my senior project, be tough.

**cosmicbeanbag** · November 13th, 2006, 11:55 PM

salutations!

here are a few cover designs that i've been working on for my senior project. i am doing a post apocalyptic fantastical interpretation of the japanese folktale momotaro.

these are the pencil drawings that i will further refine and then scan into and paint in photoshop.

about 8x10.

**emily g** · November 14th, 2006, 01:50 AM

I wasn't too excited when I read it would be post apocalyptic, but I scrolled down and I think the sketches look really cool!
I am really interested to see what these will look like painted.

I really like the touches like the carved faces on the robot legs in the first pic.
One thing that I am confused about is the hat the boy is wearing in the third pic.
It looks like his hat is woven out of some material, but the lines on the hat don't follow a realistic woven pattern.
The lines might just be for decoration, but I'm not sure.

best!
emily

**tensai** · November 14th, 2006, 02:26 AM

i like the sketches and the designs of the respective machines/characters but if these are proposals for the covers i would put some more attention to the meeting/dumpling scenes of the story. now its a bit too battle scene oriented if you ask me.. i love the 1st and 4th sketches for their compositions, and i like the machine in the 2nd one. momotaro walking through the grass could be from a lower (monkey/dog?) point of view and not with focus on the sword but on the friendship being made. i think showing the more human side of the story would be a nice combination with the new surroundings/world context. i really liked seeing the sketches for the father in your sketchbook for example. curious what you end up making for it.

**grundybug** · November 14th, 2006, 02:27 AM

i really like the stuff thatyou're doing....an inspiration, and in the second pic that big thing with mechanical limbs holding up those guys is cool.

**artistnpthe3** · November 14th, 2006, 03:13 PM

i think that the 3rd sketch would be more effective if you just had the swordsman centered. Its a very dynamic and intesnse position, you shouldnt muddle that with he plants in the picture plain. of coarse you should have backround, but lets see more of that swordsmen

**cosmicbeanbag** · November 17th, 2006, 11:54 AM

thanks for the crits folks.

emily g-the woven pattern in the hat is a homage to "house of flying daggers" i went and reviewed some stills after reading your comment and made some adjustments to the hat. glad you liked the sketches.

tensai-as i was planning this out my thoughts were to depict moments of tension preceding/following action up until the final battle scene, where i thought character interaction and action would be integral. i agree with you, as a whole, the covers are too 'battle' centered (damn you! haha) but at this point in the semester i'm gonna have to run with this. you'll be happy to know that i am also using this theme for my painting class, where i have been using acrylics to render quiter scenes like the woman finding the peach and walking back to her home, and momotaro approaching the home of the 'machine man'-a character i made up to explain the building of the 'boat'.

grundybug-thanks, glad you like.

artistnpthe3-i will have to strongly disagree with you on this. i think that a centered figure would stop the viewers eye and kill any sense of depth to the image. right now bg leaps forward and the image looks flat because of the uniform line weight throughout, the background will recede once the image is taken to paint, at least thats the plan.

thanks again for the crits, heres a cleaned up version of the aformentioned composition with some added details to the hat and a revised drawing of momotaro's jacket. cant believe you guys let me get away with those flat sleeves.

**limegreen** · November 17th, 2006, 12:18 PM

I know I'm a little bit later on this, but I like what you are doing in some of these and wanted to comment,
I would have to say that the last one is your most dynamic, I love the sense of movement in the figures and how the less important figures recied into the background, make sure you retain that nice quality in the painted finish.
I also like the position of the figure in the first one, but don't exactly understand what is going on compositionally, or how the smaller figure fits into the piece. The drawing is very full of energy, it would be a shame to lose that because there is no sense of grounding.
Thank you for not wanting to center the third piece, it is apparent in your sketches that you know that usually creates a less dynamic composition,I would be careful on this last piece though of creating a 50/50 split down the middle of the piece. You may try bumping him over just slightly or cropping off some of the flower side in, so that the foreground and back are not given the same amount of space, that can get tricky. Also be careful not to get to bend up on the feature of his face and focus more on the shapes and shadows that are cast from his hat.

Sorry that I wrote so much haha, I like your sketches and your line quality I hope you retain that, and would love to see this end result

nice work!

**cosmicbeanbag** · November 17th, 2006, 11:50 PM

limegreen-the first image is a birds eye view with the ogre laying disemboweled on the ground. hopefully the image will become clearer once painted. you know i am usually aware of things likea 50/50 split comp but for some reason this one eluded me. i'll have to do something about it, and thanks for the cast shadows from the hat too.

first pass in photoshop.

cheers.

**smellykitty** · November 18th, 2006, 02:59 AM

this isnt a critique, just a useles comment! when ever I see torn buildings like that I think of the Akira manga, have you read it?

**crisis** · November 18th, 2006, 06:27 AM

The stone with the frog looks kinda strange, something with the perspective. And I (I'm just an amature, so my oppinion may be worth jack shit (and jack just left town)) would have made it much closer to the wiever (larger u know)..

**cosmicbeanbag** · November 26th, 2006, 12:32 AM

smellykitty-have i?! one of the best ever comicbooks! i was thinking about akira as i drew them...dunno if thats good or bad.

crisis-hmm, not too sure about your suggestion, i think it become too much of a focal point and would take away from the flying boat.

i posted my updated progress over in the WIP thread.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=82922

thanks for the comments everyone.

**2100** · November 26th, 2006, 01:50 AM

The first one is a real eye-catcher and looks like it has a ton of potential. You need to fix the perspective on the samurai and then just pay attention to texture and lighting.

However the 3rd one with the dude has a very weak composition, anatomy as well as perspective is is not worth developing further IMO.

The 4th one that you started coloring looks interesting and has a lot of potential as well. I would first remove the objects on the lower left corner, it confuses the viewer and take away from the focal points in the center. Everything in the air should be reflected clearly, including the sky and the airship. Pay special attention to how you paint the surface of the water, will it be calm, wavy? All of this will determine the mood of your painting. Make sure to even out the colors eventually too, right now they clash.