Team ChoW III - Pirate Ship Lollipop

[Janos]

Yeah Jamesy we all work on the same image. But we kinda decided that we brainstorm the ideas together, raould sketches and does the linework and I render and colour it in photoshop. We are then probably going to design the layout and the cards themselves together.

[Janos]

OKAY DO NOT PANIC

I know that there is too much going on atm but I'm tired and this is as far as I will get for today.
I would really like to start on the other images though so if you could ink them and send them to me and of course give me feedback that would be greatly appreciated. I need input!
I also attached an idea for the different card borders, major arkana would loose the symbols and get a number in the middle on top.
How shall I send you the file now that its too big for gmail?

How are you progressing Keith?

[dwinbotp]

sending large files? try www.yousendit.com Janos, it's free too just a suggestion

[Janos]

I just hated the last update. We should defo tone down the border. I am still not liking it though.

[Raoul Duke]

Great work Janos. I'm glad to see you hold down the fort in my absence. Once again sorry for taking off on short notice. I told all the rest of my friends to give me a little heads up before they run off and kick the bucket or schedule it at a time convenient for everybody.

Once again great work, but can you tone down that paper texture. The wet edged blots are a nice touch, but if the paper texture is required, I think we should figure something else out.

dwinbotp- thanks I'll give your link a shot.

[Raoul Duke]

yeesss yousendit.com actually works. Kieth just confirmed it. You guys need to get a free account and keep the files under 100mb. Other than that the only problem is it works pretty slow.

[Janos]

Sorry if I came across as an asshole. I probably would have been gone for a few months if a friend died. Didn't mean to be disrespectful.

I am gonna tonw down the texture for sure, it was just a test to see if it would work. Any thoughts on the different frames? Isn't the frame a little jarring? On the other hand frames were a major factor for Mucha!
It would be ace if you could send me the lineart for the other cards this week so that I can work on them in the weekend. End of january is a little tight for me, so I would like to get it out of the way now. I am excited to see what you and Keith have come up with.

Cheers!

[Raoul Duke]

I think the frames look great and I wouldn't be able to do them better myself. I hope the symbols are on a different layer, because they are currently telling me the card is a three of whatever.

Can you please send me your psd through yousendit.com .That way I can just work on the updates instead of just critiquing.

PS Janos you never came off as a dick.

[Artofinca]

Nice stuff!

[keith eager]

Nice watercolor textures Janos. The colors are beautiful. The borders look a lot better toned down too. Rauol sent me the psd of the linework. I don't think I should touch it though, since the value that I can bring begins with with the conception of an image and ends with the finish.
Working on The High Priestess now. Will post the first later tonight. Design includes full color and form modelling on top of linework. I think in terms of the whole thing, so that's what I have to offer.

[DHTenshi]

hey guys, you seem to be doing great huh? sorry to hear about your friend raoul how you doing? ok?
Oh, and i didn't just come to say hi here's a recommendation on the frames:
Make the symbols, like the cups, noticeable, actually I had to read what Raoul said to get that it was a three of cups =o, I don't really know how, maybe put them in with a bright color behind the symbols or even white, because, I thought it was just part of the frame =o, and also, why not add another colors? not just a color bg and black, some frames can get really complex and good looking

oh and janos, what happened? couldn't finish your chow entry in time?, and also, thanks raoul for trying to vote for me lol, thanks for asking someone to give me a vote

keep it up guys, amazing lineart and the colors are coming out really good

-DHTenshi

[Raoul Duke]

Here's my latest update. At this point I've been screwing around with little touches and experimenting. I think the smoke is a little iffy for the style we're going for. What do you guys think?

Janos- Could you send the files for the frames?

Kieth-can't wait to see what you're cooking up with the priestess. Your right for not dedicating any time to the line work I sent, but if you'd like to work on the current file I can send it to you if you'd like.

DH-Nice to hear from you. I'm glad to hear your input. And I'm doing okay, I'm glad I went to the funeral, hanging out with the guys family gave me a sense of closure.

[Raoul Duke]

what do you guys think about png files. I know they're big, but they are transparent. I think they really make images stand out.

[keith eager]

Hey guys,

I come with good news! I'm starting an internship at a Toronto animation studio tomorrow!
http://www.runeentertainment.com/
They do some of the highest end commercial work in Toronto. A friend of mine introduced me to the owner today. Amazing vision for his business. Ambition. He's created a really good working environment. I'm going to be learning 3d modelling as well as designing and doing whatever else that needs doing. This opportunity is perfect for me right now, I hope to learn about all phases of production intimately so that I can bring value to a broad scope of projects.

Raoul:
Yeah losing a friend can be really tough. I lost 2 from the same circle a few years back. I was so moved by the love that poured out at the services, and so humbled by the whole event. I'll have to tell you the story some-time.

Sorry for not posting last night, I got tremendously into conceptualizing and painting the high priestess. Research took away most of the day though, and I had a date at night, so the image wasn't as articulated enough to really show you guys where I was going with the character. I'm going to get back to working on it right now. In the meantime though, I've posted some thumbnail concepts for major arcana cards.

These were tiny drawings which appear enlarged significantly. The thumb on the left is for the Chariot and the devil is on the right. I was inspired by Mucha's more painterly work here, The Slav Epic and Le Pater especially. Really great, dark masterpieces that he did. Also inspired by JC Leyendecker's earlier, more academic style. Interesting fact, Leyendecker was mentored by Mucha himself in Paris, while Joe and his brother Frank studied at Academie Julien. Before that Joe studied in Chicago, under a guy named John Vanderpoel, who also wrote this book:

http://figuredrawings.com/JohnVanderpoel.html

I think you can find the famous chapter on eyes on google books. I have a copy that I got for 8$ used, which I've been slowly reading for a couple months now. His writing is impeccably descriptive, just like his drawing. Sort of a more academic version of Glen Villpu. Anyways, this Vanderpoel guy also taught another guy called George Bridgman, who you might have heard of. Tell me if you guys already knew all of this, Janos you probably do. i just thought it was really cool how interconnected everybody was. Kind of like the industry today.

[keith eager]

Oo here, make the smoke look like this:

[Raoul Duke]

congratulations on the internship Kieth and thanks for the kind words. Back to the business at hand. I like your thumb on the bottom right. Are you incorporating the lovers card into it? That would be pretty trippy. What if they were pulling the chariot. The idea of the driver wearing nothing but a top hat is pretty hard core. If you'd like him to be in a tux here's some good ref.



Speaking of ref that smoke you posted is pretty good. The question is can we do it? Would you like to give it a shot? Personally I'm having a hard time with it. I have already sent Janos a copy to finish it up, but I can send you the current file as it is if you'd like.

[Janos]

Keith Congrats on the Job and on all the sweet research. I didn't know half of that. Thanks! Are you going to have time for us now with the internship?
I love the atmosphere in oyur thumbs. I would love seeing Raouls take on them I think these are some pretty neat ideas.
The smoke looks awesome and I integrated it already into our image. No need for oyu to do that. Concentrate on the High Priestess.

Raoul I tried doing the smoke, tell me what you think about it.

Generally I would really like us to move on now form the page of cups. The finishing touches should anyway be applied when we have all six of our cards ready. We need five more cards, and as I said I will have less time in the end of the month.
So Raoul if you could send me the lineart you already have so that I can start working on it?
Also I made ourselves an official banner, what do you guys think?

[Raoul Duke]

Janos Great work, the smoke is amazing. Only on thing the title needs to be bigger. I'm pretty busy today, but I'll have the finished pencils for the lovers card ready tonight. The line art should be ready in the morning.

[keith eager]

Thanks guys! No worries about losing me to my work, I will still fulfil my obligations to the Pirate Ship Lollipop. This project is way too much fun to pass up. I will just have to schedule my time a bit more to become more efficient.

I'll take your advice Janos and make sure that I put my time into the High Priestess. I will have it ready for you guys to see where I'm going by tomorrow night.

Raoul man, that's a really cool interpretation of the thumb that I drew. I totally agree with what Janos said, I'd love to see your take on it. I really like the idea of the lovers pulling the naked driver. Very cool, go with it!

It's funny to me because that thumb was actually supposed to be for The Devil, who has a man and a woman under him in supplication. I've attached the Rider Waite version. The designs are essentially my New Orleans take on the established archetype. Everything in the original cards was there for a reason, so I really had fun working around those limitations.



Wow Janos man, you really pulled the image together. The smoke looks beautiful, you really got that in there quick. The black-face reads nicely too. Love the banner as well!

About the internship, it's really sweet. Oh man. So basically the reason that Paul is even letting me hang around, is that he needs a shit-tonne of concept art for a film pitch that he's working on. Which to me was very surprising to me at first, since my portfolio is really not that developed in terms of finish at all. But, and this where I come in here, he knows that I can draw and paint and that I do it all the fucking time. I can't stop myself from it, seriously...

So I found out, much to my astonishment, that the value that I could bring to his team was more towards the beginning of the project: fast, loose brainstorms of ideas. Fucking A man. I think the reason that he was interested in me is that his project is going to be in live action and photo-real cg, not stylized animation. Cool,cool,cool.

Oh and the other part of the internship... I'm learning maya, from a guy who taught it at Sheridan College and has since found a better way to teach it. Word.

Couldn't be happier.

[Janos]

I am SO envious. Your internship sounds sweet. I really need to get my hands on something similar after uni. Its all down to connections often though, so I hope my future portfolio will be good enough.

I love your devil interpretation, and actually I would like seeing it as a devil card. We could make him a naked voodoo witchdoctor with two zombie slaves at his feet. Now that you joined our team we actually need two more cards, so I think there shouldn't be a problem with the extra devil.

These are our cards atm:
The Lovers
The High Priestess
The Page of Cups
The Six of Pentacles

Ideas for extra Cards:
The Devil
The Charriot
The Seven of Wands

We need to make our choices official though, so what do you guys think?
I say Keith you claim the devil and the seven of wands. We have got ideas for these and they fit nicely with the theme.

[Raoul Duke]

Kieth your position sounds the funnest. I'm glad to hear you're sticking around the ship.

Here's my redraw of the 6 of pentacles. more later.

[B-Man]

I that a six of pentacles with five pentacles in it? but he doeas have six fingers on his hands nice sketch!
Edit: I missed the big one in the background! sry for that its defenetly the Six of pentacles. lol

[Raoul Duke]

I that a six of pentacles with five pentacles in it? but he doeas have six fingers on his hands nice sketch!
Edit: I missed the big one in the background! sry for that its defenetly the Six of pentacles. lol

Most people may not pick up on it. So your point is definitely noted. Good lookin out B-Man.

here's The Lovers sketch.

[Janos]

Raoul, these are looking great.
The six of Pentacles could actually really need a small revision to make the six pentacles more visible. But I actually would suggest loosing the whole background design element as it doesn't fit with our other cards. We are integrating the symbols into the card so I guess we should just stick with maybe six pentacle coins in his hand, or six amulets (like this idea more).

I kinda like the idea of the southern belle now, but there are a few things we need to change on that sketch. remember to think about the frame we are going to put them in. There won't be a lot of room for large background objects like the hay cart or the chandelier. We really need to emphasize the characters. Also the belle is looking just a little too disney atm, though actually, if we run with it, it might look interesting.

An idea for the voodoo cherub: How about he comes flying out of the frame? Too gimicky?

[SMILEFACE]

haha the lovers is hhhhHHHHHHHHOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTT !!!!!!!!!! WICKED WERKS GOO TEAM

[Ricardo Robles]

wow the cards are looking pretty good! some finished stuff here yet!
keep it doing it!

[Raoul Duke]

latest 6 of pentacles.

[Janos]

Hey Raoul,
It looks a lot better without the background. But there are a few other things I would change. How about you send me the file and I colour it while you get the lovers done? Then I send you this one back you put these awesome textures and pass over it, while I do the lovers and we keep going like that?
Whats up with you Keith? Any progress you could show us? We also need your help to find problems we overlooked, and of course the sketches for the Priestess and the devil/charriot?

Also, check out our first page. I put up an alternative to your banner. What do you guys think?

Thanks to all the others looking at our thread, making it one of the most watched ones for this team challenge.

[EpicKey]

Gosh guys ! these are freakin great ;D i really like the style keep it up

[Raoul Duke]

Janos- The 6 of pentacles is on it's way to your inbox. And thanks for pointing out all of the page views. That's pretty fucking awesome.