin tone is intended to be like that. But, personally, I think it would be nice to see better defined muscle group, that'll make your character "pop up".

3, for a hunter race, she doesn't look "vicious" enough. give her some teeth, sharp claws, or something...You mentioned that they're allowed to join the Utopia under the condition or renouncing their old ways. Maybe that involves in romoving the teeth or claws or stuff they use to "hunt", that'll leave painful scares...(that's just a suggestions of course).

I really like the idea, and want to see how it goes from here. Sorry for being so harsh on you, after that many years of art school...it kind of like a reflex...(here's the class critique again, get ready to take the beating!!! LOL...)

[Matt_B]

feifeicreate :

Thanks for the crits! No need to worry about being harsh, I can take it! :tihi:

As to your points:
1. I gave her a bit of an elongated neck to give the idea of her having gills room to breathe (get it?! yuk yuk), and to try and get her away from the typical mermaid depiction. You're right about the shoulders tho.

2. Yea I definitely was trying to move away from human skin tones, but I could have done a better job trying to get that across.

3. I thought the idea of "potential" viciousness would better suit the idea I had for the character. She's not outright snarling at the camera, teeth bare and showing the intent to kill, but there isn't something quite right about the situation and the possibility that she's not friendly is there. I'll try and get that across better.

Again, thanks very much!

[flashrabbit]

Here is a quick color test for one of my characters, although this isn't his final design.
http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p97/DkJunior/colortest1.jpg

jread // Thanks ^_^ Nice touch with the feather.
Candras// Yeah I´m going to edit a little, at first I didn't want to alter it in ps.
Saturns Gate// :) cool movie.
Matt_B// Spooky. Are the eyes glowing? if not, perhaps make the one in the shadow a little darker.
Maybe illuminate the webbing some more? Since they are usually thinner towards the edges.

[Kaizer]

flashrabbit I love that he's square!
Matt_B, In order to get away from natural skin colors of humans, maybe try a green to compliment the blue, and to get across that she's supposed to be a different color. Or perhaps a red, as they're opposites on the color wheel, they'll make her stand out more, though the green would mean camouflage as far as being a hunter race is concerned.

[LateNiteHype]

Hello all. Things looking good with the work so far.

I've been really trying to get some stuff down for the challenge. I was thinking that it would be interesting AND a little bit of a challenge if, rather than going with some futuristic or advanced underwater race, I would go the other direction and set my utopia towards the beginning of its civilization. The species are just beginning to develop and live as co-existing tribes. Sorta on some caveman-Conan type stuff. There is no fabricated metal (can't process raw metal underwater without fire, can you???) and the wheel was never invented (why would you need it when you can float???) I'm planning to set some ground rules for the world and work from there. We'll see what a mess it becomes.

Here's some of my rough sketches of some characters and creatures. I hope to refine them and add some color for the final submissions.

I'm going to have to go the traditional media route- my AIPTEK tablet hasn't been working and I don't think I have the time or patience to do everything with the mouse. I think I'm going to go with watercolors. If anyone has any tips on working with this stuff please pass 'em on. Thanks.

[chuck18mp]

I have one question:Could I have a bioshock-a-like character?

[S.C. Watson]

I have one question:Could I have a bioshock-a-like character?

I think you can do whatever you want for this round, however, I would highly suggest sticking to your own ideas.

Whether or not your idea is influenced by something else is another story. Just try to make sure you solidly put your own spin on it - trust me: you don't want your stuff to look too much like something else, intentionally or other wise.

Master Chief

:ore:

~Oreg.

[aoleon]

Heres what I have so far...

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/6392/octomermandeep2uh4.jpg

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/945/seahorseminotaurwip14vu7.jpg

[chuck18mp]

Thanks Oregano it answers my question but I don't think I'll participated.
I don't think I,m ready for this kind of stuff.

[VulgarDragon]

Errr...probably a stupid question, but are we allowed to submit more than one type of character? I have several ideas floating around in my skull....

[Pixeltuner]

Nice work everyone! I'll be posting some updates soon and take some time to view and crit others. I've been tres busy with other stuff lately :(

[townes]

http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/5932/unterwasseraw0.jpg
30 min sketch;
i hope ill find time working on it.

Great stuff guys!
Saturns Gate: AMAZING
jread: WOW
Colepoopface: !!!!
Rares Halmagean: GENIUS

you are the best ;)

[Grumbleputty]

Here's Dreanna, another of the inhabitants of my DEEP world. She, her lover Celadriel and her daughter Nedji live inside one of the massive garden jellies I've sketched out in my EOW post. She is not a native to my DEEP world, instead hailing from a spacefaring human civilization that moved out into the stars in spacecraft which met their needs for oxygen and food with plants and algaes grown on every surface, including their own bodies- hence the barely-safe-for-COW's-no-nudity-policy attire.

She and her family tend the plant and animal life inside the garden jelly, harvesting food to bring down to the inhabitants of the deep ocean settlements. Dreanna is attuned to the Song (explained somewhat in my background post), but only at a rudimentary level- her lover Celadriel is much more aware.

I might post some rough sketches of Celadriel and Nedji later.

[corspufo]

grumbleputty: I like the design of the tattoo. It's pretty cool. I would recommend you push the design of the character a lot further though. The silhouette is fairly plain, and doesn't stand out in a crowd. You can do it. Unless you're showing an example of what your characters look like without clothes on. If that's the case, show a side by side with a costume/clothes on. Keep it up!

Townes: It's adorable, though i'm sure it's not supposed to be. Show us some more progress.

LateNiteHype: Those are a lot of ideas, I'm interested to see where you take them and how they end up. They seem very warriorish, which doesn't necessarily convey "utopia" to me. Another observation, the ankles of them are very thin, maybe too thin. But that's me.

[Grumbleputty]

grumbleputty: I like the design of the tattoo. It's pretty cool. I would recommend you push the design of the character a lot further though. The silhouette is fairly plain, and doesn't stand out in a crowd. You can do it. Unless you're showing an example of what your characters look like without clothes on. If that's the case, show a side by side with a costume/clothes on.

Thanks for the crit Corspufo- the idea I'm reaching for is that the pattern on her skin is algae, grown directly on her skin- so basically she's as dressed as she ever gets in that image. You're absolutely right, though, that graphically it's dull as diskwater. I'll try to push it further, and see if I can make my concept come across more clearly as well.

[imworlds]

I've been watching this thread and really admiring some of these designs!

I'd like to throw my idea into the ring. I'm still working up to a full color painting, but have mapped out some of the design line and form issues. I still have a ways to go; if I have time I'll design the gun in his holster...

The idea behind the Nereid is that they are gene-hacked civilization created by the Chinese government around 2100. Industrialized nations are competing for landspace and resources in the oceans, and have been redesigning humans to act as workers in the deep sea. These Nereid fought a war of independence against the Chinese, aided by the American and Japanese governments, and now rule over their own sovereign territory. They have patterned much of their constitution after America, but have implemented a decentralized government broken into tribal electorates.

Because of the nature of their violent history, and their isolation from the surface, the Pacific Nereid culture has become a bit of a pirate/cowboy society. Visiting surface dwellers often find themselves in danger of being forced out of airlocks, or mugged, or worse. There is still some resentment and racism within the culture against surface dwellers.

There are many subspecies of Nereid, all originally conceived from gene-splicing with various sea creatures. Some Nereid are completely inhuman, while others are closer to us in appearance, and may share our sympathies and motives.

This particular character has chromatophores, and can camouflage himself (like an octopus). He was a soldier during the war, along with many others of his species, and had a strong advantage because of his biochemistry. Now he hires himself out for odd jobs, working with other Nereid or surface dwellers...

There's more, but I'll stop here for now. I should have a painted illustration up in a couple of days (the photos of the fish are reference for the painting motifs).

http://www.qbauer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/nereid-character-concept-thumbs-qbauer.png
http://www.qbauer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/nereid-character-concept-lineart-qbauer.png

Here is a first pass at a colored concept. This one was patterned after clown fish markings. More to come tomorrow...

http://www.qbauer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/nereid-character-paint01-qbauer.png

Spent some time trying out slightly different paint schemes on the character (with a different hair style). I tend to like C the best, and would take this to a final illustration (if I had more time). I'd like to see this character rising up out of an airlock, dripping sea water, ready to draw his weapon on unsuspecting surface dwellers (okay, I know this is supposed to be utopian, but this guy is fighting to defend his utopia)...

http://www.qbauer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/nereid-character-concept-paint-schemes-qbauer.png

[Pavel Sokov]

those are sime very believable designs imworlds, i love them.
but they have a very important flaw. all the aqua sapiens look like assholes, and this is a utopia related compeition. You really need to find a way to make them look kinder, have more of a spectrum of emotion on their face, and genereally make their facial design more relatable to us, humans.

like abe from hellboy (the swimming underwater guy) for example, he doesnt look like a monster, so we care for him and such.

your facial designs set up the creatures to be enemies, so we cant relate to them.

[VulgarDragon]

My CHOW entry so far. The inhabitants of the DEEP universe experimented with genetic engineering and incorporated genes and traits of sea creatures to their own...this squid thingy is one of them. I think it's pretty much done...will color it before submitting.

Still waiting to hear reply to my question whether or not we can submit more than one type of character in the same universe?

C&C welcome...thanks.

[EDIT] My idea for the DEEP universe was still being formulated in my head at the I posted. There are now some changes in my concept. My concept now includes a water-covered planet that was settled by different aliens, including humans (who did experiment with adaptive genetic engineering). The squid thingy isn't human...just one of the alien species. Alright, gotta go and get back to work...only have a week left:O

[imworlds]

pavel sokov: thank you for the input. You've got a very good point, although I am considering a utopia as a society gone wrong. My story idea was one where these creatures create a democratized anarchy as a revolution against a totalitarian regime. Their idea of a libertarian utopia ends up being like our wild west, a society devoid of governmental sanction and security; like any utopian thinking in our own world, this society ends up having unforeseen consequences. I'm not sure if this is a valid interpretation of utopian worldbuilding, but my aesthetic followed this initial thinking...

Although your point about the design needing to draw sympathy from us is a very valid point.

By the way, I loved Abe Sapien; I think he was the best part about that movie!

[tsujni]

***snip***.
Still waiting to hear reply to my question whether or not we can submit more than one type of character in the same universe?
***snip***

i think so (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1764170&postcount=31)

[mickeymao]

Thinking in terms of a semi-near-future Utopia-in-progress, with genetically engineered humans and technologically augmented dolphins.

http://www.garethhinds.com/ext_post/DEEP_designs_MickeyMao01.jpg
http://www.garethhinds.com/ext_post/DEEP_designs_MickeyMao02.jpg
(moved supercavitating railcar to IDW/EOW)

Edit 6/23:
I’m still playing around with a couple of different ideas. One is a new episode of Gulliver’s Travels, in Atlantis. For this 18th-century fantastical world, the Atlanteans might be wispy-finned water-breathing mer-people or they might be fairly normal looking air-breathers who use technology to let them breathe water and good old flippers to swim. They have a very ideal, almost saccharine utopia, and there will be some social commentary, though I’m still trying to figure out that part. I will refer to this as “Gulliver.” Here's my POW progress (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1813281&postcount=57).

The other direction is a near-future genetic engineering scenario where humans are attempting an undersea utopia, told in a sort of diary, day-in-the-life style about the challenges of what they’re trying to do. I will refer to this as “Sci-Fi”

A few designs (e.g. the dolphin-mermen) may have potential for either world.

http://www.garethhinds.com/ext_post/DEEP_designs_MickeyMao05-6.jpg
http://www.garethhinds.com/ext_post/DEEP_designs_MickeyMao09.jpg
http://www.garethhinds.com/ext_post/DEEP_designs_MickeyMao10.jpg
http://www.garethhinds.com/ext_post/DEEP_designs_MickeyMao11.jpg


My DEEP designs:
POW (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1813281&postcount=57)
CHOW (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1808871&postcount=367)
IDW (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1813295&postcount=3)
EOW (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1813307&postcount=9)

[LateNiteHype]

Corspufo- thanks for the comments. I guess my characters do look like they have a chip on their shoulder for beings that are supposed to be existing in a utopia. :) I edited my post#351 (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1803320&postcount=351) with the characters in some less warlike situations.

A little bit about my DEEP: It is a utopia in that all creatures have been playing their role in the overall script of life and everything is in balance, but the world I am creating is more a "utopia on the brink". Evolution is going on and the two species I am highlighting, the fishmen and the crabmen (sorry, I haven't figured out creative names for them yet), are on divergent paths. Things are getting pretty messy as nature tries to maintain that balance- by any means necessary.

I have been trying to go forward with my version of DEEP by coming up with some fundamental rules that run the world:

1.) Setting is in the early age of the DEEP world's existence- between caveman and pre-colombian (some Apocalypto type stuff)
2.) DEEP has no knowledge of the human world above
3.) No verbal language (can't talk underwater)
4.) No fabricated iron- I don't even know if it's possible, but my creatures definitely ain't smart enough to do it yet
5.) Nature demands BALANCE (Nature is a mutha!!!)

I use this as a starting point and base my designs from there. They may not be realistic or completely science-based, but I found that it keeps my ideas in check so my mind doesn't drift off and create things that are hella bogus or at the least cannot possibly exist with each other.

So now I have to execute on my ideas now- the hard part. I was going to try to watercolor my designs since my laptop is acting up and my tablet is busted, but I think I'm wussing out. The remaining timeframe has me shook.

:^^;:

Nightblue - nice lighting on your character in Post#292. (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1791024&postcount=292) Especially the lighting on the background.

Flashrabbit - I like your cartoony approach, especially the watercolor looking ones. Is that traditional or does PAINTER allow you to do something like that?

corspufo, you have a nice mix of characters so far. "Man" looks kinda "superhero-ey". I'd like to see you finish the others.

Quinn Simoes - crazy costumes designs- the way you rendered them in greyscale make them creepy as hell. Would like to get a backstory on why they are wearing them.

[Pierce9]

Pretty happy with how this turned out, still alot to do though and times catching up...

[trout]

the empress

[Justice Von Brandt]

imworlds really cool concepts, I personally like the clown fish schemed one the best.

MCross The sketch looks nice, nothing really to crit about it. I like how you combined sea creatures.

mickeymar cute sketches so far

dogsbrother Hmm, I get that he's a whale-like creature. But he just doesn't look like he would be able to move in the top area.

trout I the hole the head area but her frame just gets lost.

Here's something I've drawn up. My idea is evolved humans that are mostly on land but can return to the small parts of remaining shore on Earth.

395842

396526

[Grumbleputty]

Some quick feedback:

Trout: Stunning! Is she a typical inhabitant of your realm?

dogsbrother: Well done- I like how you're pushing away from the fishman/ mermaid look.

Mcross: Pretty awesome design- something in his design and your line work remind me (fondly) of the old Monster Manual. I'm looking forward to seeing more of his world.

Mickeymao- I like what you're doing with the augmented dolphin (and the train is an awesome idea- I hope you're submitting that in IDOW as well). The pudgy guy has some well-thought out ideas, but the first fish girl leaves me a little cold- it's just a tad bit predictable IMHO. But then, in fairness, your setting is near future, so how drastically should I expect her to change?

imworlds- love your world design, but I'm having the same reaction to your main character that I had to Mickeymao's fish girl- it seems like a character we've seen before. If I may suggest, you mentioned in your backstory that the nereids range from nearly human to completely inhuman- I'd recommend pushing him just a step further down towards the fish end- maybe add some crazy lionfish spines, or some wierd catfish barbels. Fish have all sorts of wierd stuff hanging off them that don't seem to do anything, so get crazy and break up his human silhouette. Those Tats are awesome, btw.

[nuotatori]

hi ,there are some sketchs , i realy dont have a history behind those caracters but i think they could be from the bad guys.
she maybe is the queen who try to get more lands for her kindom,and the blue guy is her stupid servant,and the red one...... is something like an anvasador.
i hope u like (sorry for my inglish gggg!)

[LateNiteHype]

Edited Post#351. (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1803320&postcount=351) Tried my hand at some watercolors to paint the creatures. I don't know if I like it or not- something about the inked lineart mated with my painting doesn't agree with me. Oh well, hopefully I can play with it a little more this weekend. I was going to try to do some creatures without the penline to see how that goes, but I am afraid I won't be able to render enough detail strictly with the watercolor.

imworlds - I am a fan of character B, then A. The blue skin is cool and would serve as natural camo in the deep blue ocean maybe when the habitat is for the most part wide open spaces or colder regions of the ocean. The clownfish character is also cool and would be at home in a corel reef. But either way he has a gun, so I ain't telling him shit about where he can or can't swim. :)

dogsbrother - I like how you rendered your whalemanthing's skin texture. It looks smooth and clammy, without looking flawless like metal. I know regular anatomy goes out the window on a project like this, but you may want to look into the way his left side is positioned. Something about the way his lower leg and foot is twisted seems funny. Also what appears to be his shoulder or forearm seems out of place in relation to his chest. His chest should stick out in front hiding some of that forearm.

trout - lovin' the way you rendered her skin. Also, from what I can make out of the shadows see seems very pretty and her body is bangin'. ;) I definitely want to see more concepts of this character because I am interested in seeing how you can pull off integrating beauty and "octopus-ness".

[trout]

Edited Post#351. (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1803320&postcount=351)

trout - lovin' the way you rendered her skin. Also, from what I can make out of the shadows see seems very pretty and her body is bangin'. ;) I definitely want to see more concepts of this character because I am interested in seeing how you can pull off integrating beauty and "octopus-ness".

patience friend, i'm working on a portrait of her now. this image of her is from a larger image that i posted in the environment section of the contest.

[S.C. Watson]

FINALS THREAD IS POSTED (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=129196)

[Saturns Gate]

yeah baby! :D

[Izi]

omg you made me stop drawing my panels and then I fainted

[Tommoy]

Couldn't resist to try something.

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t19/Tommoy/DeepCHaracter4k.jpg

[Grumbleputty]

Tommov,that's really beautiful!

[Serpian]

Let me get this straight:

I can post SEVERAL different image files, as long as I keep it to one post?

In IDW they say I can only post a maximum of 5 images. Does this apply to IDW only?

[arttorney]

Another question: I looked around a bit and I can't see it specified whether the Finals are to be on Attachment Manager (Like most of the other activities) or outside host. I won't begin with Characters for a couple of more days, so no rush on this answer from my end.

[flashrabbit]

Updated my chow stuff ;)

LateNiteHype// Dont have painter ;( it´s all wc.
Tommoy// Nice mood.

[trout]

here is that portrait i promised

[Izi]

ooooooooh

[Pixeltuner]

trout: sweet portrait! but it looks more like she's thinking about something than actually looking at the seahorse. (if that's what she's supposed to do..)

here's a few thumbs I made to get away from the bipedal/humonoid design. The marked ones I like. They still have the bioluminescence/big glowy spot for communication, but that's about it. I've been thinking a lot about how to portray intelligence and sapience while designing deliberately non-humanoid characters and it's pretty hard. I need to show some interaction and while I was watching the semi-final of the European Championshop, sports came to my mind. Better start thumbing again.. :)

UPDATE: Lunchbreak paint: Aphotian elder & youngster scene.

[trout]

pixeltuner: if you are trying to convey more emotion you should try subtly changing the shape of the eyes, or the muscles above the eyes, or forms on the body that would accentuate the look and feel of the eyes.

[arttorney]

A typical inhabitant of the 65 million years before present time frame of my story line.
399898
Because of the margin issue (and the "one image/one submission" ambiguity) I'll just arrange my five together for a photograph before final burning.
401016
401228
It's not that all the females are always pink. The Ammonites can rapidly change their skin color/pattern. This is an individual style choice (and even some degree of latitude is available in the shades of the communicating tentacle, much as we might have an accent).

[DIMAGYAN]

sorry to make such question, but in the final thread we should make a one image one post entry? im not sure about that part of the brief.
thanks in advance

[Delmar]

uh cow took a lot more time than i thought! hope i can at least get some black and white character concepts until tomorrow.......here some progress.

The Mermans....

[axelalonso]

It's so lovely all the ideas ...I wish I had time to take part with all you guys! best of luck ! ;D

[Interceptor]

Here's what I'm submitting. Thanks guys.
-loren

[:::rain:::]

Grr...dont know why in the final burning thread my stuff went to thumbnail form, when I loaded it up last night and viewd it on the thread it was fine????
Anyways...too late to fix it now but I'll post them here anyways:

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff67/water_spiritz/DEEP_01.jpg

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff67/water_spiritz/DEEP_02.jpg

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff67/water_spiritz/DEEP_03.jpg

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff67/water_spiritz/DEEP_04.jpg

[S.C. Watson]

Grr...dont know why in the final burning thread my stuff went to thumbnail form, when I loaded it up last night and viewd it on the thread it was fine????

I don't know what was up with that. Anyway, I took the links from your post above and inserted them into your entry, so you're good now. One thing I did notice was that the links pointed to a different hosting service in the post we were having trouble with it. You can always go back and edit your post if you're having trouble like that.

All the best,
~Oreg.

[S.C. Watson]

GENERAL CHOW NOTE:

We'll be taking a one week break from CHOW to recover from the intensity of DEEP, and the festivities of Canada Day and Independence Day.

CHOW #117 will be announced on the 7th of July, with deadline being as per normal on the 14th.

CHOW #118 will be a special round that has been in the works for some time and had gotten trumped by DEEP. It will also be a judged round, and will also have a pretty awesome prize. More to follow soon both here and in the Lounge (within the next day or so).

All the best,
~Oreg.

[JessiBean]

Deep is done, is can be CHOW tiems now?
DO WANT!

:bounce:

[townes]

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/1296/unterwasser2ys9.jpg

i spend some more time with it.. about 1 hour overall
some critics are very welcome! ;)

[S.C. Watson]

POLL IS UP (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=129196)

Good luck to all!

~Oreg.

[arttorney]

Only 58 entrants? Piece of cake.

[Hamorhage]

Some awesome stuff! Mindblowing really! Shame it's already over. when will the next to[pic be announced? I wanna play with pencils too :D

[S.C. Watson]

Some awesome stuff! Mindblowing really! Shame it's already over. when will the next to[pic be announced? I wanna play with pencils too :D

to reiterate:


CHOW #117 will be announced on the 7th of July, with deadline being as per normal on the 14th.

CHOW #118 will be a special round that has been in the works for some time and had gotten trumped by DEEP. It will also be a judged round, and will also have a pretty awesome prize. More to follow soon both here and in the Lounge (within the next day or so).

All the best :medusachow:

~Oreg.

[S.C. Watson]

CHOW #117 IS POSTED (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=130591)