ChOW#303 :: Spirit of Winter

[Eofn]

Character of the Week #303
Spirit of Winter
Design a new form for the Spirit of Winter

DEADLINE: TUESDAY 23rd OCTOBER 8PM GMT+1 (9PM British Summer Time)
Check your timezone!

Sean Bean was right; Winter IS coming! The temperature is dropping more and more each day, and it won't be long before some places are buried in snow. However, the ChOW Mods have noticed that Winter seems to be starting a little late this year and even though we are already in the middle of october, there is still a lot of green around. Concerned that this might not put our lovely chow artists in the right festive mood for the season, we decided to try and get hold of the Spirit of Winter to find out what's going on. We were quite shocked to learn that the Spirit of Winter has decided to retire and has entrusted us with finding their replacement.

So, ChOW artists, your challenge this week is to create a Spirit of Winter! They can be any gender, age, or race, however they must be the embodiment of the winter season!

The Guidelines:

• Can be any gender
• Dosn't have to be human
• Must clearly depict the winter season

THE RULES
In addition to the brief, if you do not follow these rules, you will not be included in the poll.

• Files must be named: CHoW#301_Username 
(Files with any other names such as final.jpg or even chow301final.jpg will not be accepted)
• Finals must be posted in the finals thread BEFORE the deadline
• Final post must include the CHoW number and the artists username at the bottom of the image
• At least 3/4 of the focus character must be visible
• Follow the brief!

[alexson]

Lets get this thing going!

[Bing!]

Alexson! ur thumb looks great! beautiful mood!

This is my first ever CHOW. Here's what i have so far. A native american themed spirit of winter:

[Lege1]

[B]Old Father Winter....

[yongs]

@alexson nice mood you got going there
@Bing! hey welcome! was looking through native american stuff too. they've got some pretty cool stuff!
@Lege1 nice shot! but rmb to pay more attention to those hands, the close-up amplify mistakes.

here's my take on the spirit. wanted to illustrate how his presence would spread winter itself.
crits r welcomed!

[ikuru]

Long time no posting, just made some thumbnails for this one...
Think I might go for the giant in in the far bottom right if I find time and will for this.

[Harmageddon]

Something I'm playing with...



ikuru: nice thumbs. Which reminds me..should try thumbs sometimes.
yongs: cool idea. Looking forward to where you take it.
Lege1: that's some extreme foreshortening, dude. Classical take on the subject.
Bing!: cool idea, the spiritual native american people as a theme for the spirit of winter... I see what you did there
alexson: good start.

[Masked And Dangerous]

[loengrin]

My sketch for the Spirit of Winter =)

[Dayle]

Yongs - Really like the atmosphere, looks great.

Here is my idea...

[Lege1]

Yongs: Amazing work man and thank you very much for the crit. I am guilty as sin of having no reference for that hand but that has changed now =) I will definitely be making re-adjustments and re-posting. As for your work, I love everything about it, the design and over all concept of the delivery of winter is cooler than a polar bear's toe nail and I am really looking forward to seeing you progress. Great brush work too man, do you find yourself sticking to the hard round like most or do you utilize a good brush economy?

Harmageddon: Really nice piece so far and a very non-classical approach on your behalf indeed. I am conducting my illustration more for myself and don't really care about the voting so I went more classical instead of making a re-make that I really won't be interested in doing too much with after putting all the time and effort in to the piece. I am totally open for crits though and am here to develope more on the image making behalf of things.

[TSC]

[Lege1]

Made some anatomy corrections to the hand and started working the piece up with values. I like the warm and cool color schemes but am thinking to continue working in the cools for now. I'll probably introduce a warm soon when I actually get to painting out the character section of the piece, still dabbling in the back ground. Everybody's concepts and work is looking real good, awesome to see so many entrees already.

[panama66]

Wow, nice work, guys. 2nd CHoW. The Arm of Frost.

[ikuru]

Harmageddon, thnx dude.
alexson, loengrin, Lookin good.

Here are some costume variations on the thumb I decided to go for.
Any opinion on which one u like would be appreciated...

[G@m]

my sketchy progress, im pretty sure ill change the overall color scheme in the near future, but this is more or less what im going for.

[Pyramid]

Hey guys! I've been watching CHOW for a long time now. You guys are so good it's intimidating, but I think I got to work or else I'll never become a better artist. So here I am. Some concepts. See ya! ^L^

[ikuru]

pyramid, When working on thumbnails, try working out a dark silhouette first with a thicker brush, than in the end ad some light to it... I think its much easyer that way...
check out "the skillful huntsman" if u want some some inspiration

G@m, cool work so far...

[CassandreBolan]

I jumped on this topic because I have been really homesick for snow and cinnamon candles over here in sunny Dubai. I've been playing Christmas music for weeks now!

Anyway...onto the WIP
I was in a sexy girl kinda mood, but don't worry Ill give her an edge so she'll be interesting. I ended up picking the middle idea to run with and took a lot of inspiration from iconic holiday symbols (the virgin mary, advent candles, santa). I really like the idea of a inverse virgin mary, the red gives her a bit of a satanic feel and the nudity is hopelessly pagan.

[alexson]

Just started painting on mine. Was thinking this santa looking dude is the one that welcomes the winter. I dunno.

[ikuru]

Got my mood board down.

[Harmageddon]

updated with a quick color pass...
I had a more interesting background yesterday but forgot to save and then photoshop crashed.... aargh
I guess we've all been there.

Lege1: Thanks, dude. I didn't mean "classical approach" as a crit, more like an observation.
The hand/arm looks much better now. I think if you bring the color down in the sky (i.e. less blue, more grey) the spirit will come to the fore some more.

[CassandreBolan]

More progress on my creepy lady...used a reference photo i had. played around with a deer skull overlay but it wasnt really working well so nixed that. we'll see where this goes. I'm trying to remain really loose and fun with this concept so I will let it evolve more as it goes.

[ikuru]

stated some values on this...



However, some of the feeling in the thumb, is getting lost me thinks...

[Aonegamer]

nice job all of you.
Here is my WIP, not sure whether I will be able to complete it on time or not.

[dforman]

Photoshop

[Drygrass]

Aonegamer: I hate to be the one to say this, but that reindeer head looks rather... uh... shall we say... anatomical. XD Somewhat phallic.

[DNVN]

Wanted to go with some kind of winter spirt queen not sure which one to go with... here are some quick drafts.

[panama66]

Remade his "costume"

[alexLH]

Hey guys, I'm new here. Going to be taking in part in CHOW to try and improve my rendering / compositional skills. New to concept art as a whole, been doing it 'properly' now for about 2 months. Any feedback would be great, I love constructive criticism.

Btw do we have to post 2 WIPs before the final? I've got in my head that we do, but now I can't find the rule anywhere.