Octopus Spider

[PeteJ]

Edit: update

[jeremygordon89]

It looks like a good sketch; what exactly are you wanting a critique on? It should be obvious that it could be taken further in terms of rendering, though as it is your avatar, it only has to look good on a smaller scale. I think it is successful.

[LordLouis]

I think for your avatar you should cut all unsued space and even some of the legs off; the way you have it at the moment, it looks squeezed and small.

[Slothboy3000]

I agree. From a distance I don't see it as octopus spider more than just odd spider. Crop it a bit and it'll look better. Cool creature concept, by the way.

[S_Gangl]

hhmm....
cool concept...

One thing which upset me, is that you called it Octobus-Spider. If you didn´t mentioned that, I wouldn´t recognised that. (Hope you understand my english ^^)

But if you want work on on that concpet, I would change the left side of the creature "face". The eye and the first leg of this side is too much in the middle of the face. Put that two parts a bit back and it look better

[PeteJ]

Thanks for all the critiques and advice up there.
Cropping it out probably would make it look less like a regular spider but I really want to show the whole thing. So I decide to paint it and fix the anatomy and the eyes a bit.

The paint is not finish but just tell me how it looks now? I hope its better

[Sady]

Haha. I dig the idea.

Right now I prefer the pencil version.
I would like to see his tentacles more well-defined. Judging by the shadow on the ground the light is coming right on top of him, render it thus. The tentacles are roughly cylindrical so it is quite straightforward how to render them under the top light.

And don't rush, don't rush. I will say that one more time: don't rush. Take your time and put some love into the rendering.

Also, as mentioned earlier, for an avatar it will look much better cropped somewhere near his face.

I hope that helps.

[PeteJ]

@sady really? after looking at my pencil version, I think it is a little proportioned off.

Here is an update of the work so far, I change the colors a bit so they complement each other.

Edit:it will be cropped off when I use if for my avatar

[Lotet]

haha, that is soo cool! love the idea, u gotta clean up that stuff though, a lot of fuzzy edges there. and also if ur gonna have it as n avatar u probably need to simplify him a lot more.

[PeteJ]

Update.

still trying to get there

[Pigeonkill]

My only suggestions is try avoid colors "straight out of the bottle". High saturation tends to make things look flat, poster art or cartoony.

Tighten up the brush strokes on areas you want the viewer eyes to focus on. Everything looks a bit fuzzy now.

[coinslab]

I'm probably not in a position to say this, but first of alll i really like the idea and you've done a really good job. Only thing i would do is use a smaller pencil stroke for the background. Who am i to say though? Your better than me!

[PeteJ]

Update

It probably still looks too fuzzy, but I'm trying to focus on the color right now. Should I turn everything in the background into variations of blue?

and @coinslab. I don't mind taking advice or criticism from someone who thinks they are not as good as me. I'm not that good myself anyway.

Edit:The cropped version will be my avatar

[arenhaus]

Placing that straignt, thick leg along the centerline was a poor choice. The foreshortening does not read on it, and in reduced size it looks less like a leg than a stake that you impaled the poor critter on.

I'd change the angle so it's clearly a leg.

[PeteJ]

how about more 2 the left?

[arenhaus]

Better.

[Beeston]

Wow Pete, you've been working on this one for a while.

Tip:
If you're using Photoshop, then go to the smudge tool.
I like to use default round but it works with most non-dynamic brushes.
First, set your brush tip shape Spacing to 0, and then turn it completely off.
Second, go to scattering, and turn it on. Set it to about 77 percent (you can play with it of course) and set both scatter and count jitter to pen pressure. Leave count Jitty by default as 0 percent.

Now go to strength jitter and leave it at 0% but set it to pen pressure also.
Now very lightly, smooth it over your background and any surface you want to be rendered smoothly. This really really helps when doing shiny or glossy materials, like your octopus.
Let me know if it works.

-J

[PeteJ]

This is actually done in CS5.
Here's an update

[inkjetcanvas]

Very cool to see your progression on this one. The updated version on the first post is great, I think, for the loose concept. Proportions and angles look good as well as the colors! If it's just an avatar you're probably okay with the loose paint, if not, time for details, I think! Nice job.

[PeteJ]

It's just for my avatar, but after getting this far it made me want to finish it further,

[PeteJ]

Update

[shrunkendesigner]

Hey Pete, love the idea and the image has come along nicely. If you decide to create this spider octopus again, I would create the creature in more of a squat pose, make it look like a tarantula and more stable.

In this link the spider looks stable, solid and more squat. The body is closer to the floor and is perfectly evolved to creep and stalk prey slowly but strike with speed. Such tarantulas like the Trap Door Spider, are capable of sprinting at amazing speeds whilst chasing prey down.

I think that one of the key features of the spider is that the legs are spread quite far and this makes it look more balanced.

Seriously Pete, I love the idea and can see some real potential in this creature concept. I think you should do some more designs of this creature in different poses etc.

[PeteJ]

Hey Pete, love the idea and the image has come along nicely. If you decide to create this spider octopus again, I would create the creature in more of a squat pose, make it look like a tarantula and more stable.

In this link the spider looks stable, solid and more squat. The body is closer to the floor and is perfectly evolved to creep and stalk prey slowly but strike with speed. Such tarantulas like the Trap Door Spider, are capable of sprinting at amazing speeds whilst chasing prey down.

I think that one of the key features of the spider is that the legs are spread quite far and this makes it look more balanced.

Seriously Pete, I love the idea and can see some real potential in this creature concept. I think you should do some more designs of this creature in different poses etc.

it's been a long time shrunken; and thanks for the tip.
I think I will come back to this concept some time later

[landylachs]

Love this design! Very clever and cute. Some more shadows and atmospheric perspective/fog might make it pop more and feel more finished. Looks great so far.