CHOW #63 - Guest Host:D-BAKER. Topic: Iorek Byrnison

[Chuck Wadey]

Rogzilla - Whether or not you color, some slight indication of a ground plane would be very helpfull. That way we'd know if his right foot is up on a rock or if the camera is angled.

[Rogzilla]

Yeah, deffinately. It will be a rock (or at least an elevated piece of ground). I am torn between coloring digitally (which worries me because I don't know how to color line art in Painter X without loosing the line...in Photoshop, I can make a copy of the black channel and whatnot but I don't know how to do that in Painter...) and with colored pencils. I actually recently got some copic sketch markers but only black, cool and warm grey scales and a red...enough for artistic sketching...not so much for good conceptual illustrations!

[Chuck Wadey]

I don't know how to color line art in Painter X without loosing the line..

Howbout coloring the line in PS, then opening the PSD in Painter X for paint? Or just paint in PS.

[Rogzilla]

Ahhh and there in lies the problem! I just changed to Mac and only have a trial version of Painter at the moment. On my PC I had Painter 8 and Photoshop CS! I was going to wait until this trial version was over to get the PS trial. When that ends, I am going to get my new tablet (which will have the miniversions of these programs that will have to suffice until I save up for the full versions). ANYWAYS I think I will just download PS trial now.

[meeatu]

sweetness on the entries guys.
here's my bite on the character...

[Lohan]

samurai pizza bears

[Steempunk]

Here's my stab at the topic, went with the Steampunk theme suggested above. Made Iorek pretty humanoid, seeing how running on all fours would be a challenge with machine gun for a hand. Didn't do any color because, frankly, im scared of it. I'm mainly looking for any and all critisism, I want to get better



Thanks!!

[gtgauvin]

Cakeypigdog: what medium do you work in?

[Stephan_R]

Cakeypigdog: Fantastic, such personality and great armor to boot.

mrgrumble: For some reason this has a charming quality about it, and it's nice on the eyes!

[Form]

Hey doods

Cakeypigdog yours is looking tops man. Whats this sky armour stuff people are doing? Did i miss part of the brief?

Heres mine. Im reserving the right to make changes later, theres some things that are bugging me but they require full reworks of areas so time permitting... i will do them later.

[Form]

haha looking at mine again... he looks... totally camp.

HAH!

[artdwx]

All right it's been a little while since i have posted here is my concept. I'll have to pick up these books they sound very interesting. I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with See you all at the voting round.



wanna check out more of my work try here artwanted.com/artdw2000

[bhanu]

Guess I am bit late here. still tomorrow is the last day got to complete it.
I am looking at my competion and I feel I am toast .
Grumbling monsieur-damn the quirky expression did me in. Beautiful charcoal work. loving it.
Asahb-COol bear man, the pose is also very enticing .
D-baker-Hot damn, hot like the sun god damn.
Ckeypigdog- nice clean lineowrk and good tones on teh armor and the faces.

SO heres my pose, still not very refined. WIll try to use acrylics here. I am stil new to the medium but I am loving it.
The linework I did in the morning ...here it is.
Edit: BAD SCAN , sorry. Will try to scan better (but its not like its in my hands) in the final try.
Wip I really wanted to make this one look good. Ahh I really dont feel like working more on it. But I might doplay around with it tonight.
Lets see.




and here is the final version(still sucks , I know )

[mrgrumble]

hey thanks bhanu!! but i cant take any credit for the expression, just a good reference picture. i kid you not.

i just wish my digital didnt crash the piece every time!

so you're going for acrylics mate? might i recommend you throw some sort of matte medium over that page (judging by the frillies at the top it looks like sketchbook paper, which will warp like nothin else!) or mounting it to illustration board, just to make things a little easier!!

[hwango]

I had a terrible time trying to decide on a design for the armor. I've read the book, and the first time we see the armor it's described as crudely riveted together, dented, and rusty. I didn't really want to paint just a bunch of pieces of metal jammed together, because that would look crappy, and probably look like laziness. However, I did stick with "rusty and dented."

Also, normal polar bears look cute and goofy. There is no getting around this. So I freely admit that to make my design for Iorek a bit more intimidating, I borrowed heavily from grizzly bears.

[ikuru]

Mr Grrrrumble, it crashesh huh? Maybe you should get a mac next time, I never had a crash on PS, I heard some peeps complaining about painter though, your bear looks nice.

[ikuru]

cakepig, verry cool coloring

[cakeypigdog]

gtgauvin: this one started in photoshop as a super quick compositional sketch.
then i printed that out at about 10 opacity and did a more resolved pencil sketch: still rough.
i scanned that in and then drew sexier linert on a new layer in photoshop using the standard hard round brush.
then i just painted: there is a bit of photo overlaying of textures in there to help create a more interesting surface.
thanks for the comments guys.
my darling wife was less than impressed with this piece so if i get time i might fiddle with it a bit monday lunchtime. Whenever she crits me its stuff that i dont want to hear at the time but then agree with completely a few days afterwards!

great round this time, well done to everyone so far!

[gtgauvin]

Very nice. I assume you use a tablet. Seems like it'd be murder doing that kind of precision work with a mouse.

[bhanu]

hehe man grumble , you sure are wierd.
CAkeypigdog- Hmm its really cool listeneing to other artists process. Oh,
I wish I was as good as you are.

[JakkaS]

D-BAKER, mrgrumble, cakeypigdog - beautiful entries.
MarkWinters, matias, Chuck Wadey - cool WIPs.

[Tommoy]

Don't know the character, but here's mine.
Made some small improvements.

[snatchviper]

hey guys
someone told me there was a live drawing forum on this site.is it tru?

[Chuck Wadey]

Nice work everyone. I've posted my final up top, and I'll see you in the poll thread.

[Fatalis]

Heres my interpretation:

FINAL:



Anyways, first CHOW! This ones pretty crappy, next one will be much better. Enjoy!

P.S.: First time trying glowing technique, so basically the glowing parts suck... Crits are always welcome as well

[Kredepops]

Here's my version of the panserbjørn. I havn't read the books but fortunately my girlfriend have so she gave me alot of useful art direction. The girl is Lyra Belaqua the protagonist and the little rodent is called Pantalaimon, her so-called 'Daimon'.



Nice to see so many awesome interpretations, looks like you had as much fun with the concept as I did.

[cakeypigdog]

chuck_wadey:
congrats man, i think you have outdone yourself this time: just love it! really distinctive and your line work is sumptuous.

its a minor crit but i think lyras face and left hand are letting the piece down: i would maybe invest some time in having a bit of a repaint on those two little sections.

a really, really wonderful piece mate, well done!

[poinko]

I made-a my polar bar blue, because I've always wanted to see a blue polar bar. I wasn't too sure exactly what 'sky iron' is, but I thought it would be neat if it reflected the sky and make plumes of clouds as decoration. Not too sure how well I pulled that off, my coloring still needs a lot of work I think. Crits are always welcome

There's a lot of good entires in this one, I particularly like Chuck Wadey's final and artdwx's as well, though everyone always does such a good job!

[ikuru]

nice update chuck!
cakey, you still got the best one I think, cool pose and all.

[Demon Hybrid]

Heres my final, I know its not great but I'm proud of myself seing as its my first time entering anything like this before.

Im sorry I couldn't post this earlier but heres the full description of the armour from the book:
"It was rust-red, and crudely riveted together: great sheets and plates of dented discoloured metal that scraped and screeched as they rode over one another. The helmet was pointed like his muzzle, with slits for eyes, and it left the lower part of his jaw bare for tearing and biting.