C.O.W. #210 ,Sound Round! (youtube edition). VOTING!

[(lark]

C.O.W. #210 SOUND ROUND_Voting!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ROUND #210 VOTING

Topic: SOUND ROUND


Deadline for the voting: 1 week.

[millz]

Kinda my first submission, i probably got it wrong...

Artist: millz

Concept: Titanus cornibus

[matejkovacic]

VCM - Vacuum Cleaner Monster. It inhales everything that is not attached firmly enough and digests plants, animals, humans mostly.
It is known by the deep breathing that is produced by the wide vacuum cleaner mouth.

[Rob Powell]

Artist: Rob Powell

Concept: Great Belching Toad

[jrbarker]

Artist: J.R. Barker

Concept: Sound Horn
I think a few of us had the same idea with some kind of horn that makes sound.

[♦♦Jackdaw♦♦]

Artist: Arthur 'Two Sheds'

Concept: Unidentified

A scene from the following morning.

[Flame_Unquenchable]

Artist: Flame_Unquenchable

Concept: Balaenus Tonitrus





Dear Beth,

We arrived on Marus Beta two and a half weeks ago. The atmosphere here is dense but the gravity is much less than that of Earth. The lush
environment along with exotic flora and fauna have kept my interest.

I have encountered one species here that has piqued my interest. On the fourth night after making camp, we had set a watch when the most
terrible din occurred. A thrumming and beating noise echoed across the air and we all started at the sudden outburst. The vibration in the
dense air was enough to literally shake the ground, and in fact many thought it was a seismic disturbance at first. Eventually we pinpointed
the source of the sound and lo and behold it was from a creature of all things! A flying mammal somewhat similar to a manatee in size and
basic shape, but with a few notable differences. However upon inspection of one of the beasts, I've found it is more closely related to a whale...
what a surprise! I have tentatively named the creature Balaenus Tonitrus, for it's thundering song.

Apparently the creature navigates the dense cloud banks the same way that whales navigate oceans back home. It blasts very loud bursts from
two organs near it's 'trunk'. It uses a series of membranes along it's back to create a doppler-like effect by staggering the sound emissions. A large
tympanic membrane surrounded by a partial ear receives the sound.

Well, I must bid you farewell for now, I'm sure you will love it here when they send for the second expedition. I'm enclosing a picture of the
creature and a size chart for reference along with all of my notes and scans.

Hope to see you soon!

Dr. Winbrener

[RBeek]

Artist: Rbeek

Concept: The Flyginus


This creature attacks his pray from above, small rodents and big insects are mostly part of his diet.. But sometimes ends up on a human skull on accident!

After the food gets digested and decayed into gas, the ballons on his back are filled up and so he can float again, and go hunt his next target.

The small tail acts like a propellor to guide his flight through the air

[Riox]

Artist: Riox

Concept: Kweikseer

The Kweikseer was once a great guardian of the Indian burial grounds. When the Western world came, a heroic warrior slay the beast and took it's eyes as a trophy of the kill. Now ressurrected by an old witch doctor, it strives endlessly to bring the western world to its knees and find it's killer.

[brambor]

Artist: Brambor

Concept: Frognut
These creatures, nowadays regarded as pests, are a result of a bizzare combination of a rare rainforest frog, half-eaten donut and a make-up kit. Large populations inhabit suburban areas and scrapheaps looking for their favourite meal: mixture of saliva, lipstick and soda. It is known that sacs located near the rear end of Frognut produce a strange humming noise, that attracts other and informs them of a newly located "prey". Whole herd can use it to mark their territory.

[DPFX]

Artist: DPFX

Concept: Oculatres Campanida
This species goes dormant for centuries at a time, and when it 'activates' it finds a cave opening and starts vibrating hard appendages against the rock to attract a mate. This specimen has awoken in a newly industrialized world and, not knowing any better, has set up shop in a steel culvert.

[o0Dave0o]

Artist: o0Dave0o

Concept: Bellow Beast
The Bellow Beast is a threatening creature though in actual reality is only dangerous when frightened. This herbivore is most at home in the grassy plains grazing all day to maintain its lumbering body. When threatened, or in some cases while mating, the Bellow beast will pass air through it's horns and air sacs creating a deep and rythmic sound that though not entirely audible will shake you straight to your bones.
The video clip taken is of the infamous night that a Bellow Beast made it out of the Calgary Zoo and terrorized the nearby neighborhood. Thankfully no one was hurt in the incident and the beast was safely returned!

[Sedp]

Sedrip


Mutated Cyst
[/B] A dormant species of mutated gigantic cyst, once a century creeps its elephant like tail to the surface and releases accumulated carbon dioxide from its submerged body of mass. The sound it makes resembles a huge gust of mourning wind, the noise is known for terrorizing locals and has made headline worldwide but scientist as of yet have discovered the cause of the noise.

[Pat Thompson]

COW #210
Pat Thompson

"Hillback"

This beast roams southeast asia in search of tourists to trap and consume inside its shell. It moves its massive shelled body at night with a noisy effort onto roads near hotels and neighborhoods, hoping to catch a stray dog or unwary cameraman.

Victims enter the shell's caves once, and only once.

[(lark]

voted for Arthur 'Two Sheds' really cool well done creature!

close second to DPFX, really creative solution to the way its making the sound! good job dude!

thanks everybody that participated in this one, some very cool stuff in here. also i think i'll try this kind of round out again in the future. so im putting out a request to everybody. if you have a cool sound clip, or have seen a cool youtube similar to the one used here. send it my way in a PM. always lookin for some cool sounds for these!

also don't be afraid to use the suggestion thread to give us your ideas. we do look at them for inspiration. thanks!

[millz]

Great stuff everyone...

Im new round here and not a great artist but heres my opinion anyway.

Arthur: Love your creature design and the art but the lawn/grass and shadow really lets it down on a whole, I assume you just rushed it cause i have seen you do better.

Sedp, Brambor, Riox, Rbeek: From just looking at your creature designs, i find it hard to imagine them making such a noise, but some very interesting designs and great artwork nonetheless. I liked your backstory Brambor.

Theres a few other points for those unmentioned but im sure other poeple will offer their opinions too.


Voted for Arthur.

[DPFX]

Brambor got my vote. A very satisfying design, in my opinion. Whimsical without being cartoony. Quite imaginative...well done.

oODaveOo's piece was really strong as well. I found the anatomy to be convincing, and it really looks like it is making a racket.

[Rob Powell]

Voted for o0Dave0o
The anatomy and design made it seem like a believable creature, like sme noisy relative of the Rhino.

Arthur's piece was very good but I felt like I wanted to see more. The design is great but seeing just the front of the beast makes me wonder what the rest of it looks like. Nice touch adding the guy armed and wearing just underwear though.

And matejcovacic's vacum cleaning monster was a clever idea too. I do notice that the cars in the background seemed a little too small considering they are just across the street.

Millz's creature was interesting with the Hammerhead design. What could improve the piece a lot is if you made the hair on the ceature a little more course to make it seem a little more feral. And a few spears stuck in the hide would be a nice addition.

DPFX, its cool how you go the idea from a real life situation and the rendering on the creature was done well

Riox, I notice a little bit of a Xenomorphic design to your creature, it gives it a very creepy and hostile appereance. As someone else suggested earlier seeing this creature on the hunt would def help impove the concept.

[lancer_idenoure]

good job guys, this was a tricky round.

voted for o0Dave0o cuz i thought it was the best response to the brief. solid anatomy and great indication of the sound it makes.

arthur, yours i think is the best illustrated (even if kinda rushed) but the creature seems poorly thought out. the head seems pasted on and the anatomy on the body isnt as solid as the heads, and there arent any signs that it makes the noise from the video. considering how much time i think you spent on it though, its pretty solid. keep at it and youll win one of these soon

sorry im not giving crits for everyone, i need some sleep *_*

[brambor]

Tough choice between DPFX and o0Dave0o. Both creatures have strong design and I can totally imagine them making sounds from the video. My vote goes to DPFX because his picture is rendered better. Nevertheless good job guys!

matejakovacic: nice idea and good execution, but something is lacking and I can't specify what exactly could it be.

I loved Arthur's beast, but as it was mentioned before, I just don't see it making this strange noise. The same comment goes to Riox and millz.

[o0Dave0o]

Great round everyone! My vote went to Arthur 'Two Shed' just for the mood that was created. It felt very much like a cloverfield type atmosphere and that tied with the youtube video is what sold me!

Millz
I really like the scale and atmosphere of the peice. I feel like the creature is a little flat and could have done with some highlights and a bit more contrast to really make it pop.

matejkovacic
Great concept there and very well rendered. I think I just would have like to have seen a little more structure to the creature. The mouth feels a little unnatural due to it being a perfect circle

Rob Powell
Thanks for the vote! I really enjoy the design and the rendering, I guess I just wonder how does he move around and where is his other arm?

jrbarker
Really awesome rendering, maybe the background could have been a different color or rendered in a different way to really make your creature stand out and create that eye pleasing contrast

Flame_Unquenchable
I love the story you wrote! Really explains everything and very creative, I think if you could have described some of that in the creature itself without just relying on the story. Maybe also defining things a little more. It all feels out of focus and really just need some tightening up!

Rbeek
I really liked yours here too. Not really much to crit on it, although I just dont know if this creature would be able to create such a loud noise

riox
Well done, looks really cool. I think there's just some anatomy issues especially where the joints come together. Maybe consider how this creature would be moving all its legs and where they would be jointed!

Brambor
You where my second pick! Really unique concept and very well described in the painting. Brave to attempt a pop can in there too! Good job!

DPFX
Crazy creature there! I like the concept and really great textures on the creature, I guess I just didn't fully believe this creature would be able to make that much racket. Maybe in a swarm or larger numbers?

Sedp
I'm just a little confused about this one. I'm not too sure what is going on in the image.

Pat Thompson
I think my suggestion here is try to steer clear of using all black in the shadows etc. It kills the color in the image rather than enhancing it. I'm not entirely sure how it makes the sound heard in the clip

Great job everyone and I'm glad I got to be a part of this round! Thanks to those who have voted for me, and see you all in the next round!

[Si_Swe]

millz - With this level of rendering, I would suggest focusing on just the creature design, rather than on an illustration. You don’t quite have atmospheric perspective down and you’re using soft brushes way too much in your backgrounds. The “grass brush” pretty much always looks off to me, I’d avoid it whenever you can. As the creature design goes it’s fairly interesting. I’d suggest smoothing the fur rendering you, and give a slightly rougher edge to the areas where the fur is protruding from the body. Don’t “whiten” and “blacken” to shade, use hues to shade based on the temperature of the light, and think about shadows more as reflected light, than absence of it. Use a bigger brush. Right now you have all kinds of little strokes visible, and especially on areas like the horns, it makes the rendering look choppy and can eliminate textures.
matejkovacic - Unique concept, and I can see it in relation to the sound. I find the design leaves something to be desired, it not being especially interesting. For the most part I think you did a great job rendering long, shaggy fur, but there is clear evidence of smudge tool use, which always turns me off a bit. Try not to use black and white as your highlights and intense shadows, as it’s incredibly rare that we see either in nature.
Rob Powell - To me, this looks like the front half of a creature. I’ve never understood the tendency, in people’s designs, to give a creature forearms and then let it just trail off towards the back. A 3/4s view would have given us a much better impression of the design. Those arms look like they’re a little long on the forearm side of things, and they don’t look like they’d be muscular enough to have any effective locomotive capacity.
jrbarker - I can tell from this and your other work that you have decent skill at painting and rendering, which is why I’m so disappointed with the design. The design looks like the creature has been stretched out horizontally, which pushes the design further from creatures and towards tables. I would consider sketching up more designs before spending a significant amount of time on a design like this.
Arthur ‘Two Sheds’ - I love your work. I didn’t quite feel that it fit 100% with the theme this week. I don’t feel that the head looks pasted on, but I just didn’t really see it as making the sound present in the video. Love the due in his briefs, with the pistol. Not a fan of the grass-brush though.
Flame Unquenchable - The first thing I see with this piece is that the edges really need work. All of them are super rough, and lack the confidence to create believable form. The saturation levels of the various colours is really inconsistent, which is not helped by the fact that the shading all appears to be going straight from saturated colours to black. The overall result is muddy and inconsistent. You need to stop using overlay to colour your images and stop using pure black and pure white in shading. If I was hosting this round, you would not have made the poll.
RBeek - Clever creature design with a lot of charm. The rendering looks rushed, overall, particularly on the gas bulbs. Looking at your sketchbook I know you can do better as that goes. Please use the full week that we give to produce work that is up to your level of quality.
Riox - The first thing I see with this piece is that the blood is adding nothing to piece overall. If your creature is truly violent-looking, it will look just as violent without a pool of blood hitting us in the face with the idea that it is. Those outlines around the creature as a bit distracting, and take away from the overall form of the creature. Rendering on all legs could use some work, and the positioning of the rear leg is quite awkward. I would suggest using a larger brush to decrease the overworked look of the skin, which looks very strokey at the moment.
brambor - Although edges are a bit shaky and I think the overall rendering could be tightened up, I though your design was refreshingly unique and I was very able to image the creature making the noise from the video clip. My chief advice would be to use more temperature variance to establish light and shadow, rather than pure use of tonal value, create harder edges, and avoid overuse of custom brushes to create the grass like you have here.
DPFX - Nice rendering, particularly on the middle section, which looks like it could be a 3d model. The top area doesn’t look very much like it’s interacting with the background at all and the background elements are not up to the level of rendering on the creature at all. I don’t really see this creature as making the sound from the video, and overall I’m not a huge fan of the design.
o0Dave0o - Nice to see you participate again. Nice design, and there’s a great sense of sound coming from it (though, to me, not the sound from the video clip). As with many people this round, try and avoid pure black and pure white for shading and highlights. It almost always looks unnatural. I’m not a fan of the grass brush (if you haven’t gather than from all the other crits) and the opacity level on that foliage really lends itself to dense foliage, but looks awful when it’s on a stand-alone plant. It’s also a bit awkard how the plants frame the image on either side and at the same depth within the frame. I like that it follows the rule of threes, but it would’ve worked better if it were less symmetrical and the depth of the plants was played with more. A bit of atmospheric perspective towards the back would have helped establish the space a bit more.
Sedp - I’m going to be 100% honest. This doesn’t look like a creature, it has no design elements, and I’m amazed it wasn’t cut from the poll, which by all rights it should have. Please observe the rules which specifically state that blob-like masses with no form are prohibited.
Pat Thompson - It’s a nice concept, but the execution could use some work. First off, the use of black on the shading is really jarring when compared to the softer shading everywhere else in the image. The custom brush up front is doing your image no good, as is that blurred figure in the foreground. Lastly I don’t really see this as making the noise from the video clip, even as being the sound made from it’s locomotion.

[Rob Powell]

@o0Dave0o
Your welcome! How does it move? Very slowly!

@Si_Swe
Thanks for the feedback! I'll keep all that in mind for future creature designs!

[jrbarker]

Aw, I kinda liked my table monster design. I thought it looked stilted and bizarre, like out of a dream. But yeah, I guess I can see where it's also kind of boring.
Thanks for the reviews!

[Pat Thompson]

thanks for the critiques Si_swe and oODaveOo!
Acknowledged on the black in the shading. Too much of it, I agree. should have been shading with complementary colors... slipped my mind there that last morning of working on it. I would have liked to redo the foreground (grass & cameraman), but I ran out of time - I guess I spent too long on the background and learning how to use animated brushes (this is my 4th digital painting).



my humble critiques for everyone:

millz: welcome fellow first-timer! I'd say give it more chiaroscuro (play of white and black/contrast) i had the reverse problem (too much b&w) So that would make it more interesting, especially with what should be the harsh lighting of a savanna - this would help the fur look more realistic if done on a texture level. look at oODaveOo's lighting - yours should have been similar to that, in my opinion. Also, I think tweaking the shoulder blade anatomy into more believable shapes would help - nature likes curves. also check out the anatomy of elephants and the indricotherium (or any other massive Oligocene creatures) for the anatomy references of massive beasts.

matejkovacic: fun idea. I'd like to see a custodian prodding it along or something. the special effects on the suction don't seem to work for me. One way I think that effect could work better if you further stylized the piece towards a more cartoon/anime direction (since we can't see air being sucked in real life, but in the cartoon world, we see all of that usually). I also think that the fur needs some more loving details. Also, where's they eyes?

Rob Powell: cool concept - I'm from the everglades region originally, and I can definitely see this thing fitting in there. I would have loved to see it in it's environment, with natural lighting. That would make this concept stand out even more. I'm also worried about what happens to his throat sack when he lands from a jump.

jrbarker: I think the creature's facial symmetry is off a bit around the nose/eyes. I think it also looks like you skewed/scaled/distorted it rather harshly or something. My mind wants to bend his body into its rounder shapes. like with millz, nature loves curves - the golden equation (think nautilus shells).

two sheds: great job, of course. Congrats on leading this week so far. I love the head - looks transdimentional. I'd love to see that style proceed on down the rest of his body. I think the piece would feel better with a more developed environment, or none at all (with a plain/textured bg). I also wonder if something that big would be capable of such a gallop.

flame unquenchable: cool story, but I don't see how this creature could maintain altitude - are those gas sacks on the side? I think they should be much bigger and under stress for an animal of manatee proportions - they're heavy (I've stepped on one before). To be honest, I feel like you didn't spend enough time on the piece, as if this were just a fast sketch. The background fore-limb angle looks to be off. I think your brush strokes and rendering need to be smoother to make it's surface believable, otherwise all I see is paintbrushes. My advice is to just crispen everything, smooth it out, and render the lighting and shadow with more color effects. Keep practicing and you'll get there, brother.

Rbeek - awesome concept! In my opinion, it looks like a faster piece, and as such it is very well done. However, if it is supposed to be a finished piece I think it needs more rendering, cripser lines and more brush and stroke variation.

Riox: like i said earlier, cool idea, but I'd love to see it in action. Where are the ears or how does it receive sound? Bats are sonar predators as well, and check out the size of their ears. owls too.

Brambor: awesome concept. It feels like it could totally exist and get eaten by my dog. I'd love to see the rendering more fully developed, just like with Rbeek. I'd also like to see this in it's setting, in a backyard or something - maybe have a big ol' lab sniffing at it or a boy looking at it in his hands.

DPFX: just like with Rbeek and Brambor, more rendering and texturing would make this awesome. The textures on the background and floor look so good, so it looks a little disjointed with the creature. also, the bg looks a little too straight forward tiled. sewage ditch cliffs have more surface variation. great idea, very realitic animal, and well done with matching the creature to the sound. I'd say yours matched the concept premise best.

oODaveOo: awesome illustration work - you got my vote. The creature's concept seems very natural, and probably actually existed back in the day (or something similar). The trees and water don't draw any attention so they're fine, but after I'm done admiring the creature my eyes wonder around, and notice the environment could use some more rendering work. Other than that, I say its very well done.

Sedp: I see what's going on in the pic, but it is super hard to tell. That thing's underground? add some texture to the surrounding dirt. It does have a style to it, but it's too much. I want to see what's inside that cocoon - maybe redo it like you see cross-sections of fetuses - pretend you just sliced open the earth and its outershell, and paint it that way, realistically. Check of DaVinci's fetus sketches for ideas. Your style could work with more details to everything, and shading (even if harsh lines, such as with Sin City). check out Frank Miller's work for a good example of this style.

Good job everyone! Onto the next concept! Now what munches rocks? hm....

[matejkovacic]

Thanks guys for the helpful crits and tips!

[Sedp]

Hey guys, I see quite a few of you have trouble reading my design idea. I took some time to hear the weird sound and really, I just couldn’t imagine any creature with a formal anatomy making such a long winded sustained sound. So I decided to go with something more surreal. I thought it would be a cool idea to have this huge membrane that lives at the bottom of the earth creep its tail up to the surface ever so often and just release a huge fart that last for an eternity lol. Through my mind’s eye, I felt it a lot more believable to go with a huge body of mass with no recognizable anatomy design, than with a recognizable anatomy, simply because recognizable anatomies tend to have lungs and lungs inflate and deflate so they have a limit to how much air can be expelled. And I heard no gap in the video.

I added people on the lower left corner to give some form of scale to the creature. It’s supposed to be a forest setting. I agree Pat If would have added some form of texture to the ground it would have grounded the image better. Now that I see it with fresh eyes, it feels as if the creatures just floating there. The splicing idea is super cool I wish I would have thought of that before the entry.

With that said, my vote goes for matejkovacic, although I don’t see how such a creature will sustain such a long winded sound because it seems like it has lungs. I think you definitely come close, I can hear that huge mouth making the noise.

I look forward to the next challenge and sorry guys if I (unintentionally) broke any entry rules.

[Flame_Unquenchable]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

@ Si_Swe: I didn't use black or white in this entire image. I used dark grey only, I could post the greyscale. The edges I get, and I know why they came out like this in the final. It was the soft brush that I used to deepen the shadow with the purple in the creases. Soft brush I have realized is my enemy. And I realize after watching a 3hr video on figure painting in photoshop that I did not lay down the colors correctly and haven't been from the beginning, but now I have the knowledge to do this correctly instead of trying to just figure it out on my own. Or at least I have a base to start from.


@ Pat : Thanks for the crits. In the video I mentioned to Si I learned how to create the edges I want, so I'm working on it, and hopefully my next piece will reinforce that knowledge. It was too bad I didn't see that before doing this piece.

Again thanks for the feedback.

[emerging]

voted for brambor - i think it has a very neat concept. Rendering of course needs work but the idea is far more complex than some other well rendered entries