IDW #52: Undead Carriage

[yoitisi]

Topic: Undead Carriage

Background: I thought it'd be good to do something with the realms of fantasy as well in IDW, as the focus is often more on the futuristic side of things.

Basically, the topic is to design a carriage of the undead. What they do with it or what they use it for -piling up fresh corpses to move them, a carriage for necromancers, a cage for victims or even a skull catapult- is up to you, as long is it's is clear we're dealing with undead and not with the purple-green fearies of the Magic Forest next door

Drawing beasts that pull or push the wagon, as well as the occasional skelleton or necromancer is totally optional. However, it must be clear how the carriage is actually moved even without them. Steam power or just plain old magic is an option for this as well of course.

Brief:
1. Draw and design an Undead Carriage.
2. Choose what the Undead actually would use it for and make that clear.
3. That's it...

Deadline: Wednesday December 12 2007

[Dekus]

Nooo... just when i thought we would design something cool, futuristic vehicle or stuff.. this fantasy, fairy, undead task comes in... im not interested in those kind of old things at all.. oh well... i hope there would be something cooler later..
Interesting to see what you guys will come up with..

[Lynus]

I have two words to describe this weeks idw. Awe- some, can't wait to get cracking on this!

[Matsign]

we can't always choose what type of job we have conceptualize. Why don't you make it a futuristic undead carriage? Piece of cake. The topic is awesome.

[nutkin]

cool topic, let the sketching begin!

[Legato]

is a large battle chariot fair game? *thumbnails it anyway*

[oDaYWaLKeRo]

Cool topic

Sword & Sorcery is an awesome choice for a dinosaur like me who is a big fan of Frazetta hehehe

[grenogs]

dekus dont be to disapointed, theres no reason why you still can't make this very sci-fi or futuristic, or even very steampunk.

[yoitisi]

Dekus: In my experience there are no 'bad' topics, just topics that are more fun than others. What's more, sometimes the ones you thought would be totally boring will be the most fun once you start on them. Anyway, you can always wait for the next IDW I suppose.

Legato: A chariot would be somewhere on the border of what this topic is and is not about I think, but if you manage to pull it off go ahead

One more thing everyone, as I've heard some people suggest to make a futuristic version of the carriage. I must say that since I didn't actually forbid this, yes you can make a futuristic Undead Carriage. However, I did state that we're talking fantasy instead of Futuristic stuff this time so I don't really see the point of doing it this way.

Think of it as a job given to you by a client, would he/she really expect you to come up with a futuristic wagon as everything in the topic points to fantasy? I ran into a similar problem once in COW, where the topic was 'heart harvester'. The one argument that killed my entry was like: yeah, if your client wants you to draw a heart harvester, he doesn't mean a vegetarian eh?

[grenogs]

actualy dekus ill take that back , maybe a future or sc-fi carriage isn't actualy the way to go lol, but still as yoitisi said fantasy can be fun also, just got to put the right mind set to it, thats all.

Yoitisi how do you actualy want this presented, as a more traditional technical plan, side view, top view, etc..., or a more 3d look as if it was a concept for an illustration, ingame shot or movie, with background. Or doesn't it realy matter.

[Dekus]

actualy dekus ill take that back , maybe a future or sc-fi carriage isn't actualy the way to go lol, but still as yoitisi said fantasy can be fun also, just got to put the right mind set to it, thats all.

Yeah yeah guys.. i get it... xD I guess i just over reacted since its the first time im joining this kind of stuff...
Ill do something..

[yoitisi]

Grenogs: There's no specific view/perspective I ask of you this time, although as I said in earlier rounds some views are better than others in a general way. Perspective drawings like 3/4 front view or something give generally more information about your design than a sideview.

Dekus: Good, that was our point

[grenogs]

ok, so just a quick idea so far, and some background information. Basicly this is Cinderellas carriage. So everyone knows the story of Cinderella, with the carriage, the ball, and prince and that everyone lives happily ever after. But i think the ending was actually changed in order to have the happy ended, i think it should actualy have been more this way: when Cindarella left the ball she was already late, there is no way she would have got home in time before her carriage turned back to a pumping. Actualy she was so late that in fact her carriage changed back soon after she left the ball, whilst the carriage would have been going at high speed. Which would have killed her instantly. So now Cindarella, because she was not ready to die and still had much things in her life she wanted, she still is searching for her prince amongst the living. Only real difference now however is that after midnight she must return to her natural state where she belongs, amongst her own kind, the undead.
The End

Still not sure how to carry on with this yet though, should it be all bone or should i go more towards rotting flesh? any ideas?

[nutkin]

nice idea, on your last point, it might be fun to keep the carriage as a fruit or vegetable, maybe a really creepy, poisonous thing (you'd be able to find some fun references. As for building it out of bones, maybe you could find some bones that would naturally make that shape, a huge round skull, an array of ribs...

great background story!

[grenogs]

thanks nutkin, i think you could be right there, i also thought maybe i could even have the carriage as a rotting pumpkin, or as you mentioned another creepy poisonous plant thing but with its own bones and everything showing as if it were once a life of its own. Also this may help me with the wheels, i wasnt quite sure how to do them, and i wanted to build them with more than just bones.

[yoitisi]

Cinderella...Still not sure how to carry on with this yet though, should it be all bone or should i go more towards rotting flesh? any ideas?

This combination made me laugh out loud I like the background story already. I think the rotting pumping would be cool, maybe you can check other fairytale cliches and give them a twist (like what is connected with 'evil' in those stories..bramblebushes, stuff like that).

[grenogs]

thanks yoitisi, but i realy wish you hadn't, now i'm going to have to finish this one, lol. I think im going to go for a more animated or stylized approach on this one, similer to the corpse bride or even the Undead game that was out on the ps a few years ago. I dont think a realistic fantasy approach would give it justice. I like your idea about giving other fairy tales a similer twist, though the evil approach may be a little easy concidering most fairy tales are already based around some kind of evil or bad omen.

[Dekus]

So heres my sketches.. the big one can somehow be named as a rendering.. but the paper ended.. xD

[form2function]

Gonna sit this one out I'm afraid but I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with. And Yoitisi, I'm guessing you got COW-influenced on the topic eh?

Oh and I love the direction you took with it Grenogs. Don't be afraid to bring some realism to the design though, if you'd like to. Should limit yourself to stylized or anime looks just due to the subject matter. Just because someone happens to think that bones make bad choices for automotive construction doesn't mean they're right. It's all subjective.

[gene0i1mortal]

That's fun as hell gregnogs, definitely think that's a keeper concept.

[hallo]

WIP

[form2function]

Oh my.

[Danuh]

hallo~
AMAZING colorwork so far. I have a feeling that'll look pretty hardcore once finished.
Wish I had more time in the week to dedicate to this challenge. I might only be able to get a WIP done.

[Demo]

well heres mine so far it needs a lot of work and im kind of stuck so im hopeing for lots of feed back and helpfull comments.

[Arbu]

crazy topic!! must find the time to draw something

Dekus: I like the drawing in the right center of the image :thumbsup:

Hallo: total awesomness!!

[Legato]

these rendering is very old, but it should show you the direction i am going. the current version is knee deep in background etc, but i've been looking at it so long i can't tell if its crap, or good enough to post... so i won't X_X

so yes, to restate, this is before drop shadows, highlights, placement, scale, etc

http://incolor.inetnebr.com/legato/I...tW052-WIP1.jpg

*edit* sorry its super huge... i've taken out the image because im too lazy to resize and put up, but it's now a link!

[Dekus]

Arbu: Thanks!... finally i got at least some kind of comment.. Maybe ill do that one or one that i havent showed yet..

Legato: interesting.. looks almost 3d!.... but it reminds me of a tank more..

[yoitisi]

Dekus: Yep, the middle-right one looks best to me too, as it is more a carriage than the car on the left Be careful not to put too much time in the creature up front but try to keep the focus on the carriage itself as we're here in the IDW thread

hallo: Looks pretty cool already. The foreground might be a bit darker compared to the background and carriage, but as this version is not yet finished you probably already knew that

Demo: Lots to say here as it isn't finished yet, but I think the most important point is the perspective. Right now it actually doesn't really have any, as I see the side and back without a real vanishing point. Eye-height perspective is cool for a carriage like this, but it means you've got a horizon at eye height with two vanishing points to the left and to the right of the carriage.

[Demo]

ok i started a new sketch to work on the perspective. i dont think ill get this finished by the deadline but id like to have a good sketch of what im going for.

i think the window in the front is off a little bit and im not sure about the background yet.

[Legato]

ok i started a new sketch to work on the perspective. i dont think ill get this finished by the deadline but id like to have a good sketch of what im going for.

i think the window in the front is off a little bit and im not sure about the background yet.

for future projects, it might be beneficial to spend a day getting used to google sketchup and trying your hand at block modeling, or draw in a perspective grid and go from there... i find that if you start traditionally its easier to do a perspective grid, than if you start digitally, but thats just me