C.O.W. - #094: Singing Death - Voting!

[Fozzybar]

ROUND #094 VOTING

Topic: Singing Death

Deadline for the voting: Friday, 17th August 2007

Posting thread (closed):
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=103138


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OK - before voting/posting read this!!!

1. Please give c&c or a reason why you voted for the image!

2. Feel free to comment on any or all entries, the artists will appreciate it!

3. No voting for your own entry!!! If a participants votes for his own entry, every member has the right to call him a stupid lame moron in this thread! And i will delete his/her vote anyway...

[Fozzybar]

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artist: Woodlandwalker
concept:
Dubbed, “Singing death”, this unique one eyed melodic horned reptile lives in the marshy grasslands constantly scanning the horizon for food. Not what you would call a "fast mover"...the creature normally communicates over long distances by what could only be described as singing thru its hollow horns, (the horns will grow into the creatures mouth prior to maturity...the mother will hunt for her young until their horns mature). This scaled hunter "turns it up" a few octaves when hunting...by closing its mouth to sing; it blows tremendous blasts both of air and sonic waves out of the top of the creature’s horns… strategically aimed, these sonic air bolts knock its prey out of the sky falling to its death. After walking over to its stunned quarry, should the fall not have killed it, a quick swipe of its boney tail will finish the job before its gaping maw devours its meal.


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artist: timothee
concept:
The creature sings(yells) triumphantly when he has hunted successfully. In a sense, it's like bragging rights for this predatory creature. The singing can be heard from miles away, usually scaring away any animal in the nearby area.


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artist: Sovereign
concept:
The species lives in rainforest habitats and the male sings and displays to call as many females as possible using the complex system of nasal passages and air sacs. He does this for days or up to a week depending on his stamina and due to the severe energy expenditure, dies soon after mating with as many females as he can.


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artist: aberrant85
concept:


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artist: scorge
concept:
When the planet we live on was young, a race of beings from a distant galaxy whose sole purpose was to test and sustain life on suitable worlds, planted the seeds of what would eventually evolve into the dinosaurs.
While the dinosaurs(as we call them) maintained a healthy existence for millions upon millions of years, these beings from another place grew bored with this evolutionary dead end and decided to start anew. But there was one species which they had not counted on emerging from their primordial soup called the Mammals. And while their plot to end the reign of their precious gruloskus (or dinosaurs) proved to be effective, it was not effective enough to erase our planet of all life. Thus, the mammals took control of the earth.
These beings, who we'll call the Instigators for now, decided to let their unexpected result run amok on the planet and see what would happen.
This proved to be their fatal mistake.
While the rise of human beings has proven to be the most devastating and infestuous of all outcomes in the Instigators experiments, the true threat has slowly but surely come from the sea, after the mammals through the course of evolution reclaimed it as their own. And I'm not talking about man here. From Killer whales to the Infamous Blue Whale, no other creatures on earth have proven to be more intelligent or worthy of the Instigators respect and outright cause of fear, than the mammals of the seas.
To the instigators, we(humans)are merely a nuisance. A polluter of the precious water that occupies two thirds of the planet. A mere fly on the wall. But in no way such a threat as those who are about to reach the plane that the Instigators themselves occupy.
So, as the asteroid was the solution to the dinosaurs, what we see here is the solution and the first step in the elimination of the front line of resistance to the creators of life on this planet. This is the Mlesk.
Designed and specially bred over thousands of years to attract and destroy the water borne mammals of earth, the Mlesk has two valves on the top of it's head that when water is drawn through quickly, and particular muscles contracted to attract certain prey, will mimic the sounds of whale, dolphin and even seal and manatee songs in the vast oceans. Songs so endearing and irresistible to the victim, that they are almost in a trance when they arrive at what will become their final resting place. In the year of 1995, after recognizing the severe potential of the mammals of the oceans(the real reason the Instigators stopped by in the first place), the Instigators dropped six Mlesk eggs into the oceans of earth, confident in their ability to undo the wrongdoings of evolution. This is merely a glimpse of an adolescent. Happy swimming.


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artist: Chuck,mate.
concept:


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artist: Gorromog
concept:


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artist: huhwhat
concept:
Progenies of a freak lab experiment by bored bio-engineers, the gelatin-octopus-pelican-penguin-turtle-thing-that-consumes-souls, aka gopeptuthicos, although possessing none of the haunting beauty of the mythical sirens, are still effective predators, as their calls sound eerily akin to whatever song their preys (mostly humans) find most irresistibly pleasing. Every victim consumed strengthens the gopeptuthicos, as these souls' cries add to the creature's siren call. Old gopeptuthicos tend to meet their demise when their body could no longer contain all the thousands of souls it had digested in its lifetime.


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artist: christ
concept:
this creature, with its blond hair flowing in the breaze, sings a beautiful song that draws ships to the shallow watters. once they wreck they are picked off one by one.


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artist: Simonstalenhag
concept:
let me introduce the "singing death", a monstrous sticky grasshopper thingy. It's "body" is big as a magpie and with it's digitals streched out it measures 50 cm in diameter. It's body resembles a Yellownecked Rockwarbler, a bird common in the areas inhabited by the "Singing Death". It also produces a sound similar to the singing of the bird mentioned above. In this way, it attracts other predators, like cats and dogs, and when they come close enogh, it releases a cloud of paralyzing chemical substance. When its prey lies defenseless on the ground, guess what - it devours them. The "eyes" on it's head isn't its real eyes, those are hidden near its powerful beak. From a distance it can be confusingly similar to a bird, but it gives itself away in flight, showing its insectile double set of wings.


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artist: gatling
concept:
I could hear it -that sound; that dissonance. It rang and stretched in endless chords with only a brief reprieve before starting anew. It couldn’t be. He couldn’t have killed them this soon. His instinctual clock for mating has become dire in its frequency. We will never get them off of that list this way.
The u7Belize society of ornithology would strip me immediately of my certification if they knew of my home studies. Captivity of such creatures in any domestic nature has been forbidden upon its enlistment within the endangered catalogues. This behavior however cannot be placed on pause. Sleeping does not interrupt its need. The male has now been separated from its mate. She almost seems to feel inadequate. It’s sad really… her song has all but been silenced.
Short version: Violent male species use certain calls during mating. Usually signals death of newborns.


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[Fozzybar]

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artist: Lege1
concept:
The "Singing Death" is a very rare and deadly amphibious creature that resides in the deep, and hidden rainforests of South America. This creature feeds mainly on birds and occasionally other small animals that it may find in its travels. The "Singing Death" typically keeps a close eye in the tree canopy areas for bird nests. When the creature spots a nest it opens its venomous mouth releasing a terrible stench that is projected through a low toned singing. The "Singing Death's" song simply keeps the birds calm as the intoxicating stench quickly puts the birds in to cardiac arrest, thus making them fall from the trees and usually right into the mouth of the "Singing Death." There is no need to get in to details about what happens next cause I believe we all know, for the blood in the picture speaks for itself.


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artist: benu
concept:
Singing Death - lat. vultus cantans is a flightless vulture from the rainforests of Olim-bo-po. In its perpetual search for decaying carcasses it skims through the jungle of this remote island. When it, via its unrivalled sense of smell, finds a larger piece of rotting meat, it starts calling out in an eerie, deep and hollow voice, which is immensely enhanced by a large cavity in its skull, thus alerting its conspecifics. Since for a long time the only large mammals on this island were humans, the native people became to associate the bird with death itself. Therefore they began to feed their deceased to it, as they believed that the songs of these birds carried the souls of their dead into the realm of their ancestors and by feeding them with their mortal flesh, they paid their fee. Upon arrival of the europeans the singing deaths were hunted down almost to extinction, in an attempt to evangelize the natives and to end this heathen burial rite. Today there is only a sorry rest left of the once large population of vultus cantans in Olim-bo-po.


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artist: edujante
concept:
This is my singer dead!
adama Dramé is its name!It lives in the forest, uses his loud voice to kill all the flies and with his tentacles it pick up the corpses eating them in a long dinners...


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artist: Pimpfish
concept:
It hunts its prey by a sonic wave much like a whale song that produces dopamine levels in the brain to go haywire. The closer the prey gets to the source the more and more delerious it gets, totally focused on the pleasure brought by this sound. The sound is so strong it can lure air breathing organisms into the water, stopping at nothing to get to the source.


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artist: alice_
concept:
You can find them everywhere; tainted battle fields littered with ancient metal corpses. Nothing grows there except those thick brambles that ooze black poison and nothing lives there except those wolf-creatures that scream into the sky. They sing a cursed song of death and all who hear it despair.


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artist: gep
concept:
Ever heard that spine-shivering cry late at night that makes the hairs on your arms stand up? What you are hearing is actually the eerie shrills of the Death Singer from a nearby cemetery as he serenades the moon while another body is laid to rest.


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artist: White Wolf
concept:
*Scribble on a burnt piece of paper found at the ruins of a completely destroyed and abandoned city*
"So this is what I found out so far...
These birds, altough being huge themselves, lived in the massive areas of the Garnar-desert. Like everybody knows, this desert spreads over mindboggingly large distances. So to save the energy it requires to move such a big body, they evolved an incredibly loud singing tone.
With those deafening bird-songs they could overcome even the longest distances for mating communication and finding breeding partners. As a side-effect, almost no living creatures inhabited those deserts anymore, they could'nt bear the stress due to the constant noise...
This extreme level of loudness was accolpmished by three evolutionary developments:
First, they got a system of long specialized backbones reaching out of their spines that build up vibrations. Those vibrations get channeled through the hollow spine, releasing them at the beak. Simply put, the bones on their back work like several tuning forks (you know those things your music teacher probably had to find a tune for your bad singing...
Second, they have vertical air-shafts on the sides of their neck. These provide an extended stream of air to carry those sound-vibrations out of their body.
Third, while the 3-pointed beaks allowed for a wide spread mouth, these beaks also have a membran to each side that further helps to channel the sound waves at a certain direction.
Unfortunately, some nomad people living at the borders of the desert quickly domesticated those massive birds and used them for blitzkrieg-like warfare. The domesticated birds proved as a formidable weapon in war, shattering cities and weaponds along with the soldiers. Everybody who survived this experience was not only deaf but also reported the bizzare fact that those earthshattering sound-waves still sounded like a birds song. This resulted in the native language nickname of "Singing Death"..
We must prepare for the arrival of those riders, no matter the cost. But I am sure my formidable genius will find a solution to save my people... and hopefully I will become their new leader...."
*end of readable paper*


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artist: masque
concept:
This giant molluscoid is the only Squorkus known to have developed an active defense mechanism. Its shell has evolved into what xenobiologists have come to recognize as a nearly perfect natural wave-guide, capable of immense levels of amplification of the Satchmoso's natural sounds. The result is the ability to direct concentrated blasts of sonic energy, likened to acoustic lasers, at threatening predators. These pulses can pulverize up to 5kg of organic material in one blast, and have been know to even fracture bones and hard materials such as eyeglass lenses (Satchmoso research is considered a hazardous profession, leading to a high incidence of reconstructive nose surgery).
The Satchmoso normally emits only low levels of sound, mainly the metatonal scales that are its mating calls, lending the creature it's common nickname, the Giant Singing Slug. However, when its tympanic sensors are triggered by any of a wide range of stimuli, the Satchmoso reacts with its devastating sonic barrage.
The brassy nacreous surface of the Satchmoso's waveguide shell is responsible for its scientific name, the creature's discoverer having been a fan of early 20th century Terran jazz.


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artist: JasonClarke
concept:
The Singing Death, as i saw it, is a caterpillar type alien insect, which sits on branches, and emits a high frequency tone, to lure in birds, and other animals. from there, it dangles little sacs of poison which grow from it's back, and can detach, with spiderweb-like strands. once a small animal eats it, it dies almost instantly, and the Singing Death will lay it's eggs in the corpse.


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artist: Einen
concept: The Sousadon
Once upon a time on a moonlit night an old sea captain was sure he saw "one of them crocodills sittin' on a rock, singin' as pretty as I never heard a crocodill sing b'fore." So he shot the beast dead and brought the body ashore. It turned out that the "crocodill" was a sousadon - an ancient creature whose beautiful song guides the souls of those who have died at sea. The captain didn't care much since the animal's meat was delish, and soon a widespread hunt killed every last living sousadon on the planet.
Years later the captain drowned during a sightseeing with a glass bottom boat. His soul is still lost at sea, forever seeking the salvation it will never recieve. Bummer.


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artist: calyx
concept: The Luvender (the love ender)
Hidden in the darkest clouds, the Luvender listens out for the cries of those suffering from the aftermath of failed love. The mouths scattered all over the flesh of its body respond to the cries with a song of death that eases the human sorrows slowly but painlessly. In midst of the seemingly hypnotic state, the Luvender emerges from the darkness and devours them.


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artist: Vorace
concept: The Cacophonius Saurus
It is believed that this bipedal carnivor is a dinosaur of the Jurassic era. It was the height of a small velociraptor, but some fossils proved that some specimens grew until they reached the size of a cow.
Its most extraordinary characteristic was its oversize red throat. Inside of it there is a fabulous amount of nerves. The ''Singing Death'', as paleontologist call it, was able to produce a strange sound, similar to a bird melody, reaching a deathly number of decibels. It used this ''weapon'' to hunt big herbivore dinosaurs.
Others anatomical specificities include is lack of forelimbs and long spikes joined by red skin on its back.


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artist: lewicron
concept:
The aduro nex (singer of death) is an evolutionary descendant of a species of amphibian that lived up until the quarternary period and which was known to the ancients as the "frog". This warm-blooded predator is able to mimic the mating calls of it's prey by inflating large fleshy sacs in its throat and back and forcing the air out through the larynx and through bony pipes that are modifications of the vertebral spines. The aduro also has a bird-like respiratory system, so that in addition to being able to breath through its skin, the aduro can breath with tube-like lungs, through which air is drawn unidirectionally into air sacs in the body cavity and bones, before being returned to the larynx to be exhaled. This allows for much more efficient gas exchange and makes the aduro a formidable, "metabolically supercharged" predator.


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artist: longshao
concept:
The Orisus is a super natural creature that brings death messages to people.
With mystic energy channeling through its body, the Orisus can travel faster than the speed of sound. Dashing through the landscape, it plays melodic, whipering like sounds with its hollow horns to announce death sentences to people who are near death.
It can only be seen or beard by near death people. Since it runs so fast, it's often seen as a red flash. Then the song of death will be heard to the observer, telling him or her how much time is left.


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[Fozzybar]

not accepted entries:

All WIPs/sketches/not finished yet/placeholder/yaddayaddayadda images...AND (if not mentioned further) all entries which didn't pass the quality check

mediaslave
I wasn't sure about the quality of your entry...i wa torn between accepting and rejecting but then i read your concept, there is no clue about singing and death, also the slightly humanoid look of the creature made the decision very easy for me at the end

-Food]-
Your creature doesn't sing as far as i understood your concept...



close to rejection:

gep
Actually there is no relation to Death, when you look at the topic: "Singing Death"...you called your creature in your text "Death Singer", which works with your concept, but actually the topic is Singing Death....but still i took yours to the poll...it's your first entry as far as i remember and i liked the image



special note:

Sovereign
you wrote WIP...but i think you just forgot to delete the note...looks pretty good and finished in my eyes

Chuck,mate.
You didn't add a concept text...if it weren't an entry from a great artist and regular i would have rejected you...but well, my eyes are stronger than my brain sometimes btw maybe you want to add a text still?

matias
A shame you didn't make it....i was close to accept your WIP though

[Fozzybar]

huhwhat
gep
JasonClarke
Vorace
lewicron

Upload your images on a webserver and send me the link!!!! Attached images can't be taken to the poll...

I will wait for opening the poll until this artists send me working image-urls...sorry to all, but this time there are just too much missing entries (attached images)...

If i won't get all links i will open it sunday though.

[Fozzybar]

meanwhile go to the new round

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=103812

[Fozzybar]

ok, only JasonClarkes entry is left...i will open the poll, meanwhile his entry will be seen as a link...

[Paul A. Willemse]

Absolutley brilliant looking stuff folks! Well done indeed!!

[Jason Strutz]

loved the look and the word balloons to represent the songs. others we striking but many were focused on our own "singing" animals, dogs, birds and such.

[Thayne]

Voted for Alice....just a great mood and syle to the work that i loved. Also really like Gatling and Calyx's entries. It's a shame that Food's entry didn't make it to poll...would have made voting even harder!

[Sovereign]

Voting for Gatling, because I can best imagine this as "singing death" moreso than longshao's entry, which is my runner-up. Either way they're both amazing!
Other entries I liked: masque's mollusc - hilarious and such great style, the sonic effect is very well done.
whitewolf - an overall great piece, with atmosphere. The description and design of the creatures is very well thought out.
simon stalenhag - love the design, and such smooth painting!
and timothee - another well rounded entry with good atmosphere.

[JasonClarke]

Cause there was a problem with my submission, let's try this again.......

The Singing Death, as i saw it, is a caterpillar type alien insect, which sits on branches, and emits a high frequency tone, to lure in birds, and other animals. from there, it dangles little sacs of poison which grow from it's back, and can detach, with spiderweb-like strands. once a small animal eats it, it dies almost instantly, and the Singing Death will lay it's eggs in the corpse.



Jason Clarke

[White Wolf]

Hey there, great round!

alice_ Wicked stuff... gives me that bizzare feeling of weird dream, great mood... unfortunately the concept is rather thin though... but it doesn't matter..your piece lives from other stuff...

calyx: Well, what can I say? Awesome stuff...way to go...keep your talent rocking!! My vote is yours...

longshao: Man, when I saw your Wip, you where my favorite right off the bat with your finished image... great design, works awesome with the colors... but sadly the final image didn't keep up with the great design... there is not much to look at besides the creature... I guess you just ran out of time...which is a pitty...with more creature details (cool tail, whatsoever...), background, some more texture etc. you would have gotten my vote without a second of hesitation.

chuck.mate: Well, looking at your art is the equivalent of drinking honey and milk....`nuff said

gatling: Just love it..great everything... I don't know if I read it correctly but that circle it the background looks like some sort of bizzaro-futuristic construction..which makes this a completely fresh setting... (or is it some sort of electro-cage?) Whatever, its a great piece of art...



I know I am a sucker because I went with the bird-concept, which is probably not very fresh when doing a singing creature hehe.. BUT I also love some classical stuff...so I am usually trying to find a mixture of something we all love (insert maniacal singing here :" Great battlescenes...great battlescenes") with adding some new stuff. So I tried to give the birds a unique or at least intresting twist anyway (with the freaky beak-structure etc.). Well, to be honest I just thought "f... it, lets do a great battlescene...

[Hopsy]

deleted by mod...

sorry, man, but this is the poll thread...post your entries next time in the posting thread

[Sangmort]

My vote had to go to calyx; though there were definitely some awesome entries.

----c&c - imho

Woodlandwalker - I particularly like the saliva & mouth & the horns. I think a little shadow under the beast could have gone a long way though in making it seem more like it's standing on something solid.
timothee - Nice scales. I think the waist / hip area could have been a little thicker to go with the thickness of the rest of the body.
Sovereign - Good rendering on the head! I think if the creature itself was moved down a little bit more like it was actually standing on the hill. Also, the lightsource & placement of shadows confuses me a bit.
aberrant85 - I like the creature's design, & the way it's eating the birds but I think you could have pushed the values a little more when you were painting Also, I think, the creature in the background could have been a little bit smaller to show perspective better.
scorge - The water being sucked into the creature is rendered nicely, the composition of the creature, whale, & bubbles confuses me though. I'm not quite sure where the "camera" / viewer is located, at the top looking down on the scene, or at an angle from above?
Chuck,mate. - Nice rendering & use of the reddish colour, the tail is held at a very uncomfortable angle though for a bird, they have no bones in their tail & thus can not bend them the way your bird is doing unless they grow out that way in curls, at which they would still be sticking down or out to the back.
Gorromog - Good creature design, looks like something that could actually exist. Slightly thicker legs in the front, I think, & a bit more shadow underneath the creature could go a long way.
huhwhat - lol Wow. Talk about unique. Only crit is the creature looks like it's standing in front of a wall, in which case it needs a shadow behind it to ake it pop a little more.
christ - It's a little difficult to tell what's going on here. The ship in the bg looks like it's more on "top" of the water then actually "in" it. The music notes take away from the image, & the creature itself should have more muscle definition.
Simonstalenhag - I love the creature's legs. I think the bit where the wings are attached to the body [ in the left image ] should have a more obvious-looking joint to look more realistic. [ as they are, they don't look like the can be bent ]
gatling - Awesome rendering, man. On the branch in particular. Couple of crits though; the bird doesn't look stable standing on the branch. When birds stand on branches / sticks / etc. their foot completely holds onto whatever there standing on. The foot that's resting has a gap between it & the branch, giving the impression it's holding on with it's "toes," also, the other foot is rising into the air is a bit awkward for a bird that's just sitting there.
Lege1 - Good design, I think your colors are too intense. Start off with less saturated colors and build up with brighter colors on top.
benu - This is painted nicely. I'm curious; is it traditional media? Very nice, only crit is the bird's right foot [ the one off the ground ] looks a little awkward. http://www.flickr.com/photos/63501868@N00/304077935/ [ the toes shouldn't be closing ]
edujante - The green worked in with the black is really nice. I think a little more shadow on the ground underneath it's front feet though.
Pimpfish - Good lighting. I think the paint could have been smoothed out a little more. Also, the teeth look blue, even underwater they'd be lighter if they are actually whitish / yellowish.
alice_ - Good creature, not quite sure what the things in it's mouth are though...
gep - Good concept, good creature. I like the rustic look of the image.
White Wolf - Good compostion, the third creature in the back looks a little out of place. That harsh orange highlights should have a little yellow in them, I think.
masque - lol This is great. Only crit is it looks a little like a machine ;p
JasonClarke - Good creature, I like the way you used green. Are it's eyes hollow, or did you just not render them? Just not sure...
Einen - I like it's face...it's arm looks as though it's broken; the "elbow" I think should be back a little more...& the lighting on the water from the sun in the BG looks like it's being mashed into the ripples around the rock, kind of throwing off the perspective a bit.
calyx - Really amazing painting. Traditional, right? Only thing is the girl is sitting on a solid-like floor [ from the shadow beneath her, & he fact she's sitting ], & the creature kind of overpasses that floor that she's on...maybe it was intentional? I don't know, just thought I'd point it out
Vorace - I like it's design. I think making the red a little less saturated, & some shadow under the creature to make it standing on something solid.
lewicron - Too dark, I think, it's difficult to make out your creature...
longshao - I like the horns. Since it runs so fast, some slight blurs of red light near the horns & where the red glows would have been cool.


Holy hell, that took forever. So many entries! Hope my c&c wasn't harsh, particularly on you guys that did bird like creatures [ I have 6 cockatiels so I have some decent knowledge on bird anatomy ] All imho, of course. My intentions are only for you to improve, & of course I apologize if I repeat something someone's already critiqued you on.

I personally love c&c so hopefully I'll be able to finish this week's COW so everyone can tear me apart ~

[gep]

not accepted entries:

close to rejection:

gep
Actually there is no relation to Death, when you look at the topic: "Singing Death"...you called your creature in your text "Death Singer", which works with your concept, but actually the topic is Singing Death....but still i took yours to the poll...it's your first entry as far as i remember and i liked the image

Hi Fozzybar

My intention was that the creature sings whenever a body is being buried and therefore when his song is heard it is understood that someone nearby has died. The creature doesn’t actually do the killing, but as far as I understand it didn’t have to be the killer, but there just needed to be ‘death’ involved in the picture somewhere. I thought since it sings whenever someone is being buried it would still count as a recent death and be ok for the requirements?

I was probably not clear enough about what I was getting at in my description, so I apologise for that and thank you for excepting my entry anyway!!!


My vote goes to calyx, awesome work! It has a great feel to it and I like the colour pallet and water painting style. The creature reminds me of some of Carlos Huante’s work (www.carloshuanteart.com).

Sangmort: Thanks!

[Chuck,mate.]

yeah, sorry about that Fozzdude.. there`s no excuse for lazyness. if I`ll enter the next round I`ll post a descripition. if I don`t - don`t take it to poll, mate.
that`ll be only fair.


thanks for the votes crits and comments guys.



P.

[alice_]

voted for longshao, I really enjoyed the colours and the design. I can't help but feel as though there was too much muscle definition going on - a small amount does a lot to add emphasis but all over it can seem over rendered.

My other favourites were calyx, gorromog and whitewolf.

[Pimpfish]

Voted for Alice_ because out of all of them i think i liked the interpretation of singing death most. All entries were of a high standard, but that one just did it for me

[Supervlieg]

Voted Calyx, looked like a lovely chaos, and very singing witkhout actually showing any singing going on.

Other close favorite was Longshao!

[masque]

three pieces contended for my vote: gatling's on the basis of excellence of visual execution, though the concept was not as strong as the art; calyx's for similar reasons, and a very strong concept, but with just a tad too much dragon (so often a solution for creature concepts); and alice_'s, which prevailed because of its haunting mood and evocation of a surreal but substantial killing ground. the "song balloons" could have been a bit hokey but they work perfectly in this strange context.

and thanks for the comments (and even a vote ), glad I could lend a grin to someone's day.

[gatling]

I voted for Alice's piece because it has this storybook feel. Very terrifyingly romantic in a way. Its strange. The style really draws me in as well.

Thanks for the crit Sangmort. I will definately keep this in mind. I am very much thankful for votes as well.

[Malphorix]

Voted for Calyx, the design fit very well with its description and I love the design overall.

[Gorromog]

thx for the crit sangmort, and thank you Alice for liking my entry.

i voted for calyx, his/her piece has a great concept and is visually very apealling. Scorge, Chuck, mate, gatling, alice, white wolf, and of course longshao. all your entries were amazing and it was a close call. i think concept wise alice's was really interisting to.

[Arn J.]

Voted for Calyx...I mean, just look at that. WOW!

[Rezeroth]

Great ART. I'm speechless...... very very well done.

Niceee.... we all move on Calyx,

[calyx]

I haven't been able to log in for a whole 3 days, sorry i couldn't reply sooner..
From the posting thread:
Arn J- Thanks X3 I haven't got much of recent work lately due to work, and my webby is dead now But i should be posting newer stuff on the forums here and there from now on for crits so..yup!

-Food]-- It's a pity your work didn't get through..very nice piece! Thanks for the welcome :3

White Wolf- Thanks! The artwork is almost 50/50 done with analog and digital.

gizmodeus- I'm glad i managed to pull it off, thanks

ikuru- Thankss I did the whole piece in pencil first, then CGed on top of it. The background was done separately, had a fun messy splotching paint experiment with poster paint on artblock, scanned them in and cut the parts i liked and layered them in Photoshop.


On the entries:
Gorromog - your creature felt very real, both design and concept, i like it. It reminded me of Okami too

Edujante's style was quite inspiring, if i didn't have to rush out that afternoon i might have tried my hands on something with such execution

alice_ -Your artwork really reminded my of Goro miyazaki's Earthsea Cycle..it's quite charming. The idea of putting in those quote bubbles that way is lovely..Would like to see more of your artworks! You have my vote.

Masque- Can't help but describe your piece as cute, in a sadistic manner lol.. It's fresh and memorable
Regarding the "tad too much dragon" issue, it did come across my mind but despite having a soft spot for dragons, this one in particular, Luvender, was lingering in my head as dragon already so..it came out dragon

Sangmort- That was done nearly 50/50 with both digital and traditional. I had in mind it'd be as though she's warped into some kind of easing blankness listening to the song console her (the hypnotic state)..so yup, it was intentional >.<

gep- I did have Carlos Huante's work in mind when i drew Luvender, he's quite an inspiring artist Maybe that's how it got a lil' too malicious looking than i intended to make it though lol..


Thanks for the votes, and everyone for the kind comments!

[calyx]

Um..on second thought, maybe my artwork was more traditional than digital.. maybe about 60&#37;-65% traditional.

[Arn J.]

I hope to see more of your work soon!

[JellevdVegt]

i dubbed between calyx and gatling. eventually i voted for gatling. i thought he needed the votes more liked much other designs also but i think this one sticked more to the topic.