CHoW#309 :: FINALS :: Life

[Havok Reed]

Character of the Week #309
Life
Deadline - Sunday, December 9 10PM GMT


We've seen Death personified a million times. A cloak wearing, Scythe carrying, skeletal figure, ready to take your soul! But have we ever seen Life itself take the form of a character?

What would life look like? How would you even personify the philosophy and the spirit of life? We want to leave the brief a little more open so you can be especially creative with this one, and to think outside the box; really play with the idea. If you have any specific questions about this week's topic, please, feel free to ask.

Remember, follow the guidelines and rules below!

The Guidelines:

• Must be a materialized being; avoid things like whisps of energy or clouds of breath.
• It doesn't have to be human, but it should scream 'Life' in all of your design choices.
• Can be male or female

The Rules

• 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 character must be visible
• At least two wips posted in the finals thread
• Background is optional
• Have fun!

[giby]

My interpretation of life is tht its a constant battle for existence from the smallest insignificant creature to the largest mammals .... we as humans hav a spirit that guides us and influences the actions we take which may be good or bad .... i hav tried to show this conflict of spirits for this CHOW .... and all the best guys

[Benedikt]

Life is more of a fearsome warrior than death. If you think about the world we live in, most matter is inanimate. Life is the exception. And it comes at great expense; a constant fight against thirst, hunger, pain and diseases.
So, if we're talking alegories of life, to me that's a female warrior, a lonesome source of light amongst the inanimate world.


WIPS:

Here's a link to a 1200px wide large version

[l'Aria]

[Alexanderjr]

Here's my entry. If I had a little more time to work on it I might have changed some things thanks to some helpful crits I got in the Wip thread but I got pretty busy.

Spirit of Life.

[SimianSmash]

Well, here's the finished thing. I've uploaded a full view + closeup of the character during each stage, I hope this is ok. Thanks.

[SixDollarSongs]

This is my first Community Activity submission, and I learned so much by being a part of it!

My concept of life on earth is essentially the nutritional support system of an embryonic creature (it's "microbiome" basically). One day it'll wake up.



WIP:

[PhilipO]

[lancer_idenoure]

turning out to be a cool round, lots of variation :] seems like i went for quite a different approach haha.
this isnt quite where i want it to be but i ran out of time to work on it. slappin on some cheap photoshop tricks and callin it done :/ also im aware this is probably more illustration than character design but hey, i had fun



wips:


ill try and do some crits but itll have to wait, its 4:30 in the morning right now haha

[Artka]

I thought I would experiment since I think life is such an abstract concept.
Basically she has the sun on one hand (the staff) and a molecule of water in the other, which among other things brought the life to this planet.

[onez]

l'Aria: beautiful

[Thujon]

Heres my take on it, I had to hurry, so sorry for not being that accurate... I really didnt have the time! Thanks 4 the reminder admin.....

[Rynka]

Life.
Life is a rainbow, a wide range of feelings and emotions,
Both sweet and poisonous, soft and sharp,
giving and taking away, a moving harmony that balances the world.

In my eyes life is a flower of flames. It breaks and burns to build anew,
if all lived forever then there would not be need for creation and evolution.



I started out with a rather rigid, grounded pose, but it felt wrong.
Life isn't grounded, it's not a single tree living it's lifespan,
it's ever moving and ever changing, so the root-like structure had to go.

I also changed the color balance later on as the forest felt too "alive",
life had no role in that environment.

[Rynka]

Life.
Life is a rainbow, a wide range of feelings and emotions,
Both sweet and poisonous, soft and sharp,
giving and taking away, a moving harmony that balances the world.

In my eyes life is a flower of flames. It breaks and burns to build anew,
if all lived forever then there would not be need for creation and evolution.



I started out with a rather rigid, grounded pose, but it felt wrong.
Life isn't grounded, it's not a single tree living it's lifespan,
it's ever moving and ever changing, so the root-like structure had to go.

I also changed the color balance later on as the forest felt too "alive",
life had no role in that environment.

[Rynka]

Life.
Life is a rainbow, a wide range of feelings and emotions,
Both sweet and poisonous, soft and sharp,
giving and taking away, a moving harmony that balances the world.

In my eyes life is a flower of flames. It breaks and burns to build anew,
if all lived forever then there would not be need for creation and evolution.



I started out with a rather rigid, grounded pose, but it felt wrong.
Life isn't grounded, it's not a single tree living it's lifespan,
it's ever moving and ever changing, so the root-like structure had to go.

I also changed the color balance later on as the forest felt too "alive",
life had no role in that environment.

[Sushy]

Here I go :>

I imagine life as some kind of mother that gives birth to everything. Like a bee queen also does.

Final entry:


WIPs:

[fdisk]

[G@m]

my finished piece and wips

[Quinn Simoes]

PhilipO and Thujon you need to submit at least 2 wips with your final entry to make it to the poll. Also Thujon, your missing the required info, artist name and CHoW#, at the bottom of your entry.

There's still time before the poll goes up to make those changes.

[Dayle]

Final

[the-depth-of-infamy]

I was thinking of life as seductive, in the sense that it's easy to get attached, and easy to forget that no matter how you feel about her, eventually she's gone.

[Havok Reed]

Ok guys, Great entries this week! We are now CLOSED for poll submission! I will get the poll up in a few minutes!

Great round!

[Me,Myself & Me again]

Damn i missed it, i thought the times on the forums were GMT -4?
Would it be ok if i post my final here anyway not added to the poll of course. =]

[Havok Reed]

you sure can.

[Me,Myself & Me again]

Cool cheers =]

"Life is so easy to create, the real challenge is keeping it alive!" ~ Life

[Kea]

l'aria's totally looks like cher :]
a younger cher though.

[l'Aria]

hah! That's just fantastic. I didn't even realize!

[humboldt squid]

Voted for Alexanderjr,Simiansmashand G@m because they seemed to be both instantly readable as personifications of 'life' and for being well rendered.
OK some quick thoughts
Giby: Both figures seem a bit over-muscled. It kinda reminds me of this old woodblock print, where every figure's muscles are tensed at once

Benedict: An interesting interpretation!
L'aria: I wish you had more time to work on this, because it seems like a good start, but it's kinda hard to work out what's going on, especially regarding the circular object in the background
Sixdollar songs: The flat, unshaded globe really flattens everything out
Filip0: That pose is REALLY unnatural and uncomfortable looking.
lancer_idenoure Cool creepy space baby! I wish he wasn't cut off at the knees.
Artka: Great colors
Thujon I feel like more time could've been spent on the drawing stage before trying to paint it.
Rynka Great color, composition and sense of movement, but there's some anatomical issues unfortunately (for example her skull seems to be half sized once it gets covered by hair, and her torso is pretty long)
Sushy Needs a consistent lightsource
fdisk same as for filip0 and thujon
Dayle Midtones are your friends! It's all extreme darks and lights and that flattens everything out.
the-depth-of-infamy Great rendering and chiaroscuro, but the theme isn't readily readable to me.
Me,Myself & Me again The various elements of the painting don't seem to really gell together.

[lancer_idenoure]

ok a bit late but here's my promised crits! sorry if these are kinda harsh; just tryna be a bit more constructive chya know?

giby: not quite getting "life" out of this much, at least not in the "opposite of Death" sense. the struggle between opposing forces is there but its not quite shown enough as theres not much connection between the angel and the evil dude in their designs. i think you could try pushing that further. colors are lookin pretty good. i think the anatomy is a little too toned like theyre flexing everything and it seems reffed in some places but not in others. that just comes down to practice. also, i like the oil paint overlay, but it flattens things out a little; try erasing out some parts and painting over others.

Benedikt: pretty nice overall image, but the color scheme could use a few more colors i think. blue and yellow can work, but try adding a little more variety in hue and saturation. also the perspective is a little off on the way the rider is positioned on the horse (thats tricky stuff!) and the horse's hind legs. and it was probably an issue of time, but i think this image could use a background showing more of the "inanimate" shtuff. nice work

l'Aria: i lol'd at the Cher comment haha. im diggin this. nice subdued color scheme. i kinda want to see a liiittle more warm reds/oranges though. other than that, only thing i have to say would be to clean up your edges (use some nice hard/soft contrast!) and define the background a little more. its a bit ambiguous and everything but the face looks a little rushed.

Alexanderjr: this is a real nice piece. my only deal is i think there should be a little more rough textures and that you could play with the glowy effects more. it looks like you used motion blur/smudge? try something a little more radial. i also think if the figure was completely, flat white there would be a lot more light coming off and washing out the surroundings. *example*

SimianSmash: cool idea and its very well painted. i think the composition is not very interesting though as its straight on and symmetrical and also the figure is not emphasized as much as it should be i think. symmetrical comps can work if youre going for an iconic kind of think, which i think you were, but you usually would want to make the figure take up a lot more of the canvas as its the MAIN focus. losing most of the detail there right now.

SixDollarSongs: interesting idea for this contest but i feel like this idea (earth as a womb for something) has been done a few times before. try to find a way to make YOURS stand out. also, for the earth it looks like you just found a flat image of the world and pasted that on a circle. if you want that to read as a sphere try finding and image of the whole earth from space, or paint it yourself so the perspective towards the edges line up and look like they are receding in space. the hard edge flattens that out even more. i think you could change the purple background to something else as well. why not just have it in space?

PhillipO: overall image is working fairly well, but as far as the design goes, its a pretty standard angel in some robes. i think you could have pushed that farther to convey life. also watch out for washed out colors, and maybe try to find some refs for forests if you dont feel super confident painting them yet (same goes for anything)

Artka: nice that you took a different approach to this, but i think you could have had her actually creating some life, as that aspect isnt totally clear out of context. other than that, nice work, just try varying your edges some more and try to use bigger, less "scratchy" brushstrokes in places. diggin the colors

Thujon: interesting idea, i just read it a lot more as gaia or earth than as life. also even if it was a little rushed, watch out for letting the underdrawing show through. try pushing the forms more using some darker values and try not to let your character go right up to the edge of the canvas as it can flatten out the image.

Rynka: i like this a lot, those colors are sweet. only thing i really have are that the branches in the foreground look a little too obvious, like "lets put something to lead the eye into the image!" instead of actually belonging there. try looking at some photos of forests/plants. that will also help rendering the background a bit as well

Sushy: haha a giant bee lady, nice. just watch that anatomy. even on the bees and her abdomen: insects have anatomy and muscle structure too. its also hard to tell whats going on with the gravity. it kinda looks like the bees are carrying her but the vine/rope things arent fully taut and the bees dont look like theyre flying. and for the background, it looks like youre doing a lens blur thing on the right but then you have sharper, more defined edges. id say to pick one. nice improvements since last time i saw you though, keep it up!

fdisk: pretty nice colors on this one, that water looks sweet! there are some drawing issues though. that leg looks bent pretty unnaturally for how her torso is posed (especially with her big tum) and few random other things: foot, wings, missing a right thumb...it looks like you have a slightly cartoonish, caricatured style but even so, you gotta learn how to draw things realistically before you can distort them.

G@m cool stuff man! you got my vote. best design imo. just a couple things: i think wed still see the impression of her left leg even under her robe; i think you could use some more soft edges especially towards her legs; and i kinda like the first thumbnail a lot better haha. a lot more dynamic. cool work though man, nice job

Dayle: nice work man, but i think the design is a little lacking. its kinda just a greek character, like hermes, holding a floating fetus. try thinking a lot about the design beforehand and how you can get that to work with what you are trying to convey. and theres some basic technical issues with the anatomy and the painting, but that will come with time and practice. try using some softer brushes and bigger strokes, especially with things like clouds. dont be afraid to pull in references if you need to.

the-depth-of-infamy: nice overall image but nothing about this says "life" to me without the explanation. even then, its still mostly just a naked demon chick. im not bashing you for it, but just try to find a way to convey "life" better in the design. besides that, the colors are real nice, but the anatomy is a little off. everythings a little too long and a lot of the muscles are a bit too defined. nice job though.

Me, Myself & Me Again (you): nice idea, i think youre main issue is just rendering materials. everything has roughly the same amount of shininess and texture. do some studies of rock and metal for help with that. also, i think you could improve the straight on composition to something a little more interesting. and last thing, her feet kinda look like she is pretty weightless, almost floating, except for the tips of her toes and that kinda throws it off. either lift her fully off the ground or plop her down. cool work, sorry you didnt make poll :/


me (me): i figured since death was oriented specifically towards humans, life should be the same, so thats why i didnt do something with plants but wanted something real fleshy. ended up as more of an illustration though...in response to humboldt squid, yeah i dont like the crop either. i wanted to crop it closer but then that wouldnt have shown a full 3/4 :/ other than that, this aint really a character design and lance, you need to study some anatomy right now. also, dick around with the background a little so its not just a gradient and shoes more depth.....and more fetuses floatin everywhere....yes, fetuses..


phew, that was rough, but hopefully everyone found something helpful from that! cheers mates, hope to see you in chow again soon