Eow 100 Epic!

[gunnarsson]

Nice stuffs inhere! I really like the drawings Tatiana, real cozy feel to them. And real good as always Hideyoshi! Tonic, looks interesting with the colors there, will be fun to see the finished thing! Vibras - id say that the sky and water is way to strongly orange, and that its to much the same valour. You might try to make it lighter at the horizon and darker further up(and down). You should definitely look at some reference if you haven't already. Its well on its way anyways, will be fun to see this too when finished!

I got a testingthing here, my epic of choise is the Hobbit.
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u256/pettergunnarsson/gunnarssoneow100thumbs.jpg

I have a small question about the competition, what does titling mean in this sort of thing? ("the design of the layout and titling counts!")

[Tonic]

gunnarsson, I guess it means that every work must be titled properly - title has to describe exactly what work shows ;)

Forgot to write. Finally I started to paint, for start I've used SketchUp to create 3D sketch of rocket garages:

(Urgh, those Categories and Copyright things you write at Attachments section..)

[Tonic]

And after 1h 20min of painting. I'm completely stuck with ship designs, so I probably will take others ship designs as reference. But generally speaking, I'm happy :) Adding a element that will make it something other than ordinary S-F port (and yes, I have idea, from book :D), redesigning ships and detailing it is what remained and will consume a lot of time!

[Lior Schiller]

Is it too late to join?
If it's not, I would like to take the world of "Song of Ice and Fire" or "Alice in Wonderland"

Hope I'll make it in time :)]

[DauDau]

If it is not possible to draw anything from my own story, then my second choice would also be Pern. I read some of the books a long time ago and love dragons. If it's still okay to join?

[tatiana]

...Good luck everyone! The images are coming along great! I especially like the Pern ones, I get the feeling I've seen them before... which probably means that the description in the book was detailed enough that I imagined the same thing! I can't wait to see the final pieces.

meganite: Yay! -- then I've managed to capture the Pern imagery floating in my head from the reading the stories, too. Excellent. And I've done some necessary re-reading of some of the key stories in the past week that had the key environment scenes I'm doing, too...lots of color tabs mark description spots in the books to help me finish it all up. I'm fixing some of my layout issues and sketching the final scene tonight...I'm swamped with freelance projects most of next week, so we'll see how that goes for final colors.

DauDau: If Chaos OK's your Pern choice, I'm curious to see which environments you end up picking to concept... :)

Tonic: That SketchUp looks really useful! Too bad I can't run it on my machine...it's a few OS behind the times, heh. Curious to see what you end up concepting for the final ships in your EOW and wonder what that special "element" is that you're talking about...might have to read the book some time.

[Tonic]

Tonic: That SketchUp looks really useful! Too bad I can't run it on my machine...it's a few OS behind the times, heh. Curious to see what you end up concepting for the final ships in your EOW and wonder what that special "element" is that you're talking about...might have to read the book some time.

The special element is the fact that people toys with space ships like as we do with used and rusty cars :) Lacquer is falling off? Then get the can of paint and paint it! Something wrong with electronic device? Just kick it! The merchant sold you a buggy navigation software? Oh, well, it sometimes happens, that's life. Hope you get it :P And I'm going to create work in way that will give viewer that impression. I'm still working at it, but you can see in below work that the garage is somewhat crappy, the wall fragments are falling off, on floor there's a cable that was cut. I will add more elements and I hope they will give viewer the feeling that the garage is the last place you would place your own space ship :P Also, I played a bit with colors and blurring. I think using these enchancements helped with focusing viewer's eyes on ship. Now I'm dying with empty stomach, so I'm going to take break. Detailing did take 1.5 hours, colouring and blurring 15 mins.

About book - it's a must-a-must. After reading first chapter you will probably say "Whoa!" :P At least, I did ;)

[Corrick]

Well, things are shaping up nicely, aren't they. Lot of fantastic beginnings here.

Hideyoshi, that's some tasty lighting, as usual, and Tonic, I haven't read Lem's works either (aside from Solaris, after hearing the movie was a pale imitation), but it must be a pretty remarkable series based on your interpretation. Very nice.

Tatiana, pull back! Back back back... let's see the whole thing!

I s'pose I need to post up soon, numbers 1 and 2 are done, but 3-5 are posing a detail challenge. Hideyoshi, our mountains are going into the cage to fight it out.

[lightsfromthedeep]

Going to be rough to get it completed before the deadline, but I wanted to post here to get approval to work on environments from the Michael Ende novel The Neverending Story. I saw that it'd been approved for someone else and that multiple people could work on a single topic. Sense it is my all-time favorite story and my inspiration to become an artist and storyteller, I thought it would be perfect.

*Tosses the preverbial hat into the ring.*

[chaosrocks]

go for it
anything already approaved is good to go
sorry to be out of touch

yay!
crx

[DauDau]

Thank you Chaos. Pern it is.

Tatiana: I know I want to do a "Weyr" dragon/rider base. The ocean intrigues me as well. Years ago, I read the trilogy that included "Menolly" with her tiny dragons and she came from a fishing community. I am off to the library to get that book today. It may be, that I get to work on her fishing community. A third choice would be "Harper Hall" where they teach art, especially music. Not sure of the 4th and 5th, yet.

I haven't read all the pages in this thread. I didn't want to get too influenced by others before I put my own ideas on paper. I won't be winning, though. I'm too much of a n00b. I'm lucky if I even finish.

[tatiana]

Thank you Chaos. Pern it is.

Tatiana: I know I want to do a "Weyr" dragon/rider base. The ocean intrigues me as well. Years ago, I read the trilogy that included "Menolly" with her tiny dragons and she came from a fishing community. I am off to the library to get that book today. It may be, that I get to work on her fishing community. A third choice would be "Harper Hall" where they teach art, especially music. Not sure of the 4th and 5th, yet.

I haven't read all the pages in this thread. I didn't want to get too influenced by others before I put my own ideas on paper. I won't be winning, though. I'm too much of a n00b. I'm lucky if I even finish.

DauDau: Cool! I look forward to seeing your interpretations! Menolly's "Dragonsong" and "Dragonsinger" books were my initial intro to Pern back when I was in grade school -- and still my favorites. :)

I'm still dithering on my own final Pern environment selection... I'm caught between two key scenes, particularly after re-reading "All the Weyrs of Pern". Hmm...

Corrick: I'm still tweaking the layouts...yeah, and want to include a bit more for the coast scene so I'll be pulling back a bit. But, too far back and you lose the hint of the interior to the Hold and Docking cavern....but can include more of the fleet. Still sketching, cutting and pasting. :)

Good to hear about more potential entries for this special EOW in any case! Yay!

t

[Tonic]

Instead of finishing first piece, I've decided to start the next work, so I could refresh myself and finish previous work with more energy. There you have - professor Zazul's laboratory. It was a kinda a mad nihilist scientist who works alone in his own laboratory hidden somewhere in forest. The main character was lost during downpour and found Zazuls' house by accident. And there, he was able to see what's inside.. a homunculus, created by professor. But this fact is nothing in comparing to a surprise that happen later, but I will not say nothing - read the book :D It's not finished yet, as I want to work on creepiness of laboratory.

[OchreHand]

Hey Tonic thanks for showing your steps...

I think you are nailing the mood for laboratory.. maybe consider a secondary light (could be another color) from the side so some of the details don't get too buried in shadow?

[Tonic]

Hey Tonic thanks for showing your steps...

Glad to hear :) I'm recording screen while I'm painting, but I will post videos as I complete works and edit video files.



I think you are nailing the mood for laboratory.. maybe consider a secondary light (could be another color) from the side so some of the details don't get too buried in shadow?

I also have feeling there's too much of black, so you got point. The secondary light source is a pretty good idea, I will try it.

[DauDau]

Idea sketch for a PERN WEYR....

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z240/Avalily_album/PERN1WeyrSketchA1.jpg

[yAdam]

OK, pretty damn late to this, but still gonna hopefully complete the 5. I'm not familiar with many of the books, but i'm going to try and tackle Pellucidar. Some of the images might be a bit ambiguous, in terms of connections with the literature, but i'll do as much research as time allows!

[chaosrocks]

yay yadam classic Burroughs FTW!

crx

[lkjhgfdsa]

IF it isn't too late I'd really like to use 'The Dark Tower' series by Stephen King- as reference for the five scenes...?
Yay!

[manimatron82]

Wow! Everyone's environments are looking great! Here are my works-in-progress. They're based on Burrough's 'A Princess of Mars'. C&C are welcome! Hopefully I'll find the time to finish them all...

[Tonic]

manimatron82, they look interesting, especially the second piece - it's nicely composed, has atmosphere and something is happening there. The rest of works has too much of empty space in backgrounds - adding mountains and enlarging them can help a lot with filling works.

In fourth work, the character from left doesn't work well, it's like he suddenly appeared and I have no idea on what he's sitting. Perhaps staying on mountain edge will look more natural?

In the last piece you did well with showing the monumental building and grasped nicely the space, but I think it will be composed better if you use vertical canvas, instead of horizontal. Not only you would reduce the empty space in left and right sides of background, but also build up the feeling of monumental building.

[Hideyoshi]

Corrick: haha, I am looking forward to your entries! :)

Meanwhile, I fixed up my mountain scape, heheh...

532653

[aberrant85]

Here are my WIP concepts for Milton's Paradise Lost. Suggestions and comments welcome!

http://nathanheigert.com/images/0_fullsize/eowpandemonium.jpg
Pandemonium

http://nathanheigert.com/images/0_fullsize/eowgatesofhell.jpg
The Gates of Hell

http://nathanheigert.com/images/0_fullsize/eowheaven.jpg
Heaven

http://nathanheigert.com/images/0_fullsize/eowearth.jpg
The Earth

http://nathanheigert.com/images/0_fullsize/eowparadise.jpg
Paradise: The Garden of Eden

[ZUPZUP]

http://www.zupzup.com/Art/EOW_100_ZUPZUP1.jpg
Here is what I have so far from 1 of my 5 images. This is right after David and Perry have crawled out of the drill and onto the strange world....more to come.

[hungryan]

Hideoyoshi:
Your Neverending Story pictures are kickass! I will not be able to make anything for this, so I'm happy that you've made this theme so well.

[Tonic]

aberrant85, I would rearrange aqueduct, so it would end in right upper corner, not in middle. I think it would make a better composition and add more dynamic. The second and third work would be zoomed a bit, since it's too empty around the main elements. Keep working :)

By the way, I'm having a problem. I found out I was working in sRGB color profile, so it makes images outside Photoshop darker (for example, there). Is there a way to convert without losses (darkening)?

I corrected a bit my second work. Probably today I will start with next work. 6 days has remained! :D

[Angel Intheuk]

Eh up Tonic

Was reading up about the same thing last week and found this link, might be useful for you::)

http://www.viget.com/inspire/the-mysterious-save-for-web-color-shift/

[ZUPZUP]

http://www.zupzup.com/Art/EOW_100_ZUPZUP4.jpg
Here is my second Pellucidar image

[Tonic]

ZUPZU that's lovely style, have you a image or video step-by-step's?


Eh up Tonic

Was reading up about the same thing last week and found this link, might be useful for you::)

http://www.viget.com/inspire/the-mysterious-save-for-web-color-shift/

Hey, thanks, that probably will save future problems, but my main question was if it's possible to convert without losses :P I mean, the work was originally started in sRGB profile, so as I switch to Monitor RGB and set proper color profile things (as it should be), the work darkens. As so far, there's only one workaround I figured out - just tap PrintScreen key and paste in graphic viewer :D

Now I'm going to think about Rainbow Station (no, no, it's not something the name describes! It's much more... bizarre and terrific what it did to people)

[DauDau]

About the color. I had a problem with colors going nuts, when I saved. Then I started saving it in the highest definition. That helped. I have no idea, if this could help in your case.

[Demo]

Finished 2 enviroment. Under water Task but Im pretty sure im not going to finish befor the deadline but im still going to try maybe ill get emm done who knows.
533167

[Mishkin275]

Hey there People stuff is looking good. Really Dig yours ZUPZUP.
This sure is a tall order, but here's what I've got so far. This is my very bland take on One Hundred Years of Solitude.

[Vulgar`]

Ariiiise.

[tatiana]

ARGH!! December 9th EOW Deadline is coming up too fast...must keep working...will manage somehow!

[ZUPZUP]

http://www.zupzup.com/Art/EOW_100_ZUPZUP5.jpg

Probably the most distrubing scene from "At the Earth's Core"

Tonic - Thanks!....glad you like them. I will try and get a step by step put together of this piece if I get time, as I did save my steps along the way. Also like the wips you have posted so far....cool stuff. Sketchup looks really handy for working up some quick architecture and lighting.

Mishkin275 - Thank you! I like what you have going on as well. Definitely not lame. Really enjoy the "Banana Plantation" piece. Plus all the work has a nice consistent feel to it.

[iwantjelly]

I'm on the verge of pitifully pussing out, as the dreadful late-as-hell web project that took my life away from me for 3 weeks is ending... Tuesday, december the 9th.

So I'm asking discreetly...

Will there be an extension to the deadline ?

Please don't hit me. Not to hard, at least.

[DauDau]

I've noticed, that a number of the people who said yes to do this EPIC challenge, have been silent. Probably working frantically. I can't help but wonder, how many will be able to make it?

That aside, I've been impressed, as always, with the sketches here.

EDIT: I've changed my mind, and removed my own sketch. It's not working.

[lkjhgfdsa]

So far...
DarkTower- s.king
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a134/jonoy/sofar.jpg

[gunnarsson]

three of the five, and still working on them. nice work everyone, these big gettogethers are nice:)

Beorns house
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u256/pettergunnarsson/gunnarssoneow100wipbeorn.jpg

Gollums cave
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u256/pettergunnarsson/gunnarssoneow100wipgollum.jpg

Main gate, lonely mountain
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u256/pettergunnarsson/gunnarssoneow100wiplonelymountain.jpg

[pokepetter]

The Moses Epic.

Wow. Today was a productive day ^^

Did all of these today, though started the two first a while ago. I hope they're not too far away from the text, I read between the lines a bit to give me more freedom.


Temple of Ra:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii288/pokepetter/061208_PetterAmland_TempleOfRa.jpg

Pharaoh's Palace:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii288/pokepetter/061208_PetterAmland_PharaohsPalace.jpg

Collecting Sandstone:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii288/pokepetter/061208_PetterAmland_CollectingSands.jpg

The Promised Land:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii288/pokepetter/061208_PetterAmland_ThePromisedLand.jpg

The Burning Bush:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii288/pokepetter/061208_PetterAmland_TheBurningBush.jpg

[tatiana]

I've noticed, that a number of the people who said yes to do this EPIC challenge, have been silent. Probably working frantically. I can't help but wonder, how many will be able to make it?

That aside, I've been impressed, as always, with the sketches here.

EDIT: I've changed my mind, and removed my own sketch. It's not working.

Not everyone posts progress images for the challenges, which is a pity. It's most helpful to see different approaches and techniques by other artists, and ideally getting comments to help improve, too. I always learn something in any case. Hopefully there will be quite a few last minute entries selected from Chaos' approved list of topics on the last day.

I've been swamped with freelance projects myself but will be posting some more progress stuff and then my final concepts by deadline (whatever I have, heh).

Hope that you aren't totally giving up, DauDau! What you had sketched for made me think of the environment they were talking about filming in New Mexico for the proposed "Dragonriders of Pern" tv show (never happened but there's a script floating around). :)

[vibhas_virwani]

hey everyone , finished one piece only , cant do the rest :S exams from 11th :S .... so ... anyway ... here is that one ...

[yAdam]

Gah! I'm not gonna be able to get 5 done. Only started Monday, but was on track, until I got ill on thursday! Still don't feel too great, so i'll just spend a bit more time on the 3 I already started.

[Tonic]

I see I'm not alone with problems of finishing remaining works :) It's just like my ideas and imagination did.. blow away. The sketches I've done are stiff and boring :( 50 hours has left, minus 16 hours of sleeping, that's bad, but I'm still trying.

[DauDau]

I decided to try, too. It's true, that I had almost given up, so thank you very much to Tatiana for her kind encouragement. It mattered.

I've got ideas for 3 images. Working on all 3. We will see how it goes. My best wishes to all of you here. Good luck with your work.

Tonic, my best wishes and hope that you can let your creative and playful side loose again. Kick the "stiff sketch'es" butt. Good luck.

[Gaius]

Its just so difficult to find the time, days arent long enough , I am so running behind only two done.

"Dear Santa,
This year I would like Auntie Chaos to extend EOW #100 deadline to next sunday midnight. As we have all been very good this year. Honest!"

Loving seeing all the sketches.

:)

[Tonic]

I decided to try, too. It's true, that I had almost given up, so thank you very much to Tatiana for her kind encouragement. It mattered.

I've got ideas for 3 images. Working on all 3. We will see how it goes. My best wishes to all of you here. Good luck with your work.

Tonic, my best wishes and hope that you can let your creative and playful side loose again. Kick the "stiff sketch'es" butt. Good luck.

Hey, thanks! :) You too, don't lose to your dark side :P

I've used SketchUp again and it helped a bit. There are results as so far:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/furniture/wip1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/furniture/wip2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/furniture/wip3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/furniture/wip4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/furniture/wip5.jpg

The funniest thing is that I love the second WIP mostly :P I think composition needs a lot of redoing and perspective feels a bit awkward, but I need to refresh myself. I'm going to continue it tomorrow :)


Its just so difficult to find the time, days arent long enough , I am so running behind only two done.

"Dear Santa,
This year I would like Auntie Chaos to extend EOW #100 deadline to next sunday midnight. As we have all been very good this year. Honest!"
:)

I find believing in chaos extending deadline pretty hard. The more plausible wish would be internet problems, oversleeping, sudden vacations or something.. :P

[OchreHand]

Tonic that's looking really good -- actually it's looking like a fun multiplayer map for deathmatching :D.

Sketchup is great... I like how it's able to help with measuring issues when I'm feeling mathematically challenged

I've somehow managed to do 5 pieces, but without any people in them. Argh. Hopefully I can plop them in by deadline.

[Janto]

Uh, I went silent, only just checked in expecting to see everything finished up for Final Burning, only to find an extension to the 9th. WHOOO!

I'm actually painting these pieces, which was sort of an insane task considering, so I'm really slow and it's a bit of a pain to do progress drawings, but I might be able to make that deadline, fingers crossed.

[ZUPZUP]

http://www.zupzup.com/Art/EOW_100_ZUPZUP2.jpg

Here is the fourth image of my Pellucidarian series.....one more to go.

[chaosrocks]

all right all you dudes and dudettes

till Sunday Midnight any where in the world

DEADLINE DECEMBER 14

GOT IT?

ps thank your buddy Gaius cause hes cute... and a regular EOW person faithful and true

[yAdam]

I'm Definately still in then....THANKYOU!!!!

[Angel Intheuk]

woohoo! :D

[DauDau]

Santa just came early, this year. Thank you!

I will now go add a "Thanks" to Gaius... I didn't know he was cute. lol.

[Gaius]

Thanks Chaos. :)

[DauDau]

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z240/Avalily_album/Concept%20Art/Pernsketch1and2b.jpg

Update: I started out with the blue.... then it turned brown/orange like the rocks in Utah... I'm still working on the background, but I added a quick green dragon to show, that this is meant to be apart of the finished image. I'm learning a lot.

Now the sketch looks like this (not quite done):
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z240/Avalily_album/Concept%20Art/WEYRSKETCHgreen2.jpg

[Tonic]

Gaius, can I kiss you? :D

DauDau, I suggest to get texture brushes or use photos of rocks and paste them in layers with enabled Overlay or Soft Light blending. Remember, they should be subtle, so eraser and layer transparency come handy. That's a quite easy method to obtain interesting textures. My favour watercolour painter once said: "Prevent monotony" :)

Creating perspective lines using Line tool. The red marks shows where I have perspective errors. Blue marks shows how it should be corrected. Some of them are pretty obvious. The head on left side wasn't rotated properly to three point perspective, so I selected it with lasso and rotated. Also I moved it to left for better composition:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/furniture/wip06.jpg

Those lines were pretty useful, but create much lines as you need. Don't overdo it, otherwise it can be messy - I sometimes had problem with figuring out which axis it is. Even at this moment I see the right column isn't drawn correctly. Also, it's a good idea to use different colours for different axis.

After corrections:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/furniture/wip07.jpg

Changed the platform and added a statue, so viewer would easily focus. More details:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/furniture/wip08.jpg

After reading (or rather viewing, as it was wrote in Japanese language :P) a Bastard!! manga (in the last volumes authors use tablets to paint special effects), I found a very nice drawing of biologic-mechanic dragon:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/furniture/bastard_dragon_dark_shadow.jpg

Note how authors used airbrushes with white and dark color. I loved this effect and used it for statue. Though, it needs more work to make it more noticeable:

Added flowers, trees, birds and dots to add the feeling of waterfall hitting water and dust flying in air. Also, enabled the light layer.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/furniture/wip09.jpg

Still, it needs some corrections, details and refining, but that's enough for today. Now I'm going for next work :)

[DauDau]

Thank you, Tonic. :) Also, I was in such a rush, that I didn't get to thank you for your encouragement, earlier. I do appreciate it.

I do have texture brushes downloaded, but I haven't started using them, yet. I have to figure out how to do layer transperancy. I'll google it. It may save me a lot of time.

My third sketch looses some detail, because it has been resized down to about 35 percent of it's original size. I also added some dark around the green dragon, to create "space" and that didn't work out so well.

After reading your description on perspective lines, I will go over mine again.

Tonic, you do really cool work.

[tatiana]

all right all you dudes and dudettes

till Sunday Midnight any where in the world

DEADLINE DECEMBER 14

GOT IT?

ps thank your buddy Gaius cause hes cute... and a regular EOW person faithful and true

SWEET!!
You bring tears of joy to my poor tired little eyes....

[Tonic]

I do have texture brushes downloaded, but I haven't started using them, yet. I have to figure out how to do layer transperancy. I'll google it. It may save me a lot of time.

If you're using Photoshop or Painter, in Layer window (where you have layers, delete them, rename and etc.) you have a transparency level. In photoshop it's in percentage values and you can change it, in painter you have a scrollbar. A lot of artists uses this method, but not much of them shows them. You may search for hydropix videos (http://hydropix.com), there are two videos and in each he uses textures few times. I have also a video of my speedpainting at vimeo (http://vimeo.com/2226128), in 1:15 you can see how I'm using photos, even if they're totally unrelated to work's topic. In this work (http://www.gram.pl/upl/news/120080728080856.jpg) you can see a very good use of this method. If you look deeper, you can see rocks are from photo, but using transparency and overpainting makes the feeling that the textures were done by author.


Tonic, you do really cool work.

Thanks :)

[DauDau]

If you're using Photoshop or Painter, in Layer window (where you have layers, delete them, rename and etc.) you have a transparency level. In photoshop it's in percentage values and you can change it, in painter you have a scrollbar. A lot of artists uses this method, but not much of them shows them. You may search for hydropix videos (http://hydropix.com), there are two videos and in each he uses textures few times. I have also a video of my speedpainting at vimeo (http://vimeo.com/2226128), in 1:15 you can see how I'm using photos, even if they're totally unrelated to work's topic. In this work (http://www.gram.pl/upl/news/120080728080856.jpg) you can see a very good use of this method. If you look deeper, you can see rocks are from photo, but using transparency and overpainting makes the feeling that the textures were done by author.



Thank you, Tonic. That is very helpful. I have been practicing and it will take a while to get good at this, but it's very cool. Appreciate links and info a lot.

[manimatron82]

lkjhgfdsa - I frickin’ love the King’s Dark Tower series. This makes me want to re-read them all. Can’t wait to see the rest of your pieces.

ZUPZUP – Good work, I really like your style. Lots of texture.

Gaius – Awesome work, as usual.

Tonic – The re-worked perspective in that piece looks awesome. The addition of the statue really ties the scene together, too. And the touches of leaves and vines really make it come alive. Great job! I didn’t really like this environment when I saw the sketch, but I think you’ve brought it a loooong way! It looks beautiful now. I’m looking forward to seeing your next one. And thanks again for the advice on my sketches. It’s come in very handy, they’re already looking much stronger. Hopefully I’ll post an update tonight.

Chaosrocks – You rock! This was what I needed to start my week off on the right foot. Thanks for the extension! I was preparing myself for an all-nighter.

[OchreHand]

Here's one of the scenes from Dante's Divine Comedy that I'm working on... frozen hell. Still need to add Dante and Virgil to the scene, and hopefully frozen lost souls. (big thanks for the extension Chaosrocks)

http://www.funlabor.com/EOW_100_ochrehand_4.jpg

Also, about texturing, another way to get a gritty texture is to take your painting, duplicate it, go into Adjustments -> Threshold and overlay the results. I tend to do this a lot for rock texture since I don't overlay photography in my work (to each his own naturally :sungod: )

[DauDau]

Thank you, Ochre. I am having my newbie battles with textures and will definitely try your method, too.

The snowy icy rocks look awesome.

[ZUPZUP]

http://www.zupzup.com/Art/EOW_100_ZUPZUP3.jpg

My final image as David Innes and Ja approach the Mahar Temple.

manimatron82 - Thanks for the comments....glad you enjoy them

OchreHand - Great piece you have going on here. Looking forward to the addition of Dante and Virgil....cool stuff.

DauDau - Another great way that I like to add texture to my work is by getting out "real" paints and work up a couple of sheets of random painted textures or brush strokes. I then can use the image as a springboard to work off of, or as an overlay to help me get more of a traditional feel to my image really quick.

But again that is just one way to approach it, all of the other suggestions were great as well, and a person might find himself using any or all of them in a particular painting.

[tsujni]

some awesome work! Hideyoshi, ZupZup, OchreHand, I'm lookin your way.
Tatiana, love your sketches.

My last two, A flesh out of the Heorot sketch and Beowulf's burial mound.

[Tonic]

After looking at ZUPZUP's works, I thought I should paint in more painterly way, so there you have a Rainbow Station. I wanted a weird building, so this method of painting was suited better since it uses random brushstrokes at beginning. Used vyle's brushes for elements from which I could form a building :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/rainbow_station/wip1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/rainbow_station/wip2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/rainbow_station/wip3.jpg

Of course it isn't finished. Now the final work is waiting for me. After it I will polish all works to deadline :)

The question for 100 points - what are discs laying around characters? :D

[Trashy]

Man...I really hate fall semesters sometimes. I'm so happy I still got time for this. I'm gonna push these out later this week. Great work guys!

[robmorfin]

wow, thanks Chaos, Gaius & Santa, thought today was the last day.

here are my wips:

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u292/robmorfin/palace.jpg

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u292/robmorfin/funeralatpalacehall.jpg

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u292/robmorfin/cookingdragonsheart.jpg

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u292/robmorfin/boatapproachingatfjord.jpg

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u292/robmorfin/horsejumpingitoringoffire.jpg

The theme is Volsanga Saga

[Demo]

ok guys i think im throwin the towle in on this round i spent about 4 hours drawing my 3rd one up today for the second time and the only thing epic about it, is its fail :( ill think about it more in the morning

[DauDau]

ok guys i think im throwin the towle in on this round i spent about 4 hours drawing my 3rd one up today for the second time and the only thing epic about it, is its fail :( ill think about it more in the morning

Wow. I hope you will reconsider. My plan is to post whatever I have, even though it will fail. I may not even have enough. Heh.


:cheerleader: :overhere:

[Angel Intheuk]

My WIPS for Discworlds Lanre and Deaths Study...

Not moving as fast as I hoped...that's the curse of deciding to make christmas presents this year (sigh) hopefully I'll be able to at least do drawings for all five in time.

not much to go on at the mo but any crits are welcome.

[hunchback]

wip blah need more still
got a snow day so i can work on stuff a bit

[Janto]

Here's my first four WIP pieces, had to go back to the drawing board entirely with the fifth, it just wasn't doing what I wanted, but my new choice is one I'm much happier with.

http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg164/janto_mcmullin/DSC_0003.jpg

Ged's Village, the day of the invasion. I wanted this to have an authentic primitive feel, and you can see where I'm toying around with ideas on where to put more mist (and goats)

http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg164/janto_mcmullin/DSC_0004.jpg

The School of Magic, Central Courtyard. This is based on a courtyard in the papal palace in Avignon, plus greenery. I want more details in the architecture, but we'll see how I get on.

http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg164/janto_mcmullin/DSC_0005.jpg

The Dragonspoiled Isle. Originally I'd planned on keeping this very minimalist, just the ruined town on its bay, the main design challenge was making the dragon wrapped around the tower both concealed and obvious if you know what you're looking for. I'm not sure about adding the young dragons, but I thin it makes the scene much more alive.

http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg164/janto_mcmullin/DSC_0008.jpg

The Shores of the Dead. This was the hardest one, because it's the simplest. I'm still struggling to convey the fact that the sea TURNS into land, rather than there being a beach.

[DauDau]

I am going to call this one "finished". It's only number one of the five. I hope I'm uploading correctly. Both files are linked in from photobucket.

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z240/Avalily_album/Concept%20Art/EOW100_DauDau_icon1.jpg

and

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z240/Avalily_album/Concept%20Art/EOW100_DauDau_1.jpg

I will try to do the others in a smaller file (the above is 40% of the original)... who knows, I might still finish them.

[tsujni]

Heorot WIP update.

Janto, I love "The Shores of the Dead", good job.

[gunnarsson]

looking sweet tsujni! that works real well, all the colors on the house.

And janto, i totally agree about shore of the dead, i can dig the atmosphere you got into it, and it is really glowing!

kudos to crazyhumpackmageewiththerumpburgers+inertandahalf for the perspectivez

this be what i got so far, still from the Hobbit:

this is very much a wip, I'm thinking of doing some othe thing for this, cause the part of the book where they travel through mirkwood are one of the strongest moodwize to me. So I do want to capture that in some way, them beeing almost suffocated by the warm pressuring windless air and the darkness... But its so damn hard to get your visions onto the canvas!

a pickle in mirkwood
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u256/pettergunnarsson/gunnarssoneow100wipspiderscopy.jpg

main gate, lonely mountain
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u256/pettergunnarsson/gunnarssoneow100wiplonelymountai-1.jpg

gollums cave
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u256/pettergunnarsson/gunnarssoneow100wipgollum-1.jpg

the great hall, lonely mountain
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u256/pettergunnarsson/gunnarssoneow100wipdragonslaircopy.jpg

beorns house
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u256/pettergunnarsson/gunnarssoneow100wipbeorn.jpg

gonna do some kind of frame with incorperated titling design for 'em i think.

[tsujni]

Thanks, gunnarsson.
Looking through your post, the great hall catches my attention.
Regarding your Gollum's cave, I might recommend increasing the width of the piece to reinforce a more claustrophobic element.

Heorot update, I'm having issues with the ground under the great hall. :)

[Tonic]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/rybici/wip1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/rybici/wip2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/rybici/wip3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/eow100_epic/rybici/wip4.jpg

Need to rotate the water-air border. Too big angle in relation to horizont and front perspective.

Two days until deadline. Pretty much for composition corrections and detailing :)

[hunchback]

ever ones stuff is looking ( insert Tony the Tiger great!!)
Damn Tonic you have a great perspective and unity of colour in your work
great stuff.
alas i could not spend hours and hours on the first post it would have talken too long. i lll get it all done but here is the new first one.
yes im crazy ( illl finish the other one later
peace got to paint!!!

[Earendil]

ZUPZUP, Tonic, Tsujin, Hide... :yayca:

More coming...

Return To Oz

539658

539659

[hunchback]

here is another one
this is gluttony, aka the third circle of hell
the last one was the fortress of dis inside the fifth circle.

earendil: great piece cant wait for more xD

[Orunitier]

Errrg...I'm not gonna be able to finish in time...:upset: :( Totally fail.

[lkjhgfdsa]

SO FAR...
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a134/jonoy/conglom_gunslinger.jpg

[chaosrocks]

OK.
so here's how it works
Im about to post the final burning thread

at which point you all will move/place your entries in that thread. remembering that layout and design are part of the entry

you will then make a small (150x150) icon of your entry which you will post as a link. to and OUTSIDE host (not the CA attachment manager). please contact me if you have a problem doing this.

beautiful works coming in
May the best person win!!!!!

[Tonic]

Eearendil, hunchbackmagee, thanks! :)

hunchbackmagee, it's nice to see someone using Alchemy. I've used this program for making few works, but it sometimes it's tricky to shape interesting forms from what-the-shapes-are. Your first work is almost purely imaginable, but nonetheless interesting. Also, it's too symmetrical for my taste. After looking at second work, I think it would be a good idea to practice connecting random shapes you created in Alchemy into one solid. I know you don't have much time, but.. ;)

Eearendil, I like the athmosphere - so gloomy, wet, empty and mysterious. Though, the character on right side is hardly visible, so I would suggest to move him left, to lighter street. Contrast may help to pop him out.

lkjhgfdsa - I like the picture with multi-level maze. It looks very intriguing and perspective adds more dynamic to it. Overall you have nice works, except the work in upper right corner. Its' style is very different and I can't figure out if it was painted completely by you, or photoshopped few photos and merged them. And title captions are hardly readable - chaos said titling is important (text or/and form, not sure about it), so correct it! :P Don't resize texts, just resize image first, then make text. By the way, after I realized how you nickname's letters are placed on keyboard, I thought it's pretty funny :P




at which point you all will move/place your entries in that thread. remembering that layout and design are part of the entry

Uch, a kinda of forcing to use pretty small dimensions (300-500px width for each). It may kill parts of work, but.. dura lex, sed lex :P

[gunnarsson]

got 2 suggestions for the expedition in "the Hobbit" passing through the mirkwood forest. If anyone sees this soon, tell me which one you like the best...:)

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u256/pettergunnarsson/gunnarssoneow100wipspidersv1.jpg

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u256/pettergunnarsson/gunnarssoneow100wipspidersv2copypop.jpg

[Tonic]

The first one is definitely better, but I suggest to make work more readable. For example, more webs and forming better a spider. Also, add light planes, as I can see only mid tones and shadows. Placing light planes on hobbit would pop it out.

But I can't guess, why hobbit is standing on tree's branch. It's like.. he wants to get eaten by spider :P

[gunnarsson]

thanks alot tonic, appreciate it! I updated the scond one to show better what i thought was interesting in that kind of image/composition, some light in the dark kinda.. And in that first one, i actually want it darker then it is now heh. The main thing almost about that part of the story was hoa dark it was i found.
But do you think it could work even darker? perhaps i need to do it pretty dark so that it is an obvious choice and so that it does not just look like i did it too dark cause of chance/bad skills.

thanks again for the time, its nice to get some outside input!

[DauDau]

The second one leaps out at me, and I really like it. But if you want to show your skill and stuff, then I have no clue. I'm too much of a noob.

[Tonic]

thanks alot tonic, appreciate it! I updated the scond one to show better what i thought was interesting in that kind of image/composition, some light in the dark kinda.. And in that first one, i actually want it darker then it is now heh. The main thing almost about that part of the story was hoa dark it was i found.
But do you think it could work even darker? perhaps i need to do it pretty dark so that it is an obvious choice and so that it does not just look like i did it too dark cause of chance/bad skills.

thanks again for the time, its nice to get some outside input!

It can look better when darker, but it requires to balance with highlights, midtones and shadows. None of light types can be overdone, otherwise the work will look quite flatten (and that's why I suggested you to add highlights). A well-chosen light type variety is what you need for achieving a proper atmosphere. You may consider using Overlay or Soft Light layer with gradient with 100% transparency at centre (where you have light) and full black outside for darkening areas around light. Also you can use this method for brightening (white gradient at centre and maybe Screen or Soft Light layer). It's a trick I love to use to build up a feeling of light, but it mustn't be overdone (layers opacity helps a lot).

About second image, I still have the same opinion :P In addiction I will say that a first work has much more interesting history (a scared hobbit who trapped in giant spider area where he finds imprisoned spider victims and tries to defend with a tiny knife) than second work, where hobbits are just walking. It doesn't let the imagination to play much. Also, the composition in second work is rather boring, you have horizontal line of vertical trees in background and foreground. There's no a little of chaos, everything seems to be so clean and fixed.

[gunnarsson]

well played Tonic, well played!;) I settled for the first one. Good crits, and I wanna experiment with the light more now. I don't know how to do that transparancy thing, dunno if it even exists as a tool in ps7, but i'll try out some stuffs. thanks for the time mister!

[Tonic]

PS7 can do that, there are two ways to create gradient - using Gradient tool or Gradient layer. I strongly suggest using second method because you can adjust gradients' settings anytime. Also, you can adjust colours/opacities in fly! There are pics from my Polish version of PS CS3:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/making_gradient/gradient_layer.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/making_gradient/gradient_settings.jpg

And there you can set layer opacity:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/Cinot/concept_art/making_gradient/layer_opacity.jpg

[gunnarsson]

haha oh my! thank you alot tonic, thats real helpful!:D I dont know if I will get more time to work on me pieces but I shall try that thing out anyways! this has got to be the one forum where this happens.:yayca:

[DauDau]

There is no way, I am going to make it. The only thing I'm ready to show, is this... and it's still a sketch.

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z240/Avalily_album/Concept%20Art/PernHoldSketchMini.jpg

I've learned a lot, though. Thank you to all, who helped. :)

My very best wishes to the finalists. Great job! Good luck.

And now I'll rest my aching hand... ouch. Using a pen can hurt, when you grab it too hard. Heh.

[Tonic]

is no way, I am going to make it. The only thing I'm ready to show, is this... and it's still a sketch.

I've learned a lot, though. Thank you to all, who helped. :)


That's spirit, keep it :)



And now I'll rest my aching hand... ouch. Using a pen can hurt, when you grab it too hard. Heh.

I suffer it when I have a tablet on desk. If I work like as Ryan Church do (image (http://www.ryanchurch.com/images/promo/ryan002_bg.jpg)), the pain gets away and drawing is much lighter :)

Returning to topic, must it be exactly midnight in my country? Or can it be chaos's midnight? At the moment I'm writing, 1.5h remained to midnight. If I think about America guys, they do have +7-8h bonus... :P

[DauDau]

Thank you, Tonic. :) Good luck. It's midnight here now. We must be in the same timezone, there abouts.

[hunchback]

still got about 5 hours here
two more, one more to go
satan and weird burning feet?

[tatiana]

I'm really disappointed -- I just couldn't budget the time to finish them all like I wanted even with the extra time. :(

But, I learned a lot too so I'll work on finishing them after the holidays and post the results in my sketch thread (need to update that thing at some point in any case).

Congrats to all of you that did finish! :)

Edit: I've attached the two I "finished".

t

[Corrick]

Tatiana, it looks like you made a damn good effort. I will say though I'm more disappointed now that you've actually posted what you finished. It makes me want to see the other three! :)

The dragon in the first image is fantastic, I like the "natural" approach you've taken with these. Of course I'm easy, you could show up with just dragon sketches like the ones you've got here and I'd be perfectly happy. Hope to see the rest soon!

[DauDau]

Tatiana, I really enjoyed yours. It shows, that you know the books and painted the right Weyr, and I like both a lot. They may not be finished, but they are definitely cover or illustration material. Well done.

I'm curious to see who finished, now. :)

[Tonic]

I've finally uploaded videos on Vimeo. They shows how I created these five works from scratch.

http://vimeo.com/user927038/videos

Unfortunately, their video resizing isn't well done, the edges are pretty jagged, so I strongly suggest you to download AVI files, which are mainly 1000px width resolution and 6XX kb/s bitrate, each with 40-45MB size. Their playback is 8-10 minutes long. They're fairly easy to watch at 1920x1200 monitor resolution. You can download them from Vimeo if you're logged or from my FTP:

http://tonic-art.com/videos/eow100_epic/dychtons_forest.avi
http://tonic-art.com/videos/eow100_epic/rainbow_station.avi
http://tonic-art.com/videos/eow100_epic/rocket_garage.avi
http://tonic-art.com/videos/eow100_epic/rybits_town.avi
http://tonic-art.com/videos/eow100_epic/zazuls_laboratory.avi

Hope you enjoy!