Team CHOW II: Team Daemonic Squirrels

[Maledict]

Ok, here are two quick value renderings. Now get to work Maeve!





If you need the raw PSD files, upload it to my website and give it to you that way.

[Maledict]

Heya guys,

Got a little bored, so I decided to try to colour the orc mage .

[Maledict]

Couldn't wait for Maeve to do it, so I went ahead anyway This is just purely for me to draw and paint everyday - training and practicing I guess.

Here's the good and evil orc mages in their respective mountain settings (I also made a new mountain scene, for the evil portraits)

We'll see how it goes, maybe for the finished portrait, we'll crop out the best bits of the mountain images and insert the figures in the center.

Anyway, here they are:

[Quike Garcia]

Ok, here comes the dwarf bard..

Good


And Evil


I'll have tomorrow the elvens

[Quike Garcia]

Ok, here are the elvens linework

Good


And Evil

[Quike Garcia]

Ok, now that I have some time , I'll say that the mountains look gorgeous.. I think that characters should be a bit bigger, though..

I'll try to do a meaner look on the evil orc mage, but I don't know if changing the whole body language would be a good idea so late.. I'll check anyway

any other critiques?

[Quike Garcia]

Submission info..

SUBMISSION GUIDLINES

The Final Burning Thread will go up ONE WEEK before deadline. The deadline will be August 31st, at 11:59 pm GMT - 4, Eastern Daylight Time. I will accept submissions as long as it is August somewhere in the world, but after this I will close the thread. I am going to give myself 1-2 days to then sort out the poll and the voting, so please be patient.

1. One team member will be in charge of submitting the final entry. The entry is presented in a 2:3 ratio.
2. Remember that you will need to submit wips. If you decide to make a group sketchbook for this activity, a link to that will suffice.
3. Also sumbit a list of Team Activity. I want to see how well you worked as a team - who was in charge of what and what each member did.
4. All other ChoW rules apply. If you are not familiar with the usual chow rules, please read the guidlines thread sticked at the top of the subforum. Including, 3/4ths rule, no paint-overs, etc.
5. Please submit files with this naming convention: TeamChow_TeamName_Image001.jpg
6. Please keep to the format of the image below. We're gonna be a little bit more strict about presentation this time - each portrait should be portrait-aligned, like so, and the figure about as big as the one you see below. Full bodied figures, please.

And thanks so much to Zhanglu of Massive Black Shanghai who created to help get this contest get off to a great start!



Thanks, and Good Luck!

[Maeve]

Ok guys, here's the first entry for the orc-mage, good version :



Oops! I just noticed that I forgot to add some hair on the arms! But I really need to finish the other characters first; if I find some time...

[Quike Garcia]

Gerat work The only thing is that looks like the smile is a bit lost..

Love the colour choice

[Maeve]

If you have the time Quik, it would be great if you work on the body of the orc-mage's bad version. It's looks fine, it's just that it repeats an old stereotype, the one of the devil satan himself! I could always give a living-dead look, but it would still look too familiar to the public's view. Anyway, if you can.

Also, about the dwarf evil's version, I think they both look identical! Except that one is in a good mood, the other looks a little bit pissed; except for that, it doesn't look evil at all!!! I seriously think that you should take the time to work on that one. If you don't have any spare time to work on both characters, please give priority to the evil dwarf. I'll start working on the elves, which look gorgeous by the way! I'll try to make the evil version look like reeeaaal evil!


Rabbi, if you're bored, you can always help me out with coloring the characters, if you want. What I would like you to do is to 'trace' the colors, adding one different color to each different part that you'll encounter. I mean by that : one color for the arms, another for the feet, etc. Please use a different color for elements that pop out of the body; I mean by that : the breasts of the dwarf, for example, the nose, the eyes... anything that won't stop my free movements that I'll fear to mess up. Use solid colors: black 100% for the chest, dark grey for the face (real dark, just a little different then black) or dark brown (brown for the good version, grey for the evil one), little lighter brown or grey for the 'pop elements' (like nose, etc.), grey for the metal parts for the elves' armor, etc. Always use dark colors for each element that you'll encounter. If you could do that, we would save a lot of time!

Please don't touch the evil version of the dwarf and the orc-mage yet, in case that Quik would find some time to modify it. Only work on it after you're done with all the others.

Remember guys that we'll need to write a short story for each character. We also need to think about the presentation of all characters, with the mountains on the background. I thought of something that I will post next time. I don't know if I'll have the time to write any of the stories, coloring is taking too much time. I'll do my best, but I'm not superman you know! lol

[Maeve]

Thanks Quik! I wanted it to look like it belongs with the mountains, as being some kind of natural part of it. Sorry about the smile, I wasn't sure if I was going to keep it because I thought it made the character look a little bit devil-like, so I did an in-between. If you like, I could always work on it a little bit later, all depending of what time we'll have left.

About the short stories, any ideas? I don't know what you guys would like! You didn't tell what you thought about my previous ideas...

[Quike Garcia]

I know the evil dwarf is not too evil... I'll try to redo it a bit I don't know how much time I'll have to take another round on the evil Orc.. maybe I'll be able to rework the head but not too much. I have to take a flight on thursday morning and won't be back till monday efternoon :/

[Quike Garcia]

Maybe relaxing the frown a bit would add to relax the expression

BTW, the hair on the heads looks a bit assimetrycal

[Quike Garcia]

Updates.. I think the dwarf is there..


I'm not sure about the mage though..

Added some baby skulls to increase evilness and a bit of a fu man chu goatee... If not I'll have to rework it tomorrow completely

[Maeve]

Muucch better look for the dwarf! A little bit piratee style, if you know what I mean! lol

For the evil orc-mage, hmmm... It still look pretty much the same; the adds help a little bit, though. I would try another version, more dynamic this time, in action. A pose when he is about to strike, for example, charging his enemies. The actual pose indicates passiveness, yet the look gives him the identification of the devil himself...

I would like to see more magic coming from him; since he is the "bird wizard", or something like that, maybe it would be nice to see him rise an army of living-dead birds out of the mountains! The revenge of the birds! lol Turning something usually kind and pretty into true evil! That might be a nice twist of change!

Or anything that you could think of; but please, no satan in this concept! Something new, that would intrigate the viewer.

[Quike Garcia]

I'm thinking, maybe we should drop the wings, but I'd like to keep the pride as an opposite to the humble good one. I like the idea of the udnead birds, maybe dropping the wings and adding the birds and turning it a bit more into the undead realm can reach the point..

[Quike Garcia]

Update on the evil mage.. a bit inspired on the evil emperor Ming from Mongo (Flash Gordon is a very reccomendable reading ) and added some other details.. ribcage, skulls in the staff too, and an undead crow. I'm trying to keep a parallelism between the good and the evil, as the bases from the contest stablish that it has to be recognizable that they are the same character... maybe I'm being a bit conservative..


I don't think I'll be able to change it anymore.. but it the reply is swift and the canges minor maybe I'll have a slot.

About the stories, I was thinking that maybe a way of facing it would be that the difference between the characters is only depending on who's telling the story. I mean, as an example, the elf viking would be a hero for the fighters against the empire, a leading paladin, a reckless warrior; and for the empire propaganda she would be a mercyless executioner, a dreadful criminal that harvest the lifes of good young soldiers of the empire on a shelfish impulse.

[Maeve]

It looks much better! I like the new dynamic of the character, not to mention that we can now recognize the link between both versions. My only critic for this one would be that you changed the ornaments on the head, changing the animal specie in that matter; I mean, it makes it harder for the viewer to recognize at once that it's the same character without having an explanation. It's not obvious.

My suggestion would be that you use the same woods for both characters (deer ornaments, not goat), but that you keep the twisting shape of the evil characters'; deer's wood twisted like the ones of the goat (representing at the same time the twisted mind of the evil one). Just imagine taking the woods of the good one, and curl it on the head of the evil one! For the creation of a new specie!

About the story, my thoughts exactly!
I imagine having the orc-mage, protector of the forests and having the birds for messengers, turn mad when the forest was decimate by the elves, who needed wood to build things (houses, weapons for hunting, etc.), and dispatch an army and declare war on them. The elf girl wants to cover her people's needs and is being forced to face the orc-mage's fury. The dwarf, for his part, is a good living creature, and lives somewhere in the mountains. When the elves come to dig mines to find some metal for their armors, to defend against the orc-mage's army, he will see his home, along with many other creatures', destroyed. He will try to chase the elves out of his domains, but as the elves resist, he will be badly injured and will lose one leg and one eye. He will become a renegate who will cause big troubles to the elves and weaken them from the inside (creating conflicts between the elves). So the elves need to face two great opponents, creating more enemies as they try to cover their needs and protect themselves. Poor elves!

What do you think? would that work?

[Maeve]

Oh craaaaap guys! I have veeery bad news!
My computer overheated and shut off! And I can't turn it on anymore! I'm actually chatting using my little brother's laptop, and the problem is that all the softwares that I use, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, etc are all installed on my computer, which doesn't seem to work anymore! I'm afraid that I will need to take it to a repair shop, but it won't be easy to find one since my computer is an Imac, from Apple, and that most business around here only do PC repairing.

I won't be able to do the coloring job for this contest, unless I'm extremely lucky and find someone who can do the job before this Friday. So, since Quike is leaving until next Monday, it only leaves you, Rabbi, to do the job. I'm so, so sorry guys! Thinking that yesterday, I was almost done with the elf girl! The only thing that was left was the finishing touch! And I didn't copy it on my USB!!! Maaan! I want to bite myself!

The only thing that I can do for now is to work on the stories and give directions for the artwork. Rabbi, I'm sooo counting on you!

[Maeve]

Ok, here's an update about my situation here. I have good news about my computer, it should be repaired this Saturday afternoon. I tried my scanner on my little brother's laptop, but it's not compatible. I will need to get another scanner, this time compatible with both PC and Mac.

I'm actually working on the characters the conventional way, with real painting and inking; it's been a while! It should take longer then drawing on the computer though.

Rabbi, 'still alive? If you are, give us a sign of your presence! Are you willing to give me a hand or not? We need to work on the presentation, and since my computer is out of service for a while, I will need your assistance to work on the background presentation, and by that I mean not just mountains, but also a frame, a sequence... you know, presentation! Remember that it's supposed to be a group project, not just I and Quike! Are you still with us?

[Maledict]

Yeah - sorry for my absence, I've been a bit busy the last few days.

Anyway, I've touched up a little both of the good and evil mountains. I looked up how to paint lava, and applied it to the evil mountain scene.

So how should we divide up the rendering/colouring? I don't mind either way. But it seems as if your colouring in methods are a lot better than mine.

Anyway, here's the new mountains:





Anyway, I have a good idea on how we should present the characters in segmented backgrounds. I'll do a quick mockup with some silhouettes.

[Maledict]

Here's what I had in mind. I'll see if I can play around with it further.

And Quik, your pencil drawings are excellent. Could you teach me?

And Maeve, your rendering/colouring in skills seem to be a lot better than mine. I haven't quite grasped how to render value and colour over the lines. But if you can't get your comp repaired in time to do them, I'll lend my hand to the task.

Here's the mockup, with temporary silhouettes.

[Maledict]

After much slaving away and toil, here's something that could look like the finished image. Still need to put in the names and the titles though.

[Maeve]

Looks promising! I love the frames and sequence, and your mountains look great! I think you're doing pretty good with the color job, you just need to take some time for the finishing touch.

For the coloring/rendering job, I'm actually working using color pencils, the painting taking too long to dry. I will add some finishing touch with ink and some light painting once the drawing part is done, and I'll need your help to paint some characters using the computer. One thing that you could do that would help me a lot would be to start coloring the dwarves, maybe starting with the evil one since I've been working on good characters so far, in order to bring some unity. Do what you can, starting with adding and melding colors, then send your work even though it's not finished. If I can get my computer repaired in time, I will add the finishing touches required. If not, I can always give you directions and tips that will help you improve your coloring skills!

[Maeve]

About the colors, do you use watercolor, or the computer? If you know how to use softwares like photoshop, paint, or any other, I suggest that you add colors 100% opacity; linework must be hidden. If you can; that would be the best. Otherwise, I'll manage my best with the time we have left.

[Maledict]

Last day. I sent daestwen a pm about the composition off the figures. Turns out you can't have it like what I did above, with the figures in a line up. So then I decided to put them in individual portraits cropped from the mountain back grounds. Sorry if this was a bit abrupt or arbitrary, but there's hardly any time left. Hope you guys don't mind

Here's the final image. I'm willing to work on the 300x300 pixel logo for our team, unless someone else wants to do it.






Edit: Just read the final burning thread. I'll submit the portraits individually (Cropping the above piece).

[Maledict]

Not much time left till the deadline in my part of the world. Sorry if I seem to not be respecting you guys, but I really don't. I'll take the liberty/responsibility of posting the portraits in the final burning thread, as well as a quick 300x300 logo I made for the team.

Was great working with you two .

[Maeve]

Sorry Rabbi for not replying faster, I just got back my computer this morning.

Anyway, just to show that I didn't waste any time on my part, here's the image of the good elf version as promised :



I also thought of another version, with an unchaved elf! Since she's built like a man, why won't she have hair! lol



I know that you have no intention of adding these to the final product, maybe you already sent it. Again, sorry for letting you down, it's been five years that I have that computer and it's the first time it let me down!

It was great working with you two. Cheers!