CHOW 196 :: The Wizard of Oz - HOST : Jessibean

[rizien]

Heres the composition I came up with, Too boring?

[Alexjholt]

I've really been meaning to have a serious go at a Chow for ages, so lets try this one.

I'll go with the Lion/Woodsman/Scarecrow don't want to deviate too much from the core concepts as they are good clearcut ideas as it is - a distinct visual concept with a couple of easily attributed personality traits to work on.

What I'm thinking is keep Oz as a Fantasy Kingdom, but do on the basis its actually quite a realistic one, and Oz as we know it is infact the Oz as told by a very young Dorothy who gives a very different tone to it out of a mixture of childish exageration, her not understanding things when they were there and her forgetting thing and making things up. There might also be an element of everyone humouring the girl with a much firendlier story when shes walking around wearing a pair of enormously powerful magical artifacts on her feet.

Tin Woodsman - perhaps some kind of Golem like thing - ordered to chop wood, during which time his master died so he had to continue to do so until he corroded to the point of immobility. He is jealous of humans, and wishes for a 'heart' so he can be more than a machine.

The Scarecrow is a cursed spirit bound to that form as punishment by a witch, he wishes for a brain as with his original body gone, he has no memories of anything including himself (or what his crime was) and feels useless/stupid as a result.

With all the problems of the country - the Lion has suffered greatly, with all sorts of evil thingies about, hes no longer the top predator, and hes gone from bold lord of the wild to flinching at shadows and is thin, tired and haggard.

Now time to get drawing the thing...

[Reymus]

Great topic Jessi!

I wanted to do a movie poster for each character, in Return to Oz fashion, where each has conquered their weaknesses. Cowardly Lion, brave fighter; Tin Man, emotional hero; Scarecrow, mad genius.

[kittymeow84]

Oh yeh Return to Oz was so awesome - Almost better than the original. Yay for creepiness. Remember that woman with the multiple heads?? Woah!

[JessiBean]

sketching... kinda happy with everything but the scarecrow.
hmm, more sketches soon.

[xerxyz]

I've been giving some thought to the challenge and have come up with the following...
What if Wizard of Oz was a shaolin-esque kung fu movie?
Scarecrow, is a monkey-king esque trickster whose speed and agility counter his "act first, think never" mentality. He finds himself leaping into dangerous situations without planning or any chance of victory and has come to terms with this weakness by hiding from his foes... in plain sight.

The tinman is giving me some trouble but based on some reading i've come up with a backstory involving the tin woodsman's wife Nimmie Amee being removed from the picture in some way. Essentially ripping out his heart (figuratively and maybe literally.) He uses those heavy rings on his fists to deal more powerful strikes than tactical. WIP.

The lion is a conundrum in himself, as a frightened child of about 12 yrs who uses a combination between horse and monkey style kung-fu to generate illusions to frighten his foes and make his escape. The illusions vary but more often than not is in the form of a lion.

I've already started doing some sketches and i should have them posted some time tonight. If this breaks out of the criterium let me know please. I'd like to know as soon as possible.

ALSO; Wicked Witch of the West. Off limits or what? If it's all right to use her i've got some ideas for her as well.

[Alexjholt]

Rough first sketch, mostly pleased with the Tinmans form, though want to make him seem much more 'ancient' later. Scarecrow is getting there fine design wise, though I want to come up with a more interesting face - compositionally though, I think he needs to be taller, suspended further above the other two. The lion really isn't achieving much atm - he needs to be bigger and have a lot more personality to him. Still, early days.

[JessiBean]

The topic is just the main 4... doing other stuff is cool, but it might end up being a time suck for you if you aren't careful. Focusing on on the challenge at hand is a bunch of work already.

Also, I usually find that if it takes a wall of text to communicate the idea, you've already lost me. Try showing it instead of typing it out, and then we can all see if it works or not.

Reymus - interesting approach, maybe a more active composition will emphasize your triumphant theme - a worm's eye view of the lion would make it more impressive, etc.
rizien - yeah, this is really static. And it is very hard to gauge composition with all the dead space/unfinished elements. Do little thumbnails (like 1" x 1.5") and mock up a bunch of different compositions, it will be easier to gauge then. And don't be afraid of some dynamic angles/moving the camera around.
Avis Nocturna - I like the colors alot. Something about the way Dorothy looks ... ungainly. I think maybe the way her feet are planted spread eagle looks less feminine/natural, maybe if her legs were folded? Your composition is also *almost* centered but not quite, which is a little distracting. Try flipping your image in Photoshop, it helps with those kinds of things.
Stinger88 - it's cool that you're jumping way off the deep end concept wise, but all I see is a zombie with red high heels, I think you need to find more ways to relate this back to the brief, cause you may have gone too far.

More later...

[alesoun]

Oh, I am SO up for this! I don't care what other kind of chaos I'm dealing with!

[xerxyz]

Good point Jessi. Thanks.

[Undeadartist]

hey guys well here is my overall idea, im planning on doing all 4 or just pick the one i like most only got 2 WIP so far let me know what ya think!
(long post sorry)
Alexjholt: sweet idea man really like the tin man reminds me of the iron giant

JessiBean: great work as always and thanks for the sweet topic, and i feel almost like i have an advantage since i live in kansas maybe the scarecrow could be droping straw everywere? try to see if i could help out a bit with that problem

Reymus: Great stuff cant wait to see were it goes agree with jessi with the lion a ground view looking up at the lion maybe him looking down with his head held high at a victim might be something to think about?

rizien: meh a tad bit boring WAY to much negative space but that could be because there is not much detail, but personally i would like to see more of a rough background added in

AvisNocturna: wow amazing start love the lion getting his hair done, totaly was thinking the same kind of look for my tin man and i swear i didnt even see it before i started maybe ill play around with him some more change mine up a bit

Stinger88: lol always cool to see fun stuff, a horror version would be cool you could try something along the lines of what if the zombie apocolypse happend on earth then dorthy got sent to oz and started infecting the people of oz (and a zombie toto would totally kick ass!) or even a tin man/scarecrow Frankenstein monster

Phurtura Brazier: great start cant wait to see were it goes!

kittymeow84: hope to see more!

MagicPrincess: kinda like the traveling looks you got on them

well here is my crap

so far i have cowardly lion and tin man, i thought id go for when they are just about to be seen by the others if i have time ill try for all 4,

lion- classic holding his tail, going for some kind of ex-soldier maybe fled battle because was to cowardly to actually risk his life and afraid of death

tin man- askin for that oil can, but i was kinda thinking the same like alex and avis (obviously) make him like some kind of golem that was built with metal parts and sat down to rest and rusted down (thinking about putting some rust on him

again open to ideas and suggestions and crits!

[wiegetie]

Going for a completely different approach this time!

References, lots of sketching, etc.

Basically what i guess i shoudl've been doing anyway..

Afraid I don't have anything yet (no scanner, /moo) but i couldn't resisting posting. I'm going for a wizard of oz superbiatchteam inspired by the 3's and 7's video by qotsa. Been listening all day and searching for stuff, sketching along..

soon there be wips!

[xerxyz]

Here's some scribblin's to get the idea out of my head and onto a page. First up, scarecrow.



Followed by a couple tinman roughs and a possible lion.



Let me know what you think.

[Sentinel.]

Jessi!! Awesome topic, and I LOVE your designs, especially the cowardly lion!

This started out going somewhere else, and somehow morphed into a portrait of my adorable niece Gabby and her dog Missy, who gets picked up and carted around by the former so often she should've come with a handle

I'm tired of not finishing these things on time, so I'm forcing myself to complete the greyscale sketch before I can even think about color. So. Hard. All that's left are legs, her hand, and some definition on the Emerald City, and I'm free!

I don't know that I'm going to submit this for poll since it's a portrait and will be movie-referenced, as this has turned into a gift for my Mom and for Gabby's parents. It won't feel like a completely original redesign. I'll show my progress anyway in the spirit of chow.

[kittymeow84]

Jessi I think you could go for a plump scarecrow....pad him out a bit but have his head real small and squishy (cos it's a brain he wants if I remember the story correctly?)

Would work well with the roundness of the lion to have another rounder character?? Maybe. Just ideas!

[SunRoamer]

Just wondering... would it be okay to kind of warp the characters like American McGee did in his "Alice" game? Not too sure since "the essence of the characters and the story" may also be totally twisted, which would oppose the brief's description^^"

[Sentinel.]

@ SunRoamer - I understand Jessi as saying that you can take it in any direction you want, as long as the characters are still easily recognizable. For example, if you break down Dorothy into her elements, you have a young girl, pigtails, blue and white check gingham, silver shoes/ruby slippers, small dog in tow, etc. Even without all those elements, some combination of them would still read as Dorothy. I think you should be plenty free to warp away

[xerxyz]

Here's my concepts for a potential lion. I realized about halfway through that "to keep the essence" probably means to have a like silhouette to the original. But because i still have a soft spot for little kid lion, i included both for scrutiny.

[fersteger]

cool, I really like the lions in a lot of these. Here's mine so far, maybe I'll have time this week who knows...

[AzureLure]

Mine is quite traditional, but I thought I'd have a go anyway. Hopefully I finish in time. I love how imaginative everyone is.

[¿Dubious?]

xerxyz- the kid lion is certainly an interesting idea and it plays well with the whole cowardly king of the forest bravado, but holy god that second fu-lion looking guy is amazing. I would go with that one if I were you.

[DIMAGYAN]

Great topic.
Not to sure yet about the direction im going.

Some sketches:

[George Abraham]

Some Doodle's working on personality etc... The time frame's a bit scary and I don't think I will have much this week so I'm not going to dwell on diverging too much from what comes quickly.

I'm hoping to accurately develop and portray the personalities I have in mind.

[fdisk]

Avis: Great atmosphere on your final render, I'm looking forward to it!
JessiBean: Dorothy looks awesome, I love the headphones! I really like your lion's design too; the scarecrow and tinman look too simplistic and cartoony to the point that they are really out of place with the other two exceptionally good designs.
xerxyz:What a great design! I love how creepy Scarecrow looks, good job so far. You HAVE to keep kid lion man, give him an animal pelt of some kind so it helps with the silhouette problem.

This is my first time participating; so let me know if I'm not supposed to post so many images:

I'm going with the "Tin Woodsman" Tinman for this one. I have his eyes completely dark to represent the lack of heart (or soul); he feeds off the trees he chops down until he can get a heart to power his body. He carries a bundle of sticks to keep him fueled up.


Quick color test:

Final render WIP:


I'm also working on the cowardly Lion. He's gay and deep in the closet, he left his tribe to "find" his courage and prove himself. At the end of the adventure he accepts who he and realizes it doesn't have to be an obstacle to be a great leader. I'm planning to give him a braided mane with pink highlights and lots of accessories.

[Nightblue]

Jessi: sweet stuff as usual! Very trendy and I love the direction you are going. Headphones and scarf = win. The silhouette studies of the rest of the characters are coming along very nicely.

fersteger: loving that lion Badass robot. It's shaping up to become something weird and special.

xerxyz: dude, I love your style. The sketches look fresh and full of attitude. The last lion is awesome.


Quick sketch before bed. Kind of brain dead... ugh.

[ArtByManon]

Jessi!! Awesome topic, and I LOVE your designs, especially the cowardly lion!

This started out going somewhere else, and somehow morphed into a portrait of my adorable niece Gabby and her dog Missy, who gets picked up and carted around by the former so often she should've come with a handle

I'm tired of not finishing these things on time, so I'm forcing myself to complete the greyscale sketch before I can even think about color. So. Hard. All that's left are legs, her hand, and some definition on the Emerald City, and I'm free!

I don't know that I'm going to submit this for poll since it's a portrait and will be movie-referenced, as this has turned into a gift for my Mom and for Gabby's parents. It won't feel like a completely original redesign. I'll show my progress anyway in the spirit of chow.

This is sooo utterly beautiful.

[xerxyz]

Dubious and fdisk; while i know it's usually a bad idea to pander to everyones tastes and thereby pleasing noone, i was thinking of doing this as a sort of movie poster and may be able to incorporate both. Kid lion doing something awesome and project the jade lion behind him sorta thing.
Should have the tinman up tomorrow.

Sentinel: SOOOOOOOO CUTE!!!! Are you working from a photograph or from life? I usually work in greyscale and it NEVER looks that good, can't wait to see what you consider finished.

[Stinger88]

Stinger88 - it's cool that you're jumping way off the deep end concept wise, but all I see is a zombie with red high heels, I think you need to find more ways to relate this back to the brief, cause you may have gone too far.

You got me!...Caught red handed. I started out with This OZ theme in the back of my mind. Was just messing about with a comic style tbh. Then I though...Hey!, I can still make this into Dorothy. Anyway. It was just for fun. Your sketches look great btw.

Stinger88: lol always cool to see fun stuff, a horror version would be cool you could try something along the lines of what if the zombie apocolypse happend on earth then dorthy got sent to oz and started infecting the people of oz (and a zombie toto would totally kick ass!) or even a tin man/scarecrow Frankenstein monster

Thats a pretty damn cool idea actually. But i've come up with something i'd much rather have a go at and I'm going to do it in a style I've been meaning to have a crack at. Thanks though

Anyhoo.

For the art style I'm thinking Tank girl/andrew bawidamann/2000AD...ish

I'm going to try a futuristic "Pin up" style dorothy. Girls with Guns type thing. She'll be a soldier of some sort.

I've had 2 ideas for the Tin Man. He'll either be an ABC Warrior type thing or The Tin Man is going to the name of a "self aware" Tank/APC that dorothy and the others pilot. I prefer the tank idea but i'll have to see how it works when I sketch it out.

Scarecrow is going to be a sniper in full "bush" camo gear. Or gunner on the tank.

Cowardly Lion is going to be something related to lions I spose :?...He's a tough one to work out.

Heres a quick sketch to get this started with the ABC warrior tin man. I'll have to rethink the composition though.

[mary-cherry-me]

These are my line arts (well one finished line art and one sketch) for the designs for the Lion and Dorothy :>
Atm I'm working on the Scarecrow, and I'll do the Tinman too later.



I want to do some sort of kinght-ish, fable designs.

[aaro_n]

super sick stuff everyone, jeez
my time management was weak last chow, so hoping i can get lots of time to renderrrrrrrr


my lion is hiding :| going to fix and finish up the line work today hopefully ;o