CHoW#254 :: VOTING :: Queen of Seren

[Mhugo]

Great job everyone!!

I d still love to do some more corrections, but time is over...

[~KJK~]

D: damn them british ppl with their ever changing timezones!

[dan liimatta]

Parsakoira
I also thought it was up ~ was just happy to be on time.
Now for an other 30 minutes of work - and I was beat after rushing for 3 hours straight without any break or pause


& good work

[Revidescent]

Man, Parsakoira, way to give me a heart attack. XD Missed a lot of sleep to get this in under the wire!



Seren is warm and dry for most of the year, but early in the summer, the rain comes. The summer festival commences days before the rain is meant to begin, and does not end until it the first drops fall. To herald the festival's start, the Queen is lifted to her golden platform far above the capital, trustfully standing high over the city she cannot see. She tosses down handfuls of petals from a blue flower found only in the palace gardens, symbolizing the coming rain.

[~KJK~]

a bit of heart attack in the evening keeps art running

[~KJK~]

Ok so the deadline is closing in now (is it?!) and i have some quick notes here. By looking at some entries i have a feeling that some people havent even read the rules yet, only the topic and went on blazing. I had to disqualify 2 entries for breaking the 3/4 rule, one entry because it is but a sketch and it has no name on it or the number of the ChoW round! There is also one entry that i had to disqualify, not because im mean or a terrible mod (i hope not!) but because it lacks the required quality of work and design for this challenge. Those who are not in the poll, I hope you read the rules from now on and dont get depressed over it and most importantly, keep on practicing and never give up!

[Rengin]

But, here in the Netherlands we're in GMT+1, and it's 10PM here right now while the deadline is at 9...? I'm so confused =(

[Dranyer]

damn i think i missed the deadline again.

[Forrest_I]

Hope I'm not too late

[dan liimatta]

Dranyer

It would be a shame and I really hope you didn't ~

Parsakoira
Should have started doing these a long time ago - damn my heart haven't been beating like this since I was in production close to a deadline ~

[Dranyer]

thats odd, i voted, and then my vote disappeared. would it be possible for one of the moderators to work their magic and let me recast my vote?

[dan liimatta]

Dranyer
Happened to me last ChoW
So waiting for a few hours before I cast my votes ~

[~KJK~]

Dranyer i think it had something to do with me editing the poll a bit it happens, im afraid to do that a second time because it might happen again!

[GDonaldson]

good work people, I had fun, dont mind that I didnt get counted in voting as this is just for personal enjoyment. I get enough rules to follow doing art at work and the rules to this challenge are good if it was a freelance brief but Im treating it as a bit of fun not work.

[Ishren]

What happened to Jiina's? It was my favorite. ):

[Lucassie]

If I failed to meet some requirements, I'm just seeking Clarification as to avoid repeating the mistake in the future.
I'm only new so I hope you'll excuse my naivety.

So many great works though! I feel inspired when visiting this board.

Thank you.

[jiina]

Thanks for the support Ishren, I have no idea why mine isn't in the poll and i'm quite upset about it. Hopefully someone will give me some information soon.

[dan liimatta]

Parsakoira wrote why some people were cut in #36 - for whoever failed due to a bad filename it would be easy to find out why.

In the end I think the "EXPECT TO GET CUT" rule is a good one - I was worried I was a goner when one of us had done what Closed did last week and failed to get the name right ~

[jiina]

Yeah i saw that, I'm just failing to see which requirements i didn't meet. My naming was correct, i entered on time and i don't see anything wrong with my entry. Maybe i'm missing something here, but some clarification would be nice.

[Dranyer]

i think it may have been that there was no sketch of the back of the character on your character sheet. it's mentioned in the 5th bullet point under the rules.

[dan liimatta]

Dranyer
we only got warnings for that this week I think - or I would have been out as well.

[Eofn]

jiina I have responded to your PM but just to clarify. Both Parsakoira and myself did not feel that your entry followed the brief. Whilst it was beautifully rendered, the character lacked the level or design we were looking for in this week's character. The brief called for the Queen's ceremonial gown to be: "lightweight but also lavish and extravagant.", and unfortunately, a nude (or predominantly nude) character did not follow this.

[Deon]

Well done everyone, there are some beautiful designs here.

The brief called for an extravagant ceremonial gown, but it also called for the character to be ceremonially blinded.

I can see how Jiina's gown may not meet the requirements.
But if she is disqualified for not meeting the brief, how does Shadowind's design qualify?
There is nothing in the design to indicate that she has been blinded, a design element that, to my mind is of utmost importance in telling the story in this brief.

I am not picking on Shadowind, the design is amazing. I also understand how much work all this is for the moderators.

I just though it important to point out.

Again - awesome work, everyone!

[shadowind]

. May I explain to you. I think there are 2 points in my image that suggest she is now blind and "see" with the aid of the force or sthing like that: her eyes are closed (if she is made blind by magic I don't think we need blood coming out of her eyes ) and the eye on the crown is glowing with magic (Lissinator's design might have similiar thing for the crown) Last thing is I want to leave her face since other parts of the body are covered by detailed clothes.
Cheer

[Smolin]

I voted for my top 5 faves:

Revidescent: I loved this one early on. Novel design, great setting, beautiful palette.
Jagder: Another early favorite. I love the simple silhouette and the exquisite patterning on the gown. And the painterly quality of it is gorgeous.
Jamesy: The twist on nature elements in the gown is excellent and feels familiar yet really fresh.
Shadowind: Very cool, very detailed, bizarre and alien. It looks like it was started in Alchemy and elevated from there into something that dances on the edge of the tangible and believable without falling off into the purely theoretical.
DanLiimata: Beautiful painting. The gown design is simple yet elegant, but the headdress/horns give it a rocket-boost into the awesome-o-sphere.

And now for some arbitrary comments on things that were in the running!

Andrew Ryan, st.s: Lovely paintings, but the designs (while good) didn't blow me away.
Drygrass: Yours looked great, and I dug the simple elegance of the design, but overall it didn't grab me quite as much as some others.
NailBiterMR: Cool design and great values & palette, but it felt a little unfinished.
Vertebra: Solid character design and a great scene but your figures were a little off and your value range a bit heavy.
Snippet: Good design but the piece lacked a bit of value range & saturation, and the pose was a bit stiff.
Idriu95: Cool design, and I loved the casual pose, but the value range ran a bit dark, and there were some issues with the hand & foot, and the drapery.

[carakhan]

My votes were: Revidescent, dan liimatta and vertebra. All clearly showed the blindness, had originality in design, and the story and culture are clearly defined and fleshed out. Revidescent was my absolute favorite, ethereal, strong, and serene with beautiful colors- my only crit would be that the composition feels cramped, and I'd love to see the world she is in a bit more.

I don't want to make sweeping generalizations, but for sake of time, I felt like many of the designs didn't fit the brief, or did not make her blindness a focal point of the design and illustration, which it should have. Just having closed eyes for example does not indicate the history and story of this Queen, it should be obvious and not require an explanation to go along with it. We need to be able to see the story within the image itself.

[jiina]

well done to everyone

[Dayle]

My favourite 3 pieces are;

Metafix – The perspective is really great and the composition adds to feeling of being blind and disorientated. I love the gesture, colour and level of detail. It is as a very good response to the brief. Well done.

Shadowind – The character design is amazing! I think the way its rendered works really well, it kinda reminds me of those Chinese shadow puppets mixed with anime. Has a strong sense of importance and occasion about it. Look forward to seeing this style again!

Kingkostas – This is my favourite entry. The rendering is beautiful, the light gives the whole picture life and the pose is simple but very well executed. Great horse and costume, the only thing I don’t like is the glare on her back, I think it conflicts with the dark shadow behind. More like this please!

Jiina – you did just pretty much draw a naked woman! She is a beautifully rendered, perfectly proportioned and expressive naked woman so I won’t feel too sorry for you! More like, extremely jealous that mine never look half as good as that!?! Lots of hard work so it is a shame it wasn’t included but at least you do have a great finished piece of art. I really hope you come back and try again, you're very talented.

[Icedearth15876]

Voted for Shadowind's piece, it looked the most queenlike of them all