Cyclops. Updated quite a bit. ANY FEEDBACK?

[dpaint]

[QUOTE=wooblood;2918008]Nice idea for the shield!
Speaking of, where did he get those giant feathers from? I mean, of course there could be giant birds in the same world that a giant cyclops lives, but maybe to reinforce the fact that he's a giant, you could make the feathers small into some woven pattern or something. QUOTE]

Roc feathers?

[Quigleyer]

Why would a giant need a shield..?

Ya know...

... I'm not sure. Catapult and ballistic missiles? It was just something I was so sure of. I'll think about it. I had a world devised in which an ore powered weapons to help them with things like giant cyclops defense etc. But if it's not really evident in this piece, which should stand alone, is it a problem? Open to any and all discussion regarding this. I can just paint around it for the night .

Oh yeah and the feathers. Maybe Roc feathers. Maybe... a bunch of feathers put together. We'll see what happens when I have some time off from F$^%ing work.

[Quigleyer]

Doin' work.

The tatoos are still coming. After I paint his other hand (completely overlooked that one).

I'm also not sure about anything at this point and will take all suggestions very openly.

[Dread_Reaper]

Compositionally the piece works fine. The rendering is obviously not complete so I won't comment on the blurriness of it. Right now, my focus is the eye.

Previously the eye was just part of the mask, and as such didn't have to particularly engaging, but now that you've made it a living eyeball it has to be more engaging than before. An eye adds a whole new dimension, asking "what is the figure looking at?" "what is the figure's expression?", and so forth. Right now he is just kind of looking up in an upward direction, almost like he is looking at something far larger than himself. Obviously you just rendered out the original eyeball from the mask, so this may not have been intended, but adding a biological eye means you have to take this sort of stuff into consideration. Its a great opportunity to add another layer to your artwork, but has to be taken into thought.

Great piece though Quig, keep pushing til its ready!

-Dread_Reaper

[Venger]

A quick play with perspective and light with the addition of some scale objects - just some ideas
Looking fun though the large eye diminishes the scale (to me anyway)
Interested to see where this goes.

[Lotet]

wow, great piece. I really love the color palette n the design and well...everything. my only crit whould be that his shield kinda looks like a part of the background, like a mountaion or something. And you should probebly extend the canvas top part so the head has more room to breathe in.

[Quigleyer]

Great point Dread. I'll get to fixing that right away (shouldn't take too long!).

Venger- WOA. That's what I'm talking about. Really glad you dropped in to give me your thoughts. I am now planning to start chopping him up and rearranging really soon here (probably tonight or tomorrow night I should get rolling on this again). As always- please feel free to comment and add your insight to any updates you see after this as well.

Honestly I think his head overall got a little too big (along with the eye), and it looks like you did as well. You did me one huge solid with the suggested proportions.

Lotet- you're right. It looks like I'm going to be chopping up the piece a bit anyway, so this shouldn't be too much of a problem. Thank you for your set of eyes!

[SageGod]

I don't understand the helmet.
It seems like the eye is a big bullseye... I would guess a cyclops would want to have some form of protection such as a cage over his eye.

[Marlo]

I really have no critique to say, it's a really lovely image, and great concept! I cant wait for it to be finished.

[Quigleyer]

I thought I posted this last night, but it seems it "didn't go through". I like that conceptart.org is free and choose not too complain highly about the problems it seems to be facing. More users and more traffic is NOT a bad thing, after all . I can deal with some inconveniences!

SageGod- that's a tough one. A cage over his eye or protection would help to protect his eye yes. A creature with only one eye would suffer from ridiculous depth perception issues that us bi-clopses have two eyes for. A cage would only "get in the way" and make it harder for him to see- and provide only protection from large things. In order for him to be protected from what he's likely to be facing (mostly tiny arrows) he's going to need a whole plate, which would render him blind. Without glass/a visor I'm having a difficult time coming up with a "proper" solution.

Thanks Marlo, I can't wait either, to be honest.

I'm taking way too long on this. I'm working a lot and don't have a lot of free time. I usually like to work on multiple "to finish" images at once, while speedpainting etc. all the time to keep up to practice- but I straight up don't have more than an hour or two at the end of the day (which half of is usually spent resting and eating ). I still try to work on this a lot.

This problem will be solved shortly. I'm taking more time off from one job (can't work 40 hours at one and 30 at the other, especially while 30 hours is paying you more!). Until then expect this to take a while, as I don't really know when finished is!

It's good to take the time to work your images out more and more, though. I'm in my stretch zone and need to push it!

Worked on it a bit with Venger's paintover. Is it working?

[Truepinkas]

I think you should push your highlights a bit more, your only using the darker 3/4 of the full value range.

I love the piece so far. It's got a very wild and tribal feeling to it. Keep at it, I know what it's like to only be able to scrape together a little bit of time here and there.

Cheers,

[SageGod]

SageGod- that's a tough one. A cage over his eye or protection would help to protect his eye yes. A creature with only one eye would suffer from ridiculous depth perception issues that us bi-clopses have two eyes for. A cage would only "get in the way" and make it harder for him to see- and provide only protection from large things. In order for him to be protected from what he's likely to be facing (mostly tiny arrows) he's going to need a whole plate, which would render him blind. Without glass/a visor I'm having a difficult time coming up with a "proper" solution.

Well he's a giant so depth perception wont pose a big problem
Plus it's a creature of myth the eye my not work like a human's... if you account for depth perception in humans it's because when only looking thru one eye it's not in the middle of the face and each send simu' signals to the brain;

http://www.vision3d.com/stereo.html

Two Eyes = Three Dimensions (3D)!
Each eye captures its own view and the two separate images are sent on to the brain for processing. When the two images arrive simultaneously in the back of the brain, they are united into one picture. The mind combines the two images by matching up the similarities and adding in the small differences. The small differences between the two images add up to a big difference in the final picture! The combined image is more than the sum of its parts. It is a three-dimensional stereo picture.


I would image a cyclops eye would works like a camera's eye;

How Does a Camera Work Like the Eye?

http://www.ehow.co.uk/about_6331650_...like-eye_.html

anyway here's what I mean:




oh here's another good ref!

[Lotet]

I liked the first head, cant really explain why, it just looks better.

[Quigleyer]

I liked the first head, cant really explain why, it just looks better.

Hey man, if you drop by here again could you specify a post. I liked the earlier heads more, and I was wondering if that's what you mean. I was considering just allowing the eye to be part of the mask, as originally intended.

EDIT: No reason to post without updating my tiny progress.

[Ben_Olson]

Woah!! A cyclops helmet!? That's a cool idea. I love the giant plumage too. Very original. Nice!

[Quigleyer]

Thanks Ben. I don't know why, but it seems the attached image isn't showing up, and I did a little more work on it. It was bumped up anyway, so I might as well show some texturing progress and whatnot. I'm still on the fence about the mask thing, but I'll figure it out.

[Venger]

I just realised what's bugging me about this - his scale!
You have elements on the figure which would be fine on a normal sized person but when you increase the overall size they looks wrong - for instance, the shield - the planks would be fine for a normal sized shield but now they are actually wider than the tree's he is walking through.
I don't mind the feathers but everything he wears is taken from something that is huge (large fur, large leather, the large cloth I don't mind.)
I'm not saying it has to be crudely made but how many cows would it take to make his boots or how many trees to make his shield (he has to use normal 'our sized' materials to make his items) maybe you could hint at these to show his scale.
(or they could all be off massive animals if so I'll shut up )

[Quigleyer]

Hey Venger,

Thanks a ton for digging this back up for more words. While I am currently letting it rest until I feel more able to finish this as I want to see it done I do still appreciate words on it, and you've done a LOT to help me out with this one already.

While the shield was to be explained as the door to a stronghold, the boards are still too big. I didn't even size them up in comparison to the trees, didn't even think about it.

It's funny (in a sick, sadistic sort of way) that problems are occurring rather late into the game on this piece, which I'm doing as redemption for the other piece (which was not finished due to pretty much the same thing- late in the game issues).

I guess at this point I have two choices- quit or finish. I think solving all of these issues with giant animals is a little too simple and am looking forward to the thinking challenge while I am honing my technical skills to put a good finish on this piece.

Thanks for your thoughts- I will try to solve through them. I gave up a Friday shift to have the day off to spend all day on art, so this will be one of the things I start to touch upon, I hope.

Thanks man. You're awesome.

[Venger]

You just have to be an artist and an art director at the same time - its part of the problem of producing work so organically (it jumps and shifts from one idea to another)
Technically once you've decided on your idea - stop and have a serious look at what you're drawing (with an art directors head on) is it accomplishing what you want? or would it be quicker to start again with a stronger idea in your mind.
Really you should do this before you start applying paint, that's what thumbnails and quick sketches are for.

I learn just as much helping other people (I try and approach it with an art directors head on) - though I always end up doing 'how would I have handled the brief or how would I make it better' which doesn't always help the person doing the original art.
But it does get my mind flowing - art wise.
Believe it or not I end up doing sketches and PO that I never put up - its a quick way of practising the 'how would I handle this brief'
(I have one for this very piece, using your brief and basic design, treating it as an illustration rather than a design problem.)

try it, its good practice and they get an alternate critique.

[Quigleyer]

If you have one I wouldn't mind to see it, if you'd be comfortable with that.

I'm having thoughts of re-starting this piece. Sterling Hundley once made the argument to me that I had an idea, a color palette, and a general knowledge of the character elements and posing- that basically restarting a piece wasn't the end of the world.

I want to show more movement with this one. He's supposed to be coming forward- and he might be- but I don't really feel like he's moving. I don't know, I might have been looking at it for too long. Lately I haven't been looking at it at all, and I was about to start on it when I came up with this "clever" idea of restarting this piece. I want to change so much about it that I'd be giving everything A LOT more passes, and I could probably just as well start over, improve the pose, and use this knowledge to work out my ideas ahead of time. Some times you need a fresh new start.

But then, some times you need to finish a painting. I have no idea where to go.

I think I'm going to start thumbnailing. If nothing else, just as practice for "next time." We'll see where that takes me.

[Venger]

Here you go Quig, just a sketch really.


The thing is, if you finish it now would you put it in your portfolio?
It's easy to overwork stuff or get bogged down in it to much - it is after all only 1 illustration. As long as your learning from what you're doing.

I think for you maybe the process is more important than the illustration (give yourself a tighter brief and see where you go from there.)

[Quigleyer]

Well, glad I stuck around to critique some works- you seem to be here too. Thanks for replying so quickly.

Can you please explain what you mean by "tighter brief"? Please do so at your own leisure- you've helped me A LOT already and I don't want to be nagging.

I've never worked a professional illustration. I've gone to school... but many of my assignments were open-ended and tailored to the student (like- we came up with what we were going to do and got it approved). I'm not entirely sure what a proper brief would look like.

Working without deadlines and set guidelines is just turning out to be counter-productive for me . But I'm learning a lot and studying a lot.

I'm not sure about if I'd put it in my portfolio. I'm kind of building it right now, so I'm not entirely sure where it would fit. I don't know if I'm good enough to worry about my portfolio yet. Is this anxiety or excitement? Haha.

Thanks man- you're a trooper!

EDIT: Also- thank you very much for your sketch on this. I think I'm going to start this practice. As for this piece, I don't think I could go this route, because this piece is going in my portfolio right now. It was thumbnailed, sketched, and finished- with a deadline. I should participate in more competitions? It's funny, but I want ALL of my illustrations shot from below... but I don't know if that'd look good to an art director?

[Venger]

I'm always popping in here - (avoiding work haha)
It doesn't really take that long to compose a reply, so don't worry about it.

Well, when you started this you were unsure if he was gigantic or what he would be armed with - it's something you've developed as you've started painting.
If you had a 'tighter brief' (he's gigantic and armed with a dagger and shield for instance) then you'd approach the illustration quite differently when you started.

A standard brief is going to contain the basic requirements of what your client is after (a giant cyclops armed with a sword and shield), its up to you to come up with something cool to fulfil it.
You might have a size ratio for it...

Actually, here's your brief:
Giant cyclops armed with an obsidian sword and a crude shield. (<<basic requirements)
Something tribal and brutal. (<< the feel I'm after)
3.5 x 6" (or to that ratio) (<<that's your picture size)

off you go

P.S I'm not mentoring this - it's just for fun.

EDIT: just saw your addition - Well that was my sketch, I'm not sure I'd have done it that way for real, it's just practice.
Yeah, you should be doing CHOW's they can really help.

[Lotet]

Hi again, well, with the "first head" I am refering to the older head, when the eye was like a part of it and it was bigger then it is now, like in post 33.

[Quigleyer]

Thanks lotet, we're gonna see what happens with the head now, though.

So I'm using your size, Venger (doubled) and I'm finding that I'm starting to like the challenge of filling up that space without him just standing there. Or at least, if he's just standing there, making it interesting.

Here are some of the better ideas (the ones that weren't character sketches). I dropped in some quick values to give you an idea of what I'm thinking, but those can be changed up. I'm trying to find an appealing composition.

I really like three, though. But it does have the cyclops to look off the canvas...

And I've realized maybe the low angle would be okay! I can't have him looking small unless he's off in the distance, like two.

[Venger]

3's fun though you do have hips and shoulders on the same plane. Maybe you could have him turning more (to catch the light and looking down at our cowering 'hero') - puts me in mine of Talos from the 1963 version of Jason and the Argonauts.

[Quigleyer]

Sketching around for posing and placement after getting my general idea. I'm gonna start refining the second one more, and making sense of his giant costume. I didn't turn the shoulders enough in the first one. I'm not sure even how muscular he's going to be, but these will be helpful I hope.

[Kaikikuro]

Wow you've really improved on this! It's turning out amazing.

[Chuc]

Going back to your 5 thumbnail sketches, I really like number 2, mainly because it has a kind of dynamism in the framing and the pose, almost like the giant is charging towards the viewer.

[Quigleyer]

Thanks Kaikikuro- I hope to take this really far.

Chuc- The only problem is this has sort of become "how can I make him look huge". The second thumbnail isn't doing that for me and the direction I'm choosing to take this is going to be... near to absurdity? We'll see what happens, though- I'll keep your comment in mind.

For example...

He's probably going to be wearing a house. Well, part of a house. Parts of a house... all put together (we're assuming he's got access to straps- I kind of want to go with this kind of thing) into a pauldron. I do love fun pauldrons.

His other pauldron (If I decide to keep it) is going to be the bottom of a boat. His mask (not sure if I need to explain that?) is definitely going to have the sails attached to it. The anchor is going to explain the huge rope he wears around his waist, and add some cool tribal dangliness. Shield will be an obvious stronghold door, turned upside down. I'm going to give him some sort of nail-fashion fastener to keep them closed, but I think that's okay to fudge a bit, too. So long as it all reads...

EDIT: OH YEAH. And "brutal" was on the brief Venger gave me, so I'm probably going to put crucified humans, or human skeleton jewelry, or something. It should be pretty metal if I can pull it off. I need to start on the final drawing tonight, though... or sunday (lots of work tomorrow).

I don't really need to show his boots... but I might come up with something for the hopefully budding concept artist in me.

Is it okay for me to give him giant feathers, a mask, and the sword without an explanation?

I kind of like putting big things on him as clothing. I think it's pretty metal, if nothing else.

Thanks fellas.

EDIT AGAIN: Oh yeah, I did some tattoo and feather possiblities on a body I don't think I'm going to wind up going with.