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View Full Version : E.O.W Round 29: Monolith - The Big Vote!



Red_Rook
July 21st, 2006, 10:57 PM
E.O.W Round 28: VOTING THREAD




TOPIC: Monolith

Deadline For Voting: Thursday 29th July

Please vote for your personal favourite artwork from this round. Please remember that your vote should reflect an equal weight of aesthetic impact, adherance to the brief, and idea development.

Your votes will be public.
Please help strengthen the activity by leaving criticism for the artist you vote for, and for any other artworks you can manage!

[URL=http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=72227[/URL]



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FunkytownP
http://www.pstone3d.com/art/monolith.jpg
Description: Overnight this giant monolith appeared. One can only assume it is alien in origin. People are glued to their radios as the zepplins go in for a closer look!


Red_Rook
http://www.rook-art.com/images/fieldmonolith3.jpg

The Hi-Darcu built many of these "field monoliths" wherever they travelled built of polished hardwood and natural rock formations, its suspected these where used for both religious rituals as well as watch towers. The only remains of them still found today have slowly collapsed with age.

spyroteknik
http://www.spyroteknik.com/ftp/monolith.jpg
Craw Obelisk

'Magnum opus of distant Gods,
pilgrims gather in prayer to the lady of the lake, the vestige of unknown origin'


chaosrocks
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/chaosrocks/eow-monolith.jpg
the lone guard, below the eye tower. lived lonely in the valley. He didn't know what he was guarding, He didn't know who might come looking for it...

Zhiwang
http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/9334/dolmenal1.jpg
" Citizen of Memphis A-132, Since this blessed day, when the gods sent
"the rock of justice" to us, no heart has been lost out of the Way, today is a great day..."

speculart
http://www.dudleybirch.com/sijun/monolith.jpg
The majority of the runes were indecipherable, but they could hold some clue as to the monoliths purpose before it was plunged into the ocean so long ago.

Idiot Apathy
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v13/Ragnarok27/eow_monolith.jpg

Joe's Basement:

Over the unusually wet spring the basement in Joe's humble abode had become quite flooded. The repair crew said that due to improper grading in his tiny backyard the foundation was in dire need of repair. Joe didn't think much of it, he didn't really have the money to repair it anyways. After they left he retired to his favorite easy chair to contemplate which relative of his to bother for a loan or whether or not the bank would approve him. The chair had always helped him think, but he also had a tendency to take sudden naps in it as well. He was of course, unaware that where he currently sat was one of the spots severly weakened by the flood damage. Just as he was beginning to doze off, the floor that had previously endured the worst of flood had finally seen it's last breath. He, along with his easy chair, fell straight through the first floor. There was a loud thud as the falling came to an end and much to his surpise he was not in his basement - he had in fact fallen straight through even the basement subflooring into a natural cave; at least it seemed to be naturally formed - however this was no ordinary cave. It was enormous, probably the size of the entire quaint town in which Joe lived, and if that wasn't enough it was lit almost as if this was where the sun had come to hide after the evening. Past the distant rock formations and a field of magnificent wildflowers, the like of which had never been seen above ground - Joe saw a massive rock, a monolith that could not possibly be born of nature.

xbrianx
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/2196/monolithui1.jpg
Many people believe the recently "placed" footsteps were from a mysterious being, or some type of non- human, especially since nothing will remove them. Scientific evidence proves that no human can be placed at the base of this monolith, and then be picked up; the footsteps are too close to the structure for any type of aircraft to place the being.

artiphats
http://www.artiphats.com/artwork/artiphats_monolith_fin.jpg
It was built as a symbol of peace, by a race long forgotten.
It stands now weathered, chipped, and alone.
It will one day be adopted by visitors from far away, and as the center of a new civilization it will become a new symbol - one of unity and life, anew.

ohjay
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h40/ojkiel/monolith-eow-good.jpg
"The huntsmen stared in wonder at the structure, which seemed so out of place on those cliffs, in stark contrast to the nothingness beyond it. With no signs of life, they could but imagine who had once inhabited it, and why they had left."

bumskee
http://home.exetel.com.au/bumskee/con/eow_monolith.jpg

Giant stones scatter the barren lands of the lower mountain regions. Within these stones lies remains of a great civilisation. The ancient vampires have thought to have lived among these stones, carving out maze of cities and temples deep into them.


Gaius
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i179/gmiley/monolith_fin_phto_adj_2.jpg
The unlikely group of adventures having travelled for weeks through the swamp forest finally reached thier goal. The ancient Monolith of Vrykolkas.
Bathed in the first sunlight they had seen since entering the forest 13 weeks ago the Monolith looked peaceful and undeserving of the terrifying legends that surrounded it.

JWSamsara
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y80/JWSamsara/EOW29-Monolith-jwsamsara.jpg
This is the Blood Monolith, the sacred home of the God of Death and divine Wrath. Known as the “Morr’jin uk Scourg” in the native tongue, it is here that villagers of the O’upani tribes bring both their most ruthless sinners and most venerated saints. A winding staircase, lined on each side by resin coated blood gutters, circles the monolith, at the pinnacle of which resides a two meter bone spike fashioned from the tusk of a fearsome Gurun’kai. It is on this ancient horn that criminals are executed, impaled as punishment for their crimes against the world. Their blood swiftly drains down grooves in the tusk, flowing at the base into steep, winding channels that carry it to the fetid blood pool at the monolith’s base. It is there, in the festering pool, the surface of which is crusted with maggots and flies, that the O’upani go to beg penance for their sins by bathing in the blood and eating knots of black, congealed gore. Once every generation the most revered holy figure of the tribes will, as his last selfless act, impale himself on the horn, spilling his blood to bless and purify all those who died there before him, redeeming their spirits with his own.

Erilaz
http://www.artfuloddities.com/2D/Sketches/EOW/MonolithErilaz.jpg
The Strataferis
They don't know where it came from, eating away at the forest floor like an infected needle. Teams sent to research came away in a lobotomised state, only recovering after many days of treatment.
Cracks have started to appear in the surface that seem unnatural, as if made by an outside intelligence. Their glow is unsettling, and may indicate worse things to come.

I think this was my first environment piece, so I can see i've got a lot to improve on.

Hideyoshi
http://www.hideyoshi-ruwwe.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/monolith_small.jpg
Description:

In 2320 N5S viruses will have taken over mankind and affect carriers of netsphere genes. Victims, called 'drones' will acquire zombie-like behavior and will be drawn to an enormous tower, the Monolith which sends out special microwaves for a yet unknown reason.

An agent, dispached from Toha Heavy Industries will be in position to clear things up...
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source: the 7th Data Core

Art2
http://www.marlonart.nl/web/Art2_EOW29_monolith.jpg
It's known as the Monolith Sword. People don't know what it is or where it's from. Some think it's part of some giant statue made by ancient men, others think it's a monument made by the Gods. What is it? It looks like a sword. How old is it? It's made of hard stone, the kind that is not found anywhere near the site.
The city of the Monolith Sword was formed some 2000 years ago. In the beginning it was a city of worship. 800 years later it became the biggest merchant city of the East. Many inhabitants think the good fortune was given by the Monolith Sword. And thanks to the Monolith Sword the city was spared from the Great War (3420-3468 ). The factions thought that agression against the City would bring them bad fortune. Today people still gather to watch and worship the Monolith Sword.

Ive
http://img331.imageshack.us/img331/8582/monolith3cx7.jpg
Monolith
From the book "Chronicles of the People of the Valley", by Antheun Golfrumme

(...) It's the "Elder's day", one of the most important days in a year for the people who live in the Valley of Giants. It's called so becouse of the gigantic monolith stones that we discovered when we entered the valley. I remeber that day as if it was yesterday! When the expedition crossed te mountain pass and our eyes fell upon The Stones. Oh how humble we felt... How small.
Living everyday life in the presence of The Stones makes one feel somehow...different.
Our wounds heal fast, our streght renews yet faster, kids are strong and healthy. Where they came from I don't know. Why are they here I also don't know.
But what I know is that with time we came to worship these Stones like gods. Once a year all the people from the Valley of Giants pilgrim to the monastery carrying the torches, wich are to be tossed on the great fire. The great fire that salutes and expresses gratitude to our guardians and protectors, The Stones (...)



Dile
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e71/Dileart/paintingmonolith22.jpg
Out of nowere one day a huge stone crashed on earth like a spear, most
of it was burned up in the atmosphere but what was left still remains far out in the desert, since this monolith had a strong structure, the mankind started
to use it as an building to transfer signals to outer space and to recive signals
from satielites etc, the monolith can take up to 2 million people and is almost completly impossible to destroy, so people have since the day it started to
been used as a buildng taken cover there when
war goes out....

Snarfevs
July 21st, 2006, 11:31 PM
So many awesome entries but I was just blown away by the strength of Rook's design.

Other pix that caught my attention for long periods of time (the usual suspects):

spyroteknik
speculart
ohjay
bumskee
hideyoshi

Mr-Joe
July 22nd, 2006, 05:30 AM
Woh there is too much good stuff here, but the one that stood out to me was FunkytownP, I love the story, very creepy, and the hight of the structure makes it even more creepy, reminds me of Half life 2. I just wish the buildings in the foreground were a little more finnished, but overall great atmosphere.
Some stuff that stood out to me:
spyroteknik Great illustration, I like the colors and the ... smoothness of the monolith.
Idiot Apathy heheh, awesome story, and nice style, I wish there was more clarity on the monolith and some more of the light like in the story.
bumskee Nice colors, and good story, I like vampire stories.
Gaius Very great job on the illustration, nice colors, nice settting and mood.
Hideyoshi This is great here, you had another one of those HUUUGEE monoliths, This one is like Half life 2 as well, I dont know how you do such nice images with textures, but they look great.

Gaius
July 22nd, 2006, 06:24 AM
Some very awesome entries :rendered:

After some deliberation I voted for spyroteknik.

Really nice concept.I think it would look even more amazing if we could see it in a higher res.
Really beautiful atmosphere.

My only niggle would be that be that the monolith is straight on to the viewer and it seems flattened by this p.o.v.

Regardless, really really well done.

Also not forgetting

bumskee Hideyoshi Art2

Also everyone else who entered, I really enjoy looking at your work.

Dile_
July 22nd, 2006, 07:17 AM
Bumskee got my vote, for his awsome clouds :D big inspiration to my own pic! :)
even if my wasnt half as good:D
awsome work everyone
Ive: nice mood!
Erilaz: nice, its the "blue" shadow that bugs me most, or
the colors itself.. i shouldnt complain though :D
Good work!
Art2: wow your style really reminds me of a guy who
worked with conceptart for EAgames a while back... nice!
Hideyoshi: the master of enviroments I must say, but
to be hounest your anatomy isnt that good, check the guy that is closest the
Camera/viewer, its abit off at some places, how ever, its the E.O.W
so its the enviroment that should be given the focus, so i must say good job!
Spyro: thats awsome, hm if you didnt had used soo much brushes/fooliage you would have got my vote, but right now it feels like you only painted
the background and the tower, strong work anyways!!
Ohjay: Havent seen stuff from you in a while, awsome coloring
and good story, another choose for my vote... unfortunly the
concept is quite more building :P nice work anywyas! :)
Samsara: nice concept, but the colors DO bugging me alot.
Gaius: nice mod, really nice, the colors are perfect as well
only thing i can say is that it looks more like a giant stone, than a monolith
different ways to see things i guess, GOOD work dude!
Zhiwang: nice, its your first and my first.. sometime gonna
be the first time, nice work though :)
Chaosrocks: nice, its only the rendering that bugging me, would
be nice to see that one in digital! :)
Artiphats: It looks quite wip to me, doenst looks so well
worked.. haha,look at mine... i shouldnt say anything.. hehe
keep it up!
speculart: nice, but it looks way flat, the self monolith, good work anyways :D

Red_Rook: Im not brave enough to crit yours :P Good work! :)
idiot apathy: nice! really nice "painting mood" in that one! :)
Funky: you already have got alot of critsand hints so I cant say much more :D

JWSamsara
July 22nd, 2006, 08:49 AM
Had to go with Spyro. That is beautiful. Would you mind sharing your process? Especially on those amazing trees!

Also, great work to Dile, hideyoshi, bumskee, Red and Funky.

Art2
July 22nd, 2006, 11:19 AM
Gaius, Dile, thanks for the kind words!
I am so lousy at voting, cos there's only one I can pick... Spyro got my vote.
But man, good stuff by everyone else!

spyroteknik
July 22nd, 2006, 01:49 PM
Thanks loads fellas, Dile, yeah i get ya, custom brushes are a great timesaver, but it does feel a little odd not painting everything myself, a bit like bob ross trickery (they're evil, but cool enough to use now and again for sketches), Gaius, yeah i agree, i tried too late to rescue it by trying to twist it but the results weren't pretty hehe, so deleted the layer and went for what i put down originally, JWSamsara, don't have any shots saved for this as i did it pretty quickly but i basically built up the shadows/undertrees(not a word but best i could think of), light to dark, for depth, then went over the top with the highlights of varying colours, dropping them on and erasing, breaking up areas,
started the image by doing the sky/mountains with std hard rounds, then reflection, then trees, then added in the monolith before adding atmospherics,

detail shot
http://www.spyroteknik.com/ftp/monolithdetail.jpg

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My vote went for Hideyoshi, love the POV and the way it sucks you in, colourscheme is moody and explanation is a goodun

speculart - damn man, looks real, a lot of great entries, love bumskee's colourscheme, Art2's cleanness, the mood in Ive's, Funkytown's concept, rook's beliveability, could go on guys, you all kick ass

ah.heng
July 22nd, 2006, 02:34 PM
hideyoshi's background description seems to be lifted from tsutomu nihei's biomega and blame! mangas. it's still a beautiful painting nonetheless.

http://www.evil-genius.us/?cat=8

Hideyoshi
July 22nd, 2006, 05:03 PM
hideyoshi's background description seems to be lifted from tsutomu nihei's biomega and blame! mangas. it's still a beautiful painting nonetheless.

http://www.evil-genius.us/?cat=8

Ah, someone actually fgured that out, huh? Yup, it's true, I am a huge fan of Nihei's work, thought it would be fun to make some sort of connection to his works...
should have maybe credited him, but I actually didn't have the intention of ripping off anything sneakily. Sorry if it souned so!

ah.heng
July 22nd, 2006, 10:50 PM
i could tell, a lot of work on your website looks very Nihei inspired. linking is ok, i love his stuff too, just felt that he needed to be mentioned.

Simon Boxer
July 23rd, 2006, 12:19 AM
Voted for bumskee - the master of moody skies! Your painterly skies amaze, they look very labourious.

Also Spyroteknik and red rook's pieces really appeal to me.

Vulgar`
July 23rd, 2006, 03:24 AM
Hideyoshi, Spyroteknik, speculart.

Hideyoshi - Heavenly sci-fi as usual, the color scheme was playfully menacing. My only complaint: Why does this man from the future have two weapons in his hands? I wasn't feeling the purpose of the sword. Still one of the best of the competition.

Spyroteknik - Symmetrical pleasure seen through the water's reflection. It's tall figure stood alone and awaited the viewer's appreciation.

Speculart - The most unique approach to the Monolith concept. Besides the slight gray color irregularity around the shadow's location this gets my vote.

v - Speculart

Best COW in awhile.

chrike
July 24th, 2006, 09:15 AM
Went with spyro this round. I´d love to see it on a higher resolution, too.
Also great entries from Hide, Speculart and Bumskee!

KaWaii
July 24th, 2006, 10:02 AM
Spyroteknik killed me for a few seconds and stole my vote :O

arttorney
July 24th, 2006, 10:38 AM
I liked the mood in Bumskee's piece the most.

Speculart's runes were very interesting. Art2 had a creative monolith and I liked the grid or quadrant feel of Red_Rook's. Gaius, you almost won the moodiness contest. I liked your piece a lot.

spyroteknik
July 24th, 2006, 10:50 AM
much appreciated guys, higher res -

http://www.spyroteknik.com/ftp/monolithbig.jpg

bumskee
July 24th, 2006, 07:57 PM
spyro for me :)

hideyoshi & red, awsome!

SprayNation
July 25th, 2006, 08:08 PM
Why does this weeks E.O.W. make me horny???? haha, nice work guys.
Funkytown: Lovin' that extreme perspective.
Hideyoshi's is intriguing as well.
But Spyroteknik's gets my vote for making me the horniest <3 :perv:

Dile_
July 26th, 2006, 03:27 PM
wow... Dile had two votes....Dile is happy....Dile feel proud...
Dile cant express himself in words :D
And I dont even have redirected this thread in some msn chat for once and
forced em to vote for me :D

Hideyoshi
July 26th, 2006, 05:50 PM
vulgar, chrike, bumskee, SprayNation: many thanks!
Spyro: the high-res is great!
Vulgar: "multiple-combat-fighter" :) hence the 2 weapons

Vulgar`
July 26th, 2006, 05:59 PM
Yea, but swords in the future? I was going to vote for yours - but Speculart stood as the most unique. Private message me anytime.

Keep doing you