C.O.W. #280. Game Critter: Spitter - WIPs Thread

[Prometheus09]

DefiledVisions: Really liking those top, right-most spitters, but solid designs for them all
WhiskeySour: Wow! Really unique hybrids going on there... did you just randomly choose the components or was there a method to your madness? Anyhow, great rendering there, I like it

Awesome stuff in general this round, lotsa competition. Hopefully I'll be able to finish for the next COW. Good luck all!

EDIT: Had a few extra minutes between my morning job and my night job, so I added a bit of color and detail to my "Rock Viper". Here you go... wish I could have finished all four. This cave-dwelling creature has a central body that watches for intruders, and when spotted, it will launch toxic spores from it's "pipes". After subduing the prey, the rock viper impales the victim with it's fangs, injecting enzymes that will slowly digest the creature from the inside out.

[Epicraft]

Very impressive stuff from everyone. After comparing my work so far with everyone else's I think I might have figured out what I'm missing. I think I'm not using colours that compliment and easily blend with one another. Does anyone have any tips on how you find the colours in your digital program that work well together? There has to be a faster way then constantly going through colours and hues until you find one that matches. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Sperling]

@Epicraft: Well, nature is usually a great place to start. If I'm ever stuck on a color palate, I'll google animals that are of a similar species to what I'm designing. (eg, aquatic predator, I'll look at aligators, sharks, water snakes, etc) When I find something I like, I'll use the eyedropper tool to make a little palate that I can pull colors from. Also, try laying down texture in greyscale first and then overlaying color on top. See scorge's last post as an example.

I decided to scratch my last sketch and jump into Alchemy to get some fresh ideas. I'll probably refine and polish 2 or 3 of these guys. I figure with 6 more days, I can afford to aim for a better design. Anyone got any preferences?

[Prometheus09]

Very impressive stuff from everyone. After comparing my work so far with everyone else's I think I might have figured out what I'm missing. I think I'm not using colours that compliment and easily blend with one another. Does anyone have any tips on how you find the colours in your digital program that work well together? There has to be a faster way then constantly going through colours and hues until you find one that matches. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I am by far no pro, as you can see from my entry and my sketchbook, but I will say that I've learned a lot from CA.org, but more importantly, Ctrl+Paint. I cannot express how helpful Matt Kohr and his site Ctrl+Paint have been for my progress... he has several videos on there about colors and how to use them. I will say that for me, there are no fast, hard rules, but usually, you want complimentary colors, which usually means opposing colors. So, for my rock viper creature, I decided early on that it would be a subterranean creature, and that's why the "middle" colors are almost nearly black... the colors (aka highlights) are purely from the environment. As you can see with mine, I have a pinkish highlight coming from the right side, and a bluish highlight from the left. Red and blue are opposites on the color wheel, and so they really stand out when contrasted in a composition. That's why I personally used them.

A good practice exercise is to take a picture of something, some thing or person, etc, and then use the Color Picker tool to find the darkest hues (shadows), the brightest hues (highlights), and then the middleground colors. A good start is to find the "dark" values, and then fill your sphere in with that... and then slowly fill in the middleground and highlight values. You can even get more detailed and try to create textures too. The benefit of this is that once you create a "material sphere", it's like a sample you can use forever, and it's even better if you included the texture in there.

Once you get better as "seeing" hue and value and tone, you won't need to use the Color Picker; you'll just be able to figure it out. To start off, just use spheres as a study... study the color and texture. Like I said, Ctrl+Paint is an invaluable resource. When I first came here with my rubbish pencil sketches, someone recommended Ctrl+Paint, and I blew it off... but when I finally decided to check it out, I realized what I was missing.

One last thing... don't focus too much on your linework, unless you want to keep your lines in your finished piece. Using linework are reference is really helpful though... I come from a strictly graphite drawing background, and so it's been veeeeeery difficult for me to try and learn to work with color, not to mention linework. As you might be able to see, my latest WIP has some visible line work, but as I progressed with the painting, I reduced the opacity of my lines and started focusing more on the colors. I am bad at explaining it, especially because I too am new to this.


Also, I didn't realize we had six more days! I thought it was due last night! I can TOTALLY make four variations of my creature before the deadline! Woohoo!

Also, I didn't even Google "rock viper" until now... apparently it's a real name for a snake, but hey, not as cool

[Tirwa]

@ Epicraft

For your color question, try to use simple colors matches. The most common mix, is between complementary colors.
Choose your main color in photoshop and it's opposite using a color wheel. It don't have to be the perfect opposite neither. But don't use them directly, try to contrast them within their saturation, or brightness. You should optain good working colors. Add it another minor one, that will pop-up from the others (I often use a high saturated one) and use it smartly.
Try then to not use other colors than the one you've selected, but you can blend them together.
I don't know if it'll help you, at least it is how I proceed.

And as Prometheus said. Use the environment color to make your concept blend in you composition. And you can use a warm/cold lighting set.
Oh and, usually don't use more than 5 colors but never less than 3.

The rest is observation.

[skodone]

Hey guys
heres my first try so far

[DefiledVisions]

Very impressive stuff from everyone. After comparing my work so far with everyone else's I think I might have figured out what I'm missing. I think I'm not using colours that compliment and easily blend with one another. Does anyone have any tips on how you find the colours in your digital program that work well together? There has to be a faster way then constantly going through colours and hues until you find one that matches. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hey Epicraft, I thought I'd adress your question.

The best way of understanding which colors that work well together is to study from life. It's not something you can figure out by using a system. There are a lot of systems for colour, the wheel being one of them. But when it comes to actual painting, colour is relative to what you see and the colours around. You can't use the colorwheel for that. Only by training your perception and studying color will you be able to understand it practically. A tip is to pick out a palette on beforehand when painting so you don't have to open the colorwindow all the time and look around for them. It takes time and can be a pain. Just have the picked colors on a separate layer so they don't impact the underlying picture.

Your problem is not that you don't use compliment colors. The trouble with your creatures is that you're not using light. There is no form to see, and because of that you can't bring out color. Any change in light brings out new color. Even if it's still a brown, a change in light will also change the colour of the brown into another brown.
The rest of the guys also have some sound advice.

I wouldn't limit myself to what Tirwa says though. Ofcourse, don't make it harder than it is. In the beginning it might not be a good thing to try to paint something that contains a lot of different colours. But there is no such rule as don't use more colors than the one's you've selected, or never more than 5 or less than 3. It's all relative to what you need for the moment and what you want to accomplish with your picture. Experience and inspiration decides that for you.

Did a quick example painting of a part of your creature to explain what I'm talking about regarding lighting and how to use it to bring out color. Hope it helps.

For those who want the PSD with layers I've uploaded it here - http://www.4shared.com/photo/y5Wb__J...nt_layers.html

[Tirwa]

Oh sorry, if I've misunderstood the question. I was answering about color choice in concept design not in painting/rendering. My bad.

[Prometheus09]

DefiledVisions said it perfectly, and gave a great visual example too! I especially like how he explained the way light plays across surfaces.

[Tirwa]

My lil' update.

[Tirwa]

@Eclectix: Cool concepts and volume rendering. Looking forward for the colors.

@Rob Powell: Nice ideas. I like the one eating underground.

@Scorge: Nice and colorfull. The colors are really poppin out. Thx for mentionning the spitting aspect, I'll try to make it clearer on the concept sheet.

@Prometheus: Hope you can finish then xD.

@DefiledVisions: Handsome creepy designs. Waiting for you to render them.

@ChromaticCodex: You got it right. They're kinda fatass insectoid things, that cannot move.

@Epicraft: Sorry for the misunderstanding. Actually I've was telling you how to choose main colors for your design. In fact, you'll have to study lighting an how to render texture and colors in order to understanding them better. There's no shortcut for that, as DefiledVisions says. Keep studying things and put it into practice.

[Marker-Inc]

If youre working with Ps you could use the color swatches, you could download lots of free themed swatches that are colour coordinated or buy any copy of photoshop magazine and use any of the swatches on the dvd
What I sometimes do is pick a colour and use the opacity settings at about 60 %, then use the colourpicker (alt) to pick the inbetween colours in youre artwork

[Prometheus09]

Tirwa: Really liking the way your spitters are coming along... great rendering, color, and form. This is a really cool round, I'm enjoying everypne's visions and creations.

[DefiledVisions]

Prometheus09 - glad to hear you enjoyed it!

Tirwa - thanks for your comment. I'm really liking your concepts. As Prometheus said, great rendering. My favourite is by far the top right one. The yellows, greens and subtle purples work really well together.



Here's some progress on my creatures. Tightened up the linework a bit (still keeping it loose though). Next step will be to decide on lighting and put some paint in. There are some things I want to change in the top-right one, mainly the weird perspective of the body and the strange connection between the neck and the body.

[Epicraft]

Thanks everyone for their help, I'm pleasantly surprised by how many people posted their opinions on it. They all are very helpful, and thanks Prometheus for telling me about that site, I'll be sure to check it out. As for DefiledVisions post,... wow just wow . I am very thankful for it, especially the visual examples which I can draw a lot from just by referring to it, since I learn best visually. I'll try to incorporate this stuff into my art, but unfortunately the next few days I'll be at work alot more then I was earlier. Basically this means that I won't be able to utilise these tips as much as I could. So I'll try my best and will use this advice to even better effect with the next challenge I participate in. Once again thank you all, this truly means alot to me

[Prometheus09]

Thanks everyone for their help, I'm pleasantly surprised by how many people posted their opinions on it. They all are very helpful, and thanks Prometheus for telling me about that site, I'll be sure to check it out. As for DefiledVisions post,... wow just wow . I am very thankful for it, especially the visual examples which I can draw a lot from just by referring to it, since I learn best visually. I'll try to incorporate this stuff into my art, but unfortunately the next few days I'll be at work alot more then I was earlier. Basically this means that I won't be able to utilise these tips as much as I could. So I'll try my best and will use this advice to even better effect with the next challenge I participate in. Once again thank you all, this truly means alot to me

At the very least, even if you find yourself too busy to finish, you're growing and learning, and every piece of art you do is still part of the overall progression.

[Klaustrophil]

Hi everybody - this is my first participation in this event. Great entries so far...
@DeviledVisions you are awesome sir!

[lkjhgfdsa]

lkjhgfdsa

[j.zhang]

really cool stuff by everyone, made me want to take part in this =]

[DefiledVisions]

Klaustrophil, lkjhgfdsa, j.zhang, awesome concepts all of you!

Epicraft - no problem! you're welcome. I'm a visual learner myself so I find doing step-by-step explanations with pictures to be the best way of getting something across. Take your time with what you've gained in this thread. Try new things and keep an open mind! I'm sure you'll learn tons. Keep on painting!



Thanks for the great feedback everyone. Glad to see that the tutorial was so well received and that it was of help.

Here's a wip of the creatures. I'm trying to paint following my own advice, something that proves challenging. Especially picking colors for the creatures was difficult, and also casting the shadows. Lol I so gotta practice casting those damn shadows. Another thing I did that's to my disadvantage now is that I started laying down different hues with different values before painting in the shadows. This just means I have a lot to 'clean up' for things to fall into place.

So far I enjoy the top-left and bottom creature the most. I feel like changing the colours in the two others. Anyhow, having a lot of fun and learning tons. See you around!

[Daniel Hurd]

OMG! There is such amazing talent in this thread! I feel so mediocre compared to everyone else! Ack! It's awesome though- awe inspiring works everyone!

Here is what I have so far, I think maybe they all look too different. I was just letting it flow and came up with these guys- M y fave is the upper right corner. He looks like a mutant roly poly!

The difficult part is getting rid of my line work- my painting skills just aren't there yet. I always struggle trying to make them vanish. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[AlexaRossi]

The upper right one looks like the thingie in that series of movies with Kevin Bacon. Also, don't be so quick to get rid of your linework, as it is clearly part of your style (which I like,BTW); I mean it's great and a huge advantage that you already have a recognizable style. For me, the best creature "species" is the one that you have already colored... but hey, I like cute things so I'm definitely biased. You just need to work on your coloring to really bring it home; look at Tirwa's colors and how masterfully done they are.

[Daniel Hurd]

Thanks Alexa! I really appreciate the feedback. Tirwa's stuff is A-mazing! Tirwa has done some awesome looking bug critters. Your stuff is great too- loved the Bubble Bobble concept you did last week- really grabbed my attention!
I will really try to push the colors and bring these guys to life! Thanks again Alexa!

[Daniel Hurd]

Lol my Kevin Bacon monster! I must have a subconscious 'tremor' trying to make it's way out of my head! Arg!

[Daniel Hurd]

Good stuff J. Zhang! Loving the first one and the last one. I look forward to seeing some colors!

[giby]

Great stuff people luv ur designs ... here is my take on the spitter topic .... i know most of em dnt even look lik creatures lol .. crits appreciated( wanted to know if i hav designed them within the design limitations)

[scorge]

Starting to heat up in here!! Man, I love a good COW, especially for such a simple topic. Thanks for the kind words guys.

More progress..

[Prometheus09]

giby: They all look like spitters to me, and slow-moving or stationary, so I think it fits the design criteria. The first one, at the top left, though, I'm not sure where the spitting part is at... the tail? Very nice sketches overall, though, I like the designs.

[Daniel Hurd]

Some progress- spent a few hours coloring. Still needs some more fine tuning. Still not sure if this meets the criteria. I tried to make them sluggish-non mobile....might have to start over!

[Tirwa]

@Daniel Hurd: Hey, thx, glad you like my stuff. As Alexa said don't try to get rid of that lines of yours. It's part of your style and it could be great with more volume information. And to my mind, you're not that far from de brief. I hardly imagine your creatures running like hell haha. And you still think they are too mobile, i'm sure you can't slighty modify them.

Well, back to the line thing. If you really wanna try to get a rendering without line, (and it's a good thing to explore other techniques sometimes) I think you should go into it as soon as you can during your workflow. Cause when you have a tight line art, it's sometime hard to destroy it. So keeping the line work quite rough may be easier, in my opinion. Futhermore, mass painting, makes the concept part easier, as you can easily make modification on it, as your ideas may also evolved while painting.

Well that's just my opinions by the way. :p