Teen Challenge 155: Death of Medusa

[Andrew Sonea]

Teen Challenge 155: Death of Medusa


Topic
This week's topic is Death of Medusa. Your task here is to paint the death of Medusa, although it does not have to be the exact moment she dies. You can paint the moment right before Perseus does it, the moment itself, or the moment right after. If you are not familiar with Medusa and her death, do a bit of reading . Wikipedia is a good starting point:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medusa#Death


Focus
This weeks focus is multiple light sources. Please include at least two light sources.


Deadline
The deadline is Sunday 18th of March. 23:59 GMT

Deadline extended til Monday 19th of March.

[Ffanatic]

I hoped to finish it today but I'm tired.Hope to finish it in time cause I may not even find a pc to work with.
Done in paint tool SAI

[Kamiru_]

Hey, this is my first Challenge!

[Aaron_]

Man, I'm gonna turn 20 in like 11 days. I may as well do this challenge just because this is the very LAST time I'll be to do this. Hmmmm....Now i'm actually getting a bit excited.

[Kamiru_]

Small update:


(Oh and the eyes are kinda wide...)

[Monsieur-Beefy]

WIP

[Ffanatic]

[Kamiru_]

@Monsieur-Beefy
Awesome! The big snakes are pretty cool and original since almost all the Medusa pictures/paintings use small snakes.

@Ffanatic
Cool, I like the blue light.


Anyway, here is my WIP; I still don't really like the nose, chin and right eye. Oh and I'm not really sure what colors to use...

[Kamiru_]

Yet another update:

[Aaron_]

Some alchemy sketches. Cool pieces here guys.

[Ninja Adi]

Kamiru Really nice, I love the detail in the face!
Monsieur-Beefy Fantastic composition and poses, I can really feel the action in your piece!
Ffanatic Really nice, I really like the tension the lighting causes.
Continue Really good sketches, I especially like the ones on the second row!

Here's my WIP; just tried to get the composition right, seeing as thats one of my weaker points. Not sure if I should put Perseus higher up in the picture so there's less negative space or leave it like that P:

[Aaron_]

Thanks Adi! I would say pushing Perseus up the picture would be a good idea, as it would make sense in terms of both composition and perspective. Having Perseus in the foreground is also a great idea, as a large Perseus(in terms of Area in the picture) dominating over a small Medusa would make sense in terms of storytelling, that is, if you want him to be visually dominating. Good job!

Cleaned up the alchemy sketches and take them a bit further. I think I know what kinda picture I want now. The bottom left works the best in terms of mood, the top right has the best shape and lighting(maybe she would be higher up though), and I'll take a bit of the stylization of the other two.

[Monsieur-Beefy]

@ Kamiru : thanks bro!

@ Ninja Adi : Thanks in regards to improving your composition, remember your rule of thirds!

place focal points over the areas where the lines cross and it'll do wonders for your composition. keep it up

[Aaron_]

Don't really remember anything about Perseus going to the gym very often, but hey, all ancient Greeks do everything is working out, right? Even my history book says that!

[Kamiru_]

Aaaand another update
(Oh and @continue, I love your style.)

[Monsieur-Beefy]

BAM! linework done.. light + shadows comes tomorrow

[Aaron_]

Wow, cool stuff Monsieur Beefy.

Thanks Kamiru, don't forget about the ear in your piece~

Anyway, here's some progress. The skin on Perseus sucks right now, gotta get the transition right next time. Plus he is completely naked right now >______<
I sorta hate the comp right now, not interesting enough. But then, I haven't really get to the details yet.


And here are some more alchemy sketches to try and get the feel for the head.

[Kamiru_]

Awesome, continue, I live the colors and the tension!

anyways, I got a crit from Sickbrush and am very motivated right now!

[LukasA]

Don't think I can compare to any of these, but I'll start sketching

[LukasA]

Some terrible sketches,
all that I can say is, help?

[Kamiru_]

@LukasA Just do it! it's now about if you win or not, but about what you learn; I learned a lot about face anatomy, light and color!

anyways, here is yet ANOTHER update.

[Aaron_]

Wow, great progress Kamiru, be careful with the dark line on the right side of the cheek, the values would probably lighter.

@LucasArt, yep, it's totally what you get from this. And maybe spend longer? Considering you're using digital, you can always turn down the opacity of the layer, and draw over it on another layer.

More progress, I think this is getting to boring.


So I redid it, trying to add some more drama und action.
The idea is that Perseus blinded Medusa with his laser-shooting magical shield and took the opportunity to defeat her. Hopefully that reads.
Maaaan, spending long hours on a painting hurts mein hand. The snakes are really horribly composed right now, but I'll fix it later.

[Ninja Adi]

Kamiru that's coming along great! Stick to it, i really like the lighting!
continue very nice man, the poses are very dynamic and you got the lighting down, I don't think it's boring at all
LukasA those are good sketches, man, I think the bottom one can be developed really nicely, keep working!
Monsieur-Beefy Really nice man, i love how creepy the medusa looks, and those folds!

Here's how I think I'll arrange the composition, thanks a lot Beefy for your input. I used the rule of thirds here but wanted to make it a bit wider so i could fit in some small details
I am terrible with rocks, though, as you can see, I have no idea what to do.. any suggestions?

[Ffanatic]

[Aaron_]

@Ninja Adi:Haha thanks. The rocks themselves looks fine, maybe more cast shadows? There would be lots of cast shadows if rocks are involved. But be careful with harp edges, you don't want to take the attention away from the characters.
However, the main problem with it right now is simply that the rocks are simply in nowhere. You need to explain why there is a pile of rocks, as piles of rocks like that don't exist anywhere. So maybe there's a quandary? Or they're standing a mound of rocks, or on a cobble beach, on a river bank? Or in an ancient construction site? So basically you just need to fill out the rest of the background and it would work.



Well, about 10 or more hours later. Maaaaaaaan, back anatomy is so fucccking difficult. It's impossible to get right even after copying Goldfinger and Simblet's diagrams for like 40 times. Well, the gap between anatomical diagrams and real forms is tremendous! So lots of trial and errors here.

I've already spent up to 25 hours on this, all those re-drawings and re-paintings, and it's about the furthest I've ever pushed an illustration like this already, and it's still got a lot of work to be done @_____@ But then, I'm happy that I decided to try this challenge anyway. I kinda push hard when there's a deadline involved xD

[Kamiru_]

Looks great @continue!
Maybe make the light a bit more vivid, like from the "More progress, I think this is getting to boring." picture you posted a while ago?

Anyways, I'm playing around with color and stuff.

[Monsieur-Beefy]

where's the finals thread at?

[Ninja Adi]

Damn I don't have time to finish my piece, any chance of an extension?
And great work everyone, you all did great.. I'm gonna have a hard time voting lol

[Aksel Ludvigsen]

Andrew has disappeared, so finals thread up now with 1 day deadline extension.

[Ninja Adi]

Well looks like this will be my final piece, literally did the rest of the piece (from the last screenshot posted here) in about 30 mins, as I have barely enough time from school work. If I get any tomorrow, and this is still on, then I might polish it up a bit

Great work everyone, and good luck!