Newborn - Spider and children/ universe-mother / mountain-child

[Vaejoun]

Just reserving for final pictures.

Projects so far: i will edit it the I make some more changes.

[Vaejoun]

Ok, step 1 so far. I came up with the idea of mixing such a cute thing like a newborn baby with one of the most feared creatures: A spider.
Tuning it up a little... about 10meters or so and giving it a female body at the front, than is stretching down to one of her babys, sitting there and looking up to her. On the back of her the other babys start climbing up on her body.

At first I was a little concerned about this, if its not too much focused on the mother, but when I looked around the other sketches I felt fine again. ^^
I hope I can do at least one other work.

Thats the sketch and 3 thumbnails.
I learned my lessons and this time I will only work on thumbs until I am totally sure of how I want it to look. I am still experimenting on the colors, but I think I will use a warm palette, although a cold one has its charm too. But since its supposed to give a motherly-warm fealing, warm colors should be better.

[Black Spot]

Great idea and your composition is looking good.

[hala]

I like what you said about thumbnails--I think I might use this method in the future.So thanks for that tid bit.

I agree with your choice of colors--tho I like the cold one, it is too harsh for what you are trying to convey. Keep us updated

[Vaejoun]

@Blackspot: Thanks

@Hala: No problem ^^ I am permanently endangered to loose myself in details so this method should work quite well for me.

I added a 2nd color thumb that shows what usually happens when I am working too much on one picture. I play with the layers until I get a total flash over. Maybe its good for the picture, but for me its a signal to stop for today and sleep one night over it or get some feedback if its too much or not.

[latigid]

Hey Vaejoun have to apologise pretty new here and thought i was going to a second page but actually gave you a rating of 2 so sorry for that! If its any consolation i really like the composition of the piece and would have given a 7 at least. Please forgive my stupidity

[Nickillus]

Love the creepy idea. I'm not sure that even warm 'motherly' colours can make it comfortable, but I think that's great. Spiders that big - brrrrrrrrrr!
Like the thumbnails too. Definitely a sensible plan that should work well to get you to the right combination of comp amd colour.

[Dorkthrone]

The composition here looks very promising. I would love to see this fleshed out.

[Ian Barker]

Composition looks good, although I would extend the canvas to the left a little bit, and have a rock formation framing the sunlight.

[Vaejoun]

@latigid: No problem, I did that too on other works XD

@Nickillus: Yea, I really hope to get a good mix between a warm feeling and a horror on the other hand.

@ninjacat11: I am working on it ^^

@Liffey: Thx, I will try that out on my next sketch.


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So far. I cleaned it up a little and added the babys. I like it that you never really see details of the faces, that gives the red eyes a really nice horror-feeling. Added some webs, so that the brats have something to hold on and give the cave a homie feeling.

I only have some problem with the light. I like the strong version because its so flashy and gives the feeling as if it was outside the cave. But I am afraud that too much "special effects".

[Dorkthrone]

@latigid: No problem, I did that too on other works XD

@Nickillus: Yea, I really hope to get a good mix between a warm feeling and a horror on the other hand.

@ninjacat11: I am working on it ^^

@Liffey: Thx, I will try that out on my next sketch.


---

So far. I cleaned it up a little and added the babys. I like it that you never really see details of the faces, that gives the red eyes a really nice horror-feeling. Added some webs, so that the brats have something to hold on and give the cave a homie feeling.

I only have some problem with the light. I like the strong version because its so flashy and gives the feeling as if it was outside the cave. But I am afraud that too much "special effects".

Actually, I like the stronger version. Just be sure to put some good contrast in it.

[Ian Barker]

Just gotta say that the web hanging off her leg looks great, and I like how you have those creatures (I think?) on her back.

[hala]

I love it so far, my only crit is that the baby she is reaching for is a little hard to see.
Really enjoying this so far

[Vaejoun]

@ninjacat11: Thx I will keep an eye on that. Although its kind of tricky because I have to work on a laptop at the moment and so its hard to tell how dark the color really is. It changes with the angle I look on the monitor. T__T

@Liffey: Thx, a good ps brush is the one you dont recognize as such ^^

@hala: I am working on that. Its difficult, because of the low pic size. (1k pixel wide is not much even with 300 dpi) I think I will make it (the baby) a little bigger so that you can see it better.

[Ghostbrush]

this is looking so good already

[Ian Barker]

Okay, I just realized that all those things on the right are babies... pretty weird man, but also pretty awesome! Really liking the direction on this.

[Vaejoun]

@Ghostbrush: Thanks
@Liffey: I like it when you can look at a picture and dont discover everything on the first sight.

So I experimented a lot on the legs of the spider what would be the best arrangement. But at the end I went back to the original verion.
Now I started to work out things. For now the background and the rocks at the left although I am still not completey happy with them. I think I will work on them later again. Oh yea and the baby is overdone.

And I have already some new ideas for other pictures

[hala]

the baby is better overdone tho--we can clearly see what it is now, and helps the composition even more to bring us to taht focal point of the spider and the baby.maybe sharpening her arms reaching for the baby might makeit more cohesive and intentional that the baby is so clear amongst that soft lighting

[Vaejoun]

@Hala, The arms arent the only thing I sharpened out. I also did the rest of her body, except her back and the outer legs. And of course the part in right corners.

Here is the result. I think its as good as finnished but I will look on it later again and see if I can find some things to improve.

[Vaejoun]

Worked it over a little more. Played with the colors, boosted the saturation...
the only prob is still the value...cursed laptop. In 2 weeks I can check it on a real pc ^^

[AhChu]

Holy cow what a funky pic, the only thing that might need abit o ftweaking would be maybe a dash of detail on the far left leg, and maybe refining the babies head on the bottom area of the pic as he is the next thing that grabs my eye after maveling at mummy spider. awesome stuff, are you going to start another entry aswell?

[Vaejoun]

@Ah chu: Thx. I am working on it. It should be finnished in the next days.

And yes, i have some other ideas. Finally made some uploadable sketches:

An idea about resurrection: Tearing of the old flesh... well not much of a story, but an impressive picture.

And a funny one: Can men bear a child ? Yes ! but you better prey you dont. (Just to be sure, its a piece of *hit that came to life in the toilet)

I also had thoughts about "planet birth" but it seems to be kind of a popular topic. Maybe I get another good idea.

[Baron Impossible]

Nice work on the spider although I can't help thinking the glow is somewhat overpowering. It would look better IMO if it were softer and illuminating the cave from below, throwing shadows upwards. Good job, though.

[Vaejoun]

@Baron:
You are right T_T
Even though I used the thumbs at the beginning I overdid it again.
How do you avoid that ? Usually I tend to make the lights a lot to bright and a lot too saturated. I just dont know when to stop.

Here a fast paint over and a thumb of the actual piece

[Vaejoun]

Damn... Doublepost

[Vaejoun]

WTF ? Tripplepost ??

[DefiledVisions]

I really enjoy the spider piece, it's coming along nicely! Keep rendering it. The strong lighting really conveys the mood and motherly warmth, though I think the lack of detail to the right (the babies and the shadowy area) brings down the piece. Maybe add some more ground detail into the bright area, to still grab attention when you render the piece more.
Some symbolic flowers, butterflies or something standing for innocence. Just some thoughts, keep it up!

[Muscari]

personally i feel the light has pros and cons. it looks great and you can really see the work done, but it's looking a bit overpowering. have tried using a softer light (like the previous thumb you did), kind of how the light filters through clouds or windows in dark rooms?

kinda like this -------->

just my 2 cents xP

[Vaejoun]

@Defiled visions:
Thx, nice idea. I tried some red lillys. Standing for innocence and purity.
(White ones dont work in the picture)

@Muscari: Nice thumb. I worked today and tried to give it a "soft light" with some kind of foggy air.

At the end I played a little more with it, so here are 3 versions. I really like this now, so if theres no BIG mistake in it I think I am nearly done.

[Baron Impossible]

Much better now - 2nd one my fave