Teen Challenge 108: Guardian

[Aksel Ludvigsen]

http://attachments.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1125919


Teen Challenge 108: Guardian



Topic
This weeks topic is guardian. You'll pick and choose what kind of guardian you want. Let your imagination run loose.
It can be a giant beast guarding the entrance to hell, a dragon guarding its hoard,
a bodyguard guarding the prime minister, a parent (yes, they're guardians too), an elite unit of jungle fighters guarding their sacred temple.
As long as it guards something it's a guardian! Go for it!


Focus
This weeks focus is palette. Yes, palette! I want to see good colour palettes,
too many people just swamp in "realistic" colours, usually ending in an eye-jarring combination of swishwash.
Yes, I made that word up just now.
Light, reflections everything has a lot to say when it comes to colours, YOU can actually make that sky purple, it happens in real life (http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/alvingb/alvingb0901/alvingb090100035/4112764-purple-sky-over-the-waters-shot-taking-during-sunset.jpg).
Study stuff, find out what makes clouds yellow, and use that knowledge in your piece. Use your brains as well as your hands!


Deadline
Deadline is Sunday 20th of February, 23:59 GMT


You've got about a week from now, get working!

[scatch]

since these are my last weeks as a teenager. im in :)

[Gabrieldnc]

Challenge Aceepted!

[Templar101]

Right i'm in on this one! I'll post a WIP up tonight :)

[Choob]

I should really start entering competitions. Well, here goes.

Didn't really have any ideas, so doodled for a bit. Very rough, I can concentrate on pose and such when I've decided what character to use. I think the robot could be promising, but need it to be more intimidating. Less portal, more matrix.

[Templar101]

You probably can't see where this will be going, but all will become clear soon (ish)

[AmyRedd]

Just a little idea, A mother dragon guarding her egg. Probably won't be finished as per usual :(

[Templar101]

Here we are! I might touch it up a bit later, but I might not have time. So once a FINAL thread is put up, do I just post this in there? C+C is welcome, but i'm only 14 so don't go too harshly!

The Image itself is of a queen's guard, they stand around in london and look menacing. This is some kind of scifi/ steampunk take on them though, they sadly don't wear those awesome masks :)

[Andre-Sutherland]

cool topic!
heres my first post on teen challenge :)

[ryan mcshane]

Droid: hmm the left one seems most promising, but the pose is a little unbalanced/unatural, try getting some reference from great character artists such as Wes Burt, Coro, Mandryk, Jason Chan, etc. and just use them for inspiration and see how they handle the poses, and how the balance theres, good luck man! can't wait to see you develop something up :D
Templar101: looks cool man! i dig the design, just maybe get some reference for color/lighting next time, and just do some studys from life/photos and stuff, that'll really help your color and rendering skills, balance studys out with imaginative stuff and you'll get good quick! keep at it :)
AmyRainbow: looks really promising amy! please finish it! :D if you get time of course, also maybe try what i said to the other guys? it could help you alot :)
mc2094: the left ones kinda hard to read, not sure what it is, just gotta define the shapes a bit more okay? welcome to conceptart btw! :) and teen challenge to! :D hope you enter this round :D
--
gonna post mine when its at a more refined stage ;)

[Choob]

cool topic!
heres my first post on teen challenge :)

Looks like it's done in Alchemy? Great program.

Nice work so far guys, I'm liking the mask Templar101.

[Andre-Sutherland]

WIP 2
My concepts based on this central character who is the guardian of the forest.
I'll probably add a bow or something the sword I found tricky to place on him :P

[Choob]

Decided to go with the robot character. Still struggling for ideas but here's a couple.

First some uber-quick thumbnails in Alchemy, and then next a concept I quite liked, might do it as an alien, mix between an creature and a machine. Ancient guardians of Earth, that type of thing.

[AmyRedd]

Thanks ryanoir (: I shall try to finish it haha. I've been searching for some good bamboo forest images to reference for the background but I don't like any D:

I'll try and offer some crits but I'm really bad at them and probably have no idea what I'm on about so feel free to ignore ;)
Andre-Sutherland: I'm by no means good at human anatomy so it might be just me but his legs look a little awkward especially the left one (my left :P) I do really like the textures and colour scheme you've used though (:
Droid: I really like the bottom concept (: can't wait to see it when you've refined it.
mc2094: I like the idea (: can't really make out the shapes properly but I think if you combine the two (The sky and the icebergs/mountains) You could have a really interesting piece (:
Templar101: I thought it was a queen's guard in the first image (: I've been to london but I've never seen them close up before :( The robot looks good but the background could do with a little more refining maybe (:

Okay here's a little update of mine. Don't like the mouth at the moment grr

[Aksel Ludvigsen]

AmyRainbow: you should check out flickr (http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=rec&z=m&w=getty&q=bamboo+forest&m=text) if you haven't, loads of good photographs there.

To everybody else; keep up the good work! Ryain summed it up rather well, gather reference, do studies and get your groove on! ;)

[Crocley]

Finally posted in a challenge!

This is my first attempt at digital painting and I'm not sure what he's guarding yet...?.... Maybe an underwater tomb thing?
Layers in gimp are really buggin me at the moment cos u cant see which one your painting on :frustrated:

I'll try and give some crits now...

Templar101: Very cool idea but i think his mechanical hands don't look large enough to hold his gun?
mc2094: I like the concept and the aurora should give you lots of reflected colours in the ice. You could also have more of the sky showing in the aurora?
Andre-Sutherland: Like the background, not really much to say just hope you finish it.
Droid: Like the last concept you posted, looks very confrontational and sinister.
Amy Rainbow: Really good work so far just hope you finish in time.

[chronic-wikipediak]

I'll try this one.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_FW-tZqWLvCI/TV2qnuZYt-I/AAAAAAAAAJg/wFl1RvnpN54/s720/GuardianWiP1.jpg

[Andre-Sutherland]

Thanks ryanoir (: I shall try to finish it
Andre-Sutherland: I'm by no means good at human anatomy so it might be just me but his legs look a little awkward especially the left one (my left :P) I do really like the textures and colour scheme you've used though (:

thanks! and you are definitely right about that left leg, the knee looks out. I'll fix it up for my final :)

[skMOP]

templar101: Once a final thread is up then you post it on there. You have lots of time though, push the piece farther. Great that you're starting at such a young age. But it's not an excuse for avoiding harsh critiques. :D I personally think that the composition would work better if it was centered/symmetrical, since it's just the one figure that's facing forward.

mc2094: I can see you're doing the focus :P. The constellation idea is very nice, I think it's a bit rough though to really critique that much.

Andre-Sutherland: Cool character so far. Personally, I think the textures are a bit distracting and actually draw attention away from the character. (Is Sutherland a reference to Code Geass? If not, nevermind. Hehe)

Droid: Interesting thumbs, I've never used Alchemy before.

Amy Rainbow: To be honest I think you started rendering too soon. The dragon is at a much further stage than the figure or the background. This could make things much harder later on in the painting if you need to change something. I think the composition of the picture could be changed a bit, because both the figure and the dragon are cropped kind of awkwardly. Keep going!:)

Crocley: Make sure you really render/sharpen up the character later because he's blending into the background right now. Good start for your very first painting. I've never used GIMP before so I can't really help you there.
--
Wow, it's really nice to see so many people here.

WIP1

[Andre-Sutherland]

templar101:
Andre-Sutherland: Cool character so far. Personally, I think the textures are a bit distracting and actually draw attention away from the character. (Is Sutherland a reference to Code Geass? If not, nevermind. Hehe)


thanks :) well its changed heaps since the was WIP, definitely trying to accentuate the character out of the surround textures :D, And Sutherland is just my last name :P

[M.A.C.]

1171829

I like this better than what I was thinking earlier. I think it'll be better as far as making the guardian the vocal point. I still haven't gotten the hang of using a tablet :[

and thanks for the comments

[Diarum]

an hour and a half in, finally found something that I kinda like
1171915

[AmyRedd]

Thanks Nyctalgia I found loads of good ones there (: completely forgot about Flickr haha

skMOP you're probably right haha. I do have a slight problem that I get bored and just end up shading one part of the picture loads instead of working evenly :S I'm too impatient. Hopefully the composition looks a bit better now?

[Diarum]

Update, lol like 5 hours of messing around with different looks this is it so far

1172607

[anaiira]

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Wg6hKlIRQIQ/TV7UDcy1LbI/AAAAAAAAAGk/6926kTSU8ao/s1600/godmother2%2Bcopy.jpg

I was going for more of a fairytale guardian than big burly man. :D

Droid: I liked your initial sketches. Pretty awesome. Looking forward to your progress.
Templar101: I might do a paintover later (if you don't mind), but I'm a little sketchy on the anatomy. I like the pants.
AmyRainbow: The dragon's body could be bigger. My main gripe is that your trees are... fairly bright. I'd desaturate the background a little bit so that your dragon really comes into focus.
Crocley: ... Damn. It's very rough now (which is to be expected, I supposed), but I'm looking forward to when you clean it up. Watch your foreground/background contrast, just like AmyRainbow.
skMOP: Something about the arms seem off. His/her? right arm seems unnaturally bent, like it's really trying to keep it at its side.
mc2094: I'm liking the concept. Tablets are tricky bastards.
Diarum: I'm hesitant to give advice, because it still seems blurry/rough. I'm not sure if would help, but next time, maybe try to get a rough lineart of what you want, instead of blobbing it down?

To everyone, I'm looking forward to the fruits of your labour! Keep going!

[ryan mcshane]

lookin great everyone! any crits before refining?
http://i.imgur.com/5VvcK.jpg

[Ludic]

@Ryanoir, His torso is looking a bit too long and the right arm should probably be a bit looser, looks to stiff to be an arm.. :).

[M.A.C.]

@ryanoir-I'm interested in what you'll do color wise with the background. If you can pull off a nice way to add values to it then it'll probably look fine but maybe consider adding a recognizable object or two to make it look like more than just a wall and have an interesting feel to it. If you look at what annaiira did for instance with the bear and all. good luck

@annaiira-I like. The character has a defining look and the composition is strong. I know it's just a rough but I feel that the shadows being casted by the object on the bottom right (bear,etc) could use a bit of defining.

[Niam]

saw this thread yesterday!!
this is so much fun XD wonder why i didnt find this ealier
finally got painter11 yesterday, and struggling to get use to drawing on a computer :P but this is what i have so far..

[The Pariano]

Looking great everybody!

AmyRainbow: Composition looks nice :] Perhaps shift your hues throughout the objects the image is more cohesive, such as shifting all the shadows towards blue or purple and all of the lights to yellow or green.

vivi: very nice, the border adds a lot, play with color more :]

Here's my two wip's and I have the final waiting for the finals thread

[Choob]

Some great work here guys, nice turn out this week. :)

I've sharpened up the design a bit, focused some more on the actual anatomy/mechanics of the body, plus brought up detail on the face and such. Next step is to add in text and stuff to make it look like a guide, or an archive of information about these guys.

Quick question, are we allowed to put some text in our framed final to tell a bit of the story? Like they do in EOW, like this:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=106463&stc=1&d=1173668755

Cheers.

[Choob]

My final, with and without border. Good luck in the voting everyone. ;)

http://i711.photobucket.com/albums/ww113/President_Choob/finiteguardian.jpg

http://i711.photobucket.com/albums/ww113/President_Choob/bordered.jpg