C.O.W. #273, fairy hunter. voting

[(lark]

C.O.W. #273 Fairy Hunter_Voting!

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ROUND #273 VOTING

Topic: Fairy Hunter


Deadline for the voting: October 9th

requirements this week...

- the monster should use flight as its primary mode of transportation.

- the creature should look like it is full of hate!

- that's it this week, leaving this one open to a broad interpretation.

[jrbarker]

(Is this still on?)

Artist: J.R. Barker

Concept: Pixie Eater
This guy has inflatable sacks on his back that allow him to float around. He also has a glowing bulb that attracts the fairies, similar to a deep sea angler fish.

[loengrin]

Artist: loengrin

Concept: Pseudozaeninae simplex
Pseudozaeninae simplex - insect parasitoid of fairies.
They have 2 major characteristcs:
- gland in the lower back of the abdomen. This gland produce paralyzing secretion used to immobolize their victim, also the secretion causes the dissociative amnesia.
- big thoracic cavity for carrying eggs which is connected by the duct with the outgrowth on the head of Ps. simplex. This outgrowth is a ovipositor and it can stretch into the tube.
After ejecting a secretion on the fairy in a rapid aerial attack the Ps. simplex inserts eggs into a victim with a ovipositor . The eggs are inserted into the thorax region. Fairies appear to behave normally until just before pupariation.

[(lark]

sorry guys. the forums have been going through a makeover as you can see so our schedule has gotten a bit screwy.

we'll let you know what the new schedule is when we figure things out.

[warburton]

Artist: Warburton

Concept: nexis Tobolis

This monsters pure existance is to devour fairys and pixies. Without them, it will perish as it uses the fairys very potent and valuable dust particles which cause it to fly. Typically the Nexis can devour around 300 fairys in one day, though it can survive of 1 for around a month. It just loves destroying the little critters.

[scorge]

Artist: scorge

Concept: Fairy Devourer
"A mean and spiteful beast, he enjoys the fairy for his feast.
His eyes (all six) aglow with cunning, as he crunches the bones of fairies sunning.
Beware the devourer, the bane of the the pixie, for his mouth and wings can be quite tricksy."

The Fairy Devourer has for thousands of years fed upon the blood of nature's helpers. It's body slowly changing to eventually turn it into one of it's intended prey.

[Oskar!]

Artist: Oskar!

Concept: Winged Crabtrap


The Winged Crabtrap is a patient predator, crawling slowly towards fairy or pixie 'nests' where they lie in wait. This hunting method can take several days or even weeks. When the Winged Crabtrap has managed to devour it's prey, he flies off to find a new nest.

[chriskot]

Artist: chriskot

Concept: Faerivore
Comparable in size to small cats, faerivores are extremely agile flyers and their raspy, shrieking vocalizations are among the most unpleasant of any known creature. Their presence is an extremely bad omen, and they are known to only appear just prior to cataclysmic events, often in swarms. Their frenzies typically last for no more than a day, after which they return to their unknown homelands. Their escape is masked by the chaos of whatever disaster inevitably follows in their wake.

[Rob Powell]

wow, tough decision this time around; loengrin, scorge, and Oskar! all have great entries this round! In fact so does everyone else, but those are my top three. Guess my votes going to Oskar!, there's something quite charming about this little crab sprite, but still something very scary for something small like a fairy...

and warburton your definitely improving mate!!

[DefiledVisions]

Nice to see COW up and running again. Out of this round's creatures some stood out to me more. It was a difficult decision but in the end I voted for Scorge.
When I figure out who to vote for I try to take different factors into consideration. I ask myself, how well did the person follow the brief (conceptual aspects such as the creature's design, functionality and credibility)? How well was the piece executed (technical aspects such as rendering, handling of colors, composition etc.)? Does the piece make me feel anything special (emotional aspect; do I feel any attachment to it personally)? I try to weigh every factor just as carefully, and not get carried away by any one of them.

Scorge, I like your concept. It fits the topic of 'fairy hunter' and I feel you followed the brief well. I've seen your work for a few years here now and you allways bring high-quality pictures to the table. Good work man. If I were to offer any critique it would be to push the background a bit further. I'd soften the leaves and add some 'noise' to make it all blend in without competing with the creature. The creature itself looks great, the colors work well together and the design is interesting - makes me think of a mixture between a larvae and some kind of predator mammal.
I would have liked the front-limbs to share more traits with the hind-limbs, just to tie the over-all design together. Also, it seems clumsy and heavy for being a flying creature, mainly because of the tail. Given a more aero-dynamic design I think it would enhance it's credibility as a natural flyer. These are however small details. Over-all it's a job well done. That's why I voted for you. p.s more fairy blood

jrbarker, over-all a good piece. I like your creature, but there are also some things that I feel bring it down. First is anatomy. Your creature seems too heavily built for being a floater. He has strong and powerful limbs, but small sacks. I just don't see him staying in air for long with such little support. I'm also not a huge fan of so human-like anatomy in creatures. It works when done properly, but again back to his heavy and clumsy build, it doesn't do it for me. I understand it hunts like an anglerfish and you want to convey that. Because of that it can have a bit heavy and clusmy design since prey comes to it, but again, the over-all design has to really convey the behavior of the creature. With bigger sacks it could have a heavy-built body and still look functional.
Other things to consider are the ways its pray behaves. Fairys are notoriously agile. I don't really see how it would get them once it attracted them. I assume it hunts at night because of the light, but it doesn't seem to be able to strike fast enough to catch one. Something I'd think of would be change the front limbs to be more similar to a praying mantis; thin, long and built for fast and precise strikes. I would also consider giving him a longer neck for movement. Lastly, watch out with the proportions. The limbs further away from us are bigger and longer than the one's closer to us, when it should be the oposite given the rules of perspective.
It fits the brief though and I can see it as a fairy hunter. Good job.

loengrin, I really liked your piece. Very cool design. It looks fast, powerful and very deadly. Wonderful linework sketches as well. The only reason this didn't get my vote is because if I didn't know the topic was 'fairy hunter' I would never associate this creature with fairy hunting. If you had shown it killing/eating a fairy I'd probably be eating out of your hands like a true fan-boy of violent creatures. over-all great design and creature.

Warburton, over-all a pretty strong piece. I like the concept of a huge 'devourer'. Though there are some technical things I'd like to point out that could make the piece stronger.
When I think of big hoarding creatures, I think that they need ways of eating huge quantities of food. I imagine your creature hunting like a shark in a school of fish, and it does seem fast enough to catch up to the fairies. I'm a bit in doubt regarding the design though. I get a feeling that doesn't really convince me.
On to the technical aspects, your textures don't bring out the shape of the body so well. This is most visible in the middle-part of the body were there's a flat cyan patch of dots. They make the body look flat rather than round. Have them follow the roundness of the body to bring out the form. When texturing, generalize and think planes. And try to lay the texture flat over that plane. The rim-light under the belly is also strange. It's what makes the body look most flat. A tip is to read up on how light works on cylinders to learn how to cast it in a way to bring out the shape better. Keep it up.

Oskar!, your design is funny. I like it. I can really see this creture's behaviour in front of me. The design is good and fits the brief pretty well. I'd like to see more of 'fairy hunter' in it though. Other than that, great creature. One of my favourites and really close to getting my vote.

Chriskot - I like the composition of the piece but the over-all darkness made it a bit confusing. A secondary lightsource from the frount would help to bring out the creature's body. It could also have the effect of being a daramatic light and make the piece more intense.
Regarding the design, my only pointer is about the wings. They feel a bit 'sloppy' and unsupportive, if they'd just bend like paper. They also don't seem so well attached to the body.

[warburton]

Defiledvisions - Cheers for the crit dude, its very helpful and much appreciated

Rob Powell - Hey Rob, thanks man. I'm glad you think so, i still got a long way to go but i'll hopefully get there one day

[chriskot]

Thanks for the critique DefiledVisions. I like your suggestion about including a secondary light source. I actually felt the same way about the wings before submitting, but I didn't do anything to fix it. To be completely honest, I had my concept done in time for the original submission deadline, and had grown pretty apathetic to it in the two weeks before I finally submitted it.


J.R. Barker: I like this little guy's impish look and the atmosphere you created. I agree with what D.V. said about the perspective and the size of the air sacks though.

loengrin: Very nice design. I like the menacing armoured look and the details in its carapace are great. Its wings look to be a bit on the small side for a flying creature though, especially since they also look very heavy. Also, I think it would've been nice to see a closeup of the area around its face among the sketches you included on the right, because it's a bit hard to read at that size.

warburton: I like the composition, and I think you definitely nailed the "full of hate" part of the brief better than any of the other submissions, but I agree with D.V. about the hard rim lighting flattening it out in places, especially right behind the fairy in the foreground.

scorge: This one gets my vote. I love the little caterpillar-like prolegs you gave it. Those four small, transparent wings seem like a bit of an odd design choice to me though, especially with those little black hairs sprouting at the base that the larger wings don't have.

Oskar!: I really like this design and it's definitely my second pick. The left arm seems to connect closer to the middle of the body than the right arm though, and between the insect-like wings, the grass on the chunk of land, and the branch-like extensions around the eyes, I find it a bit difficult to get a sense for how big the creature actually is.

[loengrin]

Rob Powell, DefiledVisions, chriskot, thank you! =)