CHow#249 :: Warrior Alice

[Gadbury]

Last update I think, might tweak some bits before the deadline

[Paolo13]

@Gadbury: the blade of the hammer that follows the shape of the shoe is a bit distracting...ciao

small update...and closeup...

[Hellfire]

Small update. This is taking forevah!!!!!

Later I'll post a comment about your works guys. Lots of excellent works so far.

Cheers!

[Ironbyte]

A few changes and some work on the Cat.

Hope the arms are looking better proportioned and decided to go for something less horror flick, unless I can come up with a chain blade/saw design I'm happy with.

Rob Powell - the Cats gaze was by chance at first and it made me laugh when I realised

Thanks for crits.

[Partisan]

funny thing, what I like the most in all pictures is the Cheshire Cat ^^ ..they all look so very cool ..I would say scrap Alice and scrap that it is Character of the week ... paint the cat !

[Physicalpariah]

Hey Everyone,

I know I'm a bit late starting but here we go anywho.
Been a while since I've posted anything here, here's my first wip.

Wanted to show her in a horizontal army leading composition.

Not entirely sure of the weapon she'll carry, or if one's really neccesary....

[Zantillia]

I would have done this, I really would have. I probably would have finished it too considering I have massive fangirl strokes every time they release new Alice themed shit. The problem is I just finished the Alice: Madness Returns game (which I really recommend) and I can't think of anything more awesome right now. As it is, I love the ideas here and I can't wait to see everyone's finished products.

[Black_Tea]

Hi everyone! Some really cool works so far, I`m a first time "chower", here`s my first wip, any crits welcome!

[Revidescent]

Kahel - The arm resting on the mushroom (and knife?) looks painfully twisted, mostly around the wrist/hand - I do love the general shape of those arms, though, and the way you draw hands. It's got a lovely flow to it. Also liking the intensity of her expression. I think overall you could use a little more Alice, as all the visual cues pointing to that seem to be around her, rather than on the character herself. The composition could probably benefit from getting her out of the dead centre, moving everything a little to the left.

Pixeltuner - Very neat concept, great clothing designs. Love that shirt. Not too sure about the bend in her knees; it makes it look like she's leaning back a little. She's also looking a bit manly around the jaw, and I think her eyes may be a bit too small and far apart.

Rob Powell - Thanks for the comment/crit! I wouldn't recommend that reference image, it's actually not got great anatomy. I like the direction you're headed with the outfit, sort of a Robin Hood/Jester thing? Honestly my favourite part is the rabbit. It's so damn angry. His hands (paws?) seem kind of deformed, but other than that, he's utterly perfect.

AndreRuben - It's an interesting design and I like the flow of the sketch, but I'm not really seeing 'Alice' in it. Perhaps colour will help. I don't think that's how to hold that sword, it looks like it's about to fall out of her grip.

Mr. Gadbury - IMO, you've got the most believable Alice. She looks like she's actually been in a number of fights, and can hold her own. I think the only issues I can pick out is that her lips are drifting a bit to the right, and the area where the shadow from her skirt falls on her stockings flattens out a lot.

Paolo13 - That armor is crazy, super awesome. Her head's much too small, though - I think right now she's about 9 heads high. It's most noticeable between her face and her chest. Her forehead's also sticking out too far in a bulbous sort of way.

Hellfire - Her left breast looks weirdly disconnected, as though it's completely separate from her chest. On the other hand, I'm totally in love with the rendering on her left knee. Is that weird? That's probably weird.

gloombunny - I love pervcat. That expression is gold. You should watch your rendering - everything has a sort of blotchy look, which works in some places, but less so on the skin. Try blending a bit and/or just straight up using bigger brushes. I'm not sure how that shoulder plate's attached to her - right now it looks like it's somehow glued to the sleeve, but with a sleeve that puffy, it would sag. You need to anchor it to her arm somehow. Also, the foot on the left doesn't seem to be properly resting on the ground.

Physicalparaiah - Her proportions are a bit off - her head's a bit too big and her legs are way too short. Here's a super quick paintover, just focusing on proportion:



The pose also has balance issues, but the best way to deal with that is reference, even if it's just of yourself goofing off in front of a webcam. Also, speaking of balance, if you go with that big old hammer, either make the grip much longer, or move her hand up.

Black_Tea - Welcome to CHoW! =D You've got some really neat armor going, but the pose needs serious work, mostly from the waist down. The thrust-butt sexy pose looks uncomfortable, and combined with her leg position, it looks sort of like she's squatting. The upper part of the back leg doesn't look like it's turning away properly, although the bottom part does, creating a weird optical illusion - I think the issue is partially in the connection to her hips, and partially on the perspective of her stockings. Her facial features seem like they'd be a slight bit more to the right based on the angle of her head. I've also got no idea what it is she's holding.

</crits>

I gave up on my old one and started over from scratch, as nothing I could do to it was going to make it in the least dynamic. So as much as it hurt chucking out four or five hours of work here's my new shot! I think even at this stage it's already head and shoulders above my first try. Alice vs the Queen of Hearts' thorns.



Here's the costume and sword design. Still going for the same white rose theme (now against red roses more directly!) and hopefully this is appropriately "warrior" (or "soldier") at least and not so much "marching band uniform".

[Hellfire]

@DecayingLolita: Crash sucks!!! I know how annoying this is. It happened to me two weeks ago. I just abandoned the piece I was doing. But your Alice is very good. I checked out your gallery and I know how great you do that kind of decaying gothic stuff.

@Mr. Gadbury: Excelent work man!!!! You are doing a great work on the textures! The armor looks awesome too. One of my favorites.

@Revidescent: Very good drawing. Solid skill. Your Alice looks pretty! its a little bit too purple for me, but I know it is on the earlier stages yet.

@Gloombunny: Your artwork is looking better and better. The outfit is really cool. She looks tough, like some sort of fairy tale-female-gothic-teen version of Conan. hehe The cat is really creepy. I would kill it. lol

@dothaithanh: Nice drawing! Looks elfish. I like this archer version. Just keep going and this one is gonna be great.

@Pixeltuner: Hehe, pokemon. The texture of the armor looks amazing. Great colors. One of my favorites as well. I just think her chin is a little too big.

@JoshBuzzee: Great style man! Awesome design. Nothing to say here. Just give her some cool colors and you have big chances on winning.

@electric_sandal: Sweet!!! Looks like she is dancing. Maybe she should be doing something more radical with her right arm to create more movement. She looks sexy as well.

@GEB: Great man! She looks tough! The armor is great. I loved the hair, looks very realistic. Her face looks a little bit like the queen from the movie. Maybe it is the make up.

@Paolo13: Dude!!! Its looking amazing!!! Very epic. Great work hiding the cat on the fabric. It looks awesome. My favorite so far.

@Fallenangel: Great colors!! She looks a little bit like Megan Fox, which is great! The cat looks like some sort of demon.

@Csumlin: I like your drawing. Very clean and tidy. Her expression is priceless.

@ENNEX: Tough pose! Very athletic. I took me some time to figure out the position of the arms. If you manage to do it correctly is gonna look awesome. I just think the right leg should be a little longer. Great weapon by the way.

@Varguy: Very barbarian!! great design! The colors are great as well. You should pay attention to the feet and hands. You should find some reference for them.

@Nocebo: Dude! This is gonna give me some nightmare. lol It looks seriously scary and bizarre!! You just should pay attention to the proportions, even if you are trying some cartoonish style. But please, keep it creepy!!

@Kahel: Excelent drawing, very solid skill. Very good composition also. Can wait to see the color scheme.

@Rob Powell: I like the comic book style, but she is looking a little bit too strong for my taste. Yout rabbit is just the best!!!! great work!

@AndreRuben: Looks neat! I like the big shield. I like this tribal look outfit. Very original.

@eralfralos: Very "Frazettesque"! I like the pose. Just watch out those saturated colors.

@elhero: Great composition! it reminds me one painting from Brom. Very original idea. She looks pretty too. One of the best.

@tbaldree: Nice pose man!! Your Alice looks like a heroine unlike many others here. Maybe it is this Disney-ish style. Very good concept also.

@Leroy Oosterling: The drawing is good. Looks like some gang Alice.
You should be bolder with the outfit. Maybe some piece of armor, maybe some tattoo? Maybe both!

@Physicalpariah: hello man! You should hurry! I think the hammer is too big for her to hold it like that. Unless she has some sort of superhuman strength. I also think you should make her legs a little longer as well.

@Black_Tea: Hello there!! Welcome. Great armor design! Very sexy looking. Nothing to complain here. Doing great for a first timer.

EDIT:
@Revidescent: Wow!!!!! This last post is amazing!!! Much better than the previous one. Now we are talking about! Very original and radical composition.

Thanks for the tips. I think I fixed the breast... maybe. hehe
I also loved that knee. Maybe we are some sort of perverts. hehe

Hmmm... little update. Trying to finish Alice. Its taking way too much time.
Sorry if I missed someone. Way too many people on this one.
It is 4 A.M. here.... Maybe I should get some sleep.

[Smolin]

Gun-totin' post-apocalyptic Alice. I hope I can get this worked up into something decent. There's a lot of really great work up here already!

I went back to the original John Tenniel illustrations for inspiration: As much as I love Arthur Rackham and Tim Burton, Tenniel's are the illustrations that really resonate with me.

[Physicalpariah]

Hola again,

Been working away at it, going slow though..

@Revidescent and @Hellfire

thanks guys for the advice, I ended up scrapping the hammer and going down a slightly more modern approach.

How does that proportion look now?

I'll drop what I can for advice soon.

[elhero]

almost finished rendering. threw in some little goodies, like bullet belt and SMG, next on to color. feedback is of course always appreciated collective creativity is a powerful thing.



@HELLFIRE, your coloring is awesome. mad props.

@rinibee, when are you gonna show us your next step? really looking forward to it!

[Eofn]

almost finished rendering. threw in some little goodies, like bullet belt and SMG, next on to color. feedback is of course always appreciated collective creativity is a powerful thing.



@HELLFIRE, your coloring is awesome. mad props.

@rinibee, when are you gonna show us your next step? really looking forward to it!

Lol I've been working like a mo'fo to get all my graphic work done so I can take tomorrow off and work on my Alice pic

[Physicalpariah]

Sorry for the spammage,

Final update for today.

Working on the greater scene for a bit.. Still think alice looks a little wonky.

I tried looking through for advice to give.. but alas I feel that I'm well outclassed here, so I'll give some generic advice, keep working!!! It's shaping up to be an awesome topic!

[Rachel Pierce]

I'm really having fun with this. Never really do dynamic poses because I am not too confident with perspective.

Added armor and bits to make her more 'warrior' and less '100ft victorian woman.'

Will probably replace the tree with a flintlock rifle.

Not sure if I will finish as I have a busy weekend ahead of me but shall try.

[Dreoilin]

Rachel Pierce: I love this soooo much!!!! I really hope you get to finish it! One crit- should her original victorian dress be a little more tattered looking since she seems to have been fighting a while?

Well I guess I'm gonna try out chow again after a few weeks break. I'm starting really late though, and with only a pathetic little rough sketch so far I'm planning to have Alice at the head of a bunch of twisted wonderland creatures.

[GEB]

Started to tidy things up a bit have cropped in just onto the areas I'm working up. I decided against the stripey stockings in the end as I thought it a bit too busy. Really enjoying this as I rarely paint ladies

[daniorrr]

More progress! made a heart shaped night vision googles to bring more alice out of her, and added some checkers on the stockings.

[jrbarker]

I really like Rachel Piece's idea of a giant Alice crushing the army. Great execution too.
I'm also a fan of Gadbury's piece. Nice unique costume design.

I gotta be honest. I'm sick of of the big tits, babydoll, bare midriff, big gun/sword thing for every single female character. It's played out, and frankly a little childish, especially when the possibilities are limitless. But it's so pervasive throughout the who sci-fi/fantasy genres that I can see where artists feel like they have to go down that road every single time they're tasked with designing a female character. I mean, I like boobs and ass as much as the next man, but this is a design challenge, is it not? It seems like male characters always get a more diverse array of designs. Although, there are more rippling man abs, giant pecs and square jaws than there probably should be. But I'm certainly guilty of all these things myself.

That being said there's some nice work in this challenge. Keep it up! I'm going to try to get something started and finished within the next 24 hours if possible. I'll make an effort to not be hypocritical.

[GEB]

Rachel Pierce: Love how this is panning out! Great perspective and drama. Those laces must have been a nightmare! The only crit I'd have is that I think if the supporting leg was directly under her and maybe the thigh a bit thicker you'd enhance the sence of her scale. At the mo it looks a bit like she dodging to one side. It really is coming on a treaqt though

[Rob Powell]

@Paolo13: Alice kind of reminds me of Odin, actually. Very unique spin on the character, you can almost get a sense of some kind of backstory behind this one, as if something happened that made Alice loose her eye and half her hair.

@Hellfire: Thnx for the comment, The composition of your piece is looking nice with the rabbit and cheshire cat in the back. I'm thinking asomething that could help bring some focus to her face is if you had some gold locks hanging from the hood, it would make her seem more like Alice and the bright warmer yellow against the blue on her outfit would stand out well.

@gloombunny: Her weapom is looking more warring than horror. It's coming along nicely.

@Black Tea: Looking neat, her face looks a bit off considering the perspective, but in general it's turning out pretty good.

@Revidescent: Thnx for the feedback, I actually agree about the anatomy, it's a bit exaggerated, but that's basically how comic-book and manga anatomy normally is presented. I liked the pose so I used it anyways. I like the different take on your character, you get a sense of urgency that your character feels, and mood is looking much more interesting, her legs seems a bit strange to me actually.

@elhero: Tankgiril Alice. This is a really neat take on the subject, liked to see how this looks with colour.

@Rachel Pierce: She's starting to look more like a warrior and not just a giantess. You got a nice perspective going on so it looking really good so far.

@daniorrr: cool, actually had a similar idea adding a checkerboard pattern to the leggings of my character, decided against it because it takes away from the form, but it's working for your, and the goggles and face mask look really neat as well. I can picture this Alice fighting zombies for some reason, zombie card soldiers lol..

Once again sorry for those that I've missed, got a little side tracked and didn't realise what time is was, need to get ready for work soon.

Anyways here's some updated linework, I've been cleaning it uo, adding a few details, such as her belt and came up with a design for her bow. Added the mouse as well, just to give some extra little support, changed the design of the cat's mouth and also added the cheshire cat's stripes, I'm thinking a dark purple would contrast well with her blonde hair and make her head stand out a bit more. All these characters, hope I can finish in time, otherwise may have to get rid of some of them, which I'm really don't want to do.

[Jamesbiff]

Starting a little late, oh well, will just have to scale back on what i wanted to do

[Helltroll]

Got a late start, but here's what I've started on.
I'm trying to go for something more practical here, might throw in a few Victorian elements somewhere to signify that this is probably around 1880.

[Gezzunder]

Dunno if I'm up to par with some of the work you guys are putting out, awesome stuff, but you gotta start somewhere...


Mr. Gadbury: My fav so far, but I'm not happy with the silhouette smudging the background texture.
Hellfire: Gun rabbit, very cool
Gloombunny: Stick with the chainsaw love the look of this one
Geb: Fabulous work on the clothing, but not sure about the crop (I liked the boots)
Elhero: Really looking forward to the colour, the tight crop really works for this one
Rachel: I like this one heaps, best idea of the lot so get the colour coming in

Please take mine apart everyone, it's the only way to learn

[GEB]

Rob Powell: Lovely line work! Watch her right arm it looks a fair bit bigger than the left

Gezzunder: Yeah I've just cropped in to show the bits I've worked up, the boots will be in the final piece never fear! You're capturing that fire really nicely

[DecayingLolita]

Meh, stuff. Also backgroundwut >.<

Gezzunder Flamethrower is definitely dramatic Everyone needs to start somewhere for sure but really if they let me enter there's hope for us all!

Helltroll Really early to say, but the lighting is looking nice.

Jamesbiffshe has a nice face but I get the feeling her head is too small... or she has really long legs hmm.

GEBI really like this, it's just so creepy!

GloombunnyI dunno what's wrong with horror movie alice, but the axe is nice. Cheshire cat is so funny.

Mr. GadburyIt's really damn impressive but I can't help thinking she looks about 40 or has had a really rough paper round.

Paolo13It's lovely, really nice style especially with the neck and shoulder plates.

HellfireIt's drawn really well but I don't think I'd know it was alice without the background. She needs something to make it a little more obvious.

Revidescent the new composition is much more interesting but it's a little hard to see the character yet.

SmolinNice start.

I'm getting wailed at by the kids now so I gotta go maybe do some more later.

[Narko]

Hi All

My first try at Chow. I'm a little late getting started but better late than never So many inspiring works already in progress.

I knocked this up yesterday with the idea being a space age back-from-the-future Alice in more of a cartoon style. Still working on the costume design.
Will hopefully add a background to build on the perspective/depth.

Any comments & suggestions for newbie more than welcome.

[GEB]

Well this'll be it from me as I'm off on my hols for a week

Been a blast though, and I defo plan to finish it at some point

[Hellfire]

@DecayingLolita: You are totally right! This is the next thing I am gonna do, change the outfit. But thanks for the compliment!

@Gezzunder: Nice Piece man!!! The colors are terrific. This Alice is brutal!

@Helltroll: Nice colors! i like the simplicity of the armor. Looks beautifully traditional.

@Jamesbiff: Like myself, the design of the outfit is a little to simplistic. We should be more aggressive on the accessories. But she looks pretty.

@Rob Powell: hey! Thank you!! Nice suggestion man!! I'll definitely put the hair. Thats the beautiful thing about fellow artists camaraderie, ideas!

@elhero: Thanks a lot bro!!

@Physicalpariah: Thats much better man! Now we are talkin. Keep going bro.

@Narko: Welcome aboard mate! Suggestions? If you are entering late, keep the simplicity, but don't forget the impact. You should get plenty of reference to no stop for nothing. Avoid complex background, if any. If your drawing is gonna be simpler, try to use some radical composition, or some bold color scheme. Try to work the piece as a whole. Do not overdo a small area, unless it is the face or any important area, but do not let the high standard of the part show that the rest is less detailed.

Your pose is very good, very dynamic. But ask yourself if the cat is helping or not. If not, do not sacrifice your entry because of it. I say that because I know how tough it is to draw fur.

Another update. I am really liking it, despite the flaws.