Team CHOW II: Doomsday Dream Clan

[Niva.]

Clanlord, another nice sketch, but he looks puny, like he belongs on a circus rather than a battle, especially with those colors. The weapons are lost, I barely saw the axe in the detail of his costume. Give him a shield, again heavy. This guy needs to be able to walk up to that elf and cleave him in half unless the elf manages to get a bolt into his eye socket.

For the evil dwarf I want something imposing, heavy armor, possibly over a corpse? Here is a couple sketches to give a generic idea of where I'd like to go with this one if possible.

[clanlord]

Hello!

New charcater from the group!
Thanks to Mick's initial idea!

[Swordhand]

Yessss! That is what I'm talking about. Remember guys, we need three characters, a good and evil version of each. I think we should decide exactly who those three are so we can really get down to working on them. I like the idea of evil delamar, but I'm not sure how well he translates to good. The elf barbarian is pretty cool, and could swing easily in the direction of either good or evil. He would be a good choice I think, for one of three.

[Niva.]

Updte on the elf, jeez it takes me forever to post.

Here is an update on the elf, I'm starting on the elf barbarian next. Hope to make quicker pace.

[clanlord]

Hello from me!

Guys, teamates first I want to tell that Nick have painted the Elf successfully and I am very happy with the final variant.

Remember the rules guys - they must be totally different. So these characters - Brawler(evil), Spellcaster(evil) must be accompanied by their good sides. I am now working on the Good Brawler which is going to be a very serious sketch. I am seriously thinking about puting him some mechanisms and creating his characteristics which will totally belong to a different era. It is going to be a serious sketch. Look very closely to this rule - it was mentioned in the rules (the characters can belong to a different age). I think the good Mech - Brawler will suprise some of the watchers and give us big advantage infront of other teams.
I will give a break to Nick and tomorrow I'll work only on the good Brawler. I'll also help him with the painting of the Delamar (the Spellcaster).
Mick this is a task specially for you. You are very good in English (not only for your age) so I think this task will fit you perfectly. You must do briefing for every character that will be included in the final week of the challenge. You must write a short story giving to the audience a very clear portray about each of them - Spellcaster (Dark), Brawler (Dark), and both Elfs. The story-telling belongs to you

Now about the Ozzo's comments that I cannot see at the moment. Has somebody deleted them? So Ozzo if you decided to turn out of Mick's first team you are carrying your consequences. Sorry but we have assigned our tasks in the team at the beginning. We must change our strategy if we allow you to join. I am very sorry maybe some other time in other CHOW contest we will make a team. I hope we will understand each other.

So guys here is a list about what is going on here:
Good - Elf (finished), Brawler (sketching in progress), Spellcaster (not yet started)
Evil - Elf (painting in progress), Brawler (painting in progress), Spellcaster (painting in progress)

So you can clearly see that Nick needs some help from me . Ok NICK no problem I'll call back. Let me paint Delamar.

[Niva.]

OK great, I'm sorry things haven't moved as fast as I've wanted them to but I'm still optimistic that we can finish this challenge on time. Swordhand we really need you to help out though because we've pretty much done this with the two of us only. You need to post many characters and concept ideas for us to succeed in making more finished sketches and final paintings out of. I see that you're a new artist but you have to push hard, art is learned through lots of practice and hard work. Anyways, I've learned a few things already from this challenge which I applied to the elf somewhat successfully. I hope the next painting will go quicker and more successfully, if there's time I'll go back to the elf and polish him up some more as he's definitely not perfect.

Clanlord as you can see I got rid of the symbol on the bottom - it was distracting to keep it there and glowing and it interfered with the shadow I was trying to cast. We will still keep the symbols somewhere on the drawing.

[Niva.]

Here is the first paint update on Fares the dark elf. I'm a bit uncertain on the colors so it's liable for change but I kind of like how this is starting.

[clanlord]

Now I will quote Swordhand Yessss! That is what I'm talking about. These are the colors. I've imagined him just like this. Beautiful Nick. We are going to kick some ass.
The contrasting values are really good now. I like them a lot

Hei guys I think it is time to remember 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!


I am afraid that we have chosen figher type characters. 2 of them are fighers.

[Niva.]

Well I don't think an archer qualifies as a basic fighter in terms of classification, one is melee the other is a long range fighter so I think we're ok.

Which again brings us to the topic of the units we should be working on for the remainder of the challenge assuming we press the two elf versions to a completely finished state.

I can start hacking the spellcaster next until we resolve this issue. Clanlord can you contact the contest admin to make sure we understand the rules properly?

[Swordhand]

I do not believe the light and dark elf pieces we currently have interpret as the same character in any way. It is like a dark elf and a light elf standing beside each other, not two different embodiments of the same character.

[daestwen]

Hey guys, I was asked to weigh in, so here I am. :]

At the moment you guys are kind of on the line... while i'm okay with some class shifting, I think that the two versions should at least be fairly close, class wise... so a long range fighter should be that in both versions.

What you could do is give him a crossbow or some kind of other 'heavy' version of a long range weapon, to help tie them in better?

Hope this helps!

[Niva.]

Daestwen thanks a lot for commenting, we can definitely do that, I'll continue painting the evil guy but with a crossbow instead of the melee weapons. Thanks a lot once again!

[Niva.]

OK I did a very quick transformation of the last character with a bow, don't be thrown off by the rest of the image I'm just playing with diff environments. I tried a couple but this was the most successful one.



Comments please!

[Swordhand]

Amazing! this looks really great nick. I think it needs a harder more penciled edge like the rest of the drawing, but this is a huge step in the right direction. I have a little sketch, here a little outdated now I suppose, but anyway:

[Swordhand]

I'm HOME! this means tons more participation on my part!
Now that I have photoshop available again, I did a quick paintover of nicks most recent post, and then laid it beside the original to show you guys what I mean by making the characters more similar: The first is the light version, the second is the dark version.

[clanlord]

Hello!

daestwen I want to thank you for the helping advice! Now the both elfs look like they are a same person but fighting for a different cause!

Mick I told Nick that now we will work on the angels and we both agreed. Actually Nick gave me the idea about the ANGELS- Good (Helaer,Cleric), Bad (Wizard, Magician). For now we will leave alone the Brawler.

Mick I have no idea why are you doing elf type character? The process have turned upside down. We have all tasks to follow. The sketch is really outdated. Sorry Mick but we have no reason to use it at the moment.
We are now working on the Good Spellcaster. I'll try to nail the original ideas of the angels today and make them main sketches ready for painting. We need someone to help us with the painting. Unfrotunately Mick is novice at painting I had a previous experience and will paint the evil spellcaster. We got to get cracking real fast so Mick we will be forced to invite someone who paints. It is the final week and it will be pity if we do not have moret han two finished works. Enought with the obvious things. Lets get cracking!

[Swordhand]

the elf sketch is from nearly a week ago, haven't had a scanner since. I did the paintover because I believe that our good elf is not close enough to the same character as our dark elf. We are in a rush I suppose, but I still think it is something we should fix. I'm working on our angels now.

[Swordhand]

Here are some really quick sketches for the angels. I think we need to get an assembly line going here,
so while clanlord is sketching I can be working on the next set of characters, and nick can be painting the one before it.

[clanlord]

Mick we have arranged the tasks in the beginning! We were thinking about some HEALER types of angels! And we have many men but not women?!?!? At the moment we cannot use any of this! I will paint the Spellcaster character. Now I am working on the Good Spellcaster. The both Brawlers are finished. And Nick has to work on a very big material. He finished the Elfs but there are 4 more characters to be painted. I will work on the both Spellcasters and maybe Headhunter will join to give us a helping hand. He is fresh out selection and he will work fast. He is also a bulgarian.

Mick the main purposeo f your task was to give the most of yourself to give the initial idea. But the effect of this has spent because we needed you to be faster. It is now your fault I understand because you hadn't have time to post. I think we do not have a reason to judge you. Do you understand! I have an idea for the Good Spellcaster. You can Give me idea for the good Dwarf because me and Nick have thrown the last idea. Nick gave me idea for the evil one. The Initial sketch on the top of the second page.

PSHIUU... why so much writing... anyways. I will update as soon as I can tomorrow. I had a little arrangements today. I will start painting the next day at the latest.

The last week is coming. - G

[Swordhand]

I need to know exactly what to work on, guys. I'm still a little unclear on that right now. I can paint as well if you guys need me to. Now that I'm home, I have plenty of time, but not any idea of what to work on.
Could you lay it out for me like
Evil human female healer
Good male human spellcaster,
etc?

[Niva.]

Hello Swordhand, I had stuff that kept me busy today but things are getting better, hopefully!!! I know I keep saying that.

Anyways, the elf character is good, it just needs to be finished which I can do in the next sitting, I need a couple more hours on the evil version.

Next we are going to do the spellcaster. Clanlord will paint over the evil version which is higher up on this page. Also we need sketches of a "good" spellcaster version of the same character.

To wrap things up with our third character we (clanlord and I) want to do a female. Mostly we want her to be a magician but perhaps the evil version can have a heavier weapon? The same character will exhibit angelic traits (white wings and halo) in the good version and demonic traits (batlike wings, maybe hooves?) in the evil version.

I'd love to see some roughs from you to help out clanlord with ideas and especially with poses.

Clanlord has made some awesome drawings thusfar, I'm really in awe as to how far his lineart has come. The main gripe I have against all the drawings so far is that the characters are floaters and don't belong to any environment. Not only that but they seem to float. Perhaps it's because we decided to do the symbols below them early on when I think for our finished pieces we'll just stick the symbols on there as icons to the side to designate the good from the evil versions. Also sometimes the poses appear stiff, like the good dwarf above. This type of problems can be easily discovered and discussed early on if we actually post sketches rather than mostly finished pieces. Clanlord and I were hoping this is where you could come in and help with this project. Unfortunately it took too long to get you onboard because you weren't at home and didn't have access to a computer. We basically had to get started and I think all of us are a bit frustrated now that you're actually online and want to contribute after we rushed past the stage you could've helped with per our initial agreement.

I hope we will be close to almost complete on 4 pieces by the end of this weekend. I do have some concerns that next week I might get slammed at work and have to work two weeks straight w/o breaks which will utterly destroy my last remaining weekend. However, I promise to bust my ass and get the six required pieces to an almost finished state, thankfully this month has 31 days!

I'm in linux right now and don't have access to my RAID, let me log into windows and I'll email you a link to a URL from which you can download the psd files of the two elf characters I have right now.

One more thing Swordhand, maybe you can't do this, but Clanlord suggested you can help with doing the writing for the characters. Perhaps explaining how the good character turned evil and vice versa... I haven't really read much about what other teams are doing in this regard. Even if you can't write the stuff for our characters then perhaps you can at least post some links to what other teams are doing so that we can take a look.

[Swordhand]

A write up is a bit of a chore, but I think I can handle that. after these initial ideas, I don't have much else, right?

Thanks for that post, it really clarified some things for me.

[Swordhand]

One female (angel) healer to go coming right up

The right hand should hold a staff perhaps.

[Swordhand]

aaand the evil version (not quite done yet, I'll add the wings and horns tommorow...)
not sure what to do with the head yet

also, I turned fourteen a few days ago, would you mind changing the first post nick?

[Niva.]

Swordhand, can you make those smaller res, also why are they in the same pose? I want to draw many different poses. Actually I don't necessarily even like this pose, not sure why the arm is where it is (blocks view of face/body).

I made a bit of a push last night on the evil elf, will be done soon.

Looking for something to get cracking on soon.

[clanlord]

Hello TEAM!

Sorry for the late suprise. These 2 days I've finished 2 characters - The Good Brawler and the Good Spellcaster. I haven't started painting none of the Spellcasters but tomorrow if we decide not to do the Angels at this moment I'll start painting Delamar. SO I am suprised, Mick I like you sketches very good proportions but there are still mystakes - which is normal. Learning is hard process but when you do it with love you are going to increase your level quickly - like you at the moment.
Nick here are a few sketches for you to paint . I think you are not right - in this case, the pose of Mick's characters is not important. The idea about the suit is needed.
I hope you'll like these. Sorry for the big resolution but in this way you can see all the details in characters. I didn't included The Good Elf in the posters and these drawings because he is not graphically up to the standart (but the painting is very nice). Nick I'll send you the high-resolution files on SKYPE.

So the question that I am asking is - are we going to make angels or not? And if we make it is better for Nick to start painting the Brawlers because it's going to take some time for the main sketches.

Take care friends! The finish is coming!!!

[Swordhand]

These are soo awesome! They really look like they are the same character as their evil version.

[clanlord]

Mick thank you :p

As I see we will be able to finish these drawings.
Mick now I am able to develop your idea about the angels! That was the thing that I needed for the second stage of work. Tomorrow I'll start painting Delamar.
And aaaa Mick you can give some ideas about the briefings of both Spellcasters, Good Brawler and Evil Elf. I sent Nick some briefings (Good Elf, Bad Brawler) and I'll send them to you too. To give you an idea about for what I am heading for!

[Swordhand]

Cool. I am doing the briefs/ backgrounds right?
Remember that the evil and good brawlers are supposed to be the same character, with different alignments. All the evil characters must have the same name as their good counterparts, unless otherwise explained in the background stories. I can certainly come up with some arcane reason for delamar to change his name when he turned evil, but we need the others to have the same name for both their evil and good versions.

We have nine days here to finish up, We should do the healers only if we have a wee bit of spare time, If you do a sketch of them george, I will be happy to paint them, because I have extra time now. That way it doesn't bog down nick anymore, and we don't even have to use them after. Nick is really the only one of us with tasks left right now, maybe me and george should help him with some painting? anyways

I quickly finished off the healer, so I can move into the briefs/ backgrounds, so here she is:

[Niva.]

OK lets forget about the female unless we have time. It will have to be a sausage fest because I see 3 character finished already. The brawler, the elf, and the spellcaster.

Clanlord, can you rework the good spellcaster. He does not look like a good version of the evil one. Much bulkier right now.

I'll start painting the brawlers tonight and this will be our entry.