Another crashed alien spaceship! Firaxe for Artorder

[Artfix]

Hey guys. I'm also trying to work on this challenge for Artorder based on a book excerpt about a crashed alien spaceship. Here are my thumbs/roughs. I will post the key quote from the excerpt so people can best help me with the ship because that is my problem so far--making the ship look interesting.

…”small, no more than ten meters long. Battered and cracked like a child’s toy dropped from the sky, but still in one piece. It looked like a bizarrely elongated snowflake: six fat tubes stacked together hexagonally on the inside, and outside a ring of six thin tubes. At the rear was what had to be a fusion nozzle. At the front was a glass pod, like a huge insect eye, multifaceted and staring, shattered on one side. The vessel was still and quiet, but it radiated menace.”

So basically it is a tube with a ring of more tubes around it...does anyone else interpret this differently?

Thanks in advance!

Here are my thumbs/roughs

[sone_one]

1 through 3 for me ... 7 has potential aswell ... in 6 the arc is way too dominating, while in 5 nothing is dominating at all. and in 4... dunno its too bland imo.

very promising start, looking forward to your progress.

[dwilliams]

Hey Artfix-

I think composition 3 works the best for me. There are interesting abstract shapes plus there's a lot of depth to it with the characters in the foreground and the ship towards the back. The tilted horizon makes the scene more dramatic as well.

As for what the ship should look like I don't think you should worry about it too much. Everyone on Artorder seems to have a totally different design, and Greg Manches made a post recently at Muddycolors, where he showed the actual cover that got published, and he didn't even really paint the alien ship at all lol. But that might be because he's Greg Manchess and he can do these kinds of things....

You are off to a good start though.

[Artfix]

Yeah I saw that cover. I think he was doing the group as they are leaving their main ship which was clever of him. Since he could make it really big and cool hehe. I will check out the others' designs again and if they're changing it then I will too, thanks.

So you both agree on #3. Anyone else wanna chime in?

I am leaning to 7 and 5. I will see if I can bring more depth to those ones and repost them.

[sweetchilliphil]

Really digging 7 with some tweaks. Love the direction and angle personally.

[Artfix]

Ok I posted a new rough in the first post guys. I went with 7

I shrunk the ship a bit because I really want to stick to the 10 meter thing. I think it will be important that the art directors see that I am sticking to the brief best I can.

Ok lemme know what you think!

[Benjaminba]

Good start.

The woman looks tiny compared to the man, considering that they are standing almost right next to each other. You should move the man back and down and the woman forward a little, to get some space between them (more like you had in the thumbnail).

Think about your shadow shapes. Right now they are a bit undefined/messy (especially on the ground and the figures). Group areas in light and areas in shadow together.

[Lightship69]

Hi artfix

I had a thought whilst looking at this, (yes I know that must've hurt har har) if these are the military types at a crash site then the guy should be in a holding position with weapon prepped to provide cover fire while No2 moves forward.
They both have weapons so I am assuming military not scientist types, So put him down on one kneee with his weapon raised and yet safe. This could open up the view of the ship a little more too.

As I said just a thought matey whilst i was looking and thinking of the story behind the image.

Looking good matey all the best with it.

[Artfix]

Thanks for the feedback.

frankly, the shadows will have to continue being a little ambiguous because there's just no way for me to know what the shadows would really look like falling on uneven snow with multiple light sources. I may get rid of anything that looks like a cast shadow for this reason.

As far as their poses--its not overly militaristic at this point because they are meant to have already seen that theres no danger and instead they are in shock at the sight of an alien ship.

Update!

Let me know if the woman's ass is drawing too much attention. I want her to be clearly female and a LITTLE sexy but not too much.

[S_Gangl]

hey Artfix!

I like your pic and the topic...
At the moment its a little bit hard for me to see there a spaceship. Sure, its crashed and damaged, but somehow I only see a destroyed building
is this only a part of the whole spaceshop or are we seeing here the whole one?

However, I really like the scen. The female character is cool, and I like her ass

[Quigleyer]

Let me know if the woman's ass is drawing too much attention. I want her to be clearly female and a LITTLE sexy but not too much.

You're doing sci-fi/fantasy artwork! Unless it's a defining point of their character to be ugly and crotchety all women are smokin' and all dudes are muscular and badass !

but the ass works well, I don't think it draws too much attention.

I can't see a way to make an elongated snow-flake of alien origin look like anything recognizable for flight. Most spaceships you see look like spaceships because they have wings, or they're flying. If you saw the Starship Enterprise crashed on the ground with no prior knowledge of what it was you'd say, "hey, look at that huge chair". I think maybe a few more banged up bits might be due, but it's still early for anything like that.

I think you should save often and post them all. Just me, though . I'd like to further understand you guys who "know how to paint without drawing it all out".

[Artfix]

Hey guys. That is basically the whole ship there. It is 30 feet long. I think just about everyone participating in this challenge will be deviating from the 'elongated snowflake' because frankly, it is a terrible idea lol. I tried to include things which resemble long tubes and of course the fragmented cockpit.

Update!

[Benjaminba]

Oh, starting to get a nice mood!

Few things... The hill in the foreground seems too steep. I'm not sure what it is, but the man's feet, in particular, feels cut off. I think it would help to get rid of the light edge on the hill - it looks like a rim light, which flattens the hill. Sorry that I can't be more specific.

There is still too much linework on the characters. Makes them feel a little cartoony. Don't be afraid to lose some edges and some of the detail in the shadow areas.

I'd think about removing the moon in the top left corner. I find it to be a little distracting. Besides, wont the text go there? You wouldn't want the area to be so busy, if that's the case.

[Lightship69]

Is the ship a recent crash or an old derelict one like the thing in alien? only reason I ask is i want to see more bits of the ship, or some sparks from shorting out arcing power relays etc thats if its a new insurance claim.
thats just me mind you I'm a nosey old git really!

Like the sky and the moons, they look good, but I am having throuble with the woman (nice butt btw) with the two lights on her helmet she looks like an insect! is it too late to take them off and put a low key one on the top of her helmet like the ones in alien. We can go with hand held ones and gun mounts for the main lights then.

I am just thinking around the thing to give you some more options buddy, I still like this as it stands despite all the points I made.

all the best as usual matey.

[Artfix]

Benjamin and Light I agree with everything both of you said! Great advice. Will do asap!

Oh and to answer lightship: It is a recent crash so I think some sparks could be a nice touch. I am not very good with mechanical things so we'll see how it goes. More bits of ship could help but the book excerpt says the ship is in one piece apart from being battered and cracked.

Ok I redid the snow and darkened some more. Trying to render the figures but I'm having the same trouble I run into often--painterly or not painterly. Painterly is my natural style so we'll see if I can find it.

[Benjaminba]

I don't necessarily think getting rid of the hill is the best choice. I'd much rather see you try to fix it. It was difficult to explain the problem I saw, but perhaps this helps...



Keep in mind how much vision you get with that camera position. For instance, you would be able to see the hill slope down in the area around the man, but the down-sloping side of the hill would be blocked from view where the woman is standing. So you'd still get some edge light on the far side of the hill, like you had in your previous version.

I have to say I liked the lights on the woman's helm more as they were before. The light on top of her head looks a bit comical. I'll have to disagree with Lightship there, I don't she looked like an insect.

[Artfix]

I liked the hill too but damn..its causing a lot of difficulty. I know exactly what you mean about it tho. I went ahead and got rid of the hill because the excerpt mentions how deep the snow is, so I thought this showed them knee deep in snow better. I'll keep trying.

I can change the light on her head easily. I'll try something to compromise

Alrighty I made quite a few changes here. I think they are for the best. I basically gave the woman a head lamp without a real source. Maybe it looks ambiguous tho? Keep the help comin guys!

[Lightship69]

Must admit I rather liked the hill too, never mind.
I had another thought (sorry) and that was to thin out the fog to a fine mist so we can still see the feet, and maybe add a little gentle venting from the wreckage here and there.

Though as Elwell said to me once I am helping you pick out curtains when you are still doing foundations, so I will shut up and just watch for a bit now. LOL

All the best with this my mate.

[Artfix]

I dont think its too early to think about fog and venting

I am nearing completion I think. My style is quite loose because I like paintings that look like paintings.

And here are the changes. I will fiddle with highlights and contrast a bit more but this is very nearly done I'd say.

I really want this to be a good piece because the winner at artorder could get the attention of some important people. I would be thrilled. So keep the suggestions coming! How can I make the sparks look better..I'm just not sure. I looked for ref but found nothing good.

[Bergy68]

Artfix i just don't feel I'm good enough to give advice where painting is concerned, but if this would be a book cover wouldn't the top of you spaceship get lost behind the title of the book...the planets as well,planets are only secondary thou. The one thing I learned from wanting to illustrate comics is the main images of the cover shouldn't be to obscured by the title. just a thought.

[Artfix]

Yep you're definitely right. Thats why I included the faint boxes on the thumbnail. Cutting the top of the ship off I think works fine. And yeah the planets are not important. So yeah I did consider that from the beginning.

So do you like it so far then Bergy? Anyone else chime in?

Another update for more debris.

[Lightship69]

Looks pretty good to me matey, I'd say it was just about done.

Good job!

[Quigleyer]

Forgive me when I say, "this shit's lookin' pimp".

Right now I think the foreground is pretty much set in. My initial thought was to tone down the intensity of the light on the snow, but I don't think that would serve your composition as well (seems to be an "introductory to the foreground" and brings the eye to the characters first). I think a few more higher values in between HIS legs and on HIS other side between arm and side might help to bring him further into focus by establishing his darker shapes against shapes a little lighter (and might I stress that if you think this is a good idea... that SUBTLE is probably the key word ).

Other than that I think some little details on the wreckage and call it done. Like small, exposed supports and whatnot that you expect from wrecked machinery (if that doesn't ring any bells I can find examples or paint over or whatever).

I've seen quite a bit of your work- the stuff in your ca.org portfolio link there, at least. In my opinion this is a step in the right direction, keep it up.

[Artfix]

Heya quig. So when you say exposed supports--do you mean like panels have come off? I'll see what I can do.

I will add some darks to the man and I'm going to take the blacks out of the woman. More later!

And thanks--I think I am always improving too. If I continue improving at this rate, there will be no stopping me

[Quigleyer]

Yeah, ya know, something to help display it as wreckage. The dome does well, and you followed the brief there and all, don't get me wrong.

Maybe some snow on it as well? Nothing too complicated.

Here... I'll just leave this here, for inspiration or whatever...



Artist is Koshime, or so the place I found this said.

Yeah, you do seem to be improving a lot, sorry for telling you so much. It just looks like you're working hard !

[Bergy68]

Yup that looks like Koshime work. I know his work from over at IFX.

and Artfix yup two thumbs up for me. Some great atmosphere in the painting.

Good-Luck man.

[Kauil]

I find it difficult to tell the form of that space ship.. the whole thing looks like a wall of a structure (a building), rather than the hull of a crash-landed ship. It doesn't read well. It feels like you've focused on the foreground and characters, but neglected the design of the ship, which I guess should be the focus?

[Artfix]

Kauil I don't think you're the only one with that opinion. But in my defense, the ship needs to look alien and wrecked. So there is not going to be a recognizable hull because it needs to look alien. And then once you make it look wrecked, it pretty much becomes a wall of structure. I'm happy with it actually.

The focus is not the ship, but rather the two characters finding the ship.

I am concerned that nothing looks like snow anymore. The ground looks like some rocky surface more than snow now. So..bummer lol. I would like to have some snow blowing in the air too, and on the ship. I'll see what I can do!

[Velocity Kendall]

i think this thumb is a lot more dynamic than the subsequent image

[Artfix]

Yeah Velocity fair enough. We all liked that little hill in the foreground hehe.
I could try to enlargen the man. I shrunk the insect-eye cockpit down significantly because it looked ridiculous. You would never want such a large vulnerable area in the front of ur ship and it just looked dumb. I will refer back to my thumb as I go.

Thanks all.