Team CHOW II - Lyphorm

[ImaGEEnation]

This will be our sketchbook for team CHOW 2.

Camsyko and myself.

[ImaGEEnation]

Quick sketch of the brawler.

[vardoburrito]

I approve of this team. :teeth: :P
Good luck brathas.

[Cam Sykes]

Ok here's the style I believe the team should aim towards. Realistic, gritty, painterly, moody, dark fantasy.

disclaimer: The following images are purely reference and mood boards. They remain copyright of their respective artists.
I by no means claim ownership of the artwork in these reference boards. Amongst the artists in these who produced these images that I can recall are justin sweet, jaime jones, stian dorslett, aleksi briclot, jason manley, puddnhead, jean-luc gerome, daarken, puddnhead, kekai kotaki, jason chan, frank frazetta, donato giancola, john singer sargent, vorace, william bougereau, kemp remillard, zhanglu. my apologies to those artists names that I forgot.

[Cam Sykes]

ConceptArt.org Team Chow - Team Lyphorm

Here's a document I wrote up last night and today to get the ball rolling,
and was mainly a way to compile a list of races/classes/archetypes related
to the high/dark fantasy genre, with a few I invented but has probably been done before. None the less I think this should help us break the sterotpyes to really come up with some original ideas.

My thoughts are that it should fit within a RPG/MMORPG game world.
The games that I see closely realted to such a game world would be
Ultima Online/Ultima Series, World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, Darkfall, Baldur's Gate,
Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Everquest, Lionheart, Diablo, Warhammer, The Witcher and so on.

Being that these are playable characters there should be a relatable backstory to each character and a distinct personality.

I see the world the characters dwell in as being an enormous planet with extraordinary diversity of climate, species, environments and cultures.
The factions/clans/races are divided or united by their culture, environment, religion, land/resource fueds, good/evil alignment.

Some of the main themes that bias a character would be
Nature vs Corruption (Natural Forces against Forces of Destruction)
Light vs Dark (Holy vs the undead/demonic)
Race vs Race (Supremacy)

A more solid overview of this World will be developed over the week to aid in the clarity and consistency of the characters that populate it.

Genre: High/Dark Fantasy

Task: Create 6 character portraits, 3 per person, light + dark version of each. equates to 6 pieces per person.

Extra: Include a paragraph about each, break the sterotypical archetype.

Gender: Male/Female

Race: human, elf ,half elf, orc, half-orc, orc-elf, dragonborn, avian (birdman), lizardman,
ratman, skeleton, lich, undead, ent, dwarf, catman, frogman, minotaur, buffaloman, demon, horseman, centaur, reptaur,
goblin, dryad, merfolk, sprite, fairy, gnome, dark elf, ogre, troll, vampire, giant, imp, golem, angel


Archetypes: Rogue, Asassin, theif, warrior, brawler, mage, battlemage, paladin, druid, cleric, priest, samurai, ninja, necromancer, archer, monk, tinker, medic, sapper, berserker, poisoner, guardian, knight, dark knight,
conjurer, ranger, tamer, blacksmith, scout, hunter, bard, spy, shapeshifter,
witchdoctor, sage, tempest, gravedigger, trapper, shaman, savage, headhunter, bounty hunter, barbarian, pirate, seer, alchemist, beastmaster,
executioner, gladiator, enchanter, guard captain, huntsman, king, queen, mercenary, peasant, physician, prostitute, gypsy, temptress, scribe, scholar,
slaver, slave, summoner, vigilante, witch hunter, witch, warlock, amazonian,


Characters chosen by Cam

1. male/frogman/rogue bounty hunter

uses poisons
stealthy
agile
amphibious
prefers close range takedowns, but also uses poison darts
Can shift skin colour for extra camoflage
services his brethren to take out high profile targets
In his good state he only kills those that oppress his brethren
In his evil state he goes on genocidal missions poisoning whole towns

2. female/reptaur/battlemage

similar to centaur but with reptililian features
wields a long polearm that doubles as a magic staff
is decorated with a faction banner and leather barbed armour
not heavily armoured as skin provides tough protection
long hooked tail
expert in both magic and melee combat
highly brave, charges right to the forefront of a battle
Is highly ranked amongst her army
In good state she fights against the demonic and undead armies
In evil state she has been corrupted by black magic and has become part demon

3. female/dryad/shapeshifter tinker

uses shapeshifting to gain secret information
can roam freely amongst other races in the appropriate shifted state
her guise helps in selling her tinkered goods to different races
her tinkered goods can be used by her as offensive/defensive tools
most of the parts she uses are stolen on her travels or gained through trade
In her good state she is a travelling salesperson and nomad, that enjoys exploring the lands
In her evil state she sells tinkered goods to townsfolk that eventually form clockwork armies and turn on their owners.

hopefully gee will have chosen his characters he will be doing in the next couple of days.

[Cam Sykes]

been brewing ideas in my head over past few days. JUst started on ym good frogman rogue today. Here's the progress, about 2 hours so far because I redid the pose and composition a few times. Running behind schedule so will alocate time tomorrow and the weekened to get the rest done. Might have to reduce it to 2 characters for each of us cos deadline is quite soon, will see how we go.
Gee has alot of sketches done but no internet atm so should see some stuff from him soon.

[ImaGEEnation]

Aaaaaargh! Need to get my ass into this more! Damn you school work! Bah!

Ahem

Alrighty, anyway this is my Barbarian.
Working on colors tonight.

So, I'll try and do human barbarian and Wizard orc and if we have enough time ( I doubt :p ) then, I'll try doing Elf beast master.

Alright, gotta get movin'!

[ImaGEEnation]

Took some time off homework to do this. Nice weather too today! :p

Anyway, this guys is a berserker/ bodyguard of some important person, perhaps the wizard.
He's a straight up fighter who doesn't really rely on techniques. Just smash his way through anything in his way.

Can't wait to see what you come up with, Cam!

[Cam Sykes]

looking good gee, I rekon you can push it more, plus add some background too, so it's more illustrative. His legs look a little undefined in comparison to his torso. The thing on the base of the hammer weapon is throwing of the perspective jsut becasue there's no elipse there. A few more things that I rekon you'll notice and can fix, and add too if you spend more tiem on it. Don't forget to constantly flip canvas horizontal to spot mistakes. Even flip upside down helps sometimes too.

Anyway here's the progress on mine. Spent a couple more hours on it. I plan to add some natural camoflage as his gear, to make him look more sneaky and also boost his silhoutte profile. Kind of like the Vietcong sticks and leaves get-up.

Edit: a few quick changes I've made with his anatomy that I noticed as soon as I posted the original image/

[Cam Sykes]

here's about 10 mins in on my next character, this is female reptaur batlemage. I want to continue but I'm really sleepy, so it's a start at least. GOnna have to smash out the remaining illustrations on the weekend plus finish my frog dude.
I'm blown away by what other teams have been producing, especially studio moinoi because there's so much personality in their characters.