Chow 139 :: Jiao-Long, Velociraptor

[daestwen]

ROUND #139 :: Jiao-Long, Velociraptor

DESCRIPTION

Jiao-Long is no ordinary pet. Found deep in the jungles of a far off land, the all-powerful Emperor had the great beast brought to the Forbidden City as both a prize for China, and as a symbol of greatness to his people.

Jiao-Long is a velociraptor, a vicious predator made half-tame by numerous handlers and a life-time of pampering. He is the last of his kind - a bizarre accident - somehow millions of years from where science expected him to be. He is fed only the freshest food, and the rarest - baboons, tigers, elephant, brought from all over the world. He has presents lavished upon him both by the Emperor himself, as well as all who wish to please the emperor. Though he has been known to kill handlers when he is displeased, he shows a remarkable amount of intelligence and cunning, and the Emperor lists him among his 'most cherished advisers'. Whether this is true, remains to be seen.

He is, however, revered at almost an iconic status - seen as being kin to the dragons of legend and the ultimate symbol of the Ming Dynasty's Power.


Notes on this round:

- A velociraptor
- Ancient China (Think Ming Dynasty, but feel free to fiddle with this as much as you want)
- This is NOT a COW - this is a CHOW. Make sure he has personality!
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DEADLINE
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14TH, 2008
Deadline is Sunday, at 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time (GMT -5).
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FOLLOW THE TOPIC.

POST YOUR FINAL IN THE FINALS THREAD.

SAVE YOUR FILES IN THE FOLLOWING FORMAT. Chow##_Nickname
example: "CHOW#100_Oblio.jpg"

PLACE THE IMAGE IN A FRAME WITH YOUR NAME/TOPIC


(you can add CA logo, etc).


POST YOUR FINALS IN THE FINALS THREAD!
Remember to include your nickname in the file name.

About quality - as general rule: if your shapes and values are not decent - you are out. Watch proportions, perspective etc. we need perfectly readable shapes and coherent, consistent values.

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BE PROFESSIONAL - only finished and good quality entries will be taken to the poll. Oregano and Daestwen (yay!) will make the selection.

[daestwen]

Please review these helpful reminders if you have not done so already.

ON GETTING TO POLL
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NEW ROUND RULE: WIPS PLEASE!
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SUBMISSION FORMAT REMINDER


PLEASE NOTE REVISED DEADLINE!

[Relic]

Sorry to interrupt,but in China,"Jiao-Long" refers in particular to hornless dragon who lives in water,and he is the cause of a flood.

[grenogs]

Sorry to interrupt,but in China,"Jiao-Long" refers in particular to hornless dragon who lives in water :p

or aquatic dragon, which could also resemble a crocodile or alligator,

[Wiggers]

I know you point this out on your notes but this does sounds more like a COW than a CHOW.

[Elder-Of-The-Earth]

This is definatley a cow and besides that, velociraptor isn't a very creative concept that we have to think about it. Anyone can do that. please, at least put some twist into it.

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The world is inside of your heart

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DA webpage Elder-Of-The-Earth.deviantart.com/

[Elder-Of-The-Earth]

I don't know guys. I believe for this chow we have to come up with a very unique artwork because just a velociraptor it's not a big deal. Use your imagination guys. Come up with something extraordinary. If you reconsider it, we can do a lot with this. Maybe this isn't much like a chow but we can do a great cow. Right?

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The world is inside of your heart

___________________________
DA webpage Elder-Of-The-Earth.deviantart.com/

[yoitisi]

Wiggers, Elder-Of-The-Earth: I'm not sure if you guys are aware of one of the most basic rules of COW, but that is that COW is about a species rather than a single creature. Hence, this for sure is not a COW.

Apart from that, I fail to see how this is an unimaginative topic. Since nobody knows what exactly a velociraptor looks like, you still have a lot of freedom in the design of it already. It's a dinosaur! How can that not be awesome to draw? Add to that the fact that it is a lonely survivor and is the pet of an Ancient Chinese Emperor and you have your character right there.

If you don't think a pet can be a CHOW, you obviously have never watched any Disney movie (or a number of other movies with creatures in a major role that I'm not going to list here - it's pretty much endless). Just look at how some people dress up their dogs or spend money on a simple leash.

I think I might even enter this round now...

[Wiggers]

Very well put yoitisi!

[daestwen]

Sorry to interrupt,but in China,"Jiao-Long" refers in particular to hornless dragon who lives in water,and he is the cause of a flood.

Oh, blah. The internet fails me again! Any recommendations to fix it?

As for the COW/CHOW question:

Though Yoi already put it much better than I will probably, I would just like to point out that there have already *been* creature chows (most notably 'Cedartuft the Squirrel Mage' and 'Smaug'). I know I'm asking a lot from you guys since dinosaurs are a bit hard, but there is a lot of room for you guys to play around with this. The trick is to figure out how to get across a creature's individual personality and character, even with something iconic as a velociraptor.

Think of the jungle book, for example, if you want ideas for how to make animals into characters. Yes, each of those characters certainly looked like the species they belong to, but you wouldn't confuse them with someone else! (Disney actually does this really well in a lot of their movies.) You have your work cut out for you because this is an image and not an animation, but Chow is about challenging yourself and getting better, not just drawing what you know you can already draw!

For this particular CHOW, if you want ideas for how you can make him "not just a dinosaur", I suggest looking at something called "Dinotopia".

[Sorknes]

COW is creating a species where it is utmost important that the creature does in fact not have any individual traits, but can be seen as a representative for the whole species. A ChoW has nothing to do with species, it has to do with inviduality and it is utmost important that we can single out the character from the rest of the species. If you guys are ever going to work with this, (or forbid - already works with it and do not know the difference), this is something you have to learn. Which is what COW and ChoW and all the other weeklies is all about.

Do you just draw "a human" on every single topic that is about a character that happens to be of the species homo sapiens?

If you look at this topic and think just "a velociraptor" when reading it, you fail. Meh. Go rewire yer brains, folks.

[kelly x]

this is awesome... a brutal moody pet?? I want one!!
I've never done CHOW, but this sounds cool, good job Daestwen.

[Cloud-Yo!]

Yay Dynazawrs!!!!!!

[Asatira]

I've actually started some thumbnails. The challenge would be getting across the attitude and sense of opulence in a killer dinosaur. I like the idea.

[Wiggers]

ok Sorknes i get it, time to step down from your soapbox

[Sorknes]

Sowwy, I blame the hormones...

I'm actually looking forward to this one, I've been playing with ideas in my head while trying to finish my countess. ^^

[Wiggers]

lol sorkness

[Jazz]

daestwen, maybe to fix the issue of the name, it could be something as simple as "mistaken identity" where everyone thought this dinosaur was a dragon or something else! It would sure make Jiao-Long upset if someone or something figured out the truth. lol!

[Elder-Of-The-Earth]

I'm sorry that anyone misunderstood me. I didn't make this up all by myself. In cow's rules it did mentioned no individual or character. It also mentioned that no human like creature and no accessories or clothing. Well this sounds like a velociraptor which all know it’s a famous dinosaur. But I also understood that this is a particular creature. And as Daestwen, no one failed you. It's just a very confusing topic. Don't think that I hate it. I'm in. but still it was better to involve a human character.

Like I said in my last post, it's a difficult concept in order to get it special. Other wise just a velociraptor that we all have seen in Jurassic Park, won't be an artwork. It needs details.

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The world is inside of your heart

___________________________
DA webpage Elder-Of-The-Earth.deviantart.com/

[alesoun]

An arrogant, cunning, wise advisor to the Emperor who EATS people and has scales?

I missed Smaug; so I'm definitely in on this one!

[Vorace]

Fun topic!!

Will try to get something in time eh!

interesting fact about raptor (from wiki):

Fossils of dromaeosaurids more primitive than Velociraptor are known to have had feathers covering their bodies, and fully-developed, feathered wings.[29] The fact that the ancestors of Velociraptor were feathered and possibly capable of flight long suggested to paleontologists that Velociraptor bore feathers as well, since even flightless birds today retain most of their feathers.

[Artificially Awake]

wow, this one sounds really fun
definitely gonna try and get this one done in time, still mad i missed the last one cause i was too busy to finish it on time
i included my 2 ref images for this as well

critique encouraged, i wanna know what you think of the sketch so far? pose etc

[Moai]

I think this is a very cool topic!
A couple of things to consider. First, like Vorace said, Velociraptors are universally portrayed as feathered nowadays. They are very closely related to the lineage of dinosaurs that gave rise to birds, and several related non-avian dinosaurs have also been discovered with feather impressions. Secondly, Velociraptors are roughly half the size they were in Jurassic Park. Just six feet from snout to tail.

Here's a very nice site for studying the anatomy of dinosaurs: Skeletaldrawing.com. It even has a page devoted to Velociraptor!

[yoitisi]

Started sketching for a bit. Trying to figure out what my raptor will look like but kept it pretty toned down for now. Also did some reading up on Chinese history, but it's pretty complex...

Guess I'll have to do a lot more sketches to figure this one out.

[fionkell]

Sweet mercy! I have to do this one. DINOSAUUUURRRRR

Also Yoitisi, looking real nice there. Could be cool if the headfeathers developed into some sort of a crest?

[MJ_Alcazar]

Sounds fun! I should have some time starting Wednesday, so I'll maybe finish this time!

[Relic]

or aquatic dragon, which could also resemble a crocodile or alligator,

Quite right,in some of the antique books,"Jiao long" refers to a totally different aquatic creature,its concept quite like a dragon ,but its not.

But anyway ,it's just a name for a character,no need to fix it.I think it's great to go crazy about it.

[Dan!]

first stage

[meganite]

I normally do COWs, so this will give me an opportunity to break with the many rules of COW! Hooray for individual characters! A few notes:
-- A good page: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsid...osauridae.html
-- Interestingly enough, Velociraptors are one of the many Chinese dinosaurs. Velociraptor mongoliensis is its scientific name, named thus because it was found in Mongolia.
-- Velociraptors are technically much smaller than those you see in Jurassic Park. I imagine they actually modeled their design after the much fiercer, larger, and blockier Deinonychus, which would travel in packs and attack much larger dinosaurs. Velociraptors aren't even as tall as a human. But the ancient chinese don't have to know that. Anyway, individuals might be larger or smaller, perhaps!

The way I'm going about this design is to try to think what could have built up many of the legends the Chinese have about dragons. And, if velociraptors have feathers, perhaps this explains the reason the chinese give their dragons poofy feathery tails and headdresses, and little tufts of feathery things on their limbs?

[matias]

Just a quicky, just trying to figure an arrogant dino-pose then I can starts on the pimp my raptor stage!

Dan! awesome dude, I take advice from him!