Newborn - various ideas (treechild, eggbaby, selfportrait)

[Puck]

I don't really have a single strong idea for this competition, so I'll try to develop a few and hopefully strengthen them as I go. It's very difficult thinking of something original and interesting that would also make a nice picture. I can't really think of anything beautiful and grand, but I'll keep working on it.

Here are three starting points I thought of - even if none of these ideas end up being strong enough for the competition, I'll finish them all anyway for practice .


1. Tree woman giving a seedling child to a 'Gardener' creature to plant.

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2. Little person revealed in soft boiled egg.

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3. Self portrait sketching surrounded by art materials, sketchbooks and canvases.

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[NoriRoll]

i like idea 1 and 3. Actually i can see alot of potential in your 1st idea. You can play on the forrest idea abit

[Black Spot]

I like the second one. Did the cooking do anything to it, I wonder?

[Puck]

Thanks for the feedback NoriRoll and Black Spot - yes, the cooking could be a problem for a baby... it might end up being more of a demon creature than a baby anyway (at the moment I'm playing with the idea of multiple limbs... I'm really not sure yet).

I've played around with all three sketches a bit more:

Just played with the colours and forms a bit.
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I changed it to be more of a baby shape; larger and more innocent looking. I think I'll try to make more out of the spoon and perhaps put a reflection of the person who had intended to eat the egg in there.
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I thought maybe I'd reverse the colours and make the art stuff more colourful and contrasty, and keep myself black and white. I don't intend it to be so 'hippyish' and colourful when it's finished though.
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I always end up rendering out my initial sketches, I think I need to allow myself to start afresh and try different compositions a bit more - I'll try that for the next update rather than just refining these.

All feedback is very welcome.

[Vaejoun]

My favorite is the tree-picture.
Maybe enlarge the canvas a litte to the lower side and paint a small way in that leads from the foreground to the people.
Experiment some more on the tree, and make the baby a little smaller. The man would have a lot to carry right now ^^

The egg: I liked the creepy feeling of the first sketch more. Because it was such an demomic deformed thing. If I ever see such a thing in my sunday morning egg I will scream like a child.

The last one is a nice composition with nice colors, but I definetly prefer the other two.

[shamandalie]

Idea one is really good, i would love to see the complete piece. But the egg baby sorta makes me squirm, which means that it will be a powerful one. :D

I might consider not eating eggs for the week. @_@

[C0mBineD]

I love all your ideas.

[graphicgolem]

Cool work and good ideas. I like the tree sketch the best. I is quite suggestive of some kind of unusual location - feels a bit like a building site or maybe shanti town - which adds a intriguing aspect. The egg sketch is hard to look at for obviuos reasons - it is quite a powerful image in it own right but I think it needs to be part of a larger context/story. I also like the artist in the studio it is a very strong study in its own right, I think it could really take flight if there was an aspect thats was unexpected. I like the eay the artist is in mono and the creations are in vvid colours. This could be taken as a theme perhaps by making the creations literally come to life - coming out the paintings and sketch books? This could then be suggestive of a mundane reality (mono), and a dreaming/creative (colour) reality of the artworks. Looking forwward to see waht happens next!

[Ferdinand Venter]

I have an idea from reading the beginning of the last post. What if you combine all 3 sketches into one powerful image? All 3 have certain aspects that tends to grasp the viewer. Keep the tree in the first one the egg in the second and self portrait image and combine it into one. Imagine this you take the tree and make as if it is going to eat the egg baby "its fines grasping onto the egg to pick it up" and then the self portrait sketching the scene as it happens like a life drawing.

This is all based on personal opinion though.

Ferdi

[Ian Barker]

I like the egg one best, although the tree is good too. Not really sure how the self portrait ties into newborn though.

[Puck]

Thanks Vaejoun - good suggestions - I'll be doing a few variations on the composition to get it to work better. Yes that baby is way too large for the poor gardener :) (Although it should be a bit bigger than a 'human' baby; that's why they need the wheelbarrow). I might take the egg baby back towards the creepiness.

Thanks Shamandalie - yes, I like my eggs, but have always had an fear that I'll find a little chicken foetus in one.

Thanks Combined - I'll keep developing all of them.

Thanks Graphicgolem - I know what you mean about the egg image, that's what I feel is really weak about it. It's only got the shock value, no story or anything really interesting apart from that - I'm trying to think of some context I can put it in but so far it alludes me - any ideas? :) That's the idea of the self portrait - I haven't worked it up much yet, but it should have things coming alive whereas I'm not alive (just living through my art).

Thanks Ferdinand Venter - I hadn't thought of doing that, and I'm not sure how I'd make it all feel like the same universe - I may try to put the self portrait into the other two (but not as an artist, but rather a character in the scene). I appreciate the idea though!

Thanks Liffey - The self portrait would be 'brining art into the world' rather than having a literal "newborn" - it's still a very rough idea and I'll work on it more.

Thanks for all the feedback people!

I've done a pencil sketch of the tree image to try to work out the character a bit more and done a quick Photoshop colouring. Inspired by the multi-limbed figures that I always enjoy in Algenpfleger's awesome sketchbook (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=114449) - I had the idea that the tree mother would be constructed with lots of legs and arms the way a tree has multiple branches and roots.

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[Rissa G]

I like the latest development of the your tree dryad design! It makes logical sense and it is something that I have not really seen before. I do have a suggestion for the baby though! It looks a little too much like an 'alien' right now and not very plant-like. I think what will honestly help is doing what you were trying to do with your second idea; but instead of an egg you can use a flower! I think that will emphasize the innocence of the child, as well prelude to the new 'blossom'. It's just a thought, but it is totally up to you and I'm excited to see what you come up with!!

[Sheff]

I like the egg baby the best. I think it's uniquely weird and doesn't feel cliche in the least. I'd love to see it where the baby is pouting, like he's piised that someone bothered him by opening his shell.

[Treefrog]

the artist in me fell in immediate love with your third sketch. However, for a general audience, I think the tree sketch is a better representation of birth, since the baby and the "Mother Nature" are huge symbols. All the same, I still think number three is my favorite.

[graphicgolem]

The latest drawing of the tree is really great - its very well rendered and cool creature design too. As far as the idea goes (newborn) I am not so convinced by the baby as it not clear to me what the relationship is and therefore the intent of the tree figure - but until is put into context it is hard to make conclusions what the scenario is. Anyway I love this sketch the best so far (I like trees in fantasy art so I could be biased here) and has the most appeal for me. Great work!

[pearlyking]

I love anthropomorphic trees, but my favorite is the egg guy, it's sends a shudder down my spine (in a good way) and is a real memorable idea.

[Puck]

Good idea Rissa G - something less like an alien baby - maybe a flower, or a fruit or a seed pod or something - thanks for the suggestions, I'll play around with it in my next sketch. Thanks!

Thanks for the feedback Sheff - I think the egg baby idea has potential, but is still very shallow at the moment - I appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks Treefrog - I like the idea of no.3 too, but I think I may let this one go for now and concentrate on the other two as I can't think of a decent way to make it work visually.

Thanks Graphicgolem - It's good to know that the relationship isn't very clear, that's something I'll have to revise. I also love fantasy art trees, though perhaps it is a bit too cliché? I'll see where I can push it.

Thanks for your thoughts pearlyking - I'm not sure whether to push to horror aspect or go with more of a 'strange and wondrous' feeling.

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I haven't had much time to work on it, but here are some more sketches of the egg baby - I need to look at real babies! Even for a deformed baby it looks weird - time for reference.

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[d00dlebug]

some really nice ideas here! I especially like the self portrait and the egg child. Nicely painted images too :)

[JLPastecchi]

The treewoman is beautiful!! I love how you created several legs as the roots of the tree. Its very subtle and beautifully rendered. And the egg child is so quirky! Its gonna be a hard one to chose from, i guess it will depend on what feeling/mood you want to show...i cant help but lean towards the tree woman

[Puck]

Thanks d00dlebug and JLPastecchi - I'm going to try to work up all of them if I get time.

Here are some more ideas for the eggbaby - the first is the baby exploding out of the egg and surpirising the person who had intended to eat it. The second is a composition test of just the simple baby in an egg. I thought the original flat composition was a bit boring.

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[Puck]

I don't think I'm going to get anything finished in time - though I'll finish them regardless (for experience and pleasure).

More egg baby wip - the only one I've actually had a chance to work on. I made a 3d egg + cup as I didn't want to fubar the ellipse in perspective and painted over the top.

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[Black Spot]

He's looking very sweet there. Please finish it.

[mohdmubasshir]

all are great ......... but ...... idea no. 1 is my fav. :)
(Tree woman giving a seedling child to a 'Gardener' creature to plant.)

[Puck]

Thanks Black Spot - hope the final doesn't destory what you thought was working in the sketch.

Thanks mohdmubasshir - I'll finish that other one a bit later, I think I went with the egg baby because it was less detailed and I had a better chance of getting it done in time.

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Well, I've finished eggbaby... Would have likes to work on it a lot more (maybe redo the face), and had time to complete the other two, but I'm glad I got something in. I really enjoyed this competition - highly motivating.

Even though the competition is over, I would still really appreciate any crits and comments.

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[LillyCat]

I really love the idea with this. This is an amazing painting and I love the soft blending with the egg and stand. I keep looking at it trying to figure out how you did it..it is lovely. It is a cute and sweet painting but yet scares me because the egg looks so real that I can taste it but then seeing the baby in it...my tummy turns ROFL That is perfect! There are a few that are really personly Fav's of mine and when I first seen this in the main posts I fell in love :) Good luck and thank you for a wonderful painting.

[GriNGo]

Very nice, looks excellent!

[Fungi Grazer]

These are some very nice concepts, i especially like the tree.

[WickedEdges]

WOW! Great texture on the egg. Very well done. And I also like the tree nymph idea with the gardener. Great job all around!

[Puck]

Thanks for all the positive comments people! Very encouraging and motivational.

Even though the contest is well and truly over, I'm still working away slowly on the other concepts. Here's some more work in progress on the tree mother:

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I'd love to hear any feedback anybody has - I promise to attempt any suggestions I get!

[Puck]

More work and detail.

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[Puck]

I'm still having a go at getting this done in my spare time.

I can't really tell if I'm going backwards with it though, as sometimes I like the look of earlier revisions. When it's not going well I've found I usually crank up the levels and saturation in photoshop, which I know is no substitute for composition and drawing skills! :) I'd love to hear any feedback people have if they can spare a moment.

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[C0mBineD]

maybe a good idea is to make the satyrs like half as tall as they are now to make the tree look all great and mighty. possibly make the canvas higher