Illustration Activity - (New Activity-Month Long-join before Dec. 7th)

[rick_hershey]

Aremah- When I said interior I wasn't refering to the image, it was refering to the fact the image was an interior image, inside the book as opposed to a cover or poster or whatever.

[Aremah]

Ah, my bad. I'm new to the jargon. Thanks.

[vmandala]

This is great. I am looking forward to joining you guys.

[Aremah]

Here's my entry. Only a sketch because of severely limited time, but I want to get to the re-design activity as well (and I figure a sketch is better than nothing). Ballpoint, Photoshop.

The book was supposed to be floating in front of the death knight, but I didn't do a great job on that. On another note, I find raising the dead in any form a very powerful ability unto itself, so if this was a finished piece, there'd still only be a few undead (as opposed to an army).

[dogfood]

I'm afraid I went without armor. My favorite Diablo II character was the Necromancer (prior to the first patch, anyway) and I ended up doing several pics of him, so I wanted to go in another direction. I also lost some energy with the pose when I put armor on him. It could use another couple hours work, but, you know, time and all...

Wow, this looks very different on my other monitor, much darker. Anyone else think so?

[ghūl]

oh man I wish I new about this thread earlier. This weeks topic sounds great, dogfood my man great piece cant wait to see it finished, I wonder if I have time to squeeze one out by Sunday, what time is the exact deadline anyways??

[John]

Zombies are fun. I took some artistic license with this, i'm not really into the whole dark knight thing and stuff. Also, drawing realistic arms? What's up with that? Who needs arms anyway? I know there's a ton of errors with this, but i'm calling it done so i can move on. At least i went back and drew a nose on the nec romancer dude after i had it scanned in the first time. I'm that much of a nice guy.



Like your WIPs Rick. Dogfood, if you clean up the lines on the front guy's cranium and his hand, i think it would really bring him forward. Right now he seems to merge with the statue behind him.

[dogfood]

Yeah, mine looks like Jack Crap right now. I don't know why it looks so much worse than when I saved it. I did the same thing I always do. I mean, there was more definition, there were clouds and stars and you could see the horizon. Well, it's going to have to wait until Tuesday (it's on my other system). Damn. Edit: I worked on the brightness/contrast and regained a litttle. Kitten's certainly right, though.

Kitten, that is pretty fun. I like the simple character work, but the drastic line differences kind of detract from the feeling (especially having fine lines on zombies, indicating more daintyness than they deserve). I like how the moon is almost smiling down on them.

Aremeh, pretty cool. The distance probably would come across better if the farther hill were darker than the mid and the mid darker than the near; it would also help to give the far hill less grass definition and the near, more. From a design strandpoint, I'm not feeling a lot of necromancosity, though there is some in the face. The armor, and especially the sword, don't really drip with the whole messing-with-the-dead thing. Nice figure work, though, and I like the pose, with the resultant arm popping from the grave (though perhaps he was buried a little shallow?).

[Aremah]

Dogfood - Thanks for the comments.

I initially tried the picture with darker tones farther away, but it just didn't seem right. I realise that generally it should be as you describe, but I do get confused sometimes by, say, forest photos, where either way (light recedes or dark recedes) works. It just worked better here this way.

The grass definition I definitely agree on, I just didn't take the care to do it as it's just a sketch. It's my first sketch worth showing (i.e. that is not a class doodle) in a long while, and I really didn't take long on it, or think too much on it. That's what I'm here to learn.

As for your piece, I don't really have much to say. I like it a lot, it just needs some more definition (looks a bit too detailed to be a sketch, but not detailed and sharp enough for a finished piece). The only thing that bugs me is the necromancer's right arm, the way it goes way back behind the sticking out chest. But it could just be me.

Ancient Kitten - I really like the feel of your piece, but it really loses a lot from its total sketchiness, I feel. If you could accomplish the same, but pay just a bit more attention to detail and took a little more care with the cross-hatching, and use a straight edge for the frame, I feel the piece would be a lot better. Again, it could just be me.

[John]

Thanks for the comments guys. I really didn't spend much thought on my drawing. Maybe i'll redo it, depends on how i feel tomorrow. You're right about the lines though, that only appeared to me when you pointed it out. Doh!
Aremah, i think yours could have been better if you'd spent more time planning. Although the lines are nice and clean, the composition doesn't work as well as it could. For instance, the field is clean and open, with the figures scattered about. You may put a big object in front, so you have a foreground as well as the middle- and background you have now, or you could group some of the objects, and show rows of graves with paths in between.

[Aremah]

Like I said, I didn't think about it. I did three thumbnails (not even concepts), picked one, and just went drawing. I'll be sure to give my pieces more thought in the future. Composition is another thing I have to learn.

[Rafal Dorsz]

Hello

here we go:-) my first one in this thread (great thread by the way :-) )
I thought that a necromancer would have one of his summoned skeletons carry his spellbook for him :-)



Hmm I still think I have to spend some time with my scanner :> this pic looks a lot better on paper

[Anders89]

if u have problems with the quality of your scan i have found out that if u play a little around with layers and brightness\darkness in photosop the picture gets alot better after scan.

[Carnifex]

incase i can't finish the inking today i'll just post this sketch.

[John]

I had spent a good 40 minutes cleaning this up in Gimp when the ****** pile of **** crashed on me. This taught me so much. As always, you've gotta learn the obvious dirt first and the fun things second. I know the result shows, and i'm not sure i like this one better. I gotta do more drawings and more complex drawings. I know a lot could be done in terms of details, fixing lines, adding shadows etc. but it's best at this stage to start from scratch again, there's too much i could fix and i don't have much interest in it anymore.

[Cobi]

What an awesome thread. I'm a newbie on here so I look forward to learning and sharing my stuff.

Who knows, maybe I'll whip somethin up for tonight

DOGFOOD-You rock.

[Carnifex]

hope it's ok to make this wip.i doubt i'm gonna finish it in time though.

[johann]

wow cranifex, i absolutly LOVE the pose of the 2nd zombie at the right! really creepie .

btw. a small crit: i´m not sure but the right arm(his left) of the necormancer seems a little twisted... it kinda bends in the wrong direction

[Carnifex]

yeah i noticed it already,but can't fix it any longer because of the ink,sorry.
tried to turn the hand into another direction to make it better,but that didn't help.

anyways,moving on,and still in doubt of finishing it bc i've got work tomorrow and need to be in bed atleast at midnight...which is in 2 1/2 hours.

sorry for wasting thread space

[Carnifex]

slowly getting there...sorry if i'm taking up too much space in this thread rick.

soon the question will arrive if or how i should shade this.help me out?

[rick_hershey]

Hey Carnifex - it's no problem with the wips, I'm actually excited to see if you make the deadline, It'll be another 8 hrs. to deadline. . .good luck.

[Carnifex]

8 hours...damn...for me it's 3 hours max.
except if you extend the deadline to monday midnight...or monday 7 pm.

[rick_hershey]

3 hours is plenty of time
I believe in you
you can do it
you're the one


no extension

[Carnifex]

aghh damnyou

might result in loss of quality...
i'd feel alot less stressed if you extended it abit...only one hour left...
still gotta do the main zombie and bg leafs. and perhaps the floor...damnit!

[rick_hershey]

Alright, extension till monday night.

[Carnifex]

thanx my friend
now i dunno if i should do the trees in the bg with ink,might cause it to be too messy. what would you say? and say it before i move on. meaning fast.

oi,my head is spinning!

[rick_hershey]

I'd do it in ink, jump in and don't worry about it.

[Carnifex]

hmm i'll wait for more opinions....gonna do it tomorrow anyway,bc as i said my head is spinning...guess that's because i've been working on this since half past seven straight...

[rick_hershey]

well if you're real worried, you can always mask over what you've already done, preventing from getting the main image too dirty

[Carnifex]

sorry i don't understand that. i'm using traditional inks btw.