Team Chow II - Random: tonysaurus, kisou, Darkwolf

**tonysaurus** · August 1st, 2009, 03:51 AM

Hey, this thread is for the collaboration of tonysaurus, kisou, and Darkwolf. Post your WIPS, references, critiques, etc.
Feel free to come up with a team name if you want.

This is our topic:

Here are the rules!

1. Teams of two MUST create at least 4 portraits, teams of three or four need 6 and teams of five need 8. You are perfectly welcome to create more images that the requirement if you feel your team is up to it.
2. You must take a random selection of the choices below. Please don't do 4 elven fighters, or only orcs, for example. Please take a randomized selection. If you would prefer me to give your team a specific assignment, I will generate the selection for you. If I see teams doing more select parties, then I will request you to change to something more random.
3. You must follow the format provided. See it below, please!
4. You must do a LIGHT and a DARK version for each character, please! This means that for each character you need two portraits.
5. You must submit a paragraph about each character. Do a short write up for each character you create. I want to see some interesting, stereotype-breaking stuff here, folks!

PLEASE SELECT ONE OF EACH CATEGORY FOR EACH CHARACTER.

Gender: Male / Female

Race: Human / Elf / Half-Elf / Dwarf / Orc - (and anything else you can think of!)

Class: Fighter (Barbarians, Knights, Dark Knights, Brawlers, etc) / Thief (Assasins, Rogues, etc)/ Spell Caster (Wizards, Sorcerers, Druids, etc) / Healer (Priest, Cleric, White Mage, Medic, etc) - (feel free to make up something for this, too)

Alignment: Good / Evil (please do both for each character)

YES, THESE LOOK LIKE STEREOTYPES. IT IS YOUR JOB TO BREAK THEM. I want to see some really interesting, kick ass stuff!

So being a team of three, we'll need a total of 6 portraits. I'm not quite sure if good and evil portraits count individually or not. I'll go ask later at some point or hopefully stumble upon an answer.

I suppose our next step as a team is to all agree on a specific timeline(perhaps this doesn't have to be in the pseudo-middle ages/Lord of the Rings era... but maybe in some kind of post-apocalyptic future or something like that), area (can be either Western or Eastern or neither!), storyline (a war?), etc. that will allow our characters to be coherent with one another in terms of fashion, atmosphere, style (we'll have to decide if this will be cartoony or realistic... I think this is may matter, maybe not??? it maybe look better for when the pictures are finalized and placed side by side that they'd perhaps share a similar style) etc.

It seems like a generic subject, but I think getting past the stereotypes of these characters will be difficult and our biggest challenge (maybe). I think this is where critiques and references will come in handy.

I guess that's all I have to say at 3:51am, haha. Good luck!

**tonysaurus** · August 1st, 2009, 05:25 PM

Hey!

These are just some images I quickly put together... I have some non-human stuff there, too. It might be interesting to not just have the regular humanoids as our only option. I also added some different types of styles and armor. I'm itching to start sketching, so let's see what you guys come up with!

**Darkwolf** · August 3rd, 2009, 05:56 AM

okay, no sketches as yet (I only have web access on weekdays and saturday, fell asleep saturday, so here I am now!), but I do have some thoughts.

Hrm. Post-Apocalyptic sounds interesting, I'm up for that. Far-future seems a bit iffy to me, Modern seems alright, and Renaissance might also be interesting. [EDIT]Oops. No, Daestwen said minimum 3 *characters*, for a total of 6 portraits[/EDIT]

As to style, I mainly do semi-realistic, and my strongest point is pencil-work (although I'm getting a lot better at Photoshop recently), but I'm okay with almost any style except that damn Genndy Tartakovsky style (you know the one, that looked great when it was first done in Dexter's Lab, but has taken over Cartoon Network)

*grins* Just realised I had an idea this morning that directly applies to this contest. It also handles one character for both good *and* evil. The idea, basically, is a mage whose power comes from the music he listens to (as opposed to plays), drawing the emotion from it to create his effects. Currently, I'm reckoning for good, the playlist would be things like "Mr. Blue Sky" (Beneficial weather control), "Making Movies" (Illusion), and for evil, things like "Clarissa" (violent adrenaline rush, methinks), and "King In Crimson" (deadly illusions)

If it's post-apocalyptic, then this guy is gonna be trading for batteries like nobody's business (could be female, but the image I have in my head is male)

**Darkwolf** · August 3rd, 2009, 06:18 AM

Damn. Just found out they're hardline on the time period, but not the culture or storyline. So if we do post-apocalyptic, it'll have to be a magical apocalypse, and anything not high fantasy is right out. Dammit!

**kisou** · August 3rd, 2009, 11:23 AM

Hello

I will be logged in during evenings, eastern European time.
I live in Europe, how bout you?

(As for theme and all, it would be nice to make it weird... like maybe their good side is female and their evil side a little male or something? ) <-- forget I said that...

Maybe we can make a card deck out of them. One side evil and the other good.
I know that a lot of people might take this approach but it does seem to fit well for the challenge.

**tonysaurus** · August 3rd, 2009, 12:23 PM

Hmm, interesting card idea. But it might be too direct with good vs evil? maybe not! I was thinking of creating the differences with composition and lighting.. like good characters would maybe be more upright, more heroic looking, and colors to match the mood, etc.. while evil characters would be lower to the ground, look more menacing and deadly, with perhaps darker colors as if they're in the shadows or something.

Hmm, so high-fantasy it is then! You can still do a musician, that's an interesting class.. It would probably be a bard. So they're playing a lute or harp instead of an electric guitar.

Yeah, I'm okay with straying away from Tartakovsky's style. I usually try and render things with the thought of semi-realism and function in mind.. however, I do like to be more illustrative with some of my work and can go more cartoony.

Well, I'll keep doing more image searching and hopefully start sketching.

**kisou** · August 3rd, 2009, 12:27 PM

Do you want to do Luis Royo Apocalyptic fantasy?
I always wanted to try his concept

You can google his pics if you are interested

**tonysaurus** · August 3rd, 2009, 12:30 PM

oh, and styles aside, we also need to figure out a location for our characters. We also have to write a little something about each character, so keep that in mind.

and that style does look nice, kisou. I wouldn't mind doing something like that but with a bit more action or something like that to pull the viewer in more. Also, we have to show the full body, so portraits and busts are out

**kisou** · August 3rd, 2009, 12:42 PM

Apocalyptic fantasy with this background?

Something "the city in ruins" like

**kisou** · August 3rd, 2009, 02:28 PM

I think three chars would be a good number for us

If you're up to it we can make a char each and then swap pics with each other

And I was thinking maybe make it werewolf, full moon kinda thing.

Make to group pics: one with them standing together, a bit static like they gathered up for a photo in the 1800th.
and the other is a pic of them in the same place fighting each other like animals and looking all evil.

**tonysaurus** · August 4th, 2009, 04:45 PM

This is my first quick sketch for my character with some poopy story that was the first to come to mind. She's a druid elf who is slowly turning herself into a mother tree in a final effort to regrow the forests that were nearly destroyed after the battle/super strong magic/blah blah blah. The evil version will have more brambles and menacing looking thorns rather than the trees.. and I guess the story would be the opposite and be that this druid has given up all hope and has adapted to the current situation or something.. hmm.

meh, I need to do more sketches.. a better composition is in order.

A group portrait would be cool, but it isn't part of the criteria. We should just stick with working on portraits.

**kisou** · August 4th, 2009, 05:10 PM

So do you want the apocalyptic city kinda thing as background?
If we can decide on this one now so that we can have more time for character development.

I think it would be cool to make : the fantasy in the medieval is the fantasy in the future.
Like after the world was destroyed it did not became an era of machines it became an era of magic.

I hope I managed to describe the idea I was thinking of...
If not and youre interested please ask questions

**tonysaurus** · August 4th, 2009, 06:37 PM

yeah, a city would be cool.. lots of debris and stuff. just don't make it modern, that's already been asked and turned down.

maybe the reason everything got destroyed because of magic and that's all that is left. i think this world should be completely made up, rather than thinking about what earth would look like post-apocalypse.

yeah, just start sketching and coming up with concepts.

**Darkwolf** · August 5th, 2009, 04:22 AM

It's a shame about the timeline thing, and although it's a nice thought, tonysaurus, I have this big prejudice against bards of any kind (shared by most of the roleplayers in Pembrokeshire), so I'd probably cock it up if I tried to do a bard. Like the tree idea, though, and liking the idea of a city in ruins from a magical apocalypse.

Hrm... that gives me some ideas. hopefully some sketchies on Monday (bit busy for the next couplea days, but guaranteed I'll be brainstorming!)

**Darkwolf** · August 5th, 2009, 09:49 AM

Not really very good at naming these worlds, but how about, with the "Magical apocalypse" idea, we have a world like Terry Brooks' Shannara (the world is unrecognisable, because magic returned in a big way, and thus technology is mostly lost)

Thus, we could have what could be considered modern buildings, but overgrown and almost unrecognisable, while the characters occasionally have some odd elements that almost remind the viewer of what was left behind, but not quite...

**kisou** · August 5th, 2009, 11:13 AM

Originally Posted by Darkwolf

Not really very good at naming these worlds, but how about, with the "Magical apocalypse" idea, we have a world like Terry Brooks' Shannara (the world is unrecognisable, because magic returned in a big way, and thus technology is mostly lost)

Thus, we could have what could be considered modern buildings, but overgrown and almost unrecognisable, while the characters occasionally have some odd elements that almost remind the viewer of what was left behind, but not quite...

I'm all in on that. Seems like a good ground for character development.

As of yet I have no ideas for the chars

Im probably gonna go with female coz thats the form that Im most comfortable with. Race wise I'm leaning towards elf or orc.

**tonysaurus** · August 5th, 2009, 12:48 PM

should we have the characters be in some sort of battle pose? or in the midst of battle? maybe the good guys try to defend what's left of a city, while the evil guys are trying to destroy it/take it over? hopefully with a better understanding of what the character's purposes are, then we can probably come up with good compositions/backgrounds/etc.

**kisou** · August 5th, 2009, 04:30 PM

I would like some kind of group photos. Nice to put them together in action.

Gonna try to do some sketches om the city and chars tomorrow.
working during weekdays but I have much more free time on the weekends.

any ideas for team set up?

**Darkwolf** · August 6th, 2009, 05:48 AM

Hrm. I kinda like the "defend/destroy" idea, tonysaurus, we'll definitely give it a go. Hrm. As to team set up, I think tonysaurus' druid might be pretty cool, I'd like to go for a fighter (instead of a modern day "Better Living Through Chemistry", a high fantasy "Better Living Through Alchemy" ... I do like it when a piece of music inspires!), although as to race, I'm not entirely certain yet (definitely male, though)

Hrm. Why not have the ruined city as one of the pivotal elements of rebuilding the world post apocalypse (many years post apocalypse, when technology is only used as useless adornment, methinks), and the good picture would be them defending the place from maurauders, the bad one crushing the place so that no rebuilding is possible (so sue me, I'm a big fan of what I call 'Magical Gubbins of Eldrador', or McGuffins)

As to the fighter dude, in the good he is a man trying to rebuild the concept of medicine in the world, but using alchemy instead of chemistry, whereas in the bad outcome, he's succumbed to the lure of mutagenics, and has instead become a drug-crazed beserker. How does that sound?

**kisou** · August 6th, 2009, 03:27 PM

I tried to come up with something but nothing really came...
posted the pic anyways

Anyway I think I'm gonna make an orcish elf lady. The class is probably gonna be pure fighter/assassin or maybe some kind of a knight.

Gonna try to come up with a sketch tomorrow.

**Darkwolf** · August 8th, 2009, 05:12 AM

No no no, that actually might work as a composition... let's see, we're looking at a tri-complementary colour scheme (the basic green, blue, red), and a circular top composition... that could work. Remember though, peeps, that the clarification on the main thread seems to state that, in the main, our portraits have to be singular, and full frontal (with a little leeway)

Anyway, gonna keep going with the "Better Living Through Alchemy" idea, should have a basic sketch up monday. Best thing to do now, really, is to agree on our style.

**tonysaurus** · August 12th, 2009, 09:41 PM

oh man.. sorry I haven't been updating!
this is my latest idea for my character (and probably the one I'll end up using for the final). on the left, he is a mage/warrior type who's protecting the city from the baddies. he enchants gems on his armor and weapons, which is why they are glowing.. or will be more. maybe the city had different types of guards (like police departments do).. maybe this guy was trained in some magics and weapon skills to defend the mage's guild or something.

for the evil version, I thought about if the mage guards were corrupted at around the time of the "disaster".. which brought me to the idea of maybe someone offered these mages more power with stronger or better enchanted gems/crystals. the gems of course were stronger, but cursed, which led to the guards mutations.

**Darkwolf** · August 13th, 2009, 04:56 AM

*laughs* god-damn, you must be psychic, tonysaurus! Apart from the substance (alchemical potions instead of gems), that was the kind of thing I was gonna do! Oh, well, I can modify the concept sufficiently that he mutates *other* people in his evil state.

I do like your conceptart, though, and I'd stick with it. Maybe the gems in the brutish evil version also leave an infection (y'know, weeping sores, the like) that enhance their rage while lessening their lifespan?

Anyway, back to the drawing board...